Nuts, bolts, and wrenches

In the nuts and bolts section, I've fixed a growing problem with website access on my laptop. My native Mac browser,  Safari, has been increasingly dysfunctional because of my old OS, which I can't update or I'll lose access to my design software. I used my iPhone for some websites, but not everything can be done on a tiny screen. Things came to a head when Shutterfly wouldn't let me create my MIL's wedding photo album. I called Shutterfly's help desk, and after her first suggestions fixed nothing, she told me to download Chrome. Now I use Safari when I can, and Chrome allows me to access everything else, including some blog comments sections that have blocked me for years. Hurray!

More nuts and bolts. In my July 5 post, I mentioned a building project my guys have embarked on. Said project is farther along now and has 'grown,' as such projects do. The excavator Rick hired to finish the prep had to do a LOT more sitework than estimated, leaving a mountain of dirt to deal with. Then Rick decided to expand the use of the new structure, if not its footprint. His clinic's lease is very uncertain now as the larger commercial property on which it sits has been sold to new owners who want it ALL for a U-Haul super-rental eventually, so the new shop may very well do double (triple?) duty as a large animal clinic on top of firewood storage and shop. The vast majority of Rick's work is ambulatory, but he needs an exam bay for the occasional haul-in, and a place to store some drugs and supplies. Might as well be here, since commercial property is shockingly expensive to rent or buy (compared to the rent for his current clinic which has barely changed since 1995). Rick is building forms for the footings now.

some of the dirt has been spread out in the orchard and upper pasture

From nuts and bolts to 'bullets' and 'pellets.' Honeybun has been giving us regular 'pullet bullets' but yesterday I found a tiny egg in a nestbox – more like a 'pullet pellet.' Maybe from a second of the three pullets? The second photo shows two regular eggs, three pullet bullets and the pellet. I'll have plenty of eggs to feed the company we'll have next week; Rick's cousin's son is interested in veterinary medicine so is flying out from MO to ride with him. His mom and aunt are coming, too, but plan to do a lot of sightseeing so we may not see them much.

 I love that the pullets form a gradient in colors 😁

As for wrenches – or is that wrenching? – our son ended up in the ER for a few hours this week for doing something stupid. I often wonder if he'll get his act together before he destructs – or Rick's and my marriage does. As always, I distract myself from the drama and trauma with horse and dog training, fiber crafts, exercise, a few close friends, and of course lots of talking to God. The day after Brian's crisis I went with one of those friends to her weekly training session with her reactive dog. It was fascinating and informative. I prefer to train with only positive reinforcement and research bears out that this is best, but for highly reactive dogs like my friend's German Shepherd/Malinois, operant conditioning may be the only solution to changing behavior that could otherwise result in euthanasia. The trainer did some talking first and then gave my friend a timed assignment without instructions – to get her dog to stand on four empty 28oz tin cans and hold that position for at least 10 seconds. Amazingly, she accomplished the assignment in less than two minutes; the trainer said the average time it takes for someone to do this for the first time is more than 20 minutes! I was watching in fascination and didn't take any photos, but after she finished the instructor talked about the nine  principles behind training this and other behaviors, referencing the same principles used in training military recruits, and I took a photo of  those, and then the instructor's own dog demonstrating the ability to do the exercise for much longer than 10 seconds. All I could think about is how much my son needs this training!

But to reference Al-Anon's three Cs, I can't control or cure him.... (But yes, I did have to try it with Poppy.)

That's it for now from . . .