We've always taken out our dogs' stitches; they don't even seem to notice. Dogs don't have as many pain receptors as humans do.
A couple of years ago, we had a neighbor who moved here from New York. He was in his early 20s and was here for a year to help set up something for the company he worked for, which was based in NY. He was looking forward to all our great hunting and fishing. He ended up moving back to NY early because it was too hot for him. He always made me laugh, though, because every snake he saw was a rattler and every spider was either a black widow or brown recluse. I rarely even think about those things. I just think, "dang it, another spider."
I used to work with a girl from Georgia who was terrified of tornadoes. I kept thinking, but you have hurricanes in Georgia! I guess it's all in what you're used to.
It's something, because mine have slacked off again. The new girls are still laying pretty regularly, but the others are slowing down again.
We had a Weim and a Border Collie at our old house. DH would always just let them out of the house to go to the bathroom. I didn't like it because we lived in town and the yard wasn't fenced, but I didn't protest much. They never, never left the yard. Until one day the Weim did, chasing after something. She ran right in front of a truck and was hit. We were inside so didn't actually see it, but some girls who were walked nearby said the truck never even slowed down to see what had happened. Still, it wasn't his fault our dog ran out in front of him and I still haven't totally forgiven us for that. It was a long time before I could look at the spot where it happened. Our vet came out and took her to the office, even though it was about 10 at night. He did a brief check and kept her overnight in case there were internal injuries. I called first thing the next morning and was told she was doing well, resting. Two hours later when I went to visit her, the vet had not been in yet and the assistant didn't want to talk to me. She kept telling me I needed to see the vet when he came in. I got very insistent and she finally told me Molly had died. She suddenly had trouble breathing and just died. To this day I believe they just stuck her in a kennel and then ignored her. Who knows if they even checked on her when I had called, or maybe they were lying because they wanted the vet to have to tell me. (Yeah, I'm still bitter.) But in the end it was our own #$%^ fault and I've never fully gotten over the trauma of that. So yeah, it leaves a scar. I'm sorry you've had such a bad experience as well.
I'm so glad you got to see for yourself that your dog is recovering, Sunflower, and that the vet has a prognosis for sending her home soon.
I'm so sorry. You really need a break from the bad stuff!
I'm so glad you had that time with your granddaughter. I miss having time with my niece. She's in high school now and just doesn't have the time to come over very much. I love to cook, so I have a hard time understanding why anyone wouldn't. I know a lot of people who don't, though. A couple of years ago, my niece asked me to teach her to cook, so we chose a day each week when she would stay later, and we'd cook dinner together. She loved it and wanted to cook at home. The first thing we tackled was sauteeing and she planned out a whole meal and made a timeline for what to do and when so she could make dinner at home. It took about 2 weeks before her parents carved out a day for her to do it. The next thing we did as a pasta bake, and her parents never made a day for her to cook that for them. Then her mother began making all kinds of appointments for my niece for that day of the week and that was the end of cooking lessons.
So sorry about your bird.
Crazy, I have always loved to cook and enjoy it. It's cheaper and of course, healthier to cook, too. You don't know if the food you eat --where it's come from. I buy my ground beef and chicken hormone free and same with my milk. I try to do my best to buy whole grains to cook with or eat. Not that we don't eat out on ocassion-- but honestly, not very often. We already have a big problem with children's weight and growing and maturing too fast. It is heartening to see that we are trending back to whole foods, but I sure wish more people were on board with that. It would encourage them to cook at home, have that family time at the dinner table and get more involved with each other.
I ran across a guy up here in Peck who was offering beef for sale and he said his beef was all from the Kerrymere line and I about fell over and told him that was MY dad's line that he and his dad started. He didn't believe me!!! I told my dad about it and he just thought it was sooo cool that his line lives on.
That's cool about the beef!
My mom didn't really teach me to cook. She worked all day then came home and made dinner. My job was tearing lettuce for salads and setting the table. She probably thought I was learning, but I wasn't! I didn't even know how to put together a menu or how much to cook for a given number of people. I started teaching myself in my very early 20s and haven't stopped yet. It's an obsession. We're the same as you -- we try to buy the healthiest foods we can afford. We very rarely eat out and I often don't enjoy it as much as I think most people I know do. It bugs me to spend so much money on food that is often inferior to what I can make at home. Not that I'm some incredible chef, but I know where my food comes from and how it is prepared.
We buy source verified meat and milk that hasn't been treated with hormones and/or antibiotics. It's much cheaper to buy a whole or side of beef or pig, so we try to do that if possible. Our first beef was raised by a friend, grass fed Angus. Delicious! Same with our pig. By the time we needed more, neither of those people were raising animals any more. We finally found a guy on Craig's List who was raising grass fed Dexter cattle. It's the tastiest beef, but almost too lean. The steaks are tough, sometimes VERY tough. I'd love to get the names of anyone who is raising grass fed beef or pigs without chemical assistance. HEChicken, I'd love to know more about the meat you buy from the guy in Yoder.
I don't really love to cook but I like to know my family is eating well, so I do cook primarily from scratch. I find it interesting how accustomed our society has become to "convenience" foods and to everything being pre-boxed, pre-prepared, pre-mixed. My mother made everything from scratch and I didn't even know such things as pre-mixed cookie dough existed until I was an adult! I recently had an experience where I was asked to bring brownies to a birthday party. I looked up a recipe and made them from scratch, from my fresh stone-ground flour (that I buy from a lady in Derby) and my fresh eggs and all. I had so many comments from people saying how good they were and asking what brand of brownie mix I had used. I guess no one bakes from scratch any more so it never occurred to them there was no brand name involved. Funny in kind of a sad way. One of my kids' favorites remains "mac and cheese" but when they ask for it, they are asking for the stuff I make from scratch, and there is no comparison to that stuff that comes in a box. I buy all whole-wheat pasta, and make the cheese sauce over the stove, then pile it all into a casserole dish and bake it for an hour. I must say, that is what I call "comfort foods".
We've actually become so accustomed to scratch cooking that we find many convenience foods have an off taste to us. I guess that's a good thing -- keeps us on the healthier food path!
So, after all my soapboxing about real, homemade food, we're taking my parents out for dinner tonight.
It's what we do for all the stuff like birthdays, anniversaries, mother's and father's day. They have all the stuff they want and they really enjoy going out. DH loves the fish tacos at Senor Tequila's and we all love Mexican food, so that's most likely where we'll end up tonight.
Hope everyone has a great day. As hot as it has been outside, it still doesn't feel that bad to me after all that 108 nonsense. My tomato production has slowed down drastically, though, after the rain. Shouldn't it be the opposite?!
