Thursday 29 May 2008

Watering Cans!

Ian was really kind this week and bought me a nice, new, pink watering can!












Well My Old one, did have a few holes in it!!!!

Wednesday 28 May 2008

"Vet Week!"

The dogs haven’t been to the vets since their vaccinations back last June/July, anyway:

Results from Red’s x-rays, show she has the start of spondolisis and also HD in her left hip - which we knew about, but no arthritis, basically we need to keep her as slim and fit as possible, and it’s okay for her to continue with the chiropractor and doing agility for as long as she can, although later on she will need regular medication.

Buzz’s behaviour has been a bit weird! Over the last couple of years he has suffered from the heat and now has a cool coat and cool mat in his cage in the car and a fan, his tongue goes a tinge of blue after exercise - whether that be, agility or walks, he has always been far to big for a collie and is more the size of a shepherd!!! He has always been uncoordinated, however that has improved with the amount of ground work we have put in – Ladders, poles on the floor, Ttouch etc. and training is limited to ten mins at a time as he mentally cant cope with anymore (when I’m training on my own)
So anyway he had his breakfast Saturday morning, jumped on the bed with a lump on his face the size of an apple! First thought was tooth problem, as it was the bank holiday we thought we had better get him off to vets, Fiona thought it was a sting, but then when I told her everything that had gone on over the last few years of which other than reading all of his records posted down from Bristol she wouldn’t have known about, she felt she wanted him in for x-rays and blood tests, which he hasn’t had. So she didn’t want to give him anything for the sting, just in case he reacted to it. Tuesday tomorrow and he is off to vet for his tests, Fiona is great as I can stay with them whilst they are getting knocked out and be there when they get reversed! The swelling hasn’t gone down and now is hard, so off course we are now worrying that it could be something else, especially as it just over a year since Cassie went.

Tuesday been and gone, it turned out to be a tooth, but he is recovering. His blood tests showed nothing out of the ordinary, but the x-rays have been sent off to a heart specialist in Glos. As his heart is rather “round”!

Agility wise, well a few shows have passed since I last “Blogged”
Red has been the star, with a 1st in 5-7 jumping and a 2nd 3rd and 4th the other day, Buzz worked well today! Even with his lump, he was calm and held it altogether especially when I started to feel my trousers fall down and was running around with one hand holding them up and my shoulders telling him where to go!
We had heavy rain (fancy that!) my trousers where soaked and sticking to me pulling them down! Honest.
Harry has been fab. He has stayed in the ring with me for the last 3 runs and has been able to play with his tuggy before and after each run, so things are looking up, we have had so many “nearlys”! I love working him, he is such fun.
Thank you Wendy for letting him come to live with us.

Just heard Supadogs has been cancelled due to weather, health and safety – so much work goes into these weeklong dog agility shows, it is very sad.
Such silly weather we are having, my legs have only made two appearances this year so far – I can t believe it!

We managed to get the flooring done in the lounge last week, so at least we can sit on the floor without a draft and I don’t mind saying that I don’t think it looks too bad - good old “Trago’s”






"for Lino"!?
Well you can see why we have to sit on the floor!!

Tuesday 13 May 2008

All things beginning with “M” - video

Mosquito, Marmite and Madness!
If you ever want to move to Cornwall, don’t say I never warned you!
.......The Mosquitoes are huge, they must be at least an inch long, they remind me of when I stayed in Sweden for a long holiday (4 weeks), near the lakes. In the evenings the Mosquito would appear and bite us! Unless you where well prepared for them. Any way we aren’t in Sweden! But they are just as big; we certainly didn’t get them this big in Bristol or out in the country where my Mum lives – Dorset. You can hear them a mile off, don’t sit outside in the cool of an evening without long sleeves and trousers, unless you have a bonfire going!

Marmite – Do you like it?? Well I have just seen a jar of champagne Marmite, so of course I had to try some ummmmm I can safely say for all those Marmite lovers out there, don’t bother, it left a horrid taste in my mouth, yuck! The jar went promptly out for recycling.

Madness! When the sun comes out in Cornwall, the roads get very quiet – everyone has a sicky and goes down the beach, honest! Work gets done but around the tide times! Out come the shorts and flip-flops, sunglasses and surfboards - All the lads and lasses go blonde and quickly gain that nice tan! I’m sure all their shorts get shorter and bikinis get minimal. Even my butcher’s boys, (where I get my dog bones) suddenly start working in their shorts and wellies! Summer is here at last.

Wolf whistling! – We have, a wild young male blackbird that must have been a rescue as he sings along with his usual chorus, he adds a wolf whistle to it! Which when we first heard it, at the beginning of the year, made us chuckle and took us ages to work out who and what it was.

Harry is getting back into swimming in his hot tub! Hopefully before the end of the season he will be jumping in on his own after his toy! Red becomes rather wide legged as I lift her up and into it, she won’t walk up the steps yet! And as for Buzz, well Ian has to help me with him! He hasn’t realised he can touch the bottom yet, he tucks all his legs up under himself and swims as if is life depends on it, even if I’m in there with him, he has stopped the splashing now and swims with his front legs under the water, rather than on top! Last week I spent some money on Buzz, as he really suffers with the heat, he already has a cool mat which he lies on in the Bongo, as people where raving about it on the agility forum I thought I would buy and try the K9cool coat, yes it was expensive nearly £40! As he had to have the large one, so we had a dummy run with it over the weekend, I had to do a bit of minor adjustments with the size, so it would stay on, It worked and after two days is still cool, will have to get it ready for the show at the weekend and report back.

Today I took the dogs for a walk in the woods and here's a short video!

Sunday 11 May 2008

Power Fab! - video

After far too many weeks and being let down by a certain person, who shall remain nameless for the time being ***** we where getting brave, having bought a LandRover on eBay over a year ago. Anyway we had wanted a digger to help around the place: foundations to dig for the sheds and extension, landscaping the garden etc. Too much like hard work with a shovel! – well we are getting older!!!!! Anyway we located one that wasn’t too far away, I say not too far away Ian wouldn’t have gone that far for a dog show! But for a digger well that is a different story! So he returned Friday night after 8 hours of driving! (4 each way) with this rusty orange and green thing! It was green from having being sat under a tree somewhere on a farm, it works and after a wash it is no longer looks green, it needs a silencer or ear plugs and away you go, Ian says I can have a go on it tomorrow, after the tractor seat has dried off hummmm.

This week I have spent lots of time in the garden, as Elaine says, the garden will take as much as you want to throw at it! She’s right. The vegetable patch is coming on, the beans and spinach are in, I have put the corn on the cob down behind one of the wooden sheds along with some of the sun flowers! I love sunflowers they are such happy flowers and the birds like the seeds. It looks like most of Anna plants that she kindly donated are happy and starting to pick up. Note to myself - Must get some tomatoes.

Agility wise – Harry did a somersault on Friday galloping around a corner, so he is now soar. Red has been lame on and off since last September, she has seem the chiropractor on various occasions and she seems to be great for a few days after and then goes backwards again, some days you cant tell which leg it is, once she has warmed up, she is fine. I think the time has come to get her ex-rayed and see if there is anything going on, or whether it is just old age setting in, she has never been a dog to go easy at anything, everything always gets done at 100 miles an hour, she has never looked after her body, collided with a number of tyres and jumps! Bless her. Buzz is sound thou!

Sunday, we went for a long walk at Hawkers Cove, it was misty/foggy but warm and calm, the dogs loved it, hopefully the video will show that – if I can download it!

Tuesday 6 May 2008

Red Bull gives you wings!


True or false?

Well having just got back from my first long distance show for ages, on my own. Having run just two dogs over 2 courses, not much compared to most people, but I was up early helping set up rings etc. anyway after an hour of driving home in the heat! I was beginning to get tired so I tried this drink Red Bull – having never tried this before, well within ten minutes of me sipping it whilst driving, I was grinning like a Cheshire cat and singing along with the songs on the radio, so it worked for me!

I’m so lucky in one way in having most of Cornwall shows within 15 - 35 mins away – totally spoilt, although the small/medium classes are virtually 1-7 combined as they are so small!

I got really excited to see a show near to where we used to live and to meet up with all my buddies, although I would have to leave my top dog at home (Red), all Harry’s classes where graded, so I was hoping for more flowy courses, which is what we got, well spread out, Harry loved them and flew round, but he kept thinking we where finished at each end and ended up leaving the rings to roll around on the grass with kids and dogs …Hummmm, yes great entertainment for the crowds but I’m hoping one day that I’ll become more exciting for him than them! …. I keep forgetting he is 7 months behind training, due to his injury and this is only 3/4th show I’m expecting him to be as good as the rest! … I think now I will start to set up courses rather than exercises at home and finish somewhere in the middle so he doesn’t always expect to finish on the end of a line of jumps, just have to see whether that helps.
Harry’s Pairs partner Nellie noonooo came 2nd in the jumping class, so whether they will want to stay pairs with us – we will see!
As for Buzz he did what Buzz does best – knock poles and herds. He coped really well with the clay shooting, glad Red wasn’t with us as she would have been a wreck, anyway I needed her empty cage as it was filled with plants for our garden from Anna’s lovely garden, that she kindly donated! I managed to plant most of them around the place last night with Ian’s help, I cant remember what they are, or where they where meant to go! Sorry Anna, lets hope they like the Cornish climate, and my gardening hands!!!!!!!

The grass in the paddock part of the garden is really growing now, I could do with rolling it, but don’t have one, Ian suggested using the landrover-boys any excuse to go off road! Oh Landrover passed its MOT thankfully, so this weekend is the Bongos turn (for those that don’t know what a bongo is, it is a Mazda, it is the same as a Ford Freda comes in 2 and 4 wheel drive usually with a roof that goes up so you can sleep in it!) for some maintance, well I say that, Ian started before I went to Bristol, he changed the glow plugs (which is a regular thing to go on Bongos) and unfortunately one snapped off in the block, so this weekend he has to weld a nut to it and hopefully get it out that way or the engine head will have to come off, which is I’m told, a right pain in the ****.

We really need to get a digger sorted so that we can start rebuilding the sheds before winter, but that will all depend on how this glow plug comes out.

Gotta go and give blood now! I really hate doing this, but it does help save lives so I'm told, nearly reached my gold badge, 55 pints - I hate the needles and I seem to take ages before I'm able to run around with the dogs! But I'm going to carry on untill I reach my goal! "Gold Badge"