Anyone Else Called Mavis ......

 

We were on the beach in Llandudno yesterday morning letting the dogs have a good run around to use up the excess energy that these rainy stuck indoors days gives them.  At every opportunity at the moment I'm slowly trying to get Mavis used to more commands, just the same ones as the other dogs know and usually respond to,  just the very basics for now.  I slip teaching a dog new words into normal day to day activity and occasionally during one to one time, but that is harder with two other dogs vying for my attention and distracting the pupil. So it's easier to do more when we are out and about with two of us with the dogs.

 

She is doing well she already knows sit, wait, down and 'do you want a bone' our phrase for any doggy treat, it's strange how they all learn that one so easily!! 

 

 But she's having real difficulty with 'come'.  So as we were walking off the beach with Mavis on her long extending lead I decided to shout 'come' to see if she would respond,  when she ignored me completely I yelled a bit louder and a bit firmer  'Mavis COME HERE'  .... a little old lady took two steps towards me with a very shocked expression on her face.  I guess her name was Mavis, but I didn't wait to find out :-)

 

Sue xx

Thank You

 

What can I say, after my 'Shameless Plea' of yesterday you were absolutely wonderful.  The votes poured in and this morning I am absolutely stunned by the number I have received.

 

 

Thank you seems so inadequate, but I'll say it anyway - THANK YOU :-)

 

Of course it's not all over until the end of the month, so I'll be nipping back to check my position, no doubt a lot more often than is actually healthy!!

 

 

It's been a long week this week without Lovely Hubby around and now he's home we are getting on with some more jobs about the place.  Outside jobs if, fingers crossed by any chance it's dry, if not we have things to do inside the house and inside the new shed to move things along.

 

We're also going to nip out and buy a mini polytunnel type thing to tide us over until we have the planning permission for the real thing.  I need somewhere to start things off and we have a secluded spot up on the edge of the woods that will not be too visible from the road, although there won't be much light there in Summer it will be ideal as a starter spot for seedlings while the trees are bare and the light can get through.

 

Thanks again for your magnificent support yesterday, fingers crossed I win some cereal, I must add that to the rules of my challenge.  I am allowed to enter competitions etc to win supplies, yes in fact I think I'll nip over and add that in now and start watching out for more things I can do to win food.

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Sue xx

 

 

Shameless Plea .....

 

Remember this. 

 

 I won back in December 2012, I still have the little egg cup and egg cosy in the kitchen cupboard and this badge way down on my sidebar ...... well  I've been nominated again.

 

If you have two minutes to spare sometime this month would you nip over and vote for me.  It would help my £365 challenge no end to win a box of cereals, although I would have to buy more milk to go with them.  Every one that votes for the winning Blog gets entered into a drawer for the same lovely boxful of Dorset Cereals too :-)

 

Vote HERE.

 

Thank you.

 

Sue xx

Mavis Update

 

Remember this lovely little girl .... well I thought a little update was in order.

 

She's settled in wonderfully, she's just had her final vaccination and is now micro-chipped with our details so she is well and truly one of the family.  She has also gained nearly half a kilo in weight, not much but it's going in the right direction and is a healthy gain for just four weeks, the vet reckons she should slowly gain at least another kilo to be at a weight which will suit her frame and be nice and healthy.

 

 

She joins in with any game going and loves doggie toys, we don't think she ever had anything squeaky or fun to play with before judging from her reaction to them at first, and is just starting to learn some basic commands, sit, down, stay etc.  She's a very clever little dog.

 

She loves spending time outside with us when we are working ...

 

 

... but as she is still not to be completely trusted when left on her own not to make a dash for the fence at the top of the hill she is kept on a long staked lead.

Which luckily she doesn't mind at all, in fact I've noticed that she sees it as a comfort and waits before any outside door is open for a lead to be put on her.

 

 

Such a change from this sad little waif pictured here a couple of days after we got her.

 

 

Sometimes a little bit of love is all you need ....

 

... and a furry friend to cuddle into.

 

Sue xx

Bang Goes YET another New Years Resolution

 

After doing a blog post myself the other day I took a merry little trip around Blogland while I drank my cup of coffee or was that two cups of coffee  ......  anyway whilst on my travels I read the lovely blog  A Whole Plot of Love written by a lovely Blogging Buddy.   She had treated herself, being very restrained in my opinion, to two sets of books, a total of 15 books in all for just £9.  WOW!!

Seeing her lovely selection of books and noticing that they were right up my street, in fact some of them I had looked at in the garden centre just before we moved but had been totally shocked at how expensive they were, and left them sadly on the shelves.  I just had to nip on over didn't I .... it would have been so rude not to  :-)

So the New Years resolution to not buy any books this year is well and truly broken.  But I can't be too sad ... I did manage to get a total of 39 books with a retail price of £293.62 for the total sum of just £28.98 with free delivery. 

They arrived within three days and the majority of them, Lovely Hubby has pilfered the Beekeeping book for a read, are sat on the shelves glowing proudly at me.  I do like to give a good home to lonely creatures and books.

In case you're interested they were from The Book People.

The Flash sale is now over but there are still some brilliant bargains to be had.  The 12 self sufficiency books that I bought for instance are still only £9.99 for all twelve instead of £7.99 each.

This is not a sponsored post, just me sharing book love with everyone :-)

Sue xx


Working Through the Weather

Somehow on Saturday in gale force winds and heavy, heavy rain we managed to get the floor and walls of the shed in place.  I say we, but it was obviously Lovely Hubby that did the majority of the lifting and shifting with me standing like a soggy wet wall support, holding valiantly on to the sections while the wind tried to whip them away from me as LH was busy screwing things together.

 

The top picture shows the fault with the shed, the floor was too big for the walls!  The walls should sit on the edge of the floor all the way round as you can see the side wall doing with a lip of wood hiding the floor, but we had to modify the front panel to sit on top instead or there would have been a large gap. This is just the last of a line of problems we have had with this shed.

 

 

On Sunday in drier and much milder weather and with the sun shining on lots of occasions, we managed to get the roof in place, amazing what you can do with a man's muscles and a girl with a big broom to hoick things up!!  It all looks quiet at the shed ....

 

... but a whistle and 'Hey in there' brings the worker with the power tool out for a photo :-)

 

Later I got him again as he stood pondering the little paved area he's putting in at the front, I joked I wanted a front porch so I could sit like Granny Clampett on my rocking chair, it's not quite that big, but I could perch on the edge of the step with a cup of coffee, and while away time watching the chickens.

Talking of chickens we had to do the hardest task of all last night, well LH did the deed while I gritted my teeth and skulked indoors. 

 

The three Silkie chicks have all grown up and turned into the biggest bullies, they were completely upsetting the flock and doing serious damage to their Mum of all birds!!  So we took the sad decision that it couldn't go on.  So after a day of them playing in the sunshine (when they weren't plucking other birds that is) LH calmly went out to the henhouse at closing up time and managed to remove Grey Boy and then five minutes later Tabby and despatch them swiftly and surely.  Snowy lives to squawk and peck another day as it would have been too traumatic for the birds to have LH go into the house again to get him (he was sat out of reach).   Already this morning things are a little more sedate in Chicken World but Snowy is sealing his own fate if he continues to be a bully. 

 

This has taught us a valuable lesson, we had no need to buy Ebony and her four cute little chicks, we had gone to the sale for some Hylines, but it was an 'aww...look at those moment' (yet again) and unfortunately for us ALL her chicks turned out to be boys.  The good thing though is that Ebony is a lovely little bird, a well loved and important member of the flock and her fourth 'son' Flash is a little star, a young pretender and aid to Caldwell the master of the flock, so I guess it's not all bad.

 

And now I almost have my Chicken Shed ...  I'm leaving totally empty for a few days to dry out after lying in the rain for the last couple of weeks and then I can start filling it up and hanging those nets :-)

 

Sue xx

Bags, Bags and Plastic Bags

 

One of the best things I've found that Wales does that England does not ... is charge for bags.  Yes, that's right if you need a plastic carrier bag from the supermarket or any shop you have to BUY it.

 

Nothing gets folk changing their habits more quickly than hitting them in the wallet or purse.  I have taken shopping bags with me for all my shopping for years now, but on occasion if I had filled them up and needed an extra bag I would have taken a plastic bag from the rack, now I say no thanks and simply put the excess loose in the trolley and then in the boot of my car until I get home.

 

 

When I had my own shop a few years ago and going forward into the Farmers Markets when we lived in Oxfordshire I used to sell these nice little jute bags at just over cost price to encourage my customers to not use plastic bags.  In fact the opening offer for my shop in the first week was 'Spend £10 or Over and Get A Free Shopping Bag'.  It was lovely in the months after the shop opening to see my regular customers around town shopping with their bags.

 

I keep my shopping bags in the boot of the car at all times otherwise I know I would forget them and I also have a fold up really lightweight one in my little handbag, which gets folded up and put back in there the minute it is emptied.  When I get home from any shopping trip everything is unpacked straight away and the bags taken back to the car ready for next time.

 

 

Not that I'm actually doing much shopping at the moment ... but I do like to think I am doing my bit for the environment. 

 

I really hate it when you see a large supermarket trolley piled high with someone's weekly shop and everything has been put into plastic carrier bags.  It doesn't even calm me to know that they had to pay for them, it just makes me think 'more money than sense'. And yes I do know that lots of carrier bags are made from recycled plastic these days but this still uses resources in the collecting, making and re-delivery to the shops, so better but not best!!

 

 

What do you use for your shopping are you a person like me with a boot full of collected bags, a 'Bag for Life' type of person, or a person who forgets their bags and through gritted teeth and takes the plastic disposable option whether free or not. 

 

Sue xx