Spring..

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

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...

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..

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.

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...?

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

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! ;-)