Ghetto Grooming

once again i have a huge lag in posting.  and, once again, it's not for lack of stuff going on!  i continued canning lots of goodies, adding to the list Roma Tomatoes, Pickled Green Beans, Pickled Banana Peppers and finally bagging cream corn.  it was while doing the corn that i really missed my mom and my aunt (her sis) - they were pros at this stuff.  but i made it through it & hopefully will have something positive to report after that first home made spaghetti sauce or whatever.
i'm sorry to report that things did not work out in the dog grooming salon i was working in.  nothing in that whole series of events that warrants any time here other than what i just gave.
HOWEVER.....
in the interim, i am grooming dogs at home. not a lot, but a few here and there to keep the skills improving.  i have no desire to keep doing this out of my home for personal as well as logistical reason.  i mean, can you imagine trying to groom in the garage while this was going on?  sure, it would have made wetting a dog down easy, but the drying time would have been impossible!  so my plan is to do this temporarily until i can find a place & map out a plan to open my own store front.  i figure i have plenty of time, no need to rush and make any more mistakes than i already have.
so with that said, here's what Nacho has rigged up for me just to get by (excuse the blurry photos cuz that is all i seem to be capable of with my phone):

we start with a general overview of the setup.  tub on left, supply table behind that & grooming table on the right.

anyone who's been to our house will recognize the grooming table as our welding table.  we figure sometimes you need a shave down & a little spot weld all at the same time.

then only mistake we made on the grooming table is the arm is simply too short.  Nacho did rig it up so it raises and lowers, but right now it's at it's max height & that's not working so great.  but it works just fine for my temporary "salon".
next up, my supply table.  i was able to re-purpose my old garden cart.  i have had this thing since about 1995, so i would say that was money well spent - thanks Target!

you can see my small supply of towels in the bin & a few necessary bathing items along with my shears.
my favorite part....the OSB tub!

yeah, that's right, a tub made out of OSB & it works great!  on the left is the doggy door that swings open so they can walk right in.  you can see the little "lock" in the bottom of the photo above or to the right of Nacho in the photo below.  water runs out the drain in the upper right corner (photo above) which connects to a hose going out to our gravel drive.  i'm not worried about any chemical issues with our well since i'm using biodegradable products.  and filtering through the gravel makes it even better.

and you can see from the photo above, it was plenty of room for our 100lb friend Jake who came to see us this past Saturday!

Jake also tested our drying setup.  yes, that is a leaf blower in the blurry photo below - thanks for the idea Moser!

this is the area where we will need some improvements.  first up, a larger kennel.  Jake was fine in this & stood up almost the entire time so that helped get his belly dry fast.  but i really want something more comfy for a larger dog.  now the leaf blower concept may seem a bit klugey, but cage dryers are essentially the same thing.  i'm pricing those now but this thing worked like a charm.  we used it, the little yellow "squirrel cage" fan on the left, and my 2 assistants Barry & Nacho with regular hair dryers and this guy was done in 2 hours flat!  i don't think we could have achieved that if it had not been for the leaf blower & squirrel cage.  

so there you have it.  a rough start, but a start indeed.  what i do like about this setup is i'm at home so if i want to take a dog outside for a break, i've got a great layout for that.  there are lots of things to improve, but, like i said, this is only meant to get me by for a very short period of time.  

here's hoping the next posting under the grooming tag will show me with a giant pair of scissors & a big ribbon!

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