09/18/2020 TGIF

Shirl, you are so good at personalizing detailed individual validations ! Do you make notes as you read posts, or do you just recall posts you are responding to ? I have to make notes.

We got SS, the RV, back from the new dealer the SAME DAY we brought her in for service. Unheard of !! Initially, they couldn't reproduce the leak, and then discovered it only happened when the fresh water tank was at least ¾ full. They took a partition down in the compartment near the FW tank, and found that the factory had never screwed a secondary plug in all of the way. 99.0% of the time we are at sites with city water and had never filled the freshwater more than half full. It is fixed now. I wish I had David's fix-it know how, in order to problem solve and address basic issues. We have three more work week camping reservations at the state park, then will have to have her winterized by the end of October, as we are no longer going south. Hopefully, by early spring Covid and political issues will be resolved enough to reschedule a trip south.

We rented a rototiller to put lime and manure down in the expanded corn patch for next year. Our soil is so clay based and dry that the rototiller bounced off the surface. We had to shovel dig 6 inches down and wet it down before we could till. We'll add compost, top soil and ash and hopefully we'll have better soil come spring.

I know what you mean Diane about individual salutations! I have to reply directly to comments.

Weight 122. It is a rainy day so I will probably just hang around and take of a few things. If Mike wants to get together maybe we will jus****ch movies. I'm guessing we will not though as he has had a sore shoulder he needs to baby and we are meeting a couple of his friends over the weekend.

As mentioned yesterday, our stay at the little cottage was really romantic (picture below). We were a parking lot away from the beach which we walked and sat on and the same from the restaurant. It was a nearly empty restaurant (mostly outdoors since the walls rolled up) when we went which was nice. Our waitress and one other commented on how sweet Mike and I looked together. I think we must look like moony teenagers in mid-60 bodies!

So DS got a great offer at a restaurant way down the Cape in Provincetown (past where Mike's home is). He said he can't take it because he can't find a cat-friendly apartment. AFTER ONLY LOOKING FOR 1/2 DAY! I am hoping he doesn't turn it down right away and spends some more time because obviously he hasn't really had time to look.

Have a safe, healthy and social day!

Those window boxes are so lovely. It's good to hear restaurants are looking to hire- gives hope to a positive movement towards what used to be normal. Hoping there is pet friendly housing to be had.

172.4

Great morning, all and sundry tribe!

How refreshing to have found good and reliable service for SS. We have a coal room in the basement and every time I find any tradesperson of worth, we invite them (alright, kidnap) to stay down there. This way they are available 24/7. Pickings are slim and over the years we have only collected a heating/cooling man and roofer; any others we have hosted have been furloughed due to extreme age. Currently scoping out a property clearing crew (lots of brush, etc..). If you know of anyone-

We have clay big time here. Does clay even qualify as soil? Anyway, Kurt was wondering if your tiller was front or rear tined. Rear tines needed. Also suggested (if there is a next time) that success with such conditions is multiple passes letting the weight of the tiller scratch its way down. Bouncing can happen if the tiller is applied as a plow; can be done- just a lot of patience needed.

Fresh sweet corn is so good! Raccoons around here monitor the corn and will strip the patch clean the night before the ears are ready. We rely on field corn picked green before the kernels go to starch.

Projects beget projects and the clean deck pointed out a need to spray down the house's sidewalls- which knickered the trim paint- so time to get out the paint supplies. Which reminds me.......

DC says it was front tined. We know we will need fencing with chicken wire at the bottom to repel deer, rabbits and racoons.

Sweet corn is a big deal in my small hometown. We had a Green Giant Canning plant that only fired up in the summer to can sweet corn. Lots of stay at home Moms and new hs grads earned a few extra $ each summer. Kids like me detasseled seed corn for slave wages. Our town festival, which still exists, is the Corn Carnival, all the free sweet corn you can eat! But I digress, your comment about eating field corn, we did that! It was easier to go grab some ears from our own field, then drive into town to buy sweet corn. My own children looked at me incredulously when I told them there is a window when field corn is pretty tasty. My small town farm girl tales must conflict with the sophisticated urbane woman they see before them.

Ferg has some hearing back today! We went to the vet yesterday and he had a full ear flush (really hated it and was mad at me for an hour) and a culture showing bacteria and yeast, so meds for both. The vet must be looking for something specific, because don't yeast and bacteria naturally occur everywhere? Regardless, he went to bed with no hearing and responded to his name (loudly) this morning.

Scale up a bit today. Fine.

I ordered some organic mosquito spray for the yard (bottle is a hose end sprayer). I can take no more. I look like a bed bug victim. If I hadn't killed several mosquitoes in the process of biting me, I'd wonder. I'm not alone. I posted on NextDoor and had 21 posts of people lamenting how bad they are this year. Hope the spray works. I think they may be breeding in the mulch I put down.

Today requires house cleaning. I've always said I'm messy, not dirty. This is dirt. And a grocery stop.

DianeO, I hear you on clay! I can stand on a shovel with my not insignificant weight and it won't go in the ground...

Liz, glad you had a nice time!

Bonnie, I know what you mean about finding a good tradesman especially in a more sparsely populated area. They are like gold. And worthy of locking in the basement!

DianeS, I've never heard of an automatic opener for a slider. Genius. Especially with dogs who want to go outside so they can come back in.

Peps, being binge free is a ginormous victory!!

Ears, especially in a Goldens, provide perfect climates for growing both yeast and bacteria. Some bacteria will feed on the yeast, too. So, the reason they look so closely at the ear flora is to be able to prescribe the correct meds to truly knock out the infection, rather than go at it with a broad spectrum antibiotic or anti fungal (yeast). Determining which is the bigger culprit or if the infection is equally shared between yeast and bacteria helps with the treatment. It would be a good idea to have Ferg's ear flushed once or twice more while you are treating it. I know they don't like it, but it really, really helps speed the treatment and healing.

Does your vet do a "sanitary" trim on Ferg's ears before sending him home? If not, you really should consider it. It's not normal for a Golden to be trimmed that way, but all the show Goldens are trimmed that way and it really helps reduce the number of infections.

That makes sense. So it's the quantity of bacteria and yeast he is evaluating. The vet didn't do any trimming. I carefully trim out the stuff that grows over the ear canal entrance (he is the hairiest golden I've ever met). Would you trim other parts?

He's always been prone to allergies and ear infections, so now he's on Apoquel full time. This is his first one since April 2019 when it used to be an every other month thing. So it's a win even if it's a bummer. It's not even a bad one. I just think he's got so little hearing left, the infection just took what little he had for a few days.

For him I would shave the entire inner ear flap and the junction of where the ear meets the skull. If you need a pic, I can post one for you either here or in TT.

You can get a pair of decent clippers at Sally's Beauty or online at Amazon. I can tell you which to get. Way easier than scissors. You can also trim the pads of his fee quickly with the clippers making it easier for him to walk on slick surfaces(tile, hardwood)