tooooo funny! i've only had llamas for about 8 months so this was new to me! as my mare grew old and rickety, i would see her napping for hours at a time. literally hours, it was nothing to see her lying flat out for 2, 3 hours at a time. now we horse people know that a horse lying down for that long isn't a good sign. but for old chips, it was so normal. i used to think to myself that i wish she WOULD die quietly in her sleep. she was nearing 37 years of age and i knew if she didn't die naturally soon, it would be up to me. ultimately i had to have her put down. she was a real scrapper but the last few months of her life, she was having to struggle somewhat to get up and down. it was a kindness i had to deal with and i wanted it to happen before she lost her dignity. still miss that ole gal!

This all reminds me of some people down the road from us. This is a VERY rural area, limerock road, everyone does their own thing, I love it. Someone built a very palatial estate in back of some people who, quite frankly, are regular country folk, no real landscaping to speak of, barns, sheds, livestock, whimsey-doodles on the fence, etc. Hey, they were here first, ok? This person who built the palatial home started making comments about their "taste" - even called them rednecks, and then the battle ensued. These "rednecks" showed these city-folk what a real redneck yard REALLY looks like! Beer-can Christmas trees! More beer-can whimsey-doodles ALL over the place! AND they strung a butt-ugly barrier completely across the back of the property and now the Palace can't even be seen from the road. I think it's hilarious. For one thing, the "rednecks" were here first, minding their own business, and now the city folks want to run everyone else's business now. When we moved here from the city, guess what?? We actually looked around a little and saw how people live in this area, and if we took offense to it, then we had the right not to choose to live here. There are deed-restricted exclusive communities for people like that.

Thanks for all the help/tips, everyone! oddie, I checked that site and it's very interesting. I'll do some more research to find out what E6000 is and where to get it. rmtonelzey and grandma_bonnie: I think that my glue gun might be low-temp. My sister bought it for me and I remember how she hated getting burned with her hot one. :) So it probably wouldn't hold as well as real hot glue anyway. If I were only gluing small metal pieces the glue gun would probably work fine, but some of this metal is quite heavy so I think I will need something stronger after hearing what you all have to say. I haven't ruled out using wire in conjunction with the glue gun either. lol! Thanks again, everyone!

Petra, here Grade B is darker and has a more intense flavor than Grade A. Some like it, some don't. Grandpa told me that the light (grade A) syrup was from the first sap of the season and that the dark (grade B) was from later in the season when there was less sugar in the sap and so it had to be boiled longer to become syrup. I love maple syrup, the real stuff. Right now I have a 64 ounce jug of grade B in the fridge. Yes, it will mold if kept in the cupboard unrefrigerated for too long. I never, ever eat the fake stuff, it's just too icky. My Grandkids love Mrs. Butterworth's though, and don't want the real maple. That's fine, it just leaves more for me, LOL. I like the local maple syrup and when I can't get it locally I order from Cook's Sugarbush, in southern Michigan. I think it's somewhere around Sherry's and I can get a 64 ounce jug for $26 plus shipping but it lasts me a long, long time. I love waffles and pancakes, and if I make a batch, I put some in the freezer so I can just grab a package and have them whenever I want them. Annie Here is a link that might be useful: Cook's Sugar bush