What weird weather we're having #10

Steve, still not buying it, Your are the master of diseption (spelling), the king in your own realm. But I give you credited for trying, but not buying It.
So where are you exact?? I know not there LOL

I am cuddled up in a blanket here at home for the last month haveing sinus surgery and recovery. This has not been fun. I need some beach time. I desperatly want to go to the Seychelles. Just look at the pictures!

Steve, that first one tonight looked a bit stormy. I'd want shelter to watch that from. Love the sunset. I did google it last night, looks like a lovely place to visit. If my DH can get shivers from watching movies with snow, maybe we can thaw out looking at beautiful beaches.LOL

Hope your recovery is going well.

This message was edited Jan 19, 2009 7:55 PM

Trisha...what a great idea! I'll have to figure out how to do that.

Tills...love your fur babies!

I finally got thawed out, the sun came out with no wind, it actually felt warm for a bit. Still dealing with the cupboards, it's coming along fine, but lots of detailing so it goes slowly.

O' Steve, want to cuddle you and make you well, but I am sure DW is doing that for you. So sorry for your pain, I care but don't send me down a path that is not there, I know a fake Pic, be real.
Love you

Willow, when are you ready to ride? I'm so ready. there is a lot of open spaces out there.

Aha! Surgery! That means pain meds!

I ordered A-Z from Amazon today and can hardly wait until it arrives.

Trisha, sometimes that happens with some threads that I'm watching as well. I don't realize it until all of a sudden it hits me that no one is writing any messages and Duuuhhhh! The thread has become "unwatched".

Still cold here but the wind is finally lessening. Rain is expected this weekend. There are little buds on one of my shrubs! I don't know what it is but when I get my A-Z maybe I can figure it out!

Got an email today saying my was shipped. More anticipation!!

Buds on the willow, pussy willow to be exact.

I don't know if I can explain it well enough for you to figure out or not, but if I can't Laura said next time she can get on she will tell you how it works. I start out on DG.... then I go to the bottom of the screen and click my start button....click on word which bring up the full screen over the DG screen. Laura at this point just click on DG at the bottom of the screen to bring that window to the front, and when she wants to respond to something clicks the word tab at the bottom of the screen to bring it to the front.......

The other way is the same until you get word up full page, at this point up in the right hand corner you have the red X, the two overlapping boxes in the center, and the - on the left.......click the center image with the two boxes....that will make the word window a bit smaller.....go over to the left side of the window until you get the little double ended arrow....grab that edge and pull the window to the right until it only takes up about half the screen......don't know if this makes any sense.....I don't really know a lot of the correct terms???

O.K. I know how to do that, switch between. You said it just fine. I open up a word doc. to save recipes sometimes, didn't think about making it split screen. Thank you.

Sure, Trisha. So you're opening two windows: one with Microsoft Word and one with your browser (for example, Internet explorer). Then, you use the little controls at the top right-hand corner of each window to make them smaller (clicking on the double-box). You can dictate how much smaller after clicking the double-box by grabbbing the lower left hand part of the window and moving it up and to the left or down and to the right.

You can "place" a whole window on your screen by grabbing it at the title bar at the top (the one that says Pacific Northwest Gardening . . . right now).

Essentially you can put the two smaller versions of the windows side by side on your screen and see them both and type in both.

Hope that helps!!

Thanks Katie,It does help a lot to have someone who knows what they are talking about (Not Me) explain it!!

I understood you Trisha^_^ Thank you both for the help.

Trish - you did a great job. I was just adding a different perspective in case it helped. But it sounds like it was unnecessary. And it is a good idea.

I understood it, but maybe someone else didn't, two heads are better than one. Now everyone is going to use that trick.LOL

Getting cold again tonight. They say rain by the end of the week, that should warm things up.

I absolutely love seeing the starts at night, though. There were a couple twinkling at me last night.

Shelly - I talked to a friend (breeder, vet, dog trainer, etc.) who has a friend who has a 2-year-old Maremma. She's going to check with that friend and get her e-mail address so she can talk to your sister. She can share some tips about training and socialization techniques for these guys so that you don't end up with stranger aggression problems. Do you think your sis would be interested?

Thanks Katie. That sounds great to me. I'll ask my sister tomorrow and see what she says! I think that she would be happy for the info. But, I'll ask her.

rc....my DIL is a dog trainer, but she lives in CA. That was her pack in the snow pictures! I'll ask what she knows too.

Cool!

wow, we can all raise gardens and well behaved dogs around here. I like it! Thanks for any info in advance that you can get as well Sally. All is welcome.

With both of your fine explanations, I was able to figure out the split screen technique, and I'm somewhat technologically challenged. Case in point...I was trying to show a video on insects and spiders to my class and accidentally turned on the CD player instead, which had in it a Rock CD of my son's set to a high volume (he had been in my class helping decorate bulletin boards). So rock music blasted out and I had to figure out, quickly, how to turn it off. The kids were jazzed, or maybe rocked, they thought it was funny, and kept asking me to do that again for the next 2 weeks.

Hee hee. Facebook is next, Holly.

Shelly, I hope I haven't been too pushy. But I tend to be a little nervous about the guardian breeds because I've heard some sad stories. I just think that dogs bred to live solitary with animals have a little different view of the world. The frustrating part is that many people don't know they have a problem until it is too late - the dog's mature and something has happened. So I'm just hoping to share resources and put the right people in touch with one another so there's a happy ending for everybody without any heartache or lawsuits (and with the sheep safe, too).

They're going to be 100 lbs each, right? If I were a coyote or a bobcat, I would want to mess with their sheep. That's for sure.

mauryhill....I bet you were teacher of the week for sure!!! I can remember radios blasting when turned on. Knocks you otta your socks.

tilly, Ester reminds me of Cheyenne. She weighed 89lbs. Not a very clear pic, but you can see she was old too. 13, 1 month shy of her 14th birthday which she never got to see.

This message was edited Jan 20, 2009 10:38 AM

Katie, you haven't been too pushy! Not at all! It's all very helpful. I really appreciate any info and suggestions that people can give, mainly because it's given with the best of intentions!!

Mauryhill, cute story! If I were a student in your class I would've been much more alert after that and hence would've accomplished much more for the rest of the day. Not only that, I would've thought that you were a teacher with great taste in music.

Glad it helped and appreciate clarifications...

What a Beautiful Day it is today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Passing on this bit that was posted on our Sweet Interruptions thread this morning...


Over the weekend the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in their garden. They loved the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep cats away from their garden. Their dog Calypso decided that the mulch smelled good enough to eat and devoured a large helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when she eats something new but wasn't acting lethargic in any way. The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out for her morning walk. Half way through the walk, she had a se! izure a nd died instantly.

Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label, upon further investigation on the company's website, this product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs and cats.

Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey's, and they claim that 'It is true that studies have shown that 50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer physical harm to a variety of degrees (depending on each individual dog). However, 98% of all dogs won't eat it.'

Snopes.com verifies this information. See their write-up [HYPERLINK@www.snopes.com]

That's so sad. Cocoa Mulch is made from bakers chocolate which is highly toxic to dogs. Milk chocolate isn't.

I bought cocoa mulch directly from Theo's Chocolates in Seattle last year. I guess I was very fortunate because none of the neighbor dogs or our cats ate it. They sniffed it, but left it alone. It smelled wonderful for a short while, slugs hated it, I loved the look, but now I feel terrible that I endangered the neighbor dogs. That was such a heartbreaking story, Trisha.

Grrrrr, That "90% of dogs not eating it" has been proven to be wrong time and time again. There's tons of stuff on the Net and on lists that says "Do not use cocoa products for mulch if you have pets". Period. Even if it were true, who would chance their dog being one of the 10%?

Milk chocolate IS also toxic, it's just that the toxicity is cut with the addition of milk products. Dogs have been known to die from eating Snicker's bars - as with grapes, it all depends on the dog.

This from one site on the Web: "Toxic doses of theobromine are 9 mg per pound of dog for mild signs, up to 18 mg per pound of dog for severe signs. Milk chocolate contains 44 mg / ounce of theobromine while semisweet chocolate contains 150 mg/ ounce, and baking chocolate contains 390 mg / ounce."

So sad for the poor owner. Thanks for posting this.

Why is this cocoa mulch used at all? If it can kill a dog I would imaging it is killing wildlife - don't you think? I don't really know what squirrels eat. I would not take the risk of my dog being the one to get sick, even if that risk is very small. Things like this make me angry!

Ester & Cheyenne are both so cute! So sorry that Cheyenne is not still with you.

Well, the reasons that I have used cocoa mulch, along with other mulches, for years are 1) naturally prohibitive towards snails, and slugs. 2)my voles don't like it as much. 3) for me, it keeps the stray cats out of the plant beds 4) helps add a different assortment of nutrients to the soil. 5) it also keeps the raccoons out of those areas where I put it.
But, when I had a dog he didn't like it and neither do my cats. My closest neighbors don't have pets and the ones that do have dogs have a fenced yard.
I had never heard of a problem with dogs getting sick from it, if I had I guess I would've been more tentative about using it. The population of my other critters hasn't seemed to change. I still have lots of squirrels, chipmunks, fox, etc. But, now that I know that I'll watch to see if they eat it. There's lots of philbert trees nearby, so I sort of doubt that they would. It certainly hasn't phased the population of raccoons around my place!!! Anyhow, it's good information to have. If my closest neighbors ever get pets, I'll quite using it.

Weather today: great! clear skies but cool. I love it.

I am having a major vole infestation, even worse this year than past years. As my dog will eat just about anything, I am now forewarned not to try the cocoa stuff. Thank you for the information. I have heard it suggested to try ferret or weasel poop, since those are potential predators. There is a ferret rescue place (home for abandoned ferrets) near me that might be willing to give me a bag to try out.

Good thing my son has decent taste in rock music and there were no questionable lyrics to try to explain to parents and the teacher next door. She thought it was pretty funny when I explained what happened. My kids, being first graders, are bouncy all the time.

Feels like we've been stuck in a fog bank for days, with brief solar appearances through the haze. But hey, it is a sight better than snow, heavy rain, wind, and flooding.

I would take the snow over this fog.....if you could leave out the melting, rain, wind and flooding:) I hate it when, being a pyro, I can't have my fireplace going:(

I would like the snow a little better too Tricia if I could add one more component to the parts of it to leave out: the crappy roads.

However, I'm am loving seeing the sun during the day. It's been really foggy in the morning and evening, but for a few hours in the middle there's been this lovely globe in the sky, i sooo wish it to stay!

Yeah, Laura and I decided if we could figure out road surfacing material that would not let the snow and ice build up......we could have our snow......and retire and enjoy it.....I don't have much trouble driving in it most of the time....but we really have a bunch of idiots with driver's licenses up here....that is the main thing that keeps me off the roads when it snows.

Having the option is a great thing!

I guess it makes a difference that I don't work and I live just a few blocks from the supermarket.....if my husband would take the bus I wouldn't have to go out at all when it snows!

and how come he wont take the bus??????

I wish I knew..........LOL....I just asked him and he said "its inconvenient"...BS (those are his initials but that is NOT what I am referring to)....the bus stops a block and a half from our house, goes another three blocks and turns right....stops there at the substation for a few minutes then the street is a straight shot down town, 2.5 miles...a few stops if someone need to get on or off....right turn...one block to the main station...that is two blocks from his work.......How simple is that??