Tuesday 17 May 2011

Selling up...

The kennels idea has sadly met with too much red tape to be viable and after much consideration I have decided to sell up here and move back to the UK.

It hasn't been that easy here on my own, and as nice as the locals are, I don't have very much in common with them. I shall eternally be known as the weirdo who has dogs in the house with her! haha

I am hoping to find a live in kennel job when I return to the UK.

But in the meantime, if anyone is looking to buy a beautiful holiday home (or knows anyone that does!) then please contact me.

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Money money money....

Finding a way to earn some money here has been difficult. One of the things that I am probably most experienced at and most comfortable with is looking after dogs, so the idea of a boarding kennels has always been at the back of my mind.

A few weeks ago, when I was at a neighbourhood meeting about our mountain road, the planning guy from the local comune (council) came up to me and said that he had heard that I wanted to build a kennels (I must have mentioned it to someone ages ago, who mentioned it to someone else and as is the way of the small places here, now everyone knows everything!) Anyway, he encouraged me to go and meet with him at the town hall.

My parents have also been out for a visit this week and so together we first went to the ASL animal place to find out about the regulations involved with kennels and then to the comune. Apart from some weird height restrictions (kennels must be at least 2.5 metres high?!) it all seems like it's possible.

My aim now is to source some kennel manufacturers and then find out about all the costs involved in setting up a business here (which might prove to be prohibitive as I have heard of some tax fees running into the thousands).

But if I can pull it off, then it will be fab to be able to run a small kennels. I can offer the dogs lots of personal attention, walks and be doing something I enjoy. Plus my own dogs won't get left at home all day while I go off to work. :-)

We have had some glorious weather the last few weeks, it has been almost summer like! The dogs have enjoyed being able to spend lots of time outside, especially playing on the agility equipment that grandad built them.

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One word of caution for English drivers here. My parents took my car into Penne, and were given a fine of €80 for not having a GB sticker on the car! I have an old number plate which doesn't have the EU plate on so if there is anyone else in my position, get a GB sticker pronto!

Sunday 30 January 2011

Another snowy update..

Have been meaning to update for a while and just never got round to it! Here I am at last...

We have had some lovely sunny warm weather since the last snow dollop and then last week we had a big snow storm and a LOT of snow! The dogs loved it, my phone lines didn't and collapsed under the weight of the snow, so I was without internet of phone for a week. Luckily my friend Terri has sent me a load of great books and DVD's so I was at least entertained! Telecom Italia kept phoning every day to see if my phone was working despite me telling them that the cable was lying in the snow. Not sure how they thought that was going to be rectified without their assistance, but they did eventually send someone!

So firstly a few piccies of the snow..

My cabin slowly getting buried..

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The dogs up to their armpits..

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Kofi wading through it..

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Having some fun..

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And a really pretty shot of Shilah

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We were completely snowed in for several days and then my neighbours cleared a lot of the road with their tractor but not my drive (they did offer but it would also take a lot of the chalk with it so I declined). But my dog food delivery arrived last week and they were only able to deliver it part way so I had to tie it around myself and drag it up the rest of the way home!

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Also last month was pig killing season ( :-( ) and sometimes in the morning the sound of screaming pigs could be heard and then every kitchen in the area (apart from mine) looked like this..

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I don't think I could have something like that up in my kitchen because the dogs would just sit and stare at them all day!

Now for a couple of wolf stories....

Before the snow hit, we managed to get up to the mountain plains for a lovely picnic and came across a wolf kill with some wolf scat (poo) around it. Shilah (who is scared of wolves) was looking really uncomfortable about the whole thing and wanted to leave, but Kofi just saw FOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

This is Shilah saying 'ummm I think we should leave now, what if they come back for it?? Kofi...kets hurry up and get out of here'

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And this was Kofi 'I'm scared of nothing' s reply

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Finally just before xmas, I was walking along a track near the cabin when we saw a wolf up on the hill. Shilah saw it at the same time as me and panicked and ran behind me and Kofi was busy sniffing and hadn't yet seen it. I shouted out hoping to scare the wolf off before Kofi saw it but it didn't seem bothered by me so I told the dogs to sit and then told them to bark (wolf still unconcerned!!)so I had just decided that I would have to turn back when Kofi spotted it. He took off up the hill (with Shilah watching in HORROR) and with me calling and the wolf just stood there and watched him getting closer! At this point I was really worried because I thought if it's not going to run then what is it going to do? But thankfully, right at the last moment it took off into the trees and Kofi just came back disappointed that his new friend hadn't wanted to meet him!

And of course I didn't have a camera with me!!

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