Happy 2012!

I guess nobody needs reminding that it's a New Year, but I thought I'd share my semi- failure at Newyears resolutions thus far ;)

I thought that it would be wise to get up in the mornings before work to go riding, to escape the Summer heat, and give myself more time in the afternoons to maybe get to other tasks such as walking Jenni (the puppy-dog). Since I'm already dripping with sweat by 7:30 am (in the shade) it is a very useful resolution and it has worked somewhat. I've managed to be up by 5:50am and at the yard just after 6am a few mornings this month, however, the traffic on the way back makes it necessary to get up even earlier :P Jenn has even gone along on one such occasion. Much to the horse's dismay, as Jenn thought it a fun game to growl at Shala while I was busy cleaning hooves - uhhh, not a clever plan! At least Jenn had a whale of a time and soon passed out in the shade while I finished pushing along my bouncing hippo to get past the sheep in the arena. It was loads of fun - for Jenn, but took a lot of extra time to get everything done, so I resolved to be up even earlier.

Sheesh! What a lot of extra effort I like to create for myself! :P I should really stop making more work for myself and just do what is most necessary. Then again - everything feels most necessary :P

I was perhaps a tad over-ambitious when I set my alarm for 5:05 am this morning (and that after only getting to bed at 11pm last night), since I'm not so good at rising before the sun. Needless to say I just couldn't force myself to get out of bed and slept in till 7. It would probably work better if I increased the difficulty level of my task by smaller incriments - say 5 minutes earlier each day until I can manage 5am? :) I do hope that once I get into a routine it will be easier and go a bit faster and then Jenn can go with every day that I school in the arena. 

160 Snails

This dog that doesn't want to eat her food is driving me up the wall! :P She's a happy, healthy and playful 8 month old pup, but even though she's getting a super meal with specially cooked chicken mince and very nice looking Woolworths pets mince (plus rice, lentils, little veg etc) twice a day, she still doesn't really want to eat it!?? Not even if I put milk on top?! I really have no more ideas regarding her food preferences. And sometimes she'll eat it later in the day, so it's not something she deems inedible... ??? I weighed her at the vet's the other day and she's already 27 kg, now probably even more. I thought the breed (Irish Red setter) only weighs in at about 28 kg as an adult bitch? But clearly I must be wrong... this means that I have actually been feeding her slightly too little. She often doesn't eat all her food though, so feeding more wouldn't have done any better. The amount of Royal Canin pellets she should get is calculated according to her expected adult weight... the breeders haven't got back to me about how much her mom weighs, so I can get a better estimate. I had one last plan in mind for puppy stew, which I cooked last night, and if that doesn't work she's just gonna get straight pellets every day.

This morning while doing my round in the garden I came across the aftermath of Tuesday night's massacre. I wanted to serve the freshest peas for dinner that night and so, headed out with my raincoat and torch in hand to discover a gazillion snails all over our wonderlawn, then all over the cabbage, the stairs, the walls - basically everywhere! The snails were out having a feast on all my hard work and so I decided to squash all of them. I lost count at around 160 snails and I am quite sure that there will still be more of them. With so many snails in our garden I am VERY surprised that there's anything edible left in our garden!! Clearly the other tricks/gimmicks (beer traps, copper steel-wool, egg shells... etc.) don't quite work. Yesterday I saw the most cutetest little chicks ever! I so almost bought them, I'm sure they'll be very entertained by the fine dining on my snails;) I had specially gone out to buy Organic snail bait yesterday but now I might not need it ;) I think I'll put the bait around my next lettuce and cabbage beds, those seem to be the biggest target for our slimy friends. But WOW! I was really dumbfounded by the amount of snails out in the drizzle! Definitely the easiest way to get rid of those buggers.

When u'r feeling blue...

... all you have to do... 
 
is...

 

?
 
No, I donno? U tell me!

 

It scares me to realise how fast the year has gone by! It feels like we've achieved and finished nothing, but in fact we've been very busy with a LOT of different things! One of those things have been the puppy - that certainly kept both of us VERY busy (fun field trials, training, showing, playing, walking, cleaning up where she's destroyed things... the usual). I am happy to report that I have regained at least SOME measure of control over this hooligan of ours, with the help of the "Charlie" (a rolled-up newspaper-friend discussed in the previous post) and that at least to some extent it works to threaten her with "where's Charlie!!". She becomes submissive and stops growling and performing for a while, but she is still a little handfull! I guess some would consider it cheating or not being a very assertive pack leader, but I don't care anymore - I just want to be able to stop our brat from taking over when she feels like it. I think the mission is accomplished, at least as long as we have the Charlie with us ;)

 

Heheee - this is so fresh! As I'm typing (9:40 am)... I get a ping on Facebook from Hunny to say "Room service order: 1 x coffee and 1x kiss please" ;) technology is just so fascinating! He's playing on his iPad in the room while I'm waiting for the puppy to eat her breakfast :) The Suchness :)

The solution...I hope? (August: chapter 3)

So, I have tried really hard to do everything "by the book" and I still do most of the time... but at some stage you really just have to give in on some rules! eg. I know that a person's "supposed to" let the dog sit (or something sort-like), give their food and then take the bowl away after 15 to 20 minutes... especially when the dog's not eating their food, but this routine is just not working for me. I've tried to follow this rule now for 8 months, but Jenni isn't persuaded.

So now I decided to give up and I leave the food there until she has eaten it or until the next meal when I clean out the bowl. Jenn is already a very slim breed of dog and she's getting a little on the thin side, therefore I'm just breaking this rule from now on - so sue me ;) Some rules are just made to be broken!

Disappointed, depro or overwhelmed... (August chapter 1)

... isn't it basically the same thing? It's been a while since I wrote something: I guess I just didn't have much good to say so I rather said nothing but right now I need to give myself some permission to complain. The past week I have been really struggling with the very simple obstacles in life and because it has made me so negative it's like the little issues are even bigger and more debilitating. I feel overwhelmed, trapped and sometimes almost paralysed by the shadowing gripes of everyday life? Am I depressed... or just very disappointed that life isn't quite playing along with the rules of my game? One thing I can say is that things seem much harder than I had anticipated and at times I'm losing hope and enthusiasm for all the things I'm attempting to find time for.