Mojo’s quietened down over the years, as she’s 12, but Ricky still enjoys barking quite a lot.  Because of his incessant barking, I don’t pay attention to it.  But the other day it went on and on, and I thought I should see what was bothering the little dog.

I looked down the driveway, and there was a huge coyote on one side of my gate, and the tiny dachshund on the other side, barking furiously.  The coyote was just standing there, parallel to the gate and looking down at my dog.  It was so big and healthy-looking at first I thought it was a German sheperd.

When I came out it ran off, and later when I looked out of my office window, I could see it run across the neighbour’s field.  Since then I’ve been completely paranoid as this occurred in the middle of the day, and so at night I now have to go out with the dogs.

Nicky said we seem to be on some type of migratory path.  Bears, raccoons, deer and now coyotes all enjoy my yard.  All I can say as a pet owner is it’s rather disturbing.

Did I mention my mom’s learning how to use Skype?  It’s nice because now she’s able to converse with and see Luke or me whenever the urge hits.  I think both mom and Luke look very nice, but when I see the little box in the corner of myself, I think I look like hell.  I wonder if that’s normal.

I’ve been consulted over the past few months by the owner of a new cracker company here in the Okanagan called Savor-Otti.  It’s savoury biscotti, hence the name.  It’s been wonderful to talk with Margaret Ann about how to start a home based food business.

And of course it makes me mad, because how many times have I said I’m going to write a how-to book on starting a home based food business while knowing nothing?  Perhaps someday I will, but so far, nada.

Instead, I do things like experiment with making chicken jerky for the dogs.  Did you hear how horribly unhealthy those commercially-made chicken jerky treats are?  Some dogs have died as a result of eating them.

Jerralynn said they’re easy to make, so I gave it a whirl.  First of all, you have to buy chicken breasts, skin and de-bone them, and cut them into narrow strips.  I did all that, and then put them into a low oven for 4 hours.  They were fine, but not chewy.

Jerralynn said I didn’t leave them in long enough, so last evening I put in a batch and left them overnight so it was a total of 12 hours.  They seem better, but still not like the very flat, chewy strips I used to buy.  Oh well, better that they’re healthy even if they don’t look like the original.

Last weekend I had tremendous fun because I cleaned out my closets, and amassed two huge bags of clothes and shoes for the Salvation Army.  I have so much stuff and so much more needs to be hauled in here, so room needs to be made.

As you know, in November I’m off to Thailand, so I plan to shop like a Kardashian on Ecstasy.  I’m leaving my suitcase 2/3 empty so I can stock it with Gucci and Prada knock-offs.