Heat Levels Drop; Stress Levels Rise

The heat wave has broken! Sam was home from both jobs, so we got a good amount of "stuff" done together. We started the day with a dump run with the old couch. My mom had given us two of her "old" couches, since she was cleaning too. I can sit on them without requiring Sam or Abby to pull me out from deep within it! Next we cut apart the old metal swing set that I couldn't give away for free at the tag sale.

I tried to make phone calls to set up Rachel's various appointments: Behavioral Optometrist-- office is closed on Wednesdays; Speech and Language Pathologist-- going on maternity leave next week and all the other therapists are solidly booked; medical insurance company-- I should have quit while I was ahead...

I did a few loads of laundry while Sam worked in the garage. He has an order for a custom built toy box that he needs to complete. Nathalie left for her babysitting job and I took Abby to her Girl Scout meeting. When I returned Rachel and Samantha were home from school so we took the younger three kids with us to a 4H-er's house to work on neutering her bucks and de-horning one of her goats that was growing some large scurs.

On our way there we passed a school bus accident and I recognized the bike that was on the side of the road. I hope he is okay and wasn't involved. Maybe it was just a coincidence that his bike was there...

Came home to Abby, upset because the neighbor's dog was on our property again. (It had been on our property 2 times earlier in the day) She was mad because the neighbor's were outside at the time and didn't even do anything when she starting yelling at the dog. I explained that neighbors know that the dog warden won't do anything unless A: I can physically catch and restrain the dog until dog warden comes, or B: I shoot the dog dead. If I maim the dog, I get a ticket, get fined, and can get sued. The third option is I catch the dog in the act of harming our animals and have a maimed or dead animal to show for it. If the dog simply runs the animal into the ground it doesn't count. The dog runs back home if we try to catch it, and the neighbors know it, so they don't care where it goes.

So while the heat may have broken, the stress level seems to have increased.