Barking Dogs

Having 7 dogs in the house makes for a very noisy place.  One of our dogs, Sammie, seems to be the instigator for most barking sessions. We got Sammie from a family giving puppies away on Walmart parking lot.  He was supposed to be a golden retriever mix...judging from his size now...the family he came from were wrong.  He has turned out to be a dog that is easily agitated by the other dogs and is way too quick to put them in their place for getting too close.  I've read about humane ways to try and control unnecessary barking and had came across a collar that sprays a mist in front of their nose.  The ones on the internet sprayed citronella, a scent that dogs evidentially do not like.  A couple of weeks ago, while shopping for dog food at Atwoods, I came across a similar system, that sprays a lemon scent, normally $64.00 marked down to $29.00.  It was still too high for me, but I kept watching it each time I went to the store hoping they would mark it down again.  Today, while buying dog food...AGAIN, Atwoods was running a Memorial Day special that made all clearance items an additional 50% off.  Finally, I could buy the collar. In addition to buying the collar for $14.99, I was able to buy 3 refills for only $3.50 each...a great savings!

This evening, we read the instructions and I decided to test out the collar...not advised!  It has a vibration sensor and a sound sensor, so I put it against my throat and "barked"...and got sprayed in the face!  Very entertaining for my family since it's something that I wouldn't have normally done...everyone got a good laugh...and I now smell like lemons....nice!  We put the collar on a very cooperative Sammie.  It was a very short time before Mack, our Sheltie, ran into Sammie.  He barked, the collar sprayed and Sammie nearly fell all over himself trying to get away from it.  So far, Sammie has yet to bark again this evening.  We'll see how it works in the long run.  It may be that one spray is all it takes!

Caitlyn has spent most of the day trying to get her hair the correct color.  Her results....still PINK!

A Brand New Caitlyn

Caitlyn has always been the one in the family who will change her looks so often she looks like a different kid each time she comes out of her bedroom.  Within the last year, she's had short hair, long hair (with extensions), curly hair, blonde hair, black hair and her natural brown hair.  Yesterday morning she had shoulder length permed brown hair dyed to give it a reddish tint.  She's been asking for a haircut again and I've been putting her off since she had just gotten one within the month.  Last night I gave in...she sat down in the chair...and I didn't even look. When they were done, she had very short hair...actually pretty cute.  She had picked up another box of hair dye, so I knew we were in for a completely new look.  She also had ordered hair color over the internet...it had came in the mail earlier in the day.

She spent all evening in and out of her bedroom and the bathroom.  Finally I heard the blow dryer running.  In a few minutes I got a phone call...from the bathroom, asking if I wanted to see her hair.  Of course, I said yes...then she says...it isn't really the color I thought it would be.  She said it's kind of....hot pink!  Troy was sitting close enough that he heard her and asked if she really said hot pink.  We all waited patiently for her to make her entrance...all staring quietly up over the staircase for her to come out of the bathroom....then...sure enough...she came out...with hot pink hair!

Tornado Warnings...again

It's after 1am...we've been in mom and dad's basement since almost 10pm.  We had been watching all the storms go through Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas all evening.  We were prepared to leave if we had to and watched this line tear through houses and property on the weather channel live feed.  By the time the line of storms reached the Kansas line, the chance of tornadoes had diminished.  I had pretty much came to terms with it being over and had calmed down.  Just before 9:30,  the sirens sounded.  The storm had changed and there was rotation in the clouds.  I yelled at the kids and told them it was time to go.  After seeing what Sunday's tornado did in Joplin, we weren't taking any chances.  I know that because of the tornado 8 years ago, our house was now in a clearing with no cover and if a tornado was coming through again, it would be gone.  It's hard to walk away from our pets...I told them all bye and that I loved them...and cried as I locked the door while they were lined up watching us go.  I tried to get the computer cam up and going in a hurry before we left, but couldn't get it on.  At least that would have given us some idea what was going on out here.

We got to moms and went to the basement.  There were 13 of us in all that congregated there.  I kept in contact with Troy by text message when I could get through.  He was at work...a sickening feeling to be separated and scared.  We all had our phones, ipods and computers keeping track of the storm.  I have a storm spotter as a friend on facebook, so we also had his input too.  When they spotted rotation outside Carl Junction while sitting at 43 and 96, my heart sunk.  I knew if a tornado dropped from that location, our house would be gone again.  We waited until the storm passed...nothing reported as touched down...I could breath again.  We noticed no wind damage on the way home.  They were calling for 75 mph winds with the storm.  We made it though another warning, but I couldn't help but think about all the families a few miles away recovering from 2 nights ago and then having to endure another possiblity of being hit again.

I'm trying my best to think about what all I need to do to prepare us for more storms.  I think a storm shelter is a must at some point this year.  We will all have our cell phones on us and charged if we know storms are headed our way.  Our dogs will get new collars and ID tags.  We've left our house many times running from storms everytime all the kids have grabbed something that they can't live without.  This time was much different.  No one grabbed anything.  My camera was already in the truck with the hard drive holding most of our photos.  I'll be spending some time soon scanning in the rest of our pictures.  Way too much on my mind right now...off to bed hopefully...nearing 1:30am.

Still Real...

I woke up this morning and hoped somehow that the nightmare in Joplin wasn't real.  But seeing that our area made the Yahoo homepage top news says it is still a reality. 133 pictures of destruction, pain and heartache are on that page.  A sight that brings tears to my eyes. Last night 116 people had lost their lives, but judging from the lost and looking for lists, that number is sure to go up.  How will the 100's or 1000's of people ever recover???

Surprise!

I was greeted this morning by a newly hatched turkey poult.  They aren't due to hatch until Friday.  I suspect that my thermometers...all 4 of them...are a bit off on temperature and it averaged a little high causing the early hatch.  Nine more to go...several are pipped and working on it.

Waiting for Sunrise...

I'm sitting here at 6:32am thankful that the sun has finally risen above the tree line.  Troy was scheduled for work at 5:30am.  I'm usually aware when he gets up, but try desperately to stay asleep...never works, but I do try.  This morning, however, I get a text from him at 4:32am.  I try to quietly untangle myself from Baxter (the Great Dane that has politely taken most of my side of the bed, my pillow and my blanket) and reach for my phone in the drawer by my bed.  The text simply says "call me."  By the time on the screen I know that Troy has just left for work.  He leaves in "stealth mode" out the back door as to disturb as few as possible.  So, I call him. He's obviously been spooked.  Evidentially,  when he left out the back gate, something was in the tall grass at the corner of our property growling. He said it didn't sound like any growl he's heard before.  It unnerved him enough to get back inside the fence until he heard it go back through the grass.  Ok, my first thought...gee thanks, leave me alone with some animal lurking behind the house that I can't see.  My second thought...I can't even load the gun.  We've lost a turkey hen, 2 chicken hens and 3 baby turkeys in the past month, all but the turkey hen in just the past week.  I know whatever took the turkey hen was big enough to carry her and not drag her...there was no feather trail at all through the field.  Whatever took the chickens climbed a fence and was able to drag them over, but wasn't big enough to carry them without leaving feathers behind.  The baby turkeys disappeared from a 8' tall pen.  It looked as if they were all eaten within the pen.  The momma turkey was left alone, and so were the 7 toms that were perched on top of the pen like gargoyles.  So, what's a person to do?  Or, better yet, what does this person do?...sit and listen to all the noises out side for something out of the ordinary and wait for sunrise!  Fortunately, we didn't lose any livestock this time.  I've taken it upon myself to decide not to venture out in the field anymore after dark, or anytime for that matter...at least until the owners mow.  I'll be purchasing at least one spot light today, and probably won't be wondering in the yard after dark armed with only a BB gun anymore.