The rain it falleth on the Just.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Scruffy was the first ever Australian dog. She was a stray that someone found and my sister suggested that I might take her. I was a bit reluctant at first but she sort of grew on us and we had her for over 12 years. She left a very big hole when she died. We thought we had gone some way to filling it when we took Buster, and for a while it seemed ok. When I was away my son took him out for long walks. One night when he came home he noticed that the biscuit dish was empty so he started to fill it and as he did so the dog attacked him and opened up a nasty cut on his face. My wife got him to the hospital and he had a few stitches. She telephoned me and told me what had happened and that no one really trusted him any more and that she herself was a bit scared of him. I told her to take him to the RSPCA, which she did. I came home for a while a week or so later.

Misty was a rescue dog – a West Highland Terrier Cross – and we loved her. Sadly she had a troubled and abused past and she was not with us very long – we looked after her for about five years. I became so attached to her and I missed her.  After Misty came Chienna and then Mannie and these are our dogs today. At the moment they are inside sleeping. It’s been  raining  for the last two days –  raining to the extent that it is necessary to beware of falling animals if one goes outside  :o)

The rain it falleth on the just and on the unjust fella

But more upon the just because the unjust stole the just’s umberlla

All about dogs – past and present.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
This is my Main Man – the MalteseTerrorist!

I have had both of my dogs for over ten years now. Chienna we bought when she was seven weeks old, Mannie we rescued from the Pound and, according to the Vet. at the time, he was about 18 months to two years. Over the years they have been great associates and I  miss them when I have to go away – even just for a couple of days. Thankfully that does not happen too often these days and the last two meetings have been cancelled.  When I come home after being away for a couple of days I get out the car and into the house and the dogs are going nuts and even my wife tells me “Go out and see your associates before they go crazy” so I do. Once I have settled the dogs down again I can then talk about the trip and the meetings to my wife . Generally, when I am not working, I take the dogs out twice a day – first thing in the morning , sometimes when it’s still dark, and later in the evening after we have all been fed, wife, me and dogs. The little one – the Maltese – is, I think, starting to show his age. Either that or he is a very good little conman because I have to carry him for a little while until he gets his second wind. He starts off well, but halfway through the walk, he starts to slow down and I have to carry him for a little while. It’s ok – he’s not heavy –  Ohhh a song title I believe.. If I am working, it’s only once –  in the evening. In the summer when it’s hot I carry a pack with me which contains two bottles of water and a dish – one bottle for me. In the last 34 years I have had five dogs including the present two. The previous dogs were Misty, a West Highland Terrier  Cross that we rescued, Buster an Australian Cattle Dog that attacked my son, and Scruffy, a bitsa that was given to me. She was a doll and everyone adored her. Unfortunately  I do not have any photographs of Scruffy on line. I must attend to that sometime. I am also Secretary of the local branch of the Royal Flying Doctors Service, fundraising group but , hopefully, that’s about to end soon. I have decided not to stand for re-election but knowing how this group is with no one willing to take a position, I expect I will be secretary again, although I would like to think not.

Do you have to point that thing at me?

Slowing down – me and the weather!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I have been working  part of the week and never really managed to get much done. However, I did trim the trees at the  side of the washing area – or what will be the washing line area – and as soon as I get some good and dry weather I’ll set about cementing the new unit into position. I gave a fleeting thought to murder – dogicide – when I discovered that my delightful Chienna had dug up two of my plants. Well, I guess that’s what dogs do – so get over it! Actually, she’s not really guilty of digging things in the garden so this was unusual. I can forgive her!

A lovely lady, whose posts I follow has cancer and recently had a bone marrow transplant. She was ok for a very little while but the cancer has come back more aggressive than before and the outlook is not as good as  we would like it to be. She is also a  Christian lady and has asked us to pray for her – which we will.

I am a bit unsettled at the moment and I have changed my page three times already. I am trying to find something that I can relate to and that I think would be easy on the eyes for other people, so I am still experimenting.

Yesterday was quite nice but I left the concreting and decided to plant the roses I bought recently. I have not planted any out front because I am still waiting for the standard roses to come in and I want at least two of them – probably not many more at $45  each. I think this is a bit much but even in Adelaide Standard Roses are at least $39.00. I have no idea why they are so expensive, but there you are. I might look at a Nursery in NSW just out of Curiosity and compare prices.

On the coming Friday I will be going down to Adelaide at the invitation of my son and his Girlfriend. They will pick me up in the morning and take me into town. Trish has training and Andrew is going to his Adelaide office, but I will be with Andrew for most of the day. They are staying overnight and I am coming home on the coach. I will get my extensions for the gate and Andrew can bring it back with him on Saturday.

The Maltese Terrorist

Winter is closing in – rain and cold.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Sunrise over Whyalla JenkinsGoodness, it’s been over a week since I wrote anything. It has been a very busy week, but not in the garden. On Monday and Tuesday I was away at a funeral, on Wednesday we had a thunderstorm at 3:30am – neurotic dog, acute hearing, had to sit up with her until she calmed down. I had a call on Wednesday but I was just too tired to accept. On Wednesday, workmen put a drill through the gas main. No explosion, but the primary school and the university were evacuated. It is now Friday and we are still without gas. Fortunately, I can take care of cooking by using the barbecue, washing and heating are different issues.  It took until Saturday afternoon before gas was restored to the west of the city. It is interesting how much we depend on services and we  have difficulty in coping when they are interrupted. As I said, I used the barbecue, the side burner and the two burner camping stove, so we were ok. Others were not so.

On Thursday I went through to Port Augusta to look for Standard Roses, as well as a few other things, but to no avail. I came back (152 klm round trip) empty handed. I did manage to get some special degreasing stuff that I will use on the driveway. I don’t think it’s been cleaned ever. I hope to be able to do that this coming weekend.

Tuesday:  Over the weekend I was not able to do much. The boys were over most of the weekend and the youngest was back from  OlympicDam – in the far north of the State. and with the gas not returning on Saturday morning, there was consternation on how we would feed everyone. I didn’t think it would be a problem since we had a barbecue, but as I said, the gas returned on Saturday afternoon and all was ok.  I still have not managed to get my Standards but I did buy four new rose bushes which I will plant  over the next day or so.

We have had a lot of rain over the last week and I have not really had an opportunity to do much outside and I really need a dry day to do the driveway. Certainly most of it is covered in but I need dry weather or the driveway itself would never dry – particularly the covered section – which is most of it. For example I took the dogs out for a walk the other morning and it looked like it was going to be a fine day. I was not long back in the house before the dark clouds came over and it was raining again. I think it’s going to be a long, wet, cold and damp winter.

Starting again – Slowly

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The first of Five.When I was over in Port Augusta I bought three rose bushes, two lemon coloured and one white. I felt these colours should be right to contrast with the red wood chips. I have now planted them and I hope, early next week, to get two standard roses on 90cm canes. They will go between the three roses I planted yesterday, so it will be bush, standard, bush, standard, bush. It should look ok. I won’t be able to get much done next week because I have to go away for a funeral. It’s an 800 klm. round trip so I will be away for a two days. This is the funeral of a former Pastor who helped us out many years ago when we lost our Minister. He and his wife were willing to travel the 400k to take our services and help us through the transition, so I feel we should be be there to says our farewell.

I know it doesn’t look much on the photograph, but there are three rose bushes there – New Season Roses, I might add. The soil is not the best and I do hope that the roses will take and not be like plants of the past – I touch em – they die!! Anyway, it’s only the first bush so they are still a bit on the small side, however, if they survive they should look good and grow to a reasonable height. My other alternative, if they do not survive, is to plant them into large pots and have the post buried in the ground – same effect I think. I am quite anxious to see the effect when the Standard Roses are planted.

Wednesday – again!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The Wet Driveway and front gardenIt rained all day yesterday and most of last night. It is dry (but cold) today but everything is still soggy from last night and early this morning. I have finished most of the work – still a few things to do and I would like to get them done so I can start on another project – mainly the washing area project but I can’t do that in the rain. Nor do I feel the urge to go out and dig and plant roses right at the moment. Never mind – it can’t rain forever – can it??

Part 2 completed

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Looks dirty, untidy and cheap.

I am glad to say that the two sections of the front and the centre section of the driveway are now completed. It was hard work and even although the wood chip was nowhere nearly as hard to move as the granite, it’s still constant turning and bending. I think I have  pulled something on my back but  the hard work is  done and I dare say my back will will settle down in the fullness of time.  The wood chips were delivered at 8:15 and I stared work right away. It took me most of the day to move them and spread the material out to a reasonable depth. I think I probably spread it slightly deeper than the sand yard calculated so I ran out of material. I put plastic sheeting over the granite  still in the trailer and rushed down to the sand yard to get more  wood to finish it off. I would have hated to have left that little bit unfinished until the weekend. I have used two photographs here, the first being how it looked and the second how it looks now.  I think there its  quite a difference and I am pleased with it. Perhaps not to everyone’s taste, but ok for me. At the two corners I may decide to put in Rose Bushes, but that’s a job for another day. I still have the two small side parts of the driveway to clean out and finish off but I need a break for a few days to give my poor back time to recover  from all that exertion I’ve put it through this last few days. Tomorrow, however, is ANZAC Day and a public holiday anyway so I  will have a bit of a rest anyway.

I went to the Dawn Service, as I do each year, and I was delighted to see such a very large turnout this year. It will probably increase leading up to the 100 Anniversary. It’s also good to see so many young people being involved and the youth of the town mount a dusk to dawn vigil at the Memorial until they are relived by the Honour Guard just before the commencement of the Dawn Service. 

Part 1 completed

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
First part completed

The center part is completed and the birdbath is back in place. I was intending to get the rest done today but the sand yard is fairly busy and does not have the transport to deliver the  coloured wood chips. However these are fairly light and although it will be bulky it should not be as hard as moving over a ton of blue granite by hand – hands which are like my poor body, bruised and battered. I was doing things the hard way, loading the granite onto a wheelbarrow and taking it to where I wanted it, dumbing it ,spreading it out, and repeating the process. As I got further over to the pathway  my turning circle was reduced and in delivering one load I  decided to attack the  the metal awning guide and cut my arm. Ok, that was cleaned upend plastered. I then decided that instead of walking forward I would go backward and move slightly to the left to miss the awning guide. Ok that worked and I missed the awning guide and tripped over the  water pipe and fell flat on my back. Well,  that was a surprise!!  I was not injured and apart from feeling like an idiot, I was ok, Just added another bruise to my collection. Anyway, it’s raining again today, so I’ll work in the carport  and I have some things I want to get done in the garage.  The weather forecast said “showers” but this is a very long time

The Bird bath returns

for a mere “shower”  I think the rain is on for the day. Possible a good thing because I think I need a bit of a break, although having got this far, I am anxious to see it finished. All that remains to be done is the delivery of the wood chips – that and spreading them out, of course.

Nearly There

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I am starting to get just a tad worried about my little man.  OK, he is 11 years of age – not a spring thing anymore- and you don’t expect him to go charging about like a puppy but when I took him for a walk this afternoon, he just stopped and refused to go any further.This is not the first time this has happened and several times I have noticed he has been  slowing down and carried him for a little while.  Generally this happens half way through our walk but today it happened after about 15 minutes. Chienna is a year younger but , unlike my little Maltese, shows no signs of slowing down. But the odd thing thing is that he is always excited about going for a walk and runs around in circles, then his energy seems to dwindle away and I carry him for a little while. Of course, it could be that he is nothing more than a little con-artist. and I wouldn’t put that past him. I have been working in the garden and have cleared most of the center parts of the concrete away, but digging it out is hard work and I can only manage about a section and a half at a time. The trailer is almost full so I’ll have to think about getting down to the dump in the morning. I did go to the sand yard to see just how much decorative chips I would need for the area I want covered – and at $93.5 a cubic meter – I would need something like 4 cubic meters, then another cubic meter of other material for the center. However, the center material I can get on the trailer, so I wont have to pay transport fees for that.

I have completed all the edging and cleared out the center section. I have also emptied the trailed and filled it up again. It’s been a long day, which started at 8:15 and finished at 17:06. It is now ready for the chips to be delivered on Saturday. Why Saturday? Because I will I will empty the trailer tomorrow and fill it up at the sand yard with the blue metal for the center then have the red wood chips delivered on Saturday morning and start spreading them out Saturday and Monday.

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Well, so much for the “Best Laid Plans”and everything is shot to bits. However, I have completed all of the main edging and this afternoon I will start on the center area. I wont be able to get the chips until next week mainly because I have filled up the trailer with all sorts of rubbish. There was also a setback when I discovered that the old letter box pipe was never removed – only cut down to ground level and covered up. I hit it when I tried to move the edging there. I was forced to stop, dig down to the concrete and  cut the pipe off at the base before I could move forward. That and the weather set me back a bit – and I didn’t get to Adelaide after all. Because of the hot weather then the rain then the heat again the flies have been breeding like crazy and they really a nuisance I gave up a couple of times because the personal fly spray seems to attract rather than repel them. As I said before, this is an aspect of Australia that the travel books don’t tell you about.

Once I had cleared the obstruction I was able to continue on with the edging. I have now started on the center part but I can’t do any more until I clear away the stones from that area, which I had hoped to do this week. Actually I  did hope that I would finish it this week and head off to Adelaide full of satisfaction for a job completed. But not to worry – as my dad used to tell us when we were children “when the Lord made time, he made a lot of it”. I will continue with the work today, rest Sunday and start again on Monday. Everything seems to be taking longer than I had expected it to – or perhaps I am taking longer to do things than I expected to. I finished early because I  had a call to go down and open up the church vestry to let the Technician in to service the photocopier. Little things, but hey set me back a lot of time. I look back and wonder where this week went and why I am not further forward than I am. Perhaps I have an unrealistic expectation of the time it takes to do things. Oh well, not to worry – it will get finished.