Eating Olives With My Dogs

Selling up...

2011-05-17T06:37:00.001-07:00

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.

Money money money....

2011-02-16T10:11:00.000-08:00

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.

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!

Another snowy update..

2011-01-30T12:37:00.000-08:00

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..

The dogs up to their armpits..

Kofi wading through it..

Having some fun..

And a really pretty shot of Shilah

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!

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..

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'

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

nomnomnomnom

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!!

More snow..

2010-12-18T00:56:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-12-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

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..

2010-12-02T03:36:00.000-08:00

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

Happy things and sad things..

2010-11-20T08:19:00.000-08:00

Sad things first. Fonzie the cockerel got eaten by something. :-(
I let all the chickens out one morning and then around 11am I went down to the chicken area and there were all his white feathers on the ground. The wolf/fox just came in daylight and got him. This means I couldn't let the chickens out any more.

Then a few days later we had a storm, roaring winds which lasted around 48hr. By the end of it the top of my chicken run and the roof beams had collapsed. The run needs to be built with stronger supports and set into concrete to withstand the wind here so with a heavy heart I decided to give my chickens to my neighbours. I miss having them around but I need to build them a better bigger run. Especially if I can no longer let them free range. Hopefully next year if I can afford it.

So now some happy things...

Chris bought me some lovely prayer flags (which you can read about here.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_flag)

I have just hung out 2 for now because I'm not sure how they will stand up to the wind.

And the other nice thing this week is the amount of rainbows I have seen. Those with dogs probably know about this but there is a story that when our animal friends die they wait for us at a place called 'Rainbow Bridge' and so some believe that seeing a rainbow is a way of them connecting with Earth from Heaven. It certainly seems that whenever I have a bad day, I get a rainbow. And some days this week I have seen as many as 6 or 7 a day.

Here are just some of the different rainbows I have seem from my cabin...

Cloud rainbow (also known as sun dog)

Double Rainbow (second one is very faint but above the brighter one)

Looking DOWN on a rainbow

And this one taken a few days ago which I love especially as my cabin is called 'Rainbows End'

Anyone for some olive oil?

2010-11-14T10:45:00.000-08:00

My friend Chris is here from England so we have had a lovely couple of days. We went up to the mountain plains today to see if the sheep and the dreaded Maremma (live stock guarding dogs) have gone down to lower pastures and they had so we were safe to walk about, yay!

Chris with the boys

Kofi decided he wanted to be part of this monument (which is to remember all the shepherds who had died on the mountain)

Then we came across a wolf kill (and some wolf scat) which the dogs were really interested in and they both went into super sniffing mode..

It's olive harvesting time here and all alongside the roads the nets and pickers can be seen. Chris had asked how they pick the olives and as this is Italy and people are always falling over themselves to show you their traditions we were whisked away to watch both some olive picking and how they make the oil before we knew what was happening.

The nets are placed under the trees to collect the fallen olives and then the pickers go up the ladders with little plastic combs and brush out the olives...

Then the nets get tipped into crates and the crates onto the tractor..

The workers get 7 litres if oil a day and pick from 7am to 4.30pm..

This then gets taken to the oil press where the leaves are separated and then the olives are crushed by big stone wheels (now mechanical but once pulled by mules). The paste is then out onto these round things (don't know what they are made off- haha)

And then all these round things are stacked and then for 2 hours are pressed together so the oil all drips out. It was fascinating to watch and the owner gave us a bottle of freshly produced oil to take home and try. They didn't seem to mind the intrusion of 2 English people who wanted to come and be nosey and see how oil was made..!

Birthday boy

2010-11-05T03:43:00.000-07:00

Kofi turned ONE last week, I don't know where the time has gone as he still seems (and looks) like a puppy to me! :-)

Trying his grown up pose..

I decided to take the boys to the beach for Kofi's birthday as he has never seen the sea and Shilah loves it. Thought he might be a bit worried about the waves but fear is not in Kofi's vocabulary and he just dived straight in after Shilah.

The beach was actually a bit disappointing as it was built up with loads of cafe's and bars. I was hankering after a windswept beach in the middle of nowehere!

We also had the first snow last week on the mountains, it has partially melted now but they looked beautiful with snow on!! Can't wait for more!

Forest colours

2010-11-01T07:29:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post as I need to take the dogs for a walk before it gets dark, but I wanted to share some pictures of the lovely Autumn colours of the forest.

It changes daily and there are some really vivid colours that the camera hasn't quite captured.

Bits and bobs

2010-10-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

I was thinking today that I don't think I have introduced the chickens on here yet! I had 6 originally but one was killed by a wolf/fox and so for a while I didn't let them out. But they always clamber at the gate so the last few days I have been letting them free range again which they love! I have also adopted a cockerel from my neighbours as he was getting bullied by a bigger cockerel. His name is Fonzie. :-)

It's difficult to decide whether freedom and quality of life is more important than safety but as they so love scratching about all day in the long grass I chose the former.

The only problem is that they don't like to go in until it's almost dark and I want them in before. So Kofi comes to the rescue and herds them in for me. I haven't taught him to do this, he just does it naturally (he is such a clever boy!). Shilah is scared of the chooks so he stays well away! haha

Bringing back the cheeky cockerel who has made a run for it..

rounding the rest up..

Herding them home having rounded them up..

It was sooooo damp and misty last week it was awful! For 3 days and nights it was like we were stuck in a permanent cloud, and everything was damp!

Sometimes I could barely see my veggie patch from the house and it was so damp that hundreds of snails attached themselves to the side of the house. I hated not being able to see the mountains for days on end and did I mention that it was damp?!

The snails also started to eat my pumpkins so I decided to pick them and bring them in. My neighbours pumpkins failed this year so I gave them 2 big ones and then kept these ones for me...

So far I have made some soup, toasted the seeds and experimented with making some sweet pie filling and putting it in a jar. I am going to see how that keeps before making any more incase it all goes off!

Some miraculous news arrived today, I might be getting my poles put in for my phone line next week! This is about the 9th date I have been given so I'm not completely convinced but the pole man did come to the house today and arrange things so there is a better chance than usual! Another miracle was that he didn't mind the dogs (most Italians are scared of them) and even asked me to let them out while they were barking at him through the window. Then he stayed for an hour playing frisbee with Shilah! A day of miracles indeed!!

The weather has turned a bit colder and now afternoons look like this...

Can't see the wood for the...

2010-10-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

With winter approaching we took off to the forest to start stocking up for winter (privately owned forest). All the trees we cut were either already dead or had fallen over in the wind.

Here is some of the wood back at home..

Me trying out the new chainsaw (not so keen on doing this as i'm a bit scared of it!)

Dad doing some chainsawing

Because my stove is so small all the logs have to be cut up pretty small so after cutting with the saw, every log had to be chopped into quarters with the axe.

A sea of wood...

The weather has turned in the last few days so i'm glad we got the wood all cut as it's been so damp that we have had to have the stove on to dry things out a bit!

W.I.N.D!!!!

2010-09-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

When I first came to see the land there was no mention of wind....after I had signed the deal, my neighbours began talking about not just one wind but something called the 'seven winds'. I still haven't completely understood what this is, if its a scale of wind severity or if it's the directions a wind can come from. But to put it plainly it gets very very very windy here! It's not windy everyday but it can come out of nowhere, be very strong and then just disappear in a second.

Back in June my dad built me a picnic table. When the neighbours saw it they tutted and mentioned the wind. It's a wooden picnic table we thought....surely it will be ok?

All was well until one night at the end of August when the wind picked up, all my shutters blew free of their catches and started banging against the windows, if I opened my front door EVERYTHING blew off the walls. It was a long and noisy night with the wind roaring past the house. In the morning all was calm. And I opened my door to a lovely blue sky and a big gap where the table once stood. I found it smashed to bits in a nearby valley. Should have listened to the locals!

The worrying part is that the neighbours said that the wind was only a breeze compared to the wind that comes off the Gran Sasso in winter! Heeeellllllp!

Anyway, undeterred my dad made another table with much thicker planks and they bought it out with them (dismantled) from England! It is lovely and much heavier, and this time we concreted it down!!

The boys showing how sturdy the table is. :-)

In other news.....

It is hunting season here (boo!!) and although everywhere I walk is national park and so there is no hunting allowed, I thought it better to be safe than sorry with the boys. Especially as the locals think Kofi looks like a wolf! So now when we are out and about in the forest the boys wear their jackets.

We have also been busy fencing off the bottom end of my land, so that no hunters can come up my track and also the boys can't go off scaring anyone going past on their tractor.

Safely behind the new gate...

Amazing sky..

2010-09-09T00:37:00.001-07:00

I took the boys for a last run about before it got dark last night and the sky was just amazing...

First there was a rainbow in the clouds (believe this is known as a sun dog which is very apt)

And then all around the clouds were a mixture of pinks and yellows and blue with rays coming down. My photo's don't really do it justice but you get the idea..!

With my slow connection it sometimes takes a while to upload pictures to this blog and as I have no way of knowing if anyone is actually reading it, it would be great if people left comments sometimes so that I don't feel like I am just talking to myself. haha

You are what you eat...

2010-08-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

And if that's true then I'm a courgette!! After planting 24 courgette plants I have been swamped with them. haha The freezer is now stuffed full of them and I multiple jars of pickled courgette and courgette chutney (both really nice).

I really didn't hold out much hope for my veg patch this year because I was so late in arriving and didn't have time to get the soil ready properly or to look after it once I did seed. But I have been amazed at how fast and how well everything grew!

Here is a picture from the patch about a month ago, it has now been extended out to accommodate winter stuff.

And here is the amount I normally pick every morning although with variation - (except for courgettes- they are always there!)

And the other night my neighbour helped me pick my first watermelon, which was huge at 18kg! And sweet and crunchy to eat..!

I have been busy trying to preserve everything and have found some great recipes in the process. Today I made some green tomato chutney..

Here are all the ingredients chopped up (tomatoes. onions, sugar, vinegar, chilli and raisins)

And the finished product. I have so many tomatoes that I will make another batch tomorrow.

As well as stuff I have grown, there are also some free food to be had including tons of blackberries. So today I made my third batch of blackberry jam.

Really fresh tasting, yummy jam!

Tomato bottling...

2010-08-20T02:18:00.001-07:00

The other day was tomato bottling day at my neighbours and I went along to help (a 6am start for some reason!)

Already the night before we had chopped all the tomatoes in half and roasted them in this huuuuge wood oven overnight.

Then they had to be drained and then passed through this machine, which peels them and pours the juice out the other end.

I then stirred in basil and salt with what is quite possibly the biggest spoon in the world!

Then we used old beer bottles to pour the juice into..

And then the tops went on..

The first batch (every family makes hundreds of bottles per year for pasta sauce!)

And finally the bottles get put in this old drum and boiled over the fire for 30 minutes.

And there you have it, pasta sauce all year round!

It's a dogs life..

2010-08-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

The dogs have settled in well and don't really seem to have noticed that they have moved country! Except from Kofi has found the joy of lizards, and loves to watch them, and leads are now a thing of the past as they are just free to go where they like all day long.

We spent most of the early weeks going to and fro between the cabin and the rental house and Shilah decided he hated the rental house and spent most of his time in the car or by the car waiting until we came back to the new house. Each time we turned off the tarmac road onto the dirt track to come up the mountain Shilah started barking and whining and spinning about in the car with excitement. Thankfully, now that he realises this is actually his home and he is here all the time, he has stopped doing it (or I would have had to buy ear plugs!)

Kofi has grown into his ears at long last and is becoming a very handsome young man (although I'm obviously biased). Both of them are a bit over zealous in guarding the house and property and so I am going to fence off the land that leads down to the track (as this is the route any people will come). They don't stray anywhere but they do race down the hill barking at anyone who might happen to be trying to come within a 100 mile radius of THEIR garden!

Just a few pictures of the dogs in their new place..

On one of their favourite walks..

Shilah on a hay bale in the garden

Kofi looking grown up

Shilah eating Kofi's ear (!)

Back online - sort of!

2010-08-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have not posted in so long, I was expecting to have internet by now but have been advised that this might take another 6 months (!) so have managed to get a dongle.

I did originally take pictures as we went along with everything but it seems like too much now to go through everything and it all seems to have happened so long ago!

So I thought in this post, I would just briefly recap the house saga and then show some pictures of the finished cabin and then over the next week or so I will post different pictures/stories from around the place.

Although I was told that the cabin would be finished by the end of May, it wasn't. When we arrived there were no doors, no windows and no floor! Eventually after many false starts I got some windows, but still no doors. It all dragged on a bit longer than expected but I did get a free veranda out of it by way of an apology. And the builder paid the fee on our rental home which was just as well as we ended up staying there for almost 6 weeks! Anyway, at last it was all done and here is the finished result. :-)

So this is the finished cabin from the outside.

The lounge

Kitchen

My bedroom (haven't bothered with spare room as it just has a wardrobe in, and some gardening stuff until I get a shed)

View from lounge window..

I will post some more tomorrow!

Ready for the off...

2010-05-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

Has been a busy few days here, saying goodbye to everyone and packing things up. We managed to get most of the stuff in my dads car but not all, but got all the important things in anyway!

My own little car is groaning under the weight of dog toys, both of the boys were a bit miffed to see all their toys being taken away and put under the boot.

Kofi tried his best to save a few but I kept putting them back..haha

So then Shilah solefully decided that even though he couldn't see his toys anymore he would lie on them and wait (think this is a misplaced sense of loyalty he has adopted after reading about Greyfriars Bobby, a dog who after his owner died, spent the rest of his days lying on his owners grave).

I won't have internet access straight away in Italy, so I will update as soon as I am back online (hopefully with some pictures of a finished house!)

Almost there..

2010-05-08T04:37:00.000-07:00

Some more pictures of the house, it's getting there! The insulation and roof is done, the interior walls are going in, and then the windows and floor need to go in.

The outside

The inside, this corner is where the kitchen will be..

This 'box' is the bathroom, then on the left we have a bedroom (and on the right the kitchen again)

The water has been connected, although because of the altitude the pressure is low (not sure how low..) but there isn't much that can be done about that. Just might take a while to get a cup of tea for people who come and visit! haha

So I now have a departure day!! 26th May..woohoo!!

We have decided to rent a house for the first week so that we have somewhere to cook and keep food etc until I get a cooker and fridge. Think this will make it much easier and especially for the first day or two as there won't be the pressure to have to go out and buy everything straight away.

The boys will have their scalibor collars put on next week, these are insecticide collars which need a week to activate and will stop sandflies from biting them. I hate putting such strong chemicals on the dogs but sandflies can carry Leishmania which is a horrid mostly lethal disease so it's probably the lesser of the 2 evils.

I am currently painting the kitchen doors (the ones I got from ebay any months ago!) I was originally going to paint them once in Italy but I got so bored not doing anything so I just have to be careful they don't get scratched. I might put some pictures of them up next week when they are finished.

Ups and downs

2010-04-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated for a while as it all went a bit wrong after the last update! A worker on the house, fell and injured himself and this stopped all work while a health and safety report was filed.( I was also required to go and sign some paperwork to do with this and so was told to try and get on the next plane out.

I had to pay over £250 for my ticket at such short notice and didn't really want to leave the dogs, but needs must. So I was all booked to go, booked a hire car and found some overnight accommodation. I woke up at 4.30am and took the dogs for an hours walk and then my dad drove me to the airport and although it normally takes 1.5 hours to get there, there were so many roadworks that it took over 3.

I arrived at the airport and around 9.35 with my plane due to take off at 9.55! Decided to try it anyway, as there is no telling with Ryanair so I legged it through the airport, waited in a queue at security where no one seemed to know that liquids had to be in bags, and finally got through into the lounge at 9.47am. It didn't look good but my flight didn't say gate closed so I carried on running the 54 miles to the gate, nearly dying enroute but eventually got to the gate and was told I had missed it (which was pretty obvious all along really!). I then had to be escorted by security back out of the airport..

So after much emailing and trying to sort things out, it was decided that as my parents were headed to Italy that Thursday anyway, they could take out the signed papers with them. So a new plan was in place and hopefully things would work out. What could possibly go wrong? Oh yeah...a volcanic eruption in Iceland..

My parents never made it to Italy, I never made it to Italy, but after more emailing, more worry and a dangerous amount of chocolate consumption, the health and safety people agreed to faxed copies. I unfortunately lost all my money for the plane and hire car and can't help but wonder how many dog toys I could have bought for £300!

But finally building resumed! (yay)

These were taken last week, and the roof should be finished by now but I don't have any photos from this week yet.

Onto other news, Shilah continues to be obsessed with balls and playing...(and wrecking grannys garden)

And Kofi is losing his puppy look and starting to look more grown up (although he does more than his fair share in the garden destruction department too)

A house!!

2010-04-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

The building started on Tuesday and I can't believe how quickly progress has been made!

The outside (actually looking like a house already!)

The inside..

The view from the lounge window (my favourite view!!)

I am hoping that it progresses quickly now, and will update with some new pictures when I get them. We are getting really excited now that the time is fast approaching.

Lastly, my dad wanted me to show you all what the garden used to look like BD (before dogs) I know my mum mourns it, but I keep asking her if she would rather look at nice green lawn or at these little faces? She doesn't really reply...haha

Garden BD

The culprits..

The platform goes down!

2010-04-03T03:29:00.000-07:00

Finally have some good news!

With the arrival of some nice weather, the foundations have been laid and completed! Wooohoo!

This was the first part (camera lighting is a bit funny)

And then this the completed platform..

The cabin should go on top next week and then the electrician/plumbers have to come on site to finish the inside. I had to choose between red and green for the roof and decided on green as I can then paint the shutters green and it will all match. Plus I think green will be more in keeping with the surroundings. So I am hoping it won't be too much longer now!

Which is just as well, as I think Granny's lawn has just about had it with the dog traffic. It used to be lovely and green and now looks a lot like this.

And with the nicer weather the dogs love to play chase round the garden and that certainly isn't helping the grass grow!

Some more good news, is that we did a trial run of getting all the stuff in the back of the Volvo and it fits! Now I just have to somehow fit all the dogs toys, my clothes and the dogs into the Fiat Panda!

Will hopefully update with house pictures next week!

Spring..

2010-03-04T03:02:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

Haven't updated for a while because there hasn't really been any development. The land has been too wet to build on but have been told that they hope to start building Monday, so keeping fingers crossed!

Not much to do around here except play/train/walk dogs so I decided to make a house sign (for my non existent house- haha)

Rainbows are special to me so I chose to call the cabin 'Rainbow's End' Shilah and I went down to the woods and collected an piece of sawn off pine that had been discarded and after painting and varnishing, this is my new house sign. ta da!

I was still bored (it has rained a LOT here) so decided to also make a sign for my non existent chicken coop.. :-)

Kofi is growing up really fast and is already 22kg at 4 months! He has been a really good puppy and loves tracking and training (and anything to do with food!) Shilah is enjoying having a brother to play with and harass when he is bored!

Having a snooze

Two boys together..

Hopefully there will be some new updates next week with news that the building has begun! In the meantime we are enjoying some of the nice spring weather after all the rain!

Snow fun

2010-01-13T04:05:00.001-08:00

Did I say in my last post that I had received planning permission for the cabin? I can't remember...but anyway, I have so now it's waiting for the building to start. It's been delayed by xmas and new year and now the land is too wet. So hopefully it might start at the end of the month, although if they then get snow, I don't know if it will. I hope to be there at some point in the next 3-4 years. (Is that optimistic?)haha

Meanwhile we survived a particularly cold winter in the summerhouse. It's actually quite warm in here with a portable radiator so it's been ok. And snow is preferable to mud! The dogs have enjoyed it, and Kofi is growing up fast!

Some pictures of the last week or so...

Are you laughing at my ears??

Extreme frisbee playing in the deeeeeeeeep snow

The dogs are nice and warm on a cold evening but where am I going to sit?

Wintery scene

A new addition...

2009-12-18T04:42:00.000-08:00

Hello!

I know I haven't updated for ages, mostly because there hasn't really been anything to update. Was still waiting for the planning permission and not much else has been happening.

Until this week, and then 2 things happened at once! Firstly, I got my planning permission so the good news is that the building work should soon be starting (yay). And secondly, Shilah now has a brother, a 7 week old working line German Shepherd called Kofi.

My original plan was to get another rescue in Italy, but after a lot of thought and soul searching, given the circumstances and Shilah's temperament, I decided it would be best on this occasion to get a puppy from a reputable breeder.

So here is Kofi seeing his first ever snow!

He came home a few days ago, we had a few very stressful days with Shilah not sure how to interact with him but it has all calmed down now, and last night they both fell asleep like this..

The snow today has caused much excitement with both dogs (and especially Kofi who is not scared of ANYTHING!)

Shilah having fun out with his friends..

Puppy is keeping me on my toes and is constantly into everything (especially fond of trying to chew the laptop cable) so I will try and do more thorough update next week and will just leave you with one more piccie of cute puppy feet!

Pheasanty fings..

2009-10-24T03:04:00.000-07:00

On my walk yesterday, my friends dog Jez killed a pheasant when she shot out from the undergrowth. He killed her outright thankfully but then just left her. Gill and I dithered about what to do..neither of us really wanting to touch it (especially as I'm vegan) but then seeing as though I am toying with the idea of breeding chickens for Shilah's food, I picked it up and bought it home.

I hung it up out the way while I ate my dinner, and Shilah seemed more than a bit interested..

Then came the not so pleasant task of plucking. I have never done this before and it wasn't all that nice, I have to say.

Now years ago, I remember offering pheasant to Coin and Starsky and neither of them would touch it. So although Shilah looked keen, I thought I better check before I bothered to de feather the whole bird. So I offered him a few pieces..

There they are on the floor..and yes..that's him walking away

No amount of coaxing would get him to eat it, and I gave up. It seems that really he just wanted to play with the bird. I think he possibly thought it was a new more improved version of his current pheasant toy..

So..my foray into the whole handling a dead animal and plucking it didn't get all that far. So the jury is still out on what Shilah will be eating when we get to Italy.

Everything including the kitchen sink.

2009-10-15T02:41:00.000-07:00

I *may* have got a bit carried away with buying/hoarding stuff to take to Italy..

The plan is for me, my aunt and Shilah (and Shilah's bed and toys - and there are a LOT of toys) to go in the Fiat Panda and follow my parents and all my stuff in their estate. It is a big estate and with the seats folded down, surely there is enough room to fit lots and lots of stuff..no?

Obviously I have to take my clothes and essential things that have sentimental value. This didn't amount to much seeing as though I got rid of almost all my personal belongings before I went travelling last year. So, I still had looooooaaads of room. Furniture seems to be really expensive in Italy...maybe it's just the places I have looked but they go in for proper solid wood type stuff, which is much nicer but also way more expensive than your flat pack £10 Argos bookcase. So, I decided to get some flat packed £10 Argos bookcases and also a bathroom cabinet while I was there (they are bound to be expensive in Italy..) and then one thing led to another and I have ended up with this stash..

The other thing that seem to be extortionate in Italy are sinks. In one shop the cheapest normal stainless steel sink was £135!! So, I got this one out of the local paper for a tenner! It was found on an old building site but is still in the cellophane wrapping. Bargain!

It's all stuff that will save me money in the long run. Honest. But the question is...will it fit in the back of the volvo? If anyone has better spatial awareness than me, then I would be interested in hearing your opinion. ;-)

How to get a woodburning stove to Italy...?

2009-10-11T02:14:00.000-07:00

I have always, always, wanted a wood burning stove, and I hope that it will be my main source of heating (with the central heating being used just as back up).

My builder said that he would be able to fit the stove for me IF I could get it to him before he put the roof on. I had seen a stove I liked on a website and they delivered to Italy for £250...so it seemed doable. The reason I wanted a stove from the UK is because they are all quite modern looking in Italy (and expensive) and I wanted traditional (and cheap!).

I asked my dad to call the company to ask about the stove and what accompanying flue bits we needs, but the lady was..how shall we say...customer servicely challenged that day?!

Dad explained which stove he would like, then enquired if they sold twin wall flues (as we could only see single wall ones on the website), she abruptly said we needed to go to a shop that sold flues (okaaayy...I thought we had?). Anyway..undettered my dad then asked if they sold the chimney part ..and she replied 'I am too tired for this'.

Ummm...

She then repeats ' I am too tired to be talking about chimneys on a Friday afternoon'.

And that was that. I thought at first that this might be an employee that was leaving that day or something, but turns out it's the womans own company! Me thinks someone might need a little retraining in how to deal with customers who are about to buy something from you!!

So..I decided I didn't want to buy from the mad woman incase she was too tired to actually send out the stove or something, so I resorted to trusty old ebay and found this stove for £220.

(His name is Stevie stove) :-D

So now it was only the small issue of how to get a 93kg stove and 40kg worth of flue bits to Italy. Luckily I found someone via an expat forum was heading to Italy with space in his van the following week. And double luckily..he only lives 10 miles from me in England and a few miles away from where the stove needed to be delivered to at the other end!

All packaged and ready to go..

The stove will wait patiently at my project managers house until it is ready to go into the cabin. Hopefully next time I post a picture of Stevie he will be up and running and burning merrily!

Refurbishing on a budget

2009-10-09T03:58:00.000-07:00

I don't need toooo many things for the cabin (not having a TV or washing machine for eg) but I do need some basics. On the last trip to Italy (to sign the final deed for the land) my dad and I spent 2 hours in a furniture shop doing the virtual kitchen planner with the sales assistant. It was a nice kitchen...'country style' and would have come to about £2300 (eeek).

That evening we were sat in the very basic accommodation we had rented where there was 2 brick walls holding up a sink with a piece of hessian sack tied across the front. And I thought...I quite like that! Maybe a fitted kitchen wouldn't really look right in a cabin and a more rustic look was called for..

So, I mentioned it to my dad and he suggested that he could build me a kitchen much more cheaply. It would only be base units and I would like a curtain across the front of the sink cupboard, and then shelves on the wall. (thanks dad!)

Once we got home, I got ebaying and found 15 of these great doors for £5! Bargain! They are solid oak and will look lovely once I sand them down and then paint them. As the interior of the cabin will be all wood, I am thinking of either a light green or light blue for the kitchen.

My other budget busting idea was to make a 'rag rug' which I got from here..

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/02/braided-rag-rug.html

So I cut up 5 old jumpers, braided them and then sewed them together! It's made a really warm and thick rug, although the colours are not what I would have picked especially, I had to make do with whatever old jumpers were available!

Finished rug..

I am planning to put it in the bedroom, and someone has already claimed it as his own!

ps- Talking of budgets and money (or lack of it)...thanks to anyone who has clicked the adverts on the side of the blog as so far I have earned £20 from it! Woohoo...and if you have time please could you click on a couple each time you visit..so I can keep his lordship in the quality of biscuits he has come to expect! ;-)

The teething problems..

2009-10-08T04:02:00.000-07:00

My original plan was to get a cabin 'kit' delivered from England something a bit like this..

That would have left me with a nice cushion of money to live off until I found some way of making money in Italy. But it turned out that the cabin kits wouldn't meet Italian building regs..the bedroom sizes were too small (not sure why the government cares what size bedroom I am sleeping in?!)..the roof height too low etc.

It all looked a bit doomed to failure, as I couldn't afford a 'proper' house but then I was put in touch with a builder who would build me a cabin that would conform to all the regs, and *just about* be in budget. Not the budget I originally hoped for but something that I at least had the actual cash for. Don't have an actual picture but this is the drawing of the 55 sqm cabin.

This cabin also came with a bathroom fitted, all the electricity, gas central heating, damp proofing etc. I really want to get back to as basic a lifestyle as possible, but I am realistic enough to understand that I don't know how to live this way yet. My dream would be to live without electricity and all the other 'mod cons'. Although man has lived this way for 99% of his existence, I don't know how to live this way. So I am going to have to start slowly and then gradually try and work out how best to live on and with my land.

So once the building issue had been worked out it all seemed plain sailing until we hit a snag called the 'non existent road' !

This darkened area is my bit of land, and on the map this shows what looks like a road running through the middle of it.

But as you can see in reality.... there isn't. (view from half way up the land..looking down to the narrow part)

What seems to have happened is over the years the family which owned the land (and all the neighbouring land) decided to 'move' the road to a more convenient route. The old road had just grown over and so no longer existed. (This is exactly the kind of mad thing you are warned about when buying abroad! haha)

This presented a couple of problems. One of which is that building laws say that you must build at least 10 metres from a land boundary and 20 metres from a road. My original plan was to put the cabin on the flat part at the bottom of the slope, but the plot was too narrow to accomodate building it 10 metres in and 20 metres away from an imaginary road. (!)

The land gets wider as you go up but then we would be trying to build on a slope and that would mean flattening out the land which a) I didn't want to do and b) would make the cost go up.

It was decided in the end that the only place to put the cabin was the flat expanse at the top of the hill. I originally discounted the idea because it felt more sheltered at the bottom but now I am pleased with the position as it is further from the road ( even though it's a private dirt track so not exactly the M25..but still) and the views are even better at the top of the hill.

I am still left with the minimal threat that is someone decided that they wanted to go across the non existent road then I would have to let them..but seeing as though there is an access road to the side and finding the old road would prove difficult, I am hoping that this never becomes an issue!

How I came about the land..heavenly intervention?

2009-10-04T03:10:00.000-07:00

For those of you that know me, you will know all about Coin and Starsky as they were both the loves of my life. But just incase there are other people reading this, I will quickly explain. Coin and Starsky were my previous German shepherds, I lost Coin last year at age 15 and Starsky the year before aged 11. They were both my best friends and both very different. Coin was quite possibly the most chilled out, independent GSD there was and Starsky was naturally anxious, a clown and a mummy's boy, he was my soulmate.

Coin and Starsky..

In between losing Coin and looking for land in Italy, I went travelling, spent 3 months in California, some time in Alaska and then in Canada, hand rearing orphaned wildlife (you can see my other blog for that story). So in May this year, I decided to look for a place to settle down and started looking at Italy, mostly because my mum is Italian and I do speak some of the language.

I had been looking for a month or so and had a trip planned with most of the week booked up with viewings. With hindsight, none of the other plots would have even been suitable because they were all out of my price range. I had under estimated taxes..fees..building costs...

So a few days before I was due to go on the weeks fact finding mission to Abruzzo, I logged on to an expat forum I had joined and was told...'You have a personal message from Starsky'. (??!!)

So I open it up and it is indeed a message from Starsky (but not MY starsky), but a lady on the forum who has this username. She is an estate agent and has a piece of land I may be interested in.

I first saw the land on my second day in Italy and I knew driving up to it, before I even saw the plot that this was going to be the one. It was by far the nicest plot, with spectacular views all around, only one neighbour and was also the only one within my budget (although didn't know this yet- that was still to come!).

I agreed to buy it on the spot, and infact didn't bother going to even look at most of the other plots. I do believe in fate and in some kind of life after death and I truly believe that Starsky is still watching over me from wherever he is and directed me to that perfect bit of land. :-)

Me and Starsky..

My Partner In Crime

2009-10-02T03:10:00.000-07:00

This is Shilah, who will be setting off with me to pastures new.. He is a 13 month old German Shepherd, who I rescued 3 months ago.

He was found tied to a tree on a travellers site, weighing only 18kg (to give you an idea..he is 34 kg now and still on the lean side). He was considered too high drive for a pet home and so was sent to work as a prison dog but after 2 weeks they didn't want him either and that's when he came to me. :-)

His passions in life include playing and more playing..with maybe some playing thrown in..

Can't wait to show him the land in Italy, after having been chained up for a lot of his life he is finally going to be able to run to his hearts content!

He also has a new hobby of tracking, this is where someone walks a path and then leaves him a reward at the end (his ball) and then he tracks the scent that the person has left and follows the trail. This is possibly one of his favourite things to do in the world (even more than playing). Might even try and train him to hunt truffles! haha

Shilah tracking..

He is a bit unsure of new dogs sometimes, so I am slightly nervous as my only neighbour has 2 dogs which I am sure will be coming into my land to say hello. They seem friendly enough to people so hope they are equally as friendly with dogs and will become Shilah's playmates.

The neighbours dogs looking cute..

Shilah has been through the PETS passport scheme (getting his rabies jabs and blood test etc) and we picked up his passport this week. I love the fact it has a space for his picture!!

He is all ready for the off...we just need a cabin building now!

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Moving to Montebello...

2009-10-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

So in a few months (hopefully) Shilah and I will be cramming everything into a Fiat Panda and driving to Italy to start a new life. The piece of land is a 10 minute drive from a small rural village and is at an altitude of 3000 ft (lots of snow!)

Thought I would write this blog to post our step by step progress (and worries..disasters etc! haha)

It's a bit daunting because although I know some of the language, I don't have any friends or relatives in Italy. It will be just me and my dog.

Some pictures of the land....

The view..

Where the cabin will go

The field leading to the Gran Sasso National Park at the back of the land..

Ok..so that's the intro to the land. It is 2.5 acres and about a 5 minute drive on a dirt track (up a steep hill) from the paved road.

Now to the intro to the poor unsuspecting accomplice I am dragging along with me!