March 14, 2010: What We Do for our Dogs
We have had absolutely spectacular weather here in Wales for the past two weeks. Frosty mornings have preceded sunny and almost warm days. One day the shorts were broken out and a pair of lilly white legs adorned the garden. It wasn't a pretty sight but heck, there are no neighbours to stare and no visitors to scare.

The weather has brought a new lease of life into my running and I have consistently been out and about around the forest with usually 7 or 8 dogs to share the pain ...ah ...fun. It's about the only time I get to step off the property these days thanks to my truck still being broken (more on that in a moment). I love my little forays into the forest and have a couple of tried and true running routes. Over Christmas, Bridget (my niece) and I took the chainsaw up to the entrance to the forest and cleared the path into the forest trail. Last week I took a few dogs and a pair of secateurs to prune away the blackberry vines that have started to invade my trail down to the wider forestry roads. I got sick of jumping and ducking these thorny intruders, and the dogs were bothered by them getting caught in their coats. No more...although I am sure we will be back up there to do some more pruning in a month or so.

Jamie, Cian, Steffi, Bee, Sioux, Meg, Blade and Bailey have been my usual running companions. The last few days we have been missing Cian as he has been sold and started his journey down to Brazil. It was a very hard decision to sell Cian and I miss the wee fella immensely. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't sold him but he has a nice new home and perhaps I will save up for a trip to Brazil to visit him...winter time here would be a good time to disappear to the warmer climes of São Paulo! Deus te abençoe, Cian. Até nos encontrarmos novamente.

Cian working well for me the day before he left.


On the way up the hill for our last run together in the forest

Rose also left this week for Italy. Kelvin drove over to Birmingham on Friday night to drop off Rose with some Italian agility competitors at Crufts. It was a long drive as Rose and Kelvin went straight from school. Rose spent the day at school, visiting with many kids. She was a star! The kids loved her and she them. Upon reaching Birmingham, Kelvin received a really nice gift...Parmigiano-Reggiano or Parmesan cheese, and some wine.

Now cheese is one of our favourite foods so we are grinning like a couple of cheshire cats. Parmesan cheese is quite interesting in that it is cooked, not pressed, and named after the producing areas near Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, and Bologna, and Mantova in Italy. Many people think of this cheese as a cheese for grating over pasta dishes but it is a superb table cheese, or in our household, eaten a chunk at a time - any time! In Emilia-Romagna it is often paired with pears and walnuts and enjoyed at the end of a meal.

Another interesting thing about this cheese is that at 12 months, the Consorzio Parmigiano-Reggiano inspects each and every cheese! Now that's a heck of a job because these cheeses are stacked 24 cheeses high and 90 cheeses long...or about 4,000 cheese wheels per aisle. Don't ask me how many aisles there are because it's a lot! The cheese is tested by a master grader whose only instruments are a hammer and his ear. By tapping the wheel at various points, he can identify undesirable cracks and voids within the wheel. Those cheeses that pass the test are then heat branded on the rind with the Consorzio's logo. Wouldn't it be nice if we could test border collies by tapping them on the head with a simple instrument and listening to hear if they've got the right brain for the job? Oh, if it was that simple it might not be as much fun!

The lowlight of the week, other than seeing Cian and Rose leave, was the bad news on the truck. After 3 weeks in the garage and a bill that has been shooting upwards exponentially, the guys called to say the truck needs a new engine...Ka-ching! We now can't afford to repair the truck and, in fact, one has to weigh the value of doing so against the cost of replacement....and we can afford neither. Not having a truck has not been TOO bad, except for when we had a sick pup that needed an urgent vet visit. With the trial season around the corner, it is going to take some logistical wizardry to work out what trials we can - and can't - get to, and which dogs we can squeeze into a small car. I am now rueing the day I sold my bicycle! It is a long way to run to the nearest shop (4 miles each way) for a can of coke! Oh, that is what Tesco.com is for!

Speaking of Tesco.com, they delivered my groceries on Friday night and the only timeslot available was between 9 and 11pm. OK, I thought, I wanted to wait up for Kelvin to get home so I walked the dogs earlier than usual and waited for the Tesco truck to arrive. Amazingly, the guy arrived at 10.30 and he was one of the most cheerful felllows I have ever met...and that was even after he had driven past our farm and was lost when he called. Two thumbs up for Tesco.com!

Without being able to leave the farm during the day, I have no excuses not to get the garden dug and weeded! That has been a high priority. We have done a heck of a lot of pruning of the garden, and we had, until this week, two huge piles of garden waste to burn. One morning there was not a breath of wind so I decided to light one pile that was full of gorse bushes. The fire started easily and burnt fast. I was so pleased with myself I contemplated burning the second, and larger pile. Before I did that, I did my daily wander around the BBC's website...and saw the dry weather conditions had led to many grass fires in Wales. Oh, I must have given my neighbours a heck of a fright when I took a match to that pile of garden prunings. All thoughts of setting alight the second pile were put on hold that day. Yesterday with a hint of rain in the air, Kelvin and I finally burnt the second pile of rubble. This time we had water and fire extinguishers on hand just in case...thankfully we did not need them. Garden rubble gone!

We have almost completed the removal of the aviary. This area has been a nightmare to remove as the aviary was cobbled together with all sorts of wire netting, chicken wire, barbed wire, rope netting, string netting, camouflage netting, vines, zip ties, and all sorts of sundry items. Once we get this area completely opened out we'll be able to decide how to replant in that area or perhaps if we ever get someone to come and do some fencing for us, we will make a puppy play area there. We were hoping to have our kennel excavated, waterproofed and finished before the ewes return with their lambs but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. So we are going to have to hand dig some fence posts and run some temporary fencing to keep the pups and lambs away from each other. Since I can't escape the farm during the week, there'll be no excuses not to get my work done! Well, I suppose I could say I've got some dogs to train...