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

Happy things and sad things..

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?

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

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

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

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...

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!