Monday, December 20, 2010

Door of Frustration opens Door of Opportunity

Thank goodness Thanksgiving is over! Yes, we had family over for dinner, yes we had a good time visiting with folks we hadn't seen in quite a while, and yes, nothing was perfect about the day, but we still had fun. So what happened to require the first sentence?

It all started when my stepson said he and his wife were coming up for T-day, and as a surprise they were bringing a turkey fryer to do the turkey and free up the oven. Cool! We (hubby and I) have never had a fried turkey, and were looking forward to it. So, with the number of people attending in mind, I purchased a 20lb turkey and 3 gallons of peanut oil. Then I got to wondering...how big a turkey does the fryer accommodate?

After playing phone tag with SS, we finally got the answer I was dreading; my turkey was too big! So off I went to get a smaller turkey. I didn't really care, since my oven was free to do other dishes for dinner. WOOHOO!

Well, in trying to chisel into stone just who was bringing what dish for the big day, it was decided that the kids were NOT bringing the fryer due to space issues in the car they were driving up in. Well, crap. Now what? I was extremely reluctant to give my oven back to a turkey! I fumed and fussed, muttered and cussed, until I finally went out and got a roaster oven.

My Thanksgiving Day table has never looked so good!


What made me think to do that? My backyard neighbors had us over for veggie lasagna last month, and it was cooked in a roaster oven. After talking with our hosts and discovering you can use this thing to cook darned near EVERYTHING, including a turkey, my mind went off the deep end. My checkbook followed. Once I verified the news that we were, indeed, cooking the turkey, off I went to the store to drag one home. I am now the proud owner of a Proctor & Silex Roaster Oven.

Hubby was not impressed, nor amused. I think he may actually have been a little p.o.'d. But once he discovered it could cook a 20lb turkey in 2 hours, he was certainly much more joyful! And when I discovered I could roast TWO chickens at a time in it, and everything is much more juicy than in the regular oven...well, I did a little dance around my kitchen. Hubby danced because it meant twice the amount of chicken salad, which he loooooooves.

So I was blessed doubly for Thanksgiving. Had a wonderful dinner with family, and got a roaster oven out of it as well. Who could complain about that?

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

New Family Member

As you know from previous posts, Elvis finally succumbed to his cancer. After a month I was finally able to talk my husband into checking out a German Shepherd pup. He's always wanted a GSD, but different things popped up. Like Elvis. But this was his chance. He was grieving as badly as I over our loss, but in an effort to save his sanity from my nagging, he gave in. We took Cocoa with us, just to make sure they got along okay.



The breeder was wonderful! She introduced us to a calm, well adjusted pup who was not too terribly excited about anything. While outside, he loved to eat the goat droppings (ick!). He wandered around, checked us out, then followed us all into the house to view a video of his dam and sire working. We got to see his dam in person, who was NOT too happy to see strangers with her pup! Oh my! Jethro is gonna be a big puppy!!!



Cocoa wasn't interested in the pup, and he wasn't too interested in her, either. And when we decided to take him home, Cocoa REALLY wasn't happy! We coaxed Jethro into the car, and the poor baby road the entire way from the breeder's house to ours (3 hours) on the floorboards!

Jethro is now 6 months old, almost 7, and smarter than both of the humans in the house! Where Elvis didn't mind the 3' dividing fence down the middle of the yard, Jethro hates it, mostly when it keeps him from me. Did I mention he's a mama's boy? Oh yes! At first, he climbed over the fence, and dropped down the other side. He injured his shoulder doing that! And scraped up his back leg. He could easily break a leg doing this! So I decided we needed to work on this immediately.

We worked for an hour in drizzle, me trying to leave thru the back gate, Jethro jumping the fence, me leading him back. At first I would say "No! Bad dog!". After a while I stopped talking, just gave him the cold shoulder as I led him back to his side of the fence. Did this work? Nope.

It only took Jethro 2 minutes to figure this out after watching me demonstrate. Did I mention he was a smart pup??

Next up: remote controlled shock collar. After getting "bit" by the collar a couple of times for jumping the fence, he would still go over. But it lead to another problem: every time he saw the collar (you NEVER leave it on your pet all the time!), he started shutting down, crawling in under the piano, or behind the couch. After only a couple of days, once he saw the collar, you couldn't do anything else with him. So it was returned to the store.

So you think you can outthink me? Bwahahahahaha!

Third idea: electric fence. I got a low power electric fence box, some stab-in-the-ground fence posts, wire, a rebar, and some plastic holders, and hubby and I set up the circuit about a foot out from the regular fence. We know it worked, because Jethro touched it. Twice. Once down by his regular jumping spot, and once up on the deck. What happened? He sat down, looked at the wire for a few seconds. Then he walked out to the middle of his yard and took a running start at the fence, clearing it and the wire by more than a foot. It was beautiful at the same time as it was disappointing. Sigh. Back to the store to return most of the stuff.

So now we are resigned to the fact that we will NOT be having a picket fence separating the dog yard from the garden/people yard like we had wanted. If we had listened to all the research we did on GSDs, we would have known from the beginning that the 6' fence was the only way to go. But we just didn't want to put in a 6' fence! Well, what we want, and what we NEED are three different things. Until we have that fence, if I want to visit my neighbors behind us, I have to put Jethro in the house. Maybe when he gets older he'll be better about it, but then....I've always heard once a mamma's boy, always a mamma's boy.