The Good, The Bad, And A Winner

Hi All, John says that I do not talk about him in my blogs, so this time i will

talk about him a lot. So everyone knows how frustrated i have been about skunks, raccoons, and turkeys, day and night, the midnight skunk baths d.w. and charlotte have had to have.

So my idea was to get a "watchdog" that is an outside dog to chase off these interlopers onto our vast track of land. John vehemently disagreed, because he likes shooting them in the wee hours of the night. As you know he is gone 2-3 nights a week and i am not adept at shooting in the night or day, nor do i want to acquire this particular skill.

I decided that i was just going to get a dog and be strong on my defense however as john was helping dustin and jamie work on their home repairs the other night, "they" felt compelled to tease him with my plan- it did not go well at home.. thanks d & J. Anyway after some "discussion" and "debate"a little more "give" and "take" It was "decided" that i could get another dog, Rules for dog: 1. If its a german shepherd, it has to be named after a character in Hogans Heros- thanks nic at nite 2.he/she could never, never,never come in the house. 3. he/she can never go anywhere with us !
4. It really can't be part of our family, our family of dw and charlotte is perfect and can't include anyone else. So with those rules , i continued to follow up on some of the dogs i had been checking up on on craigslist.

It's a very weird thing that people who are losing their home want you to pay a "rehoming" fee anywhere from 50- 450 dollars. That i will never do.
So i had inquired about a "urgent shelter" dog from the merced animal shelter. Same shelter i got dw from, i had emailed the coordinator and let her know that i was not able to pay the rehoming fee etc. She emailed back saying they would waive all fees, but this dog was going to the rainbow bridge later this week. I said bring him up, they actually car pool dogs up to sac every week for people to pick up. So i found myself at a Denny's on Howe ave waiting for a van full of dogs, it looked like a drug buy with leashes when the van pulled in.

So here we are at home with Hogan, he is shephard mix, not the best looking dog out there i will agree, but he is smart,sweet and very obedient.
d.w. does not like him at all, gives him the stank eye and a growl when he gets a chance, guess it's good to be the dog king too. but hogan does not do the big back yard at all, i realized yesterday that he had been at pound for a full month. So he's been sleeping on front porch at night and hangs around front door during the day. that's what i was looking for, i'm pretty happy and dad is grudgingly accepting him, hard not too, he's very friendly. and more important, no skunks, raccoons and turkeys the last two nights, although i have not heard him bark yet.

So here is where i thank dad for being a good guy and letting me deal with this in my way. And no hogan has not been in the house at all !! and since he threw up in my truck on the way home, he'll not be going on any trips. He does run thru sprinkler to cool off i noticed, can't wait to see he and zell run thru sprinkler. So that's my last couple of days......

On a personal note, most of the smoke from fires is gone, but my allergies are back with a vengeance, thank the Good Lord for Zyrtec D, I'm living on it. And if you haven't talked to john lately he thinks that job change will become apparent buy the middle or end of august! so maybe we' ll be packing or we'll be hanging out for years too come.

So here are a few pics of Hogan, he is very dark so it's hard too get a good pic of him. Hey Jay, Free is not always bad.......

Love u all

Monday Report

Well another week has come and gone, so i'll update the past week. I've been working on priming some of dustin and jamie's kitchen doors, i can't wait to see the whole kitchen done.

No boating this weekend, i'm hoping we can get back up to union valley this saturday. My latest rant is the water level at folsom, has not been enough water for us to go this year, and tomorrow the speed limit on the entire lake will go to 5 mph due to the many hazards. What a waste of tax payer dollars.

Now to the happings at home; in the last week my mountain man has shot a raccoon, and 2 skunks- shot em with a shotgun- cut em right in two, blames himself ! * see bottom for reference, if you didn't get it. And worst of all, 2 mom and 8 or so baby turkeys are coming into MY flower beds and tearing up my flowers ! I am just about at my wits end ! D.W. never barks, he just runs head on into a skunk, the other night i was giving him a very cold from the hose bath on the front porch.... he's about ready to get thrown down the driveway and stomped on !

Not really, actually what my plan is to get an outside dog- yes, now the time for booing and hissing from jay and casey. What i want is a dog outside at night chasing these critters away, it's '
all well and good when dad's home and wants to get up and shoot them, but when he's gone 2-3 nights a week i feel like i'm at a stupid skunks whims, it's making me nuts, i'm finally getting better sleep, but varmints are overrunning the place. So dad is a little mad at me, what with the Burton bloodline and all. I love my little dog family, but i need a varmint chasing front porch dog. we'll see

So I think I'm done for now, dad is taking apart the waterbed, i have it on craigslist for free ! and have already got some interest, we'll see if someone will come this far for something that is free, aside from Jay's motto: Nothing For Free ! gotta go, love to all

P.S. the answer is Steve Martin- stand up

50 IS NOT THE NEW 30 !

hi,
figured I'd give you an update on our weekend camping adventure. We did not go to bullards bar, figured it to be to smoky, so we went up to union valley. its about 20 miles above placerville, we can go up thru georgetown, very pretty drive, lots of thick pine trees. anyway, lake is very pretty, less smoke but high clouds and smoke. water is a lot like clemtine, clear and refreshing. Good News: free to launch Bad News: No hazard bouys, ran over a hudge bolder under water. loud noise, but no hull damage, did have some skagg damage as the SKAGG HIT THE BOAT ! dad can fix it up fine. glad i wasn't driving. So we want to camp there next, dogs are allowed, reservations are first come first serve, so we'll have to plan it out. Water had some very smooth spots. I think I screwed my neck up by tubing with brielle, stupid but fun..... so dad and i are tired and feeling old today, he's already napping at 1 pm. We're not feeling 30'ish. Maybe being old is best left to those who are already old..... Love ya all

Late Night For Ramblings

Ok i have to start over, you all know what happened,,, it screwed me but maybe i'll save a few times this time.My neck still feels good,my leg is killing me, maybe the no pain makes the other pain worse, who knows. I am so very thankful for the relief i have in my neck. Praise The Lord !!!! So Jamie says i need to let jay and janelle know that i mopped bathrooms, vaccumed floors and did all kinds of domestic inside chores today! I can do it when the time is right! Hey jay, I took all my old nascar newspapers to recycling yesterday, and yet my life goes on..... hmmm, you should really be a crime fighter! Now to the serious stuff,would you guys pray for aunt andy, her best friend sharon died last sunday, she was mid 40's had gone on a bike ride to celebrate daughters 14th birthday, small wreck, but it seems that during the night or early in the morning she died in bed. she had underlying health issues but they are guessing that a small part of fatty cartlidge came loose from sprain on elbow and entered her circulitory system. when i talked to her yesterday, she did not know autopsy results. Andy gave a eulogy and is very concerned for daughter Faith. It's a messy situation with the husband who did not treat her well. If you could pray for that whole situation and for me to have the right words for andy i'd appreciate it. On the praise front janenne barretts little boy got to come home from hospital last week. all seems well, can't wait to see him. any updates from wyatt ? It seems that our camping trip is a no go for next week. janet and i might drive up to union valley and scope it out, see how the smoke is and if there is camping opportunities, nice clean refreshing lake water seems great right now.gonna go see if i can get some zzzzzz's. love to all

Wednesday Night Ramblins

hi all, my neck still feels good, actually it does not "feel" at all
so that's very good ! and i might have caught up on sleep finally, i think we'll see tomorrow. My goal is to get to dmv early to get replacement boat tags before we go up to bullards bar sunday afternoon. Air here is still very smoky and just yucky, looks like we are in for it for the next few weeks as fires are all over, some fires are not even being fought because they are too far in woods and other fires are threating homes or structures. I think bullards bar will put it a little closer to fires, but what the heck wind shifts are constantly changing, and water is a nice place to be in yucky air. It will be fun to camp with lomas family, alec and brielle are always refreshingly fun to be with outside, fearless and everything is fun. hopefully john and alec will get some fishing time in. it's late so i better go. leave me comments so i know someone is paying attention to my ramblings love ya all !

Tuesday Night

Well I made It throught my cevical epidural shot just fine. As it turned out they did not put me all the way out! I'm feeling prety good now, drs say that i should have an increase in pain for 24-48 hrs after the anasthetic wears off. I took it pretty easy and plan to go to bed pretty early tonite. john took off after bring me home, i was doing well and figured it would be easier to rest without his working and worrying. the bostitch regional managers are meeting this week and word is heads are on the chopping block. I am not worried, but john is freaking out just a bit, it's best that he be out working instead of worrying at home. It is still very hot, hot,hot and smoky here.we are planning to go camping at Bullards Bar sunday- tuesday, but we can't find any info for air quality. My guess is that it's as bad if not worse here,we might just go for it anyway, water is always good antidote to smoke and heat. I think i'm off to change water and hit the sack ! later.....

Monday,Monday

Hi All had a great and busy weekend,one of best parts of my planned lazy day today is that air outside is so smokey and "unhealthy" that i don't feel bad about not doing anything outside. Also the temp is about 100 degrees.Only word for that is: Nap Time. I am trying to make changes to blog, hopefully they will take effect when i post this blog. Tomorrow morning at 7:30 am i will be goin in for epuderal on my cervical spine, should be a 2.5 hr appt. i will be put out for procedure so that will be nice ! should not be any recovery time, but i will be taking it easy tomorrow afternoon. If jamie has kitchen cabinet doors off i will sand and paint for her this week, i forgot how much i like sanding and painting. sunday we will be going up to bullards bar camping with lomas family till tues morning, i have to come back for dr. follow up on tuesday afternoon. love to all-- leave me comments if you read this