Welcome Home Zoey!

It is amazing how something so small can bring such a big smile and joy to someone but I had not even met Zoey yet and I knew I loved her. Not because she is cute as could be or because she looks at me like I mean the world to her, hopefully that will come later. I already love her just because I can see and hear the joy she is bringing into Barb’s life.

I know that some of you may find this hard to believe but Barb does not have it easy. One would think being married to me is enough for her but I will reluctantly admit that maybe, just maybe I can be a handful at times and she needs a little bundle of joy in her life. Since losing Daisy, we have both felt an emptiness. We still miss her every day and look at her picture often. If she could read this we would want her to know that Zoey is not here to replace her, that is impossible and not what we are trying to do but Barb is ready for a Zoey in her life right now. 

To be honest when we first decided to start looking we were not totally ready for a new pet. But knowing the search would take weeks or even months we started the search. The first step was finding reputable breeders. Sadly there are a lot of scammers out there who prey on people looking for dogs. You need to do your research before sending a deposit. There are horror stories out there where people have sent deposits, flown out to pick up their puppy only to find out it was a fake address and the puppy never existed. Luckily for us Barb found Foster Lake Frenchies. Amy and Eric were over the top with emails, pictures, videos, posts on Facebook and even Facetiming with us more than once. It did not matter how many questions we had, they answered each and every one of them. We felt very confident that we were dealing with not only a reputable breeder but one that loves and cares for their pets as well. 

Barb flew from Rapid City to Portland (via Dallas) last Thursday to pick her up. There were more direct flights with other airlines but due to their pet restrictions she chose American Airlines which meant going through Dallas. Delta required pets to be 9 weeks, United was 16 weeks. American only required pets to be 8 weeks so American it was!

After checking into her hotel, she anxiously awaited the arrival of Zoey. Amy, Eric and their daughter arrived with Zoey. Barb was going to get some pictures of everyone but Zoey was their favorite of the litter and it was an emotional exchange. When Barb sent me this picture my heart burst with joy, just seeing the smile on Barb’s face and the sparkle in her eyes. Worth every penny!

Amy and Eric even brought a little "Puppy Pack" which included everything she needed to get Zoey home. 

After they left. Barb took Zoey to her room where they played for hours and got to know each other. Barb of course had to dress her up in her piggy pajamas!

She is saying "Seriously, piggy pajamas?

She said Zoey just zoomed around the room, especially liking the mirror which I am sure she thought was one of her pup mates! There are 2 videos in this post, all of which are very short. 

The next day they took the shuttle to the airport for the flight from Portland to Dallas. She had Zoey in her dog carrier which fit under the seat in front of her. Her connection in Dallas was tight with just 50 minutes between flights so when they announced a 2 hour delay before even leaving Portland she knew she was in trouble. She called and I looked for other options but there just was not any so she just had to go with the flow. They finally boarded and had another delay before finally taking off.

Tucked in under the seat

She said the plane was packed but Zoey was an angel on the flight, just staring out of the carrier and not making a peep.

When they got to Dallas she found out there her connection to Rapid City had also been delayed and was still there! Talk about luck! This was a smaller plane with two seats on either side of the aisle. Barb’s seat mate was a women who grew up on a ranch about 2 miles from our place, what are the odds of that!?!?!

In the Jeep on the drive home

It had snowed (again) since both of us had left so there was 6” of fresh snow on the ground. I don’t think Zoey had ever seen snow before and was tearing around it like crazy!

Barb slept on the floor with her the first night fearful that Zoey would jump off the bed and break a leg or something. That had to be good for her back! 

Crashing with momma on the floor

Now the fun begins.  House breaking, potty training....Hope we get that pretty well under control before our flooring is installed! Barb says she tears around the house like a wild thing and is already trying to chew on everything in sight.

 Luckily our house is pretty much puppy proof so there is not a lot to chew on or so we think, I am betting Zoey will show us otherwise in the next few days! 

I will chew up your house!

For those of you who missed how we came to decide on getting a Frenchie, you can click this link and catch up with this post right here.

Welcome to the Sh#t Show!

Get cattle they said, it will be fun they said….. Whoever “they” are, I would like to push them down in a pile of cow sh#t right now.

Don’t get me wrong, we have had cattle before and know some of the challenges they bring with them but I guess we have a selective memory and forgot some of the more challenging parts.

We finally got the 3 yearlings home at 8:30pm after a 15 hour road trip. Because we did not want to let the cattle out after dark in a strange pasture we decided to open up the rest of the trailer and let them spend the night in quiet comfort and release them in the daylight hours so they could see their new surroundings and thank us for bringing them to such a beautiful place with lush green grass.

The next morning Barb and I went over and Kevin opened the trailer door while Cheryl filmed. ….

I guess the cattle had a whole different perspective on the scene. It went something like this….

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There we were at home hanging with our herd when this truck and trailer pulls up. Two guys get out, one was stunningly handsome and the other guy introduced himself as Kevin. The guy who feeds us was talking to them and everyone was looking at us. Next thing we knew we were forced into a cattle shoot one by one where they took turns poking us with needles. That was no fun but it was kinda funny when the handsome guy poked his own thumb instead of me.

Then they forced us into the trailer and shut the door. Next thing we knew we were bouncing down the road going God knows where. We drove and drove and drove….. what seemed like 3 days later (in cow time) we stopped and thought they were finally going to let us out. But no….. instead they threw in some hay and a bucket of water and shut the door. The next morning when the sun rose we heard a car pull up and people talking. There were eyes peering at us through the windows in the trailer. It was that handsome guy! Oh my God, he is so handsome! 

This has been the most terrifying experience of our young lives and were not sure what was going to happen next. Were they going to poke us with more needles? Something even more horrific? When they finally opened the door all we could see was hills and trees. We are flatland cattle and have never seen anything like this before, they are setting us free! Quick guys, run for the trees!....

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Well, at least I think that is their perspective because when we opened the trailer door they ran out, ran to the fence, hesitated, lowered their heads, ran through the fence into the woods, over the hill and out of sight!

The 4 of us just sat there and stared at each other thinking did that just F’ing happen!?!? Well, to be honest some of those words were shouted out loud and not just thought. Tensions rose to an 11 out of 10 in like 1.2 seconds.

Barb and I jumped in the jeep and went down the road in an attempt to head them off. We found them about ¼ mile away still trotting. We got ahead of them and got out of the jeep. I went up hill in the hopes of preventing them from going over the top of that hill into thousands of acres of National Forest. Barb stayed at their level and did a stare down with them about 100 yards away. Barb slowly started walking towards them and the cattle turned around and started walking back towards Kevin and Cheryl’s. 

I followed along about 100 yards above them to keep them from going up any further.  This is not easy walking, we are talking a billy goat hill where your feet slide out from under you if you step wrong. I start to overheat and take off my jacket and hang it on a tree for retrieval later. As slowly and calmly as we could we walked back to Kevin and Cheryl’s. When we got to their fence they started walking along it. I could see an open gate up ahead and could see Kevin and Cheryl standing just beyond the gate. Cheryl was at fence level while Kevin was up high at the same level as me. 

The cattle are walking along the fence right towards the open gate. Could we get this lucky?!?!? Continuing slowly we push them towards the gate…. And when they get to it…. They walk right past it not going into the pasture like they are supposed to! Now they have a choice to make. Do they try to bolt past Kevin and Cheryl or turn around and try to bolt past Barb and me? They milled around in place thinking about it while all four of us slowly walk towards them closing the gaps that they can bolt through. Then the miracles of all miracles happens when the smallest one turns around and walks through the gate and the other two followed! They trotted for a hundred yards or so stopped and started eating grass.

We spent the next two hours shoring up the fence to make sure it would be more of a deterrent and put some yummy alfalfa out. By the time we were done with the fence they had found the alfalfa and were content on just eating that.

4 hours later we were done, inside eating lunch and the cattle were laying in the middle of the pasture. I went back to look for my jacket but do you know how many trees are in the National Forest? They all looked alike and not a one had a coat hanging on it. I think a Sasquatch took it!

The next test would be the next morning when we woke up….would they still be there? Barb and I woke up the next morning anxiously awaiting word from Kevin and Cheryl. A text came in a little after 7:00, they were still there! Hallelujah!

With that news Dakota and I jumped in the truck which was already loaded with the camper and all our supplies for the next few weeks and headed to North Dakota where our next adventure awaits. Barb will be joining us in a few days after she flies to Oregon to pick up Zoey, our latest bundle of joy. Let’s hope she reacts a lot better than they cattle do!   

The Roller Coaster Ride Continues!

 The roller coaster ride that is our weather continued this week with peaks and valleys on both sides of extreme. The rancher next door moved his cattle over last week as most of the cows had calved. He does not let them come onto our property until they have their calves and knows everything is alright. Then come over to eat our grass and hide in the trees should some weather hit.

Driveway guard

There are lots of little ones scattered around the property

And hit it did! Monday found Barb and I shed hunting in t-shirts as the weather reached well into the 70's. We had a great day and found these two beauties. The first one is a whitetail and is pretty decent for a whitetail in our area but the second one ....wow! I don't care where you live, that is a nice elk!

Barb's big find!

Once we had crested the peak with the mid 70's on Monday we had no where to go but down and down we went at lightning speed! Tuesday was a high of 36. Snow started falling about noon and did not stop until well into the night. When we woke up Wednesday morning we had well over 12" on the ground. 

That is what 12" of wet heavy snow looks like!

The deer sure appreciate the hay on these cold snowy mornings!

Having hit the bottom the temperatures again started to climb with the high on Wednesday in the mid 50's and 60's on Thursday. By Saturday it was all pretty much gone and things were greening up again. 

Before the snow hit on Tuesday we went into Rapid to get new tires on the truck. We went with BF Goodrich KO2's this time. A little more aggressive tread than we have gotten in the past but with us living where we do and not being on the road quite as much we thought it was a good match. Barb had set up an appointment with Discount Tire on line and had everything paid for before we even got there. Imagine our surprise when we pulled up at 9am the there was a sign in from of one of the bays welcoming us! We pulled up to that bay, they moved the sign and we pulled right in!

Getting new shoes for the truck!

They had 5 guys working on our tires and we were out of there with 6 new tires mounted and balanced in 30 minutes!

I had changed the oil and replaced the air filter earlier this week and now with the new tires we were ready to mount the camper! It had not been on since last fall and is ready for our next adventure!

Lining up and ready to put on the camper!

We spent the next couple of days getting it packed up for whatever adventures await us. Hard to pack up when you don't know exactly what you are going to do but we are planning for the best and are ready for anything!

Our big adventure of the week actually happens tomorrow when Kevin and I take a road trip just north of Sioux Falls to pick up 3 Scottish Highlanders! We went in with Kevin and Cheryl on them and hope to grow our herd in the future as well as filling the freezer.  

They are yearlings and will spend the summer over at Kevin's and head over here in the fall. We got one heifer that Cheryl named Norma and two steers we named Filet and Mignon. 

Last but not least, we are less than a week from picking up Zoey! She went to the vet yesterday, got her shots and the clearance to travel next week. She weighed in at a whopping 6.1lbs. The breeder continues to send us videos and pictures almost daily. Here she is with her litter mates....

Chores done, camper packed, it is time to head north once again to help with the spring planting. We are ready for a break from the house and cannot wait to see what adventures await us!

Road Trip!

As Kris Kristofferson wrote….

Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad
So I had one more for dessert

That is pretty much how my day started, except maybe the having one for breakfast part. On the other hand maybe it would have helped! I took a road trip this week and returned about noon on Saturday. Kevin and Cheryl were coming over about 5, it was a sunny 70 degrees so Barb and I went went for a 4 wheeler ride before they came over. On our way back we saw our neighbors Jim and Carmen outside doing some yard work so we stopped by to rescue them from having to do any more. It was only 3:00 but being Saturday Carmen said it was happy hour so we sat down at their picnic table and had a drink, which led to another….. next thing we knew it was 5:00 and we rushed home to find Kevin and Cheryl sitting on the porch out front. Well, since they did not have happy hour yet we had to start all over. Well, you get the picture. They left about 8:30 and I was in bed about 10 minutes after that!          

That brings me to this moment where I am very slowly waking up on Easter morning when Barb said "Time for you to search for your Easter basket!" Really? Sure enough, she had hid a basket filled with goodies!

So, where did I go on my road trip? 443 miles north and slightly east to Douglas North Dakota! The purpose of the trip was twofold; the first was to drop off the bell and cast iron seats to Farmer Bob, the other was to pick up the windmill he found us!

Now one might ask, “Why do you want a windmill?”. To that I would respond, Who doesn’t want a windmill! We have been looking for one on and off for over a year but they are either too expensive or people do not want to sell them so when Bob called and said he had found someone who would sell us one at a reasonable price, we jumped on it!

The challenging part is that it was still standing and we had to take it down and transport it back home. I arrived on a Wednesday afternoon planning using Thursday and Friday to take it down and head home on Saturday. What I did not take into account was the weather. First was the ground was still frozen so Bob and I had to use picks and shovels to dig down below the surface to get to the joint underground. The second item was the wind. With 30-40 mph winds we had to sit out Thursday and hope for calmer winds on Friday. So we spent Thursday getting things ready and strategizing on the best way to get it down without damaging it.

Friday morning we were loaded up and ready to get to work before the winds picked up again, so off we went!

The first step was to take their man lift and raise it up the 30+ feet to the top of the windmill and secure a chain to the top. 

View from the top!

Then I had to climb out of the basket and down the windmill ladder that had probably not been used in decades. To say that the pucker factor was in full effect would be an understatement! 

Climbing down!

Once I made it down to the ground we used the ground controls on the lift to see if the chain was set to the right length. Nope. So back up the ladder I went to re-secure the chain. Back down again….nope, still too long. Ugh! We finally got it to the right length and ground off the bolts securing the windmill to the ground.  

Bob grinding off the bolts

Once all the bolts were cut I slowly lifted it up. As I lifted it up, Bob pulled the base away from the ground then I then slowly started to lower it as Bob walked backwards with the base.

Almost down!

It did not go as smoothly as I am writing it but eventually we got it horizontal just above the ground and I backed the trailer under it. We then lowered it the rest of the way onto the trailer. The problem was that we had a 30+ foot windmill on a 20’ trailer. We then dismantled the bottom section so it only overhung the trailer by about 2’. We were only able to go about 20 mph on our way back to the farm but we finally got it there where we worked on taking the tail off and getting it secured for the 8 hour trip back home. Once we had it secured I took it for a test drive down the road at 65 mph. After a little more tweaking I was ready to the trip home the next morning!

Ready to roll!

I left about 5am stopping every hour or so to check the load. I finally pulled into our driveway just before 1pm. I passed 3 cop cars which I thought would pull me over for something but each just ignored me and carried on to do whatever else police officers do.  Whew! Later that day Kevin and Cheryl came over where it took all 4 of us to get it off the trailer.

It will be a few months before we get it up here as I need to do some work to it and we have other things to do the next few months. But we finally have our windmill!

Our other big accomplishment for the week was to get our island lights up. This may sound like an easy project but suspending a 6’ 8x8 beam from 18’ is quite the task. But before we could think about getting it up we had to cut it to length, sand and put several coats of varnish on it. We then set up the scaffolding and were ready to hang it!

Kevin cutting the groove on top to hide the wiring

The next step was to drill holes and cut a groove in the top of the beam for the wires to travel through. Then we used a plumb bob and figure out exactly where we wanted the chains for the beam to come through the ceiling in relation to the island. I then went up in the truss space in the attic to put some braces up there to hold everything up and get the light wires ready for hook up. Day 1 we got the beam up and secured. Day 2 I got the lights on everything wired up!

We love the finished product and now have lights over the island!

On the puppy front we are less than two weeks from getting Zoey! The breeder continues to send us pictures almost daily. We got this one the other day showing that her ears have started to stand up!

Refurnishing Old Fence Boards

Barb and I have worked on a lot of projects over the past couple years building our house. Building and raising our tall sidewalls ranks right up there as one of our most satisfying accomplishments. It was challenging as well as significant in bringing our dreams to fruition. 

Hard to believe that this was two years ago!

Although not as challenging, over the past few weeks we have been working on another project that ranked right up there in the satisfaction department. When we bought our property in '17 there was a wooden cattle corral that straddles our property and our neighbors property. One of our first projects was taking it down so would could put our high tension fence up. 

This is a section that is still standing

We saved the wood, not knowing what we were going to do with it but knew it would be good for something.... Fast forward 3+ years when Kevin said we should use the fence boards as an accent wall in our kitchen. At first we were skeptical and were wondering if he had gotten a bad batch of mushrooms at the grocery store but with open minds we finished a few boards and liked the look enough to move forward and finish them to the point where we could actually do the wall.

It involved a lot more time and steps than I had originally thought. One just does not varnish them and throw them up on the wall!

The first step was for Barb to lightly sand each board, enough to take the roughness out of the face but not too much where we remove the old character.

She then varnished them to bring out the grain. This may seem a little backwards as there was still a lot of work to do to them but we wanted to see what each board was going to look like finished and only let the best of them move forward to the next step     

Since they were rough cut boards and had been in the elements for decades the edges were anything but straight. They were both warped from side to side and cupped in the center. If we wanted them to fit tightly side by side on the wall we needed straight edges. So for the next step I clamped an 8' level to each of the boards and ripped a straight edge on one side. Some boards were pretty good, while others were quite warped and required more to be taken off to get a straight edge.

Once I had a straight edge on one side of each board I could run them through the table saw cutting them to a consistent width and giving the other side a straight edge. We now had finished boards that were the same widths and had straight edges on both sides!

Done? Nope, if we wanted them to lay flat on the wall and butt up end to end we needed to take the cupping out of the boards. This meant running them through a planer to get them to a consistent width and make the back side totally flat. There were varying width of boards so some of them we had to run through 5-6 times taking them down 1/64 of an inch each time.

Now we had boards that were ready to put up on the wall! But even with all that work, not all the boards butted up tightly side to side and end to end so we painted the wall black so if there was any gaps you would not see the white wall behind the boards.

Since this project was an afterthought we did not put any nailers up so we ended up putting construction adhesive on each board when we put them up and used 2" finish nails anywhere we could hit solid wood behind the sheetrock. Each board had to be hand picked for each spot as we wanted them to fit as tightly as possible. Barb also stained the ends and sides of each board in case any tiny edges were exposed as we put them up. Board by board we worked our way across the wall. 3 days later we finally reached the other side!

This look may not be for everyone but we love it! The aging and old nail holes of the board has a lot of character and really adds to the overall look of the wall. 

Other accomplishments include getting the rest of the railing and trim boards up....

And no, that is not a fawn hide on the railing, that is an Axis deer I got while visiting our dear/deer friends Red and Pam in Texas a few years ago. You may have noticed another big difference in that picture from the one I posted last week....We got our fridge! Yes, after ordering it 6 months ago it finally arrived! That was the last appliance we were waiting for.

Those were our only house projects we did this week. We did clean the garage some more. We had stored all of our leftover steel roofing under the camper and we had to move it, getting ready for our upcoming adventures!

Barb has been busy getting ready for the arrival of the new puppy. Amazon packages seem to be arriving daily and the breeder sends pictures and videos almost daily. Here is the latest video....

If you listened to the video carefully, you heard the breeder calling the puppy Zoey. That is because we decided to change her name from Lyra to Zoey. Three more weeks and she will be in our house!

With the coming of spring, the turkeys are getting ready for their mating season which is just a few weeks ago. A few days ago we were greeted with this when we walked out of the bedroom to start our day! Turkey season for archery opens on April 3rd, my guess is that they are just taunting us and we will not see a feather come the first weekend of April. 

The highlight of our week however was when we took a day to get out trout fishing at our favorite creek! 

We caught a couple of small trout but overall they were not very cooperative. I don't think we have been there since the spring of '19 when we fished there with the McCormack's when the men out fished the women in both quantity and size by like 3:1. At least that is how I remember it! 

What Dog Breed is Best for You?

As you know Barb has been on an ardent search for a new puppy. When we lost Daisy we knew we would someday get another puppy, we both agreed that it would not be right away. What we did not know at the time is how much we were going to not only miss Daisy but just the companionship of having a dog on our laps and in our lives. Yes, we have Dakota but it was just different, our house did not seem complete.

So we talked about it and Barb set out on her search. One thing I have learned about Barb over the past 35 years is that I have to be very, very careful what I say to her about a major purchase like this. Whether it be a camper, truck, heck even a pot or pan, she has to research the heck out of it before she will finally commit to actually pulling the trigger and buying it. So when we finally decided to start the search, I knew I had once again “Released the Beast” and away she went. Practically every waking moment went into her researching for the best puppy that ever existed.

As I said in our last post I could not open Facebook without seeing hundreds of pictures of French Bulldogs (referred to as FBD in the rest of this post as my fingers will get tired typing out the entire name) as she joined every possible group to learn more and find “the one”. But it did not stop there, she also enlisted a friend of her cousin Lori in Alaska who shows, breeds and has 5 FBD's. Last but not least she searched every other website possible continuing to learn about FBD’s and a breeder to buy one from.

So, as she searched I too was learning as I was trapped. I mean, I got the opportunity to listen to her on our 54 hour drive to and from Pennsylvania. Here are some of the fun facts I learned about FBD’s….

• They are not cheap, you cannot pick one up for free in the classifieds
• Did you know FBD’s overheat easily and cannot go for long walks?
• They also do not tolerate the cold well and need to be dressed up in the winter
• They require a special “raw” diet. Not really sure what that means
• FBD’s are artificially inseminated and require a C section for delivery. Not sure if that is true in all cases but that is what she read on one site
• They can be difficult to house break
• They are brachiocephalic so they have breathing issues
• They cannot swim, they sink straight to the bottom
• They can be allergic to many things
• They can be very stubborn to train
• And best of all they can be very gassy!

With all these awesome attributes who would not want one of these cuddly little monsters?!?!

As I was learning more and more about FBD’s I knew I had to intervene and sit Barb down and have a come up with a practical approach to what breed of we should get. So when the time was right we sat down and I drew a line down the middle of a piece of paper. On the top of the left side I wrote the word “Cons” and on the right side of the line I wrote the word “Pros”. I then wrote down each of the items listed above on the “Con” side. I then said “Now let’s list the Pros” To which she stated “They are cute and I want one”. With that she got up and walked away.

So without further ado, let me introduce Lyra…..

All kidding aside, although the items listed above may be true in some cases, there are lots of reasons to choose a FBD as a pet. Lyra is a cute little Blue Fawn currently residing in Oregon. Since she is so young, we cannot pick her up for a few weeks but we were able to Facetime with her the other day! At least I was able to answer the question what is the best dog breed from us is the one your wife says you are going to get. Who am I to argue with her? After all, I do still want to eat!

Now that the puppy search is all done we can continue with projects around the house. We have been working on two big projects. The first are the posts and railing in the loft. 

We had bought (3) 6"x6"x8' posts prior to going to Pennsylvania. They have been drying for several weeks so when we got back I cut them to length and notched 3 of them to fit over the loft wall and one to fit around a corner. Barb then sanded, stained and varnished them. Several days later they were ready to be installed!

End of Day 1

The next day we started putting up the actual railing.....

End of Day 2

One more railing section and one more rim board and that project is done! 

One of the smaller projects we did was complete the wood storage are by putting the last of the stained and varnished slats in the back of the wood shelf area. With that complete, this area is completely done! Well, not entirely, I need to put shelves on the right side.

The deer were happy to have us back and even left us a couple of presents! Little known fact.... Do you know what one of the fastest growing bones are? And no Dino, it is not .....never mind. It is the antler! Our whitetails lost their antlers in the past couple of weeks. We are still seeing elk and mule deer carrying theirs but it should not be too long before we can start searching for those as well. 

Here is what we have found so far.....

The other big event of the week was a snow storm that passed through dumping over 16" of snow over 2 days. We just hunkered down, had a fire going and worked on our projects. It was actually quite beautiful and peaceful. 

The deer were hunkered down as well with only 1 or 2 making the occasional visit. 

Frosty Deer!

Once the storm was done they came in droves. The snow was so deep they had to leap to get through the deep snow. Soon enough they had a path worn into the snow and only the little ones had to leap. 

This guy came right up to the window to see what we were up to....

Can I come in? It's cold out here!

When it was time for us to venture out we called Kevin and Cheryl and told them we were on our way over. 15 minutes later we called them back up and told them we were not on our way over as we buried the jeep in the driveway. 

After digging it out I made a couple runs up and down the driveway so we too had a path to get in and out. The snow sure made for some beautiful pictures...

Later that day I went over to Kevin's and went down a road that was not plowed and proceeded to get stuck again! Luckily someone with chains on their tires came by and yanked me out!

I earlier mentioned that we were working on two big projects. The other one is not quite done so hopefully we can unveil that one in our next post!

With puppy search done, Barb has deleted all those Facebook groups except one so our feed is back to normal. But now the beast is researching airline tickets, dog foods, pet carriers and yes, outfits for  Lyra....will the madness ever end?!?!?