The good news for you is that some of the best agricultural sites in the US consist of red clay soil. As long as your property DRAINS sufficiently, it's no big deal to tame this stuff. Trust me, I know from personal experience! Rather than looking at the big picture, why not focus on one small portion of your landscaping....one area that will make you happy each time you look at it? The ordeal of it ALL won't seem so insurmountable if you attack it a little bit at a time. Eric had the right idea in his earlier comment. I'd surely suggest that you turn as much of your property into something useful (and easier to take care of) instead of grass. Large landscape beds and tree collections can all be mulched to keep weeds down and to add to their attractiveness. Assorted mulches eventually break down and begin improving that soil, too. When we moved to our present home, this yard was pretty discouraging, too. I was horrified at this brick hard stuff we were supposed to grow stuff in. We tilled in a fair amount of aged bark fines and compost ONLY into those areas where we planned to add landscaping (shrubs, perennials, and annuals). The several trees we added, as well as the grass (mostly weeds when we got here), simply had to make do. Guess what? Trees planted directly into that hard red clay, with no amendments at all, grow like crazy! Those beds were amended once. We top dress with mulch and compost annually. We aerated the areas meant for grass heavily, then sodded with a hybrid Bermuda. After a very brief growing in period, the grass began to thrive like crazy on top of that red clay. Again, with very little watering (and we don't have an irrigation system). Come to find out, there's nothing difficult about growing in red clay soil. Well, we use a heavy duty auger to plant things rather than a shovel... but so what? ;-) Our plantings have thrived with less water, less fertilizer, less fuss than I have ever experienced in all of my years of growing! Go figure.

Well to be honest he doesnt seem very interested at all. The first doe that he has breed before, her name is Gypsy. Gypsy was the first one we put in with him thinking that familiar would be better for the first one. She came into heat, was Urinating at him and flirting... and I think they breed... didnt witness it but she stopped the behavor for 24 hours, the next day hubby saw the buck ramming her into the fence and she was taken out.. that was a little over a month ago, not sure if she was breed but is looking a little fat in the right areas. But with the new ones he shows no interest... at least not when we are around... which is alot. The first female Gypsy we saw him romancing her, but have not seen him doing the same with any of the others, not even the doe I know is in heat. He is def not in full rut because when he is that is rather obvious... Im wondering if Im jumping the gun and its just not his time to go into rut/breed. I think Im gonna try hand breeding, and Im also gonna try putting the whole herd together again. I put him in a pen by himself because of safety reasons for a few of the herd. [one was his wether brother he was taking advatage of, and the other a doe we arent breeding that doesnt have live babies] But put him with the rest of the herd does and wethers too because thats how he was before.

Good question! I've always wondered about annoying ads. It turns me off to the advertiser. Whereas low key, context sensitive ads are useful enough that I tend to notice and pay attention to them. When the ads are so annoying that people find ways to get rid of all advertising I don't know how that benefits the advertisers. Pickle, interesting about the Firefox barf. It adheres best to the international conventions and standards, so I wonder if it's MS or Apple or some other big honcho's ware that those sites are constructed for. BTW, I've found that if a page is taking too long to load, it will usually come right up if I back arrow then front arrow. I don't know if it's hanging up on the advertisers or if it's something on my own system, but it works.

Beth, congratulations on the wonderful work you're doing with your little guy. I know you'll prevail. There are some basic ideas to how to train a dog that everyone should know. Mazer talked about them. - Reinforce (reward) behavior you like. The more you reward it, the more it tends to increase -- in frequency, duration and intensity. If we consistently reward behaviors we like, our dogs (cats, horses, husbands, kids, etc) get into the habit of looking for things to do that we'll like. - Avoid undesirable behavior if you can. Sometimes good management is all it takes -- like locking up the trash where they can't get into it. Always try to set yourself and your dog up to win. - Ignore undesirable behavior you can't avoid. Do your best not to reward it. That's kind of the basics. Turid Ruugas's book is incredible and you've had some other great suggestions here too. Tell your DH to NOT stare your dog in the eyes, but to keep his eyes downcast and his body posture more meek. If he can approach the dog in an arc instead of head on that should help put the dog at ease. Tell him to whistle or hum a happy little song as he's going into that room. He needs to be relaxed, casual. Have him sprinkle a little trail of super yummy but tiny treat bits as he goes into the den (shredded cheese is cool). Tell him not to avoid this situation, but to repeat this over and over and over until the dog doesn't give a hoot and sees that this is only a good thing for the dog, that your DH means him no harm. Take it easy, though and read the dog well. The idea is to increase the dog's comfort, not make him more nervous. Keep us posted please!