Sunday, October 12, 2014

Kitchen clutter, bad feng shui, housebreaking a rescue dog

Must....clean....kitchen!  Or more accurately de-clutter.  The end of canning and preserving season always looks like this..  All the tools I use for this process are piled up in the kitchen, The dehydrator, water bather, jars, carboys, food processor, extra large boiling pots, kitchen aid attachments and of course....a gazillion jars  of jelly, pickles, chow chow, beets and so forth.
I have a really good reason for   not getting everything stored away before now.  I think I do anyway.  I have been meaning  (since we moved in) to  clean and paint the  preserved goods storage cabinet.  Its ugly and once I fill it up with all the goodies I've been working on ,it wont get painted until next year. That is just a fact.  I had planned on doing  it during the summer  but...well...of mice and men and all that... Part of the reason it isn't done is because I couldn't decide how to do  it.   The practical part of me said 'just clean it and paint it" the artist part of me said 'this is a great opportunity to express yourself."   The artist part of me wants to take the time and  do a decorative tile thing on the old ugly counter top and once it is complete, move it into the kitchen, under the window, so I will have easy access and get lots of compliments  for the cool looking  storage cabinet.  Since the kitchen needs to be cleaned NOW, I will probably just throw a coat of paint on it and leave the artistry until next year.  Its not like I'm desperate to  express my innate creativity. I have more  creative projects  going on right now than I can handle comfortably.  I'm not even going to list them all because it will just make me feel bad  knowing how much stuff is on my to-do list that isn't getting done.  Some of it not getting done  is directly related to the mess in the kitchen.  Once I get some open space in there, I can finish up the  one or two kitchen projects that are screaming to be done and then I can get on with my life.  Of course it could be argued  on a philosophical level that this IS my life  to which I respond It is only part of it and  I am done with this temporal experience for this year!  In my head I have moved on .  Now I just need to make the  space for my physical being to move into the next temporal phase.   'Sides... all the clutter is bad feng shui!
Now, on to a completely different topic. Marlow.   The trouble with a rescue is that you never know what their experiences  or  training were before you  took them in.  Marlow is absolutely perfect in all ways but one.  We don't seem to be able to stop him from piddling in the house.  But I may have found the solution.  Jimmy was playing with him in the house  a few days ago and  was encouraging him by saying 'good boy' .  After two or three  "good boys" Marlow promptly hiked his leg  to  wet on the rocking chair.  Then I began to notice that every time we said  'good boy' he would  proceed to do his business   where we could see him.  In an experiment I took him outside and told him the  magic words  and he immediately voided.   I tried it a few more times that day with the same result.  It would appear that for the last 7 months that we have been encouraging him to pee all over the house.  I told Jimmy  about my observation and   told him  not  to say 'Good Boy' as  a  re-enforcement phrase  any longer, cuz  'that word doesn't mean what you think it means'.  So, now we are beginning again  with housebreaking.  If any of you long time dog owners out there have suggestions for how to housebreak a rescue dog.... I'm all ears, cuz  this  vicious circle needs to stop.

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