We've been busy doing lots of stuff including trying to keep control of the leaves and debris from the trees at this time of year. We weren't doing too bad a job until this recent stormy weather and now we're on the losing side. Off down again today to try to have a bit of clear up. I cleaned the dog walk and A-Frame a couple of weeks back and could barely move after I'd finished. They look nice though!
Work in progress
The finished job!My task wasn't made any easier by dear little Kizzle who insisted on dropping her ball into my bucket and then barking at me to throw it for her, I was up and down the ladder with a scrubbing brush in my hand throwing the damn ball for her. On at least one occasion the scrubbing brush got thrown whilst I tried to clean the A-Frame with a planet ball. All the other dogs are content to race around carrying their various toys but not Kizzle, she wants to interact all the time. A good thing really I know, BUT not when you're trying to do something. She is just as bad when you're raking (that is trying to rake) leaves. The ball continually lands in the middle of the neat pile of leaves and whoosh they all spread out again. Bless!
As mentioned in a previous post we are getting ready to build a small external studio for Andy's massage venture.
The first job was to clear the site and we did this at the weekend. Our neighbours Liz and Geoff wanted the greenhouse and so we got together on Saturday to dismantle it and move it next door. In fact there were two greenhouses bonded together so it was a bit more manageable than we thought. We started by removing the glass panes (between 40 and 50) and then taking down some of the pieces of support timber. We labelled everything so that they have a reasonable chance of putting it back together at some point.
We got to a point and decided we could probably lift the smaller of the two greenhouses over the wall and did achieve this quite easily. Then we decided to do the same with the larger one as it seemed such a shame to take it all apart just for them to have to fiddle for hours putting it back together. God, that was so hard. We managed it just about but Liz and I really struggled with our corners. Luckily we got it over in one piece. Then just the small task of handling all the glass panes over the wall rather than walking them round the long way. I was very scared about this as it was quite a risky thing to do. We took our time and every sheet was passed safely across. I think two panes got broken when Geoff was re-stacking them up at his loose box. Not bad considering the number of panes moved. Boy, was I glad when it was all over. Once again I could barely move.
I did manage to take the poor dogs for a nice long walk whilst Andy cleared up. They had been so good sitting indoors for the whole time we worked on the greenhouse, it was just too dangerous to have them out with us on this occasion.
Before
The small greenhouse gone!
Some of the glass (just from the small greenhouse)
Moving the small greenhouse ready to lift over the wall
Andy and Geoff getting ready to hoist it over
Shifting the large greenhouse - we must have been mad!
There it goes!
Poor Liz trying desperately to hang on, it was lot heavier than it looks even without its glass
Safely over the wall and all in one piece!
All gone, now just tidying to do and then lay a new concrete foundation
On Sunday we were invited to join the Girlpower Pups first birthday party. This was in the format of a training session followed by lunch and pressies and a wonderful cake for the dogs. Personally I thought Bernadette (and Dennis) quite mad but I was proved wrong as all the dogs were very well behaved and believe it or not, it wasn't that noisy!
We were supposed to train in Bernadette's garden but instead she had very kindly hired a local indoor school with equipment as it was too wet to train outside. Johanna was over from Denmark and did the training for us. It was a very good session focusing on one of the current FCI trends of 'collection' followed rapidly by a big gap where the dog needs to 'power' away from the handler.
I wasn't in the mood to train at the start as we all got soaked getting from our cars to the school and then helping to get the equipment in (not that I did much of that, I decided it was better to let Andy and Dennis get wet doing that!) I really hate getting soaked and seeing mud everywhere especially when my dog has got to walk through it all. I had just bathed Zeki and she looked gorgeous and the thought of getting her filthy was too awful for me. However, the training was so good that I managed to cheer up. Training my dogs nearly always has a positive effect on me. My mood was helped by cheerful prods from Bernadette and Karen to buck up - thanks girls and sorry for my demeanour first thing but you do know how much I HATE MUD!
The training was so good that we 'borrowed' the pattern for our Tuesday evening training and had another good session. Thank you Johanna for your great training and ideas.
As mentioned in a previous post we are getting ready to build a small external studio for Andy's massage venture.
The first job was to clear the site and we did this at the weekend. Our neighbours Liz and Geoff wanted the greenhouse and so we got together on Saturday to dismantle it and move it next door. In fact there were two greenhouses bonded together so it was a bit more manageable than we thought. We started by removing the glass panes (between 40 and 50) and then taking down some of the pieces of support timber. We labelled everything so that they have a reasonable chance of putting it back together at some point.
We got to a point and decided we could probably lift the smaller of the two greenhouses over the wall and did achieve this quite easily. Then we decided to do the same with the larger one as it seemed such a shame to take it all apart just for them to have to fiddle for hours putting it back together. God, that was so hard. We managed it just about but Liz and I really struggled with our corners. Luckily we got it over in one piece. Then just the small task of handling all the glass panes over the wall rather than walking them round the long way. I was very scared about this as it was quite a risky thing to do. We took our time and every sheet was passed safely across. I think two panes got broken when Geoff was re-stacking them up at his loose box. Not bad considering the number of panes moved. Boy, was I glad when it was all over. Once again I could barely move.
I did manage to take the poor dogs for a nice long walk whilst Andy cleared up. They had been so good sitting indoors for the whole time we worked on the greenhouse, it was just too dangerous to have them out with us on this occasion.
Before
The small greenhouse gone!
Some of the glass (just from the small greenhouse)
Moving the small greenhouse ready to lift over the wall
Andy and Geoff getting ready to hoist it over
Shifting the large greenhouse - we must have been mad!
There it goes!
Poor Liz trying desperately to hang on, it was lot heavier than it looks even without its glass
Safely over the wall and all in one piece!
All gone, now just tidying to do and then lay a new concrete foundationOn Sunday we were invited to join the Girlpower Pups first birthday party. This was in the format of a training session followed by lunch and pressies and a wonderful cake for the dogs. Personally I thought Bernadette (and Dennis) quite mad but I was proved wrong as all the dogs were very well behaved and believe it or not, it wasn't that noisy!
We were supposed to train in Bernadette's garden but instead she had very kindly hired a local indoor school with equipment as it was too wet to train outside. Johanna was over from Denmark and did the training for us. It was a very good session focusing on one of the current FCI trends of 'collection' followed rapidly by a big gap where the dog needs to 'power' away from the handler.
I wasn't in the mood to train at the start as we all got soaked getting from our cars to the school and then helping to get the equipment in (not that I did much of that, I decided it was better to let Andy and Dennis get wet doing that!) I really hate getting soaked and seeing mud everywhere especially when my dog has got to walk through it all. I had just bathed Zeki and she looked gorgeous and the thought of getting her filthy was too awful for me. However, the training was so good that I managed to cheer up. Training my dogs nearly always has a positive effect on me. My mood was helped by cheerful prods from Bernadette and Karen to buck up - thanks girls and sorry for my demeanour first thing but you do know how much I HATE MUD!
The training was so good that we 'borrowed' the pattern for our Tuesday evening training and had another good session. Thank you Johanna for your great training and ideas.
...We know all about moving greenhouses - we moved ours, for some unknown reason it was in the middle of the top lawn! and then Buzz boy ran into it...so that was that, it had to be moved to the veggie patch area and away from the dogs playing!....and as for Mud, well I'm starting to get used to it!
ReplyDeleteParty looked like lots of fun...