More snow..

We had lots more snow over the last couple of days. The dogs really enjoyed playing in it and it tired them out bouncing around in it (especially looking for stuff I had buried in the snow for them to find!)







The snow did bring it's own problems though.

I decided I needed to do some washing as I was running out of socks..



And I hung it in the porch thinking that was warm enough, but it all froze solid! (note the icicles on the tea towel) haha





And then my water froze up again. So I resorted to melting snow, it takes an unbelievable amount of snow to get just a few inches of water!! I felt like I was spending half the day going back and forth scooping snow off the car.

Unusual way of filling the kettle...haha



My snow melting and then heating up for washing up water.




It has started to melt now and turn to mush and my pipes also have thawed out so we have water back.

On a positive note, my woodburner has been totally fab in keeping the cabin warm, even when it was -15C windchill it was toasty inside!

SNOW!!! (finally)

After weeks of being jealous at all the snow the UK had, we finally got some of the white stuff for ourselves today! The boys were both really excited (although Kofi spent a lot of the time eating it)

Weeeeeee snowwwwwwwwwwww!



On our forest walk..



Being made to pose by the logs (again!)



Eating it (at least he is at the table eating)



Those were all taken quite early this morning before the sun came out, but later on it was even more lovely with a bright blue sky..



And I got a couple of really nice pictures of the boys by the oak tree..





The snow wasn't without it;s catastrophes though. First, despite being wrapped in bubble wrap, the water meter froze and burst. So I had no water while I waited for the man from ACA to come and install a new meter. He actually came pretty quickly and put in a replacement in minutes. But stopping it from freezing again has come at a cost. Kofi has a beloved Octopus (shown in the pic when he was still a puppy). It was kind of on it's last legs (literally, Kofi had ripped off about 4 of them) so I decided to sacrifice the octopus and cut it's head open and jam it onto the water meter. Hopefully the fluffy filling will stop it from freezing.

Kofi was less than impressed though and was forlornly sniffing around the meter cupboard (he knows it's in there)- what he doesn't know though is that Santa (AKA Granny) has bought him a nice new one for Christmas so all is not lost.

The Octopus in happier days..



I haven't been feeling that well this week, I had my wisdom tooth out last Thursday and have several stitches now in it's place. The swelling and pain actually wasn't too bad but the last few days I have felt very tired with a fuzzy head and little appetite. It might be down to the anti biotics or it could be down to the weird temperature change. Last week it was 21C and this week down to -7C.

That's all for now, hope you enjoyed the snowy pictures..

First trip to the vets..

We had our first experience with an Italian vet this week. Kofi managed to rip his dew claw, which doesn't sound like a big thing but is really painful as the quick is exposed. I phoned the vet (hate talking on the phone in Italian, but he understood me ok) and he said the nail needed clipping right back but as it would hurt a lot, Kofi would need to be sedated. So he arrived at my house and gave Kofi a jab to put him to sleep, which took effect really fast. Then he put a tourniquet on his leg to minimise the bleeding and then clipped the nail and quick right back (ouch). Then another jab to wake him up again, he was totally zonked out but the first thing he did was thump his tail when he heard my voice even though his eyes were still closed. Bless him. The vet stayed with me until he was up and about and I was really relieved that he used the same drugs that they use in the UK. I know the standard of vets isn't quite the same here in terms of equipment and I did worry that he might come with chloroform or something! But I was pleased with him and he seemed really competent. Phew!

Anyway, here is the brave soldier with his big brother..




It's not been anywhere near as cold as the UK here, and I have been soooo jealous of all the snow that my friends back home have been enjoying!! But we have had a few days cold enough to have the stove on in the day, and I make the most of it by cooking on it when I have it on. This was carrot and pumpkin soup.




It has been really windy here again, it's not that it's windy everyday but there are days when it starts and then is a continuous roar for maybe 48 hours. It gets tiring listening to it and I get a bit worried about the house! I might become a real life Dorothy and wake up in a new land one day...

The wind keeps blowing the shutters lose and then they bang against the windows and I have to rush out and lift them off (usually at 2am). So until my parents come out and we work out how to pin them back effectively, I have just conceded defeat and taken them all off, the only other option is to close them when it's windy but as i'm not a mole I don't really want to sit in the dark all day!

Here is a little video of the wind for you... (never put a video on here before so if it works I can bore people with dog training videos- haha)




I also took some pictures of some dog training and will leave you with this great one of Shilah doing an alert on command. I might attach it to my gate to keep away the hunters. haha