Chores, chores, chores

Today the agenda is: a day of chores. We began by grooming Tillie. It's always best to do this early in the morning, when she feels at her best. If Tillie could see and hear, she would be a formidable working ranch dog because she has a will that is stronger than any bull. She is beyond bull-headed! She doesn't fight us, she tries to out-manuever us. She wiggles, she squirms, she pushes, she pulls. She wedges her head between your arm and chest, and tries to push through - and off the table. Mike was involved, which always helps a lot. But she does not see the point in having her feet groomed, or her butt trimmed. Mike keeps her butt trimmed so she can stay clean. I do her feet. It's a double-whammy. This seemed helpful this morning as she just couldn't keep track of two people to plot her course to freedom. Treats follow, naturally. Rowdy spent some time up on the grooming table, just hanging out. I guess we should have bought a bigger table to hold TWO Aussies!

There is a Tshirt sold to obedience competitors - it says "She who MUST be obeyed." We need to get one in a smaller size and put it on Tillie. This is her personal credo.

Mike is replacing two steps on the deck - we're going to try out the new composite decking material and see how it works during bad weather and how it weathers. We heard the redwood-look composite fades to a violent orange. We'll have to replace the deck eventually, and this will help us decide if we want to use pressure-treated lumber or the composite material.

I still have not recovered from the depletion of the dog food reserve and am totally sick of cooking day-to-day for them. Without taking a couple of days off work to either do chores or cook dog food, it's going to take me about 6-8 weeks to re-establish my reserve of 6-8 weeks of food. Not to mention the freezer space that we don't have at the moment. I could really use a 2nd freezer for dog food (homecooked and kibble w/o chemical preservatives) in the garage. Obviously, maintaining the reserve is the whole key to successfully homecooking for medium-sized dogs. A week of food for Rowdy is a month's worth of food for a Shi-Tzu.

Well, break time is over! Back to work!