FBI, well house, Max

We had our next to last test in FBI last night. Mama and Victoria elected not to take the test last night because neither of them felt they were ready. Having taken the test, I think both of them made the right choice. I believe this was the most difficult test I have taken in our three years of FBI. Mama and Victoria still have to take the test, but they have until Sunday afternoon to get it done. The only consolation for me is that I got the four points awarded to those who take the test with the class. On the next test, two weeks from now, I will not get that break. I will be in Houston to teach a class – if it all works out with the client. On the last test, which all of us took outside of class, Mama outscored both me and Victoria. She made a 96. Victoria and I made a 95 and a 94 respectively.

Saturday last week I was able to finally get started on the well house in the barn lot. I struggled to see a solution to building little structure while working remotely with only battery powered hand tools. It is slow going to do things that way. What I decided to do was to prefab the walls and haul them over on our utility trailer. In doing so, I got to use all the power tools at the shop to make the needed cuts to the lumber and I got to use the nail gun to assemble the walls. I started early, took a break to go bus calling and restarted after lunch. By dark I had three wills in place on the slab and the rafters up connecting everything. I ran short on two by fours to build the front wall, but I would have run out of time to get it in place had I assembled it. The front wall will require a lot more effort to place because I have to move the breaker box and the well control box (now attached to a pallet standing beside the slab) to put it in place. It will be a one-day project all by itself. I changed the design of the well house to both simplify the construction and to save on materials. It was not a big change, but I think it will make the well house look like it was planned versus being just thrown together. I would like the buildings on the farm to look like they were thought through in placement, function and design. It is not necessary, but it makes me feel better about how the farm looks.

Our Chinese friends have asked us to take their little Toy Poodle. They call him Max. He is white, overly friendly and extremely animated. Cheyenne does not like dogs of any kind and Max will jump at her to get her attention – not endearing to a frightened little girl. Alex, her daddy, loves the little dog but for the sake of his daughter he is looking to find it a new home. Mama and I have agreed to take the pup on a provisional basis. Since Max would be the only male dog on the farm besides Sam we are not sure how that will work out. I am not crazy about the idea of training another puppy, but I believe they have him about half the way through the house breaking part of his training. I trust Victoria to get the behavior training completed as Mama works on the potty issues left to correct, but we are not sure if we can make it work. Mama is not thrilled about having a white dog – something about the eyes and the fact that they always look like they are crying.

Mama has been looking for a little dog since we lost Rosie. I have not encouraged the search. If we take and keep Max, we will not only have to train him to our standards, we will have to retrain him on those things he has done to adapt to the first family he lived with. Fortunately, he will not cost us anything and we can give him back if he does not work out with the five big dogs we now house.

Another fun little farm project.