I'm sorry for the loss of your dear friend. "Suddenly" is a terrible shock, and more rare today with modern medicine and (hopefully) better eating habits. DH's father collapsed at 55; got up to use the bathroom early one morning and died of a heart attack. He was overweight and a smoker, but his last physical was OK. A favorite uncle of mine fit the same pattern. "Indigestion" one evening became a fatal heart attack at 56. The fit father of 4-year-old twins came off duty as a Chicago cop; locked up his gun; took off his uniform; laid down for a nap with one of the twins curled up beside him...and died in his sleep. He was 38. All hearts do stop. My mother found my grandmother, 93, fully dressed, sitting in her favorite bedroom chair, waiting to go downstairs for breakfast. Mom 'missed her' by about an hour. Does everyone here know CPR? This thread might encourage us to learn.

Ok. Yes, you can spay a 6 year old dog and not have complications. There are risks involved as with all surgeries and those risks increase with the age and physiological health of the animal. If she is healthy and you have confidence in your vet, there should be no problems. A spay is a common and routine surgery. This does not mean things can't go wrong. Again, just as with human doctors, there are vets who are not at my own personal standard. You can shop around for prices and your own personal preferences. :) You can spay them when they are pregnant but it is an even higher risk and a deliberate abortion. My own personal opinion on spaying, is that, at this age, I probably would not bother unless there is a reproductive problem with your girl. In other words, a medical emergency. If she is pregnant now then you are going to have puppies. If not, you just have to be really careful with her subsequent heats. I prefer to leave them whole because I do insure that they do not get bred (to the best of my ability) and I prefer not to mess with their hormones. It is easier to neuter the boys, IMO. Second question. Absolutely she can be bred in 5 minutes. I have a boy (just neutered)who could bred in about 3 feet of time! And he has! So, if she is in whelp, you are going to have puppies! Congratulations! 59 to 65 days from the day she was bred. With a girl her size, it may not be easy to tell without an ultrasound. They can carry up in their ribcage till the last week sometimes. She will start showing definite signs of pregnancy at about day 40. Or they may show no signs at all till they are in serious labour! Either way, you will probably know by then. there is tons of information on the web for pregancy care, labour and delivery including emergency situations. Just do some homework. :) Most importantly, don't panic. It is also very likely that she will go through a false pregnancy which leads you to believe that she is going to whelp but just no puppies. Dogs are funny that way. If it were me in this situation, I would wait and see if she is in fact pregnant and then make a decison to spay her or not. She will not be back in season for at least 6 months so there is no hurry.Trust your gut. I have spayed and neutered dogs at all ages and I prefer to do it later if at all. Never had a problem if one did not exsist before going under an anesthesia. Voice your concerns to your vet, do your research and don't believe everything you hear unless is makes sense to you. :) I hope this helps. Ginny PS I have had many horses too and there is a big difference if only because a horse doesn't get to lie down and lick himself after a geld (poor guy). :)

Samantha, the rules for catering differ from place to place. Where I live, rather than having confusing different rules, they pretty much don't allow home kitchens for any kind of cooking/baking that will be sold to the public. Anything more than maybe a small time bake sale or bid-a-basket has to be done in a commercial kitchen. Wood is a great surface for prep. Proper cleaning in a commercial establishment is different from a home kitchen, however. At the end of the day, in a commercial kitchen, all of the surfaces are cleaned with heavy duty cleansers, and during the day, after each task, they're supposed to be cleaned as well. The daily cleaning is top down, with the upper surfaces cleaned, the counters, the lower shelves and surfaces, then the floor. How many times have you heard horror stories about commercial kitchens where that didn't happen? I've done some catering in a shared commercial kitchen where there was a cleaning crew. Too many times, we'd come in and have to clean before we could start cooking, to meet standards. It wasn't any worse than many residential kitchens--probably why the crew thought it was okay--but we wouldn't work in that environment. So... Your gov't safety office or health dept. is trying to set standards for home catering. They can say, "wood counters must be scrubbed in XYZ manner and thoroughly dried before food prep can take place". And you're drying your counter and totally miss where the kids have put their boots on the counter and brushed off the evidence. Plastic cutting boards can be disinfected in the dishwasher. Wood cutting boards can be scrubbed down in the sink and left to dry vertically, away from said boots. They do have to be hard dry to keep the bacteria from growing. Most people can tolerate a lot of contamination. That's the whole point of the body's immune system. You don't know, when you're catering, who is going to eat your food. There could be someone with a compromised immune system, the very old and very young, who are more sensitive, etc. It's hard enough accounting for unknown allergies, and making sure to point out and label things appropriately. Standard food labelling rules don't require an ingredient to be listed if it is only a trace amount. That's why the newest rules require listing of common ingredients or contaminants (from shared equipment) that may cause allergies, even if they're only in trace amounts (e.g., "contains: milk") Being extra vigilant with food safety, however, is a must. As a professional, you have to control that which is in your power. It's also a good idea to have different color/composition cutting boards for each kind of food: meat, poultry, vegetables/fruits, and baked goods all have different requirements for storage and cleaning. Using the different boards really helps prevent cross contamination. In theory, an installed wood top could be used just for vegetables, but there's still the issue of accidental contamination. Like, what if you put the grocery bag down on the island and the chicken leaks? Or the boots. Or whatever. There really is no situation where a multi-use surface, like a home kitchen counter, should be used for commercial prep. OTOH, in a normal, healthy family, accidental contamination of the cutting surface, a missed spot on the scrub down, a cutting board run quickly under warm water and detergent and not dried, etc., is probably no problem at all, and, in fact, might provide the challenge that an immune system needs to continue to be healthy. Residential catering can be done safely, but it does take a certain level of diligence. BTW, this is a reason why "personal chefs" are popular here. Unlike make and take catering, personal chefs bring ingredients into the hosts' home and prepare the food there. My understanding is that a meal cooked in the home is considered home cooking for most purposes, unless there is an egregious violation on the part of the chef.

lots of of info out ther and it still is not clear to me what you really want. Irespective of variety which most folks have a favorite and can genrate hours of discussion, winter squash can be be categorized into groups. Butternut types are the most popular and most versatile. They have resistance to SVB which is of paramount importance in some areas. Pumpkins are most popular for decorations, but some types are widely used for pies. ( not Libby's pumpkin pie filling is made from a butternut type not a pumpkin) Acorns are popular as a personal size baking squash, Delicata types are less popular but used for the same purpose. Hubbard types come in all sizes and noted for thier keeping qualities and flavor. Most susceptible to SVB. Finally the ancient cushaws, good pie pumpkin, but it is a personal taste. One of my favorites but generally low in popularity. In case you you are asking about kabocha and buttercups, they are Hubbard types as is the acorn size Gold Nugget.