Tag: dogs

Bigger is not always better

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

2013-01-01 07.47.00The State of South Australia covers some 983,482 sq.klm. It’s bigger than Texas but with a total population only marginally greater than  Phoenix,  I suppose we do have a lot of environment. To the west of me – the town of Cowell some 115 klms away   -the photograph is in the general direction of Cowell and there is nothing in between except the general assortment of Australian wildlife. Like many places in the USA  South Australia  punishes people who do not take the environment seriously – they die in the harsh, hot conditions of outback SA. There was three travellers died only a few weeks ago when the car they were driving in broke down and they decided that it was only twenty miles to the nearest settlement, so they could walk there for help in a 45c temperature. They  became lost and didn’t make it and their bodies were recovered only after a massive police  and ranger search. If you treat it with disrespect and are unprepared for the worst that could happen,  the far north of South Australia can be very unforgiving.  Even driving between here and Adelaide, I carry 2 x   3 litre water containers in the boot (trunk) and I always have drinking water with me in the car. When I take the dogs out during the summer months – in the morning before the heat and in the evening when it’s little cooler,,  I generally have a small backpack with a bottle of water and a bowl.

The South Australian Dog Rescue ended the year fairly well and  400 dogs have been saved from the pound and have gone to new furever homes. I have been involved in ten of those, which I have taken from here the 400 klms to the State Capital and their new owners. I hope to be heading that way sometime next week, once this heatwave breaks. At the moment it is 35c but this is expected to rise and to mid 40+c over the next few days and into the start of next week with a cool change coming mid-week.

In the garden it has generally been a tidy up and keep up the watering to what plants have survived the heat of the other week. I have not been able to replace them because it is New Year and most places are closed until today, so I will probably get over to the Garden shop  during the course of the day and have a look at what I think might survive. As I said before I have doubts about labels that say “Full Sun”

Welcome home. We missed you…..

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

A Foxy LadyI was only away for four days but it might just as well have been a month. The dogs set up a racket when I drove into the driveway and even before I emptied the car, I was on the floor playing with them.  At times I think I sort of felt like  General Custer because they did their little dog thing – run around t you in circles. It was so funny – I’m sitting on the floor they are running around me jumping in and out of my legs and every so often they would stop shower me with licks and kisses then  circle me again. She who must be obeyed just sat and watched in amazement. It t was ages before they settled down and I was able to empty the car and get my case in.  I love my dogs and I enjoy their company – they are my associates really.   The good thing is that when I was away this time,  my flowers and plants were watered. Normally she forgets to do this and I come home to dead plants, but this time she remembered.

The front of the house is starting to look nice now. During the course of this week I will start to look at the picnic area and see what I can do with that.  I have looked an a number of options and it was intended that this would be made into a clothes area so she wouldn’t have to move too far outside to hang the clothes up on a line. And no, we do not have a cloths drier because she does not like them and prefers to hang cloths on a line to dry. We did consider using the area  as is, but the crazy paving is just that – crazy – and was really not done all that well. Because she is partially disabled the ground is too uneven for her and I wouldn’t be comfortable having her even try to walk on it. I will replace and make alterations to the borders then decide what I want to do with it. I have bought her two laundry trolleys – one from the door to the dog gate and one from the dog gate to the Hills Hoist clothes

This is my Main Man - the MalteseTerrorist!
This is my Main Man – the MalteseTerrorist!

line.

Anyway, that’s me until next year.  The  next meeting of the Presbytery is not due until 2nd February, so all being well I should not have to  be away for a while. This is good – for me – for the dogs – for the plants. The meeting lasted two just over two hours – that’s  900 klms round trip for two and a quarter hours.   We have six meetings per year – five in the metropolitan district  (I go there) one in the country (they come here). There is only one place that I will not travel too, but five out of six is not a bad record.

Round 2 begins

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

This morning dawned fresh and clear and until about an hour ago it was still so.  About then I started to see that the sky was dulling down and dark clouds were slowly moving in and sure enough, here we are in the middle of another thunderstorm. This is passing strange – we don’t generally have three in a row like this. Two in one day was bad enough but three in two days is trying the patience just a tad.  There are about 5000 homes without power – 100year old trees were picked up thrown over, along the main streets power-lines are down due to falling trees all of which I said yesterday, but this new storm, if it develops like the last one, could cause more damage. However, having said that, I don’t think it will. It doesn’t have the  same’ feel’ as the ones did yesterday. According to the statistics there were 120,000 lightening strikes across the State.  Anyway, Chienna is in the laundry on her bed and the little man is curled up on my bed. The reason for this is that he must have sneaked in and no one saw him. He was too quiet and it was only a few minutes ago that I went into my room and saw him. I didn’t have the heart to move him so he’s still there.   Yesterday was the first time I have ever seen him concerned during  thunder. Normally he’s not too fussed but yesterday it was very loud and the lightening was very bright.

The “flooding” was a lot of water on the roads, in gardens and elsewhere – it was NOT gushing through people’s houses, it did not threaten lives, it was at best ankle deep and apart from a few smallish puddles, it cleared away very quickly as the storm water drains caught up. The damage we did experience was caused by very high winds that threw down trees and brought down power lines. No one was hurt or injured, but it is interesting that this is the third year in a row that we have had a thunderstorm of this nature right at the very start of summer.

All very interesting, really!!!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

What’s interesting?  Well to send a few hours writing  and placing photographs  and save to drafts, then come back a little while later and press trash instead of edit.  Oops. It said I could recover it but I could not for the life of me find out how to do this, so I’ve sort of given up. And the oddest thing is that I cannot remember what I was writing about – well I sort of do to  a point, but it’s long gone now. However, it does give me a chance to talk about  the South Australian Dog Rescue. A dog was recently rescued from the pound – which as I said before is a kill pound.  This poor Poodle was  really in such a mess it was difficult to imagine how any person.with any degree of compassion,  could allow this to  happen. The fur of the animal was so badly matted that the vet  was  present when the groomer started to cut the coat. The matting was so bad that the poor animal is left with bald patches on his skin because the intensity of the matting had pulled the roots of the fur out in these places.  The vet  believes that the fur will never grow back in these areas. The dog will stay with a foster carer for a few weeks until it recovers then it will be vaccinated and desexed and once it is over all that trauma it will be put up for adoption.  Until then, it will stay with a foster carer. I have a friend who has recently adopted a dog and the  even after  quite a few months the dog still has  marks where it was chained up around the neck.No, don’t ask me how people could be so unkind, I honestly do not know. My friend and her husband are over the moon with their dog and were pleased to get the  adoption papers  last Thursday. I will take it out for a walk for them tonight along with one of my own – my son will have the other one.

We had a fundraising event for the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS) yesterday and although I do not know at this stage how we fared, I should imagine we did well since we were very busy. The SADR had a stall not far from us. It was a lovely afternoon and a very flat out busy three and a half hours – 5pm – 8:30pm. I should say that the event yesterday was the Christmas Pageant and we were at the After-Pageant Fare in the gardens.

Before going out to the gardens  I spent the morning and early afternoon in my garden. I decided to remove the old edging, which was looking a bit “faded and Jaded” After ripping out the old edging I discovered that the bolts I had were too big so I will now have to wait until Monday to get into the hardware store and get the right size. Not to worry, it will look nice when completed.  Anyway, with a sort of unhappy story to start off with, I thought I would  insert a photographs of a ‘ Man in His Office”

The keys to life!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring–it was peace.”

― Milan Kundera

The weather over the last week has been odd, to say the least. It’s still cool in the evenings but the days are starting to warm up. But it has also been odd in that we had one day where the temperature shot up to  41c – crashed overnight and we had a gale and a thunderstorm.  In some parts of the State the Country Fire Service are still fighting fires that were started by the lightening strikes during that storm. I have been ill, herself has been ill and we ended up taking her to hospital because she had difficulty breathing. She was put on a ventolin machine for about an hour and that helped.  I have been unwell to the point where I have not been taking any calls and not moving out of the house much. However, I am well on the mend and have started getting out to the garden again. Even started taking the dogs out for a walk. And that’s the odd thing about the weather – it was a lovely day yesterday but quite cold when I took the dogs out in the late evening. I came back for a a jacket.  It’s been odd. During the week  I was involved in a Fundraiser Event for the Royal Flying Doctors Service and whilst it was warm and pleasant during the day, the minute the sun started to go down, the breeze got up and it became cold. Fortunately I had a jacket in the car that I could get. I suppose,really this is typical for this area and our closeness to the desert. In summer the hot wind comes off the desert and pushes the temperature up, but at  the moment it is cold.  Very odd indeed.

Most of the time I have been spending out has been cleaning up, since I am surrounded by trees – tree leaves and wind don’t go too well together. At least we are not in Queensland that is once again being battered by storms. We are too close to the desert and we really don’t do floods – the occasional  puddle with lots of water, but not floods. This cold and damp weather seems to have gone on forever, so it will be nice to  spend some time talking about the heat for a change  :o)

And they call the wind — Annoying!!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The temperature has started to rise and today was a nice 26c. However, not a lot of work was done outside because although the temp. is fair, it’s blowing a gale. Dry with high winds – this, if it keeps up, will mean dust storms over the next few days. As it is, trying to keep the place clear of dust is a full time job at the moment.  I have cemented the washing line holder into place  and although it is a tab too high for herself, I will take it back out over the week end and cut some off the bottom so that it will be easier for her to work with. However, until such time as I can get the area  completed I will probably hang out and take in her washing because the ground is too uneven for her to walk on. But this is South Australia – either wet, dry with high winds, or stinking hot (45c) with a hot wind coming off the desert.  Gets a bit tiring at times, but I prefer that to the cold and the wet – as do most Australians.

We came to a decision that we will not move the washing area after all. The difficulty in  rebuilding the area I had in mind for her was just too great so we decided to buy a new rotary hoist and redo the present area. We  also decided to buy a second clothes trolley so that she can use one  from the back door to the dog gate, then lift the wash basket onto the second trolley at the other side of the gate and take that to her washing line – repeat process with dry washing on way back.  Now that the better weather is starting – despite the winds and the frustration of  debris from trees, it is starting to get quite nice outside, so I will be able to get out and get on with some work.  One of the wettest winters on record, a few weeks into spring and the farmers are complainig about the lack of rain. You can’t win with some people since it is only a short time ago that they were complaining that the ground was too wet to plant.

“Aye, aye the year’s awaking, the fire’s among the ling”

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Winter is slowly loosing its grip and we are starting to have a few warm days in the north of the state. I did, however, spend a few days in the city for a funeral. The funeral was of a dear friend of ours  who helped our church look to the future when everything around us looked pretty bleak and people in Adelaide gave us three months (if we were lucky) before we would have to close the doors. That was twelve years ago and here we are, through God.s grace, still flourishing. Adelaide is a strange place and unlike the other major states, South Australia is a one city state – 77%  (1.3 Million) of the population of 1.5 million, live in and around the City of Adelaide, so Adelaide people were not really not too concerned about a small, relatively unimportant, country church. They still are not – something that was brought home to me at the funeral judging  by the remarks that were made.

Brian was one of the very few that were willing to travel the 400 klms from Adelaide to help us out. The current hierarchy are still not interested in travelling north and believe that having to come up here  once a year for a meeting is an imposition that they can do without. We have people who, regrettably,  tell you what hey think you want to hear which may not necessiraly be when you need to know. We will miss Brian and there are not many of the few left now and those of “The Old Guard” that are left are piling up the years. Brian was in his mid 80s.

With the warmer weather starting to come in I should be able to get back out and get some work done. The trial has been the back garden and the trees, which, because of the constant wind, has been a nightmare to keep tidy. I must also get the front finish off and the driveway water blasted clean. So, as the weather improves I have a lot of work ahead and  “she who must be obeyed” has decided that the inside of the house could do with a lick of paint.  I really don’t know how I ever found time to go to work.

Slow week.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Likes a nice bed!I have been trying to tackle the weed problem as best as I can at the moment, but with the rain we have been having, it’s not so easy. I did say the other day that they seem to just spring up overnight and the daily dose of rain is not really helping. Oddly enough our weather seems to be  somewhat European at the moment in that  much of the UK is cold and wet. For us here in South Australia we seem to have had a very ordinary summer and an early start to winter with more rain than we generally get at this time of year. But I take heart from the fact that I am not an orphan when it comes to weed problems since the grounds at the church  are starting to show an influx of weeds.

We were invited to a 60th Wedding Anniversary last night and on show was a very elaborate photograph album which contained  letters from : The Governor General,  The Prime Minister,  The State Premier, The State Governor; The Federal MP for the area, the State MP for the area and the Leader of the Federal Opposition – very impressive. And no, there was no letter from the Queen. In this day and age, this is quite an achievement, but then, they are pre-boomers so it’s really not that unusual for that generation and the generation that followed  even although the boomers sometimes get a bad name.

Because it’s cold at night I have been letting the dogs into the laundry earlier than usual. Once they bed down, that’s generally them until about 6:30 am. I give them their breakfast treat and let them out.  They are quite comfortable in their houses and their padded beds and  the houses are under the pergola out of the wind and rain. Actually, I think they are  more comfortable in their houses than in the laundry, but sleeping on a padded bed in the laundry is now a habit and by 10 pm they are generally at the door anyway. We are expecting more rain over the next few days.

Weeds and yet more weeds.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

It had been forecast to rain all this week. Monday I was out at a meeting and we had a serious storm. The lightening was so intense that at times it was  daylight. My wife brought the dogs inside to the laundry and set  the bed  up for them. The Maltese just went back to sleep but poor Chienna  was going gaga. With her sensitive hearing the thunder really frightened her.  She was so terrified that she attacked the ironing board – we have no idea why she did this since she has never done anything like that before. Annabell gave her half a tablet to try and calm her down. I think I will have to go back and see the Vet because we have had these tablets – from him – for a while now and she still gets seriously stressed out. The rain, by the way, was fairly heavy at times and I believe we received some 35mm overnight. It had been calm today – dull and overcast but no rain, although rain was part of the forecast.

I think the thing that is annoying me most at the moment is the aftermath of the rain – weeds – lots of weeds!! They seem to just appear out of nowhere and they are everywhere, growing almost overnight.  There’s no point in using weed killer because it needs  few dry days to do its work and at the moment we are not getting that. It looked clear so I went out for a rid on the bike. Was only halfway through the circuit when it started to rain. No point in turning back – just as quick to finish, so I did, and came home all nice and  dripping wet and I swear even the dogs looked at me as if I was an idiot.

Rain, snow, ice and frost – and that’s the good parts!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

This was when it was almost at its best.It’s been raining  since about 11pm last night. I have not really had a lot of sleep because I have a crazy Foxy Lady with very sensitive hearing and the loud rain on the pergola roof convinced her that “The Sky is Falling!”. The Maltese Terrorist did , as any good terrorist should, just pretend it wasn’t happening and go to sleep. But Chienna cried for most of the night. She would calm down for a bit and I would start to doze off, then she would start up again as the rain increased. Noise and darkness – not a good combination. At the moment she is calm.  I don’t know why I even bother to mention the rain since it seems to be happening quite often. I think we are having so much rain of late because someone “Up There” has confused us with Austria. According to the news tonight it has been the coldest and wettest start to winter in 24 years. Adelaide had a month of rain in two days and Mount Remarkable – thirty miles from here – had snow. That’s just scary.. I did go out on the bike this morning but even with extra clothing, it was just too cold for me. After one tour of the area, I gave up and came home.  The frost on the roof of the cars I went past did little to warm me up. I went to the travel agent and said that I wanted to go to Scotland for the Summer. She said ” that was last Wednesday and you’ve missed it” Oh well. On the garden front, nothing much has been done. I did plant a number of rose bushes and the Standards should be in this week sometime.   Given the cold and wet weather, that’s about as much as I’ve managed to do between showers and frost.