House, Garden and Dogs – Page 85

Bus trips and Thunder Shirts

20/11/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

This week has been a fairly quiet week. The conference in Adelaide was cancelled, but I still went down to Adelaide for the day. Last year I was to attend a Funeral in Adelaide and I wanted to go down and come back on the same day – something I will not do if I am driving. The only way to do this is go by coach – depending on the time of the event, of course. As it turned out, the funeral for a number of reasons was put back and I never went – at least not on that day. I still had a ticket and I had a year in which to use it. I decided to use it last Thursday and discovered why I do not like traveling on Stateliner Coaches. The trip down was not too bad – I slept part of the way and watched Despicable Me (again x3) on my laptop for the remainder of the trip. We left at 6am and arrived in town at 11:26. I had a good day in town – relaxing – knowing that I wont have any meeting to attend whilst I am down here and thus have a leisurely wander. I bought Office 2013 with Publisher and have since installed the program in the new “All-in-One”.

The trip back from Adelaide was something else. One gentleman was busy throwing up in the barf bags provided and the nicest word I wish to use here is malodorous. I wish to be kind, he was quite elderly and somewhat unkempt. The children sitting on front of me moved to the rear of the coach as did the man sitting opposite. As well that the coach was almost empty. The seat was uncomfortable and I really didn’t have a pleasant trip home. You might well be inclined to suggest that the Scotsman in me didn’t want to see the ticket expire, which it would have shortly. Anyway, did not have a good night and spent Friday, stiff and sore and regretting the journey. I have the last conference on 5th & 6th December and that should be it until February

The Thunder Shirt for Chienne arrived during the week. I was delighted with it – it was well made and fitted Chienne like a well tailored glove. Let her get used to it then took her out in the car. Goodness me did she go off her rocker = screamed, whined, cried non-stop – just like always. Having the Thunder Shirt on didn’t make the slightest difference. To say I was disappointed is an understatement, but herself and I feel that her behaviour is probably so ingrained that it wont change now and the instructions did say that it may not work for all dogs but it will work for most. However, I will try it again when we next have a thunderstorm. The Man is really starting to slow down and I had to carry him for a fair part of our walk last night. I really will have to keep a close eye on him. He is eating and has finished off his dinner most nights as he does with his stick treat in the morning.

Chienne, Angus and the Road’s End

17/11/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

WHEN I began writing this I really didn’t know what I wanted to achieve. I joined the old My Place and wrote a blog on there for a few years. I didn’t have followers and in essence the weekly post was a way of talking to several friends who had moved away, keeping them up to date on what we were up to in town and at home. (I still sort of do this on Google+) So it was a sort of public/private letter. A few years ago MySpace changed hands and the blog feature was discontinued. I had an account with WordPress but never used it. Once MySpace closed down, I re-activated it and have been here ever since – well a year or so.

Our house, which we bought some years ago, is right on the very edge of the town. The garden was in a bit of a mess so I thought it would be an idea to write about what I’m doing in the garden. I have two dogs that I love dearly – Chienne and The Man (Angus)– and they would be included, as would comments about the family. I dismissed the notion of writing about church activities because I had this horrible feeling that all that would do for me is fill up my inbox with comments from would-be theologians. Once I started I began to look for other posts that I felt I would like and be of interest – gardens and dogs and some general interest. Some of the blogs I looked at were interesting, informative, funny and serious and I joined a few. Some people even joined me, which I thought (and still do) was great.

“Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses that you may the better judge.”

Lately, however, I am finding that some posts have become much too serious – almost taking on the dimension of a Dissertation on The Meaning of Life. My other, and perhaps the more serious concern, is that with all I have to do, one post every week, or even every couple of days – which is how many of these started – is quite acceptable – but three – or four – posts from a single site, almost one on top of the other, every single day, is too much and my inbox is just clogged up. Like everyone else they started out as a post every few days but this has changed to a post almost every few hours. So, having said all that, I may have to consider withdrawing from a number of places if only to unclog my inbox for a while. I just cannot handle nor process the volume of traffic. If any I have offended, I am sorry but my continued sanity ( which, to be honest, is not all it’s cracked up to be) demands that I make this change, and the crash gave me an opportunity to do so with the new system – which is still not fully functional as yet. I still have some bugs to iron out and get used to an “All-in-One” system.

Gone: not here: departed.

12/11/201312/11/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I will be closing down this Apple comouter system presently. I am in the process of changing ov er to a new system which is causing me some problems. I will be away for a few days and cannot devote time to getting everything changed over. I can keep somethings bus this will be the last blog on this AppleMac and probably the last post for a little while and I will start to organise things on the new PC – Windows Based when I get back from Adelaide – should be fun…

Fire, Dogs, Vets and Clothing

10/11/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

In a recent post I made mention of the major fluctuation of temperatures in this area. This week is a perfect example of what I was talking about. At the start of this week the temperature started to climb up and by Thursday it had reached 39+c. I had some friends that were about to go North and delayed their departure because of the “Catestrophic” fire risk for the area. By lunch time yesterday, the temperature started to drop as a cool change came in from the Great Australian Bight and the Southern Ocean. By late Thursday the temperature dropped to 26 and the rain started. Today is Friday, the temperaure outside is 22c and it’s still raining. I put the heavy quilt back on my bed. Fires still continue in NSW and Queensland.

This afternoon I take The Man back to the Vet. He still concerns me – he seems healthy enough, sleeps a lot but is not eating as much nor as often as I would like. He is still active and although we have not been out since Wednesday evening but he walks well, if a bit slow at times. Chienne gets impatient. However, if the rain stops I will have them both out tonight. We have had a lot of rain over the last 24 hours so what we don’t need is any high winds until the soil dries out otherwise we will have trees down again.

So after scaring the living daylights out of me and keeping me worried for a fortnight, I was told that there was a scale malfunction and that the Man’s weight was quite normal – he hadn’t lost weight – well not a lot – at all. However, we keep with the medication and remain with the puppy food – I still think twice a day because I would like to see him gain some extra weight. Still no real reason for the weakness in his back legs other than age and damage years ago when he was dumped out in the bush. However, I did have them out tonight when the rain stopped and he walked without any problem at all. Difference — Chienne, being the lady she is, delicately jumps over puddles, The Man just walks right through them. I have ordered a Thunder Shirt for Chienne, which should arrive sometime this coming week. I have heard and read a lot of information regarding these items of clothing, so I really want this to live up to what I have heard.

Dogs, Flowers and Fire Bans.

07/11/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

20131102_192125 — Dogs find something interesting to have a sniff at. I think it’s a blade of grass…

The weather has started to warm up a tad and the temperature today was 39c. but a cool change is on its way and it should cool down for day or three before climbing back up again. The official Fire Season will being on 10th November and continue through until Mid-April. When I took the dogs out for their evening walk the wind had started back again. The Man was having some difficulty and after a little while I lifted him up and placed him in the dog sling for a bit – at least until he got his breath back.

Thre are still about 40 fires burning in NSW but the State Firefighters can manage that and our Firepeople have come home.

This must be the worse state in the world for colds and flu and really, it’s not all that surprising. Not when you consider the serious flucuations in temperature. Yesterday it was 39c and hot – the temperature collapsed overnight and today it’s a very cool 24c and the wind started last night when the sun went down. Within the span of a 24 hour period the temperature climbed back to 38c today and tomorrow will be 40c. A total fire ban has been declared in some areas.

One of the things that irritate me is the inability to edit something once posted. I don’t mean this post, I mean comments made. I have gone through a comment to check that everything is ok – and it seems to be – but the very second you press the “post comment” button a glaring error jumps out at you. But then I suppose when you are commenting on a page that has 5500+ followers, one comment probably wont count for much – but still…..

A friend is travelling in the Northern Flinders Ranges and sent some photographs of the wild flowers.

Tomorrow I take the Man back to the vet.

Trees, terrorists and Puppy Food

31/10/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Some may remember this photograph I took some time ago. It was one of two eucalyptus trees outside. Part of this came down in the severe wind we had a week or so ago. This one came down over the road and part of the street was blocked off until the emergency services and the council were able to clear the area. In the background you can see another tree and this has been examined and found wanting – it’s not in good shape and may have to be cut down.

The medication seems to be working for the Man and he is eating a lot better now. I also find that he is a lot more active – when he is not sleeping that is. What I have been doing is feeding him smaller meals but more of them. It means having to isolate him from Chienne from time to time. However, she doesn’t miss out too much and she gets her share of the treats. I have started the little man on Puppy Food and that seems to be working, and the interesting thing is that it is mainly chicken and rice. Don’t really mind as long as he keeps eating and starts to put on a little weight.

The NSW Bushfires are finally under control although they are still the subject of a watching brief. It would be good to say that the fires were all caused by nature – lightening strikes – but sadly that’s not the case. Some of them were deliberately lit, and even sadder is that some were lit by children who are under age to be charged. Well, that may well be the case, but their parents are not!! If a dog attacks and seriously injures a person, we can charge the owner of the dog, so why don’t we charge the parents of the arsonists for failing in their parental duty of care. We talked a lot about charging people who deliberately light fires in bushfire areas with “Domestic Terrorism” but nothing much happened.

I started with a tree and I will finish with the same tree. This is what is left of the tree today. Now, all we have to do is wait and in the fullness of time, the council truck will arrive, cut out the roots and clean up the area. The trouble with being on the periphery – everything takes so long to get here. Not a great photograph. The tree was much bigger than it would appear here.

Fires, Dogs and Thank you.

26/10/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

winmalee — Winmalee after the fire had passed

The situation in NSW is not getting any better. This morning a further 70 firefighters left South Australia to head to the crisis center. There are additional fire units coming from as far away as Western Australia. We are fire free but we are back to Severe Wind Warnings again and at the moment it is blowing pretty bad – just keeping an eye on that other gum tree.

The military are believed to have been responsible for starting of one of the larger fires through “live-fire” exercises. They are being very cagey at the moment. However – as I have said we are not really in a fire area but I also said that the military have taken over several stations (ranches) – not too far from here our emergency services were called out to assist in fighting a bush fire in one of the “training” areas. Anyway, that was put out.

Since starting this the fire situation has improved and the firefighters are starting to get things under control, but it is a concern that we have this kind of crisis and the fire season has not really begun. There is a very strong indication that the military were responsible for the fires at Lithgow.

The dogs have been good. The Man sleeps a lot but he seems to make up for it in bouts of high activity. He’s eating better since I gave up the chicken and rice and started him on “puppy food” on the understanding that this should help to bring his weight back up again. I gave up on the chicken and rice because he just wouldn’t eat it – Strange dog!! He uses a lot of energy during the high activity periods, then he sleeps. I also feed him treats and because I have two dogs and not one, Chienne also has to have a treat – can’t give to one and not the other. They have walks twice a day – morning and evening.

I am humbled by the fact that a number of people thought of us during the height of the fires in NSW. We are one thousand miles away from the fire front ( about 1700 kilometres) but as a friend said, all the rest of the world hears is that Australia is burning. Thank you for your concern – Herself, the Dogs and Me are fairly safe.

Fires and a Grim Outlook

21/10/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Herself’s brother telephoned from Scotland to ensure that we were ok and the fires were not affecting us and she explained to him that we are more than one thousand kilometres from the fire danger. But it was very kind of him to call and be concerned. My pain still continues but I have put it down to paying off Karma. I think me and the Little Man are a matched pair at the moment. Fires continue to burn across NSW with the number of homes destroyed now reaching nearly 300. The weather forecast is not helping – hot and strong winds tomorrow and Monday. Many people have responded with incredulity at the comments by the Greens that it’s all the government’s fault. They lost a lot of ground – and seats – at the election and only barely held on to two seats mainly because they were prone to doing silly things and making silly inappropriate statements. Looks like they have not learned anything.

I’m not really sure what constitutes the ” lowest of the Low” but I believe the looters that have broken into houses in the fire areas of the Blue Mountains come pretty close. Didn’t we used to shoot looters – and can we still do that?? The NSW Government has declared a State of Emergency and things are looking pretty grim with hot conditions and winds of up to 70kph. The biggest concern is to prevent two major fires joining up and creating a 200 klm mega-fire front.

Took the dogs out for a walk last night and got to use the Dog Sling for a little while. The Man likes walking so when he feels he has enough rest he wants out and back down again. Couple of times he has almost jumped out of my arms once he gets another wind. He’s sleeping a lot, which is good: he is eating a little, cooked chicken and rice; and he’s better off in food than I am :o) I asked for something that would help put on a bit of weight and was told to feed him cooked chicken and rice, so that’s what I’m doing. Apart from the medication he gets a daily dose of Fish Oil.

History, Fires and Blame Game

19/10/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

There is always a silver lining in everything – if you know where to look for it. I looked for it in “Revolution” no, not me – the TV Programme. Incapacitation has allowed me to start to catch up on series 1 of the programme, so I can look at Series 2 knowing what is happening. I remember years ago when the boys and I went to see “Patriot” and there were young people sitting in front of us who thought it was all stupid – “I mean, come on, lines of soldiers walking towards each other and standing fifty feet away and letting other soldiers fire guns at you – that’s just stupid, they never did that”. This should have surprised me, but it didn’t. Australian Students know very little of history, next to nothing about international history not all much more about Australian History. History is a dirty word that many schools have done their best to expunge.

There is no one like Mother Nature for putting things into perspective. Here am I in the Arid Lands, complaining and being grumpy about a few miserable trees that have fallen, made a mess that I have to clean up, whilst our neighbours in New South Wales are fighting a desperate battle to save lives and property. Only one killed, thankfully, but the homes lost will number in the hundreds. Already over 80 properties have been lost to the fires. One Hundred firefighters from the MFS (Metropolitan Fire Service) and the CFS (Country Fire Service) have set out from South Australia to take over part of the work from the exhausted NSW Fire Service. Units and people are also setting out from Victoria. Being in a non-fire area it is difficulty to imagine the terror of a bushfire. Of course we could have a grass fire but it’s not the sam thing and if the bush beyond us caught fire then the levy bank that was created for the once in a generation flood, would help to contain any fire that came even remotely close.

I did get The Man to the Vet and we adopted him 11 years ago but the Vet. thinks he is closer to 13 – perhaps older. Difficult to tell because of his background. However, he has lost weight – from 3.5kilo to 2.6 kilo. and there seems to be no reason for that. Yes he wobbly on his rear legs and his joints are pretty slack. There is some pain there but not a lot and apart from the weight loss, he’s in reasonable

shape for his age. When we closed the doors and put him on the floor he ran around without any signs of distress. However, I have to give him 10 ml of Carprofen per day and Pernaease Powder also daily. I have been out this morning and he has been running around with no discomfort, I will, however, take the “Dog Sling” out with me when we go for walks at night – which we have not been for a few days now, but I should be able to get out with them tonight.

Addition: So far reports are that 194 houses have been destroyed, 83 properties destroyed with a further 37 damaged – and it’s still goes on. And although they only took up the reigns of government last week, the Greens have blamed the government for this disaster. ” Don’t know how or what, or why, but let’s just blame the government anyway”.

Meetings and Sciatic Nerves

16/10/201316/10/2013 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

One of the positive things that came from the weekend meeting was a proposed alteration of the meeting dates. Currently we meet on a Saturday morning at 9:30am and these meetings have been knows to go on to 3pm – a long, tiring day then a long drive home. The proposal is that we meet at 4:30 on a Friday and put a time limit of 9:30. This would work for me in that I would leave the meeting, go to the hotel, sleep, breakfast and a refreshed drive home. I expressed concern when the matter was raised because we tried this some years ago and we were still at it at Midnight, but there will be a time limit that will ensure that this does not happen and anything that is still undiscussed at 9:30 will be held over until the following month. If it works, it will be a great improvement. There was also a serious complaint from our Colleagues from Sydney about the short notification of the change of meeting. One day later than it was and we would have been up for cancelled hotel bills and air flights – there should be no reason to change a meeting date.

The place is still a bit of a mess and the wind is still with us. Nowhere near what is was at the start of the week but enough to make sweeping up a waste of time. However the high winds moved down to Adelaide and it was reported last night that a Jetstar Liner was forced to abort landing at almost the last moment because of high cross winds at Adelaide Airport.

Statistically speaking, six out of seven dwarfs are not happy. I am not happy and very disappointed to discover that I am not invincible. This is quite a shock to the system. Apparently all the dragging, pulling, cutting, loading trailers and unloading trailers, then jumping in the car and driving 400 k to Adelaide and 400 k back, has inflamed the sciatic nerve, which is quite painful. I am laid up for a few days, which does not please me as there is a lot of work to do. However, I dare say it will still be there in a few days time, which I am informed I might be up and about again, provided I behave myself over the next few days. Well, of course I will. Why do you even doubt it?

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