Stranded!!!

Well it seems as though we are now stranded at home. Today has been constant snow, we have no electric (meaning no heating etc either) from about 8am until nearly 3 this afternoon and no mobile phone network either. This afternoon I took a walk up to the next village which is about a mile away to get some matches (so I could at least light the hob), but that didn't provide me with any enthusiasm that this might improve over the next few days. The roads up there are like here, pretty much unusable, cars are just abandoned in the roads where people are just getting stuck.

It really couldn't have come at a worse time though, Conor is due home on Thursday and flies into Birmingham, as it stands there isn't any chance of me getting out to get him. I think its the worse snow fall we have had here. As if that isn't bad enough, we are meant to be moving house on Monday but I'm not holding my breath as I doubt a removal lorry will get up here.

Anyway above are some pics of the doggies in the snow, they are enjoying it at least! (Brian has decided is a bit too deep now!)

Vans and Snow don't Go!

Well today has turned out to be a really s**t day! The snow has continued to fall on and off this morning but as several cars had been in and out in our road I thought the outside world might not be so bad.

I was due to start work at 3 so decided to set off at 2 giving me an extra 35 mins travelling time. I got about 3 miles away from home (which took ages) and in that time got the van stuck twice, the second time it just wouldn't bugde so I had to reverse down the hill a bit and turn around to head back for home. My mobile phone signal has been a bit iffy today (probably due to the weather) but what a surprise, when I was stuck it had gone off. I made my way back home, getting stuck on a hill once more and the only way to move was to zig zag slowly up the hill. I got back into our road and got stuck about 2 metres from our house so had to be pushed a little way and the van is now abandoned outside our gate!

It won't be going anywhere for a few days until some of this snow has gone (and yes I know we are forecast it for the rest of the week but I'm happy being in denial over that one for now).

Me and Conor had been thinking about getting another 4x4 at some point as a second run around vehicle, it may be arriving sooner than we had planned!

Megan has found a good snow game to play, she runs as fast as she can, throws her front legs forward and back ones out behind and skids along in the snow like a sledge! It's quite amusing to watch.

The pictures are from last year, I'm not loving the snow enough to go out and photograph them today, maybe tomorrow when I have stopped being a grump!

First Lot of Snow

Well yesterday morning we unfortunately woke up to a blanket of snow. Actually it didn't turn out to be too much of a problem, it provided a lovely back drop for some wedding photos it was just very very cold! It pleased the dogs to have the white stuff back, they do love it and are especially pleased to find its still there this morning.

We currently have a skip on our front garden so that we can get rid of some rubbish that we seem have accumulated and the malis think its the best game ever to play chase around it and with snow its even more fun! The video is of the girls playing in the snow yesterday, Kody had worn himself our playing chase with them earlier and Brian had as usual just woken up so wasn't really in the playing mood! (Sorry its poor quality, I only had my phone to hand)

Will It Be A Repeat Of Last Year?

I'm led to believe according to the weather forcast that we may be in for some snow over the next few days. As much as I like the snow I dont think I could face another winter of it like last year, we ended up will almost 3 full months of it here so i'm really crossing my fingers that it doesn't happen over the next few days, especially as I have a wedding to photograph this weekend!

Course Complete

On each Sunday throughout October and November I have been on my level 2 swimming teachers course. Today was our last day with both our 2 hour written exam and 2 hour practical assessment. I have passed the practical side as we got those results today but I  have to wait another couple of weeks to get the results of the written exam. Whilst it was an enjoybale course and I learnt a lot, I am so glad its over!

On the Subject of Swimming, Brian and Megan both had good swims on Friday. Brian is now swimming with just a harness and not a jacket (Its only taken about 4 years to get to that stage!). Megan is getting more and more confident every time we go which is good, this week she even gave Ann a slobbery kiss! I am going to be taking some photos for Ann for her new website so this week I had a go at photographing our dogs swimming. It is much harder than it would seem as the lens steams up the second you get in the door. I did get a couple of good photos of our dogs and I have some new ideas to try when we next go. Hopefully after a few more sessions i'll be ready to photograph their own dogs in the pool.

Progress...

After a successful day of weave training with Megan I thought I'd post a video of her progress so far. I have videoed every session we have done and it is clear to see how much of an improvement she has made. Her performance isn't perfect yet but at the moment she is about 1.5 seconds quicker through the weaves than she first was which is obviously a good thing!

I began some jump grids training with Heidi and Megan today too and it went well. Heidi did have a couple of poles (even though they were on small) but that is due to her getting over excited and not concentrating, when she concentrates she does really well, its a work in progress though!

Tomorrow Brian and Megan have hydrotherapy and this weekend I actually have Saturday off!!! I think I might go Christmas Shopping though as I haven't started yet and could do with getting a chunk of it out of the way as it is fast approaching yet again.

Training With Lucy

I had been a bit conscious that we hadn't been to the field to do any training for nearly 2 weeks due to bad weather so on Monday we managed to squeeze in an hour before it got dark. I thought Meg might have forgotten her single stride weaves but she is doing it every time when the V's are open, its just closing them up now thats taking its time. Still we have all winter and i'm confident she will get there.

Today we had a couple of hours of 1-2-1 training with Lucy. Each dog had 40 mins each. With Heidi and Megan we mainly worked on tightening turns and my handling (which at times was poor!), and with Kody we did a bit on contacts and then some jumping and handling. It made a nice change to train with someone else as we no longer go to club. I think in the new year we may have a session every couple of weeks for a while.

Tomorrow all being well I plan to get to the field in the morning and start some jump grids training, mainly focusing on Heidi as she knocked a lot of poles today so it was a gentle reminder that we could do with attempting to sort it!

Wet & Windy At The Beach

As I suspected the weather was terrible today meaning no training for the dogs. We did however have our beach trip. I am very glad I invested in waterproof trousers or I would have been soaked! We didn't go all the way down to the sea as it is quite a long way and looked very choppy today. There was a thin layer of water all the way up to the sand dunes so the dogs still got to get wet.

We walked a good way along the beach along the sand dunes so that I could have a little bit of shelter from the wind and rain. The dogs splashed around and ran up and down the sand dunes and generally had a good time. We had about 10 minutes of sunshine where there was a rainbow but then it was back to dark clouds and more rain. Needless to say, we didn't see anyone at all!

Not sure what's going on with Brian's ears, maybe he is trying to look like a Mali too!

Jumping Grids

At the start of October Heidi was due to go on a jumping grids workshop but unfortunately Conor had to go away the same day and so we couldn't go. As we have had a pretty wet and miserable day I have begun watching Susan Salos jumping DVD so that I have some idea what to practice with Heidi to try and combat those knocked poles!!!

Tomorrow should be our training day at the field but having checked the weather I think it's due to be wet all week so the dogs may get a week off this week. Still it gives me the chance to plan what I want to do for next week should it be dry.

The dogs are full of beans at the moment, mainly I think from being indoors much earlier now as its dark and with it being cold I'm less inclined to leave the back door open all day for them to come and go while i'm in and they end up lazing around the house. Tomorrow I plan to wrap up and put on my wellies and waterproofs and take the dogs to the beach. They'd end up wet in the sea anyway so the rain wont make much difference to them!

Not Loving The Dark!!!

I'm certainly not loving the change in the clocks this week! It's just so dark, I keep thinking its time for bed and its only 8pm! On the plus side it has been light when I have been walking the dogs before work but I know that wont last long.

Brian has finally been given the all clear by the vet which is great news and he celebrated by going to hydrotherapy yesterday. I took both Brian and Megan, Meg watched Brian swim and got very excited from watching him. I had to put Brian away though while Megan had her swim as he just whined to get back in!

We have managed to get some training in at the field on Tuesday morning but it was so windy I had to pet the jump wings in so decided to just work on flick flacks as it doesn't require too many jumps. Megan also did some weaves, I have decided to leave the first and last 2 poles quite open and we are currently working with the middle 4 totally upright (having been successful with the middle 2 and 3) and the others are at a slight V. She is struggling with the 4 though so we are not ready to move on yet, the good thing is she seems to always be entering with a single footed action now and I'm confident she will get it in the end.

We are without our van at the moment, last winter the heater packed up and it spent 5 days with a local garage while they played around with it but they didn't end up fixing it. now that we have got some cold mornings I'm struggling to get the scre

en cleared so it has gone to VW to be fixed. Good news is they have discovered the problem (2 hours labour at £60 an hour!) and tomorrow they will be replacing the broken part. I have got a hire van so I can go out but the dogs can't go far as we have no cages and I don't have enough crates for them all so they are having a lazy day today and tomorrow with just some walks to the field.