Like a true Italian, Carm grinned with a satisfaction that can only come from mixing cement. Yes, the new post for the satellite dish needed a bag of the ancient building material to anchor it in the ground. We let it dry overnight and the next morning Carm quickly decided it needed another bag. It’s not an elegant sculpture or a fun paving stone (maybe that will come later), but it’s cement none-the-less!
While Carm was working I sat down on the huge rock near where he was digging but soon jumped up in dismay as 100s of small red beetles were scurrying over the surface. A closer look in the area, including on our little oak tree, revealed thousands of them swarming over every surface. Thanks to the internet it was decided that they are Boxelder beetles and that we have an infestation of them. What to do? Ignore and let nature have her way? Or douse with toxic chemicals?
After a few glorious days of sun and swimming, it was cloudy with bits of rain today.
Adia has been practicing her mat, not long periods, but with me stepping out of the house for a few seconds. She’s not been perfect but is improving. I haven’t been repeating the command before stepping outside, but that might help. As it is, ‘mat’ is a complex behaviour that means lie down on the mat on one hip (not like a sphinx) and stay there until I tell you ‘ok’.
(edit: we’ve done some more mat with me stepping out of the house and got up to 30 seconds. We’ll work on more duration as the days go by - hey, just a thought - I could use the remote camera which has voice to stretch the stay out longer or maybe it’s a skill that’s not really required?).
We’ve also been improving her backup from a distance, with a sit or down chained at the end. Not particularly useful! But fun and builds attention span. We even got a few decent tries outside with so many distractions. Now if only I could teach her to clip her own nails…
Headline tonight: Over 20 million cases world-wide. 5,198,422 cases with 165,576 deaths in the US. There are a total of 119,404 (118,984 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 8,981 (8,970 yesterday) deaths today.
“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”
~Sylvia Plath
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