RAIN!!!!

Yippee!! It's raining!!! Of course we have been on tornado watch and tornado warnings all day.... To the point of having all our students in the sitting position, lined along the inside walls of the school until 4:45 this afternoon...but who cares...IT'S RAINING!!! WOOHOO!!

I Survived

The first week back at work was awful, but I survived. It did seem to get less awful as the week progressed, so that might be a good sign. The first day back with the students there can't be discussed on a family website such as this one. I still have absolutely nothing on the walls in my classroom. But the school was kind enough to let us know that we could work for free over the weekend to get caught up on the things that we are required to do, that they do not allow us time for. That was very generous of them to have the building open for us over our weekend. Yeah, I won't be there.










Charlie and Gracie are doing fine. Gracie is still holding her weight at about 3.6 pound...Mini Cujo. We have been trying to feed her pumpkin, since she is the Shredder, however she usually chooses not to eat the pumpkin. Now she is shredding all of the throw rugs that I have in front of the doors. The good news is, I haven't had to do any drywall repairs in several weeks. I think I am going to start force feeding her pumpkin. Charlie, of course, is perfect. He never does anything wrong, and certainly never slobers on anyone....well maybe a little slober, okay, okay he slobers...some. :) Charlie is large. He is 'in size' for his breed now. (Standard is 18 - 20 inches at the shoulder and 70 - 85 pounds). I guess I need to take him the vet and weigh him. My guess is that he is probably about 75 pounds now.










We got the dogs each a real bone from the butcher. Charlie shares his, but Gracie is her typical Mini Cujo self about them, and she steals too!






Charlie's ball, under the coffee table. He can't reach.













This the monster picture I took of Marianne getting her braces. She probably won't appreciate it being on here, but it was priceless. I had to share it. :)

Back to work

It was quite rude that the school district here was so insistant on starting another school year. I thnk we should have just been satisfied with the last one and called it good. But No! I had to go back to work. Besides switching from a 4 block schedule to an 8 period day, there is construction everywhere at Westside. It really is a mess!!! I currently have 166 students. It won't take long to grade papers this year! I am teaching an SAT Prep class, and Math Tech 2 class (another name for Algebra for Dummies) and 4 Algebra 2 classes. I had to change classrooms this year too. So I really have some adjustment issues going on.

We were all very excited about the hurricane....not the destruction part...we were just excited about the possibility of getting some rain out of it. But now it doesn't even look like that is going to happen. You Florida people are hogging all the rain now.

I thought it would be fitting to post the pictures that I took this past Sunday of one area of Lake Hartwell. These pictures were taken on the north side of town where the "cheap" house are. Needless to say, having lakefront property just doesn't have that same ring to it anymore. The first two pictures are of one of the public boat ramps. Notice the sign "Ramp Closed"...our tax dollars at work...like you could launch a boat there now anyway!! If this keeps up they will have to hire someone to mow the lake. Last I heard, we were 30 inches behind in rainfall (not that we want that in a 24 hour period of time) and the lake is down about 28 feet.

Total Blog Slacker

Marianne and I have been working on the down signal in our dog training adventures. I was beginning to think that Charlie needed glasses, but with Marianne's expertise we have been able to gain success in teaching Charlie the down signal. I was getting frustrated with trying to teach this to Charlie and things were getting a bit silly, hence the involvement of the stuffed dog. It was much easier to teach the down signal to than Charlie. I was demonstrating to Charlie how it should be done and since Gracie already knew how it should be done, she joined in on the demostration. It was really quite comical. We were having fun....maybe you had to be there..











Charlie is good to go now. He knows the down signal. He is actually doing well in his training. Marianne and Gracie are doing fantastic in their Rally class! Marianne is hoping to be in the January show here. I think she would be ready before then, but then Gracie has never actually been exposed to the whole "dog show scene". Our current classes end on the 14th so then we have to make some decisions (besides inventing ways to continue paying for continuing on in dog classes). Marianne wants to continue on in Rally and I am trying to decide if I want to start on Rally or CGC and then Rally. Any thoughts on that???









I am sad because I have to go back to work on Monday. I still have too much to do here, so I should be able to just stay home and get paid just the same. Who needs math anyway?

I went to Hardy Berry Farms yesterday and picked blackberries and blueberries. Yum, yum. I put about 2 1/2 gallons of each in the freezer. I also got some fresh peaches and put them in the freezer too. Well, not everything went into the freezer. We ate them too.


Just a beautiful sunset that I thought I would share.







We have been having some issues with the neighbors pitbull that keeps coming over here after the horses, and me, and the chickens. But, of course, when aminal control finally arrives on the scene the dog is nowhere to be found...never mind that I have called about this dog a number of times and have given them the address where the dog lives...dah! Two weeks ago the dog was in the front pasture trying to bite Glory and tormenting the others. Luckily she is not afraid of dogs and did not bolt through the barbed wire fence trying to get away from him. I threw rocks at it and was yelling at it, but it just turned around and growled at me. I went back in the house to get my gun, but when I came back, the dog was back up by the road. Too bad! I wish I had shot him. The dog was obviously back on Saturday and chewed up Jake's front leg. Jake suffered several canine puncture wounds, bruises, and a pretty good gash. I took pictures, but not until after I cleaned him up and got some medicine on the wounds. His leg has been terribly swollen and he is limping. I have been cleaning the wounds and giving him some bute (for pain and inflamation) twice a day, and praying for him, of course. God loves me, He loves my horse too. Anyway, this evening when I went out there I was happy because the swelling has started to go down. I have an animal trap in the front pasture now...for whatever good that will do and the horses are in the back pasture.











I did go ahead and paint the master bathroom. It turned out pretty good. I was pleased and proud of myself, too. It was a lot of work. I didn't paint it weathered sandstone though. I decided to save the weathered sandstone color for the rest of house (obviously a project that will take place some other year). Marianne and I picked out sand point for the bathroom. We are going to paint her bathroom the same color...whenever that is going to get done.













Charlie did in fact get a bath on bath day. Marianne was having fun taking pictures so that I could post them on my blog...but then I was a slacker and didn't get back on the blog. Charlie does enjoy his baths.

Come to think of it, I never posted any of our pictures from our fabulous trip to Kentucky. I guess I should still post some of those pictures, too. Charlie said to tell Haley that he is missing her and wants to play.
The farrier picture is for Heather. The farrier in the picture is a girl and I'd be willing to bet she is in demand! Good farriers are in high demand.

Summer is winding down

Marianne and I came to the library to check the blogs. Our computer is at the computer shop, hopefully back next week. We are suffering from computer withdrawal and missing out on the blogs. We a had a fantastic time at Jim and Lisa's. I will post and send some pictures when we get the computer back. Thank you so much for having us, even the runt and the moose!!

Charlie was neutered on Tuesday and is doing fine. I missed him terribly while he was gone to the vets office. He was moving pretty slow on Wednesday, but seems to be back to his normal self now.

I think we went through the blahs and the "what do we do nows" after being with family for the week and then returning home. We are going to Hamricks today and then swimming. Marianne has to go back to school this coming Thursday. I have a little bit more time than she does. I will have to focus my time on getting some more of the mess cleaned up at my house. Maybe even paint the master bathroom (weathered sandstone). I think I go back to work on August 11th. It would be better if they just kept paying and I stayed at home.

Finished

I finally got those blinds up on the french door in my bedroom. After the repairs were done, you couldn't even tell I screwed it up the first time. : ) I put up shelves above my dresser for the tv, satellite, and dvd/vcr. The most remarkable part of that was that I actually got all of that stuff hooked up and working correctly. Marianne and I watched a Veggie Tale dvd and Icabod and Mr. Toad on vhs just to make sure. I was very proud of myself. Now I just need to do something with this computer...it's being very bad, going slow and randomly shutting off...not a good sign.

If you people in Kentucky and New York would quit hogging all the rain the horses would appreciate it. Send some rain our way for a change!

Charlie

I attempted the hanging of the blinds on the french door yesterday. It proved to be something I should have left undone. Although I do know how to do it now. I will be fixing the door and then starting over on that one. It was extremely hot today so the load of mulch I picked up from The Villager is still in the back of the truck. I kept waiting for it to cool off some, like this evening, but now I'm just not going to do it this evening at all. For those of you that have not have the pleasure of meeting Charlie, you don't know what you are missing. Lisa would say that, too, but in a different tone of voice than I would. I have taken a few shots of him that show his idea of a great day.