Dog Training and Cotton Woes

I've been trying to persuade Ian to read some of our dog training books as I think we need to step up on Rosie's training. She's actually pretty well behaved, however, because of her size and strength, we definitely need to control things like her jumping up.

Ian is less than convinced by my dog training books, muttering 'mumbo jumbo' and other, less printable, comments. I don't think it helped when one of the books said that the answer to getting a dog to return when its off the lead is to roll round on the floor and look like another dog playing an exciting game. Something that Ian said he refused to do. However we have noticed that Rosie comes back if she thinks we are heading in the other direction, so Ian now tries the approach of running away from her when we call her. I am not sure whether this looked any odder to the small crowd of old men watching him than if he'd been rolling around on the ground.

I was looking at my cotton plants, and looking at pictures of the cotton plants last year and I can't help thinking that they aren't doing very well. The chilllies that came through don't seem to be doing very well either. I am wondering if the reason for this is that they are planted in the area that Manuel was using to clean out his cement mixer. And therefore the soil might be over alkaline. The other reason that things might not be doing well is that we might not be watering them enough. Last year we were watering with a watering can so we knew how much we were watering the plants, however now we are using a hose and it is easy to forget how low our water pressure is and how little water comes out. I filled a watering can the other day and it takes several minutes, which I'd forgotten, so I guess I'm not giving the plants as much water as I thought. Of course, cotton doesn't like a lot of water, so that's not the problem there...

Ian's finally got new tyres for his bike, so we both went out for a cycle this morning. It is San Juan fiesta, so I think we were passing people on their way home! We haven't been this year, but may pop up tonight to see what's going on.

We've got a yellow alert for a heat wave. There's hot air coming from Africa which is affecting much of Spain. It is hot...

Storks!

It seems to have been a bumper year for storks. The storks in the church tower seem to have had three hatchlings each - and now the babies are almost full size, it looks rather crowded. I don't remember seeing this many storks before.

This is a picture of a derelict building that I cycled past on Sunday and it was packed with storks. Of course, by the time I had taken my camera out they had disappeared, all bar these two. It was obviously a great place for storks and they were nested relatively low with little to disturb them - with the exception, of course, of a wheezing cyclist. I think we may head back there soon with the camera and tripod and see if we can get some close up stork pictures.

We do see the storks come close overhead on the sun terrace. I am sure that we've seen some baby ones on their inaugural flights. Certainly there were two who wobbled around the sun terrace when we were having tea yesterday.

Hot!

It's getting hot! I know because the house is full of floppy animals who embrace the cool tile floors rather than squeezing next to me on my chair. Yesterday I noticed for the first time that it was too hot for comfort walking on the tiles outside without shoes - a sign that summer is really on its way.

We've been happily surprised to find that the sun terrace is actually cooler than the patio later in the day. The patio sucks the heat up and there's nowhere for it to go, while the sun terrace is cooled by any breeze. We can also watch out neighbour working on his huerta (kitchen garden), he's obviously not gone for the free form planting style and last night he was making some sort of bamboo teepees that Ian was quite impressed with. Not sure what he was doing with them, but it sparked our imagination. He spends quite a lot of time working in his huerta, which I guess is why his is looking lush and green with plants laden with fruit and veg, while ours is looking a bit like a weed infested wilderness.

Basil's tree

Our garden

Our neighbour's green and pleasant land (I had to jump with the camera in the air to take this pic so I could get a good look at his plants, so I hope he wasn't watching me as I may have looked a tad strange / like a stalker).

Our garden tools - what we recognize as a spade can't be bought here - they are more shovel shaped, I guess to make it easier to cut through the sun baked earth and stoney ground.

Wilbur is has started getting very excited about his walks, and has started jumping with excitement. However, being Wilbur, I don't think his feet actually leave the ground so he just sort of bounces. He's got over the scared patch that he went through and is generally very happy when he is out, but he does get scared with unexpected noises.

Kitchen Garden

We are seeing small signs of life coming from our kitchen garden. That is other than the major signs of weed life. A few of our tomatoes have survived chicken nibbling and are flowering, albeit on slightly strange shaped plants, as the chickens seemed to apply their own unique topiary style to the plants. I have a few cotton plants coming through, but I had hoped for more. We've also got some chillies coming up, but only a few and I planted a lot more. However I did put some mouldy potatoes in the ground and they seem to be growing, so we might get a bit from our garden this year. We probably started a bit late, and I don't suppose that the soil is in that good condition.

I am wishing that we didn't go for quite such a freeform planting style, as I can't now remember where we planted things. I also wish that I didn't plant plants that need little watering next to ones that need relatively a lot of watering - but hey ho - we're learning.

Ian has started rewriting our sites - starting with Freeneedle. We're in a funny position where we could follow the old adage 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' as it is a risk changing a proven format, however there's also a very real chance that our site will start to look dated if we don't do something. The new version will include images, which will be a major step forward. I've seen the first page layout and it looks good. We'll be rolling it out to most of our sites. The social media marathon is near enough complete, I think I ended setting up about 25 different Facebook and Twitter accounts in total!

No interest in the puppies yet, which is a bit of a worry. We said we'd give it six weeks, and we're about half way through. They are still in the barn and we don't spend much time with them as we really don't want to risk bonding with them because if we don't find owners will take them to the pound. Donny spends much of his time outside in the back garden, he is putting on weight and has been cut back to three meals a day. We're hoping that we'll find a home for him with some people we know - it would be nice to think that he had a good home.

Busy Busy

There's a general sense of busy-ness at the moment. The farmers are in full harvesting mode and the fields are full of everything from combine harvesters through to donkeys and old men with scythes. The builders are starting work earlier too so everything feels well underway by 7 in the morning. We're soon getting to the time of year when what ever time you go out you'll see someone working - unless it's between 2 and 6 or 7, when the village is in complete silence.

The village is also gearing up to the summer when families return en masse. Houses are being painted and cleaned. Soon even the most rickety of houses will be filled for the summer as families gather.

I'm waiting to see how many children want classes during the summer. I'm not advertising and letting word go around. Schools break up in a couple of weeks so I'll start thinking about it a bit more nearer the time.

Anti Social Networking

We've dragged ourselves reluctantly into the world of social networking. While the New York Times Co set us me with Facebook and Twitter accounts for Rubber Stamping, for our own sites we've been less proactive. However the other week we were mentioned by a big Facebook account and really saw a spike in our figures, so this acted as a catalyst to pull our fingers out and get going.

So this weekend I have been busy setting up Facebook and Twitter pages for each of our websites. It's taken bloomin' ages and I've still not finished. At this moment I am felling pretty anti social networking...

Asparagus

The other morning I was cycling along the lanes when I saw a man who appeared to be picking pieces of grass. As I got closer he was picking what I thought was asparagus, however I couldn't be sure. I thought I'd slow down for a better look, however as I was going up a very slight incline at my normal snail like speed, I soon realized that if I went any slower then I'd end up going backwards. Which is never a good thing on a bike.

So at the earliest opportunity, we grabbed Rosie, our asparagus hound and headed off. And low and behold we did find asparagus. Admittedly, not enough for a full meal, but certainly more then we would have expected.

The swimming pool opens this weekend. I am sure this is earlier than normal. Perhaps they will be offering winter rates! We heard the boing boing boing of the tannoy, which we hear during the summer, but I thought that they were just getting in early with their system checks. However, as my over excited students informed me yesterday, the pool is opening today.

We still have the puppies and 'Donny' the mastine. I've got them advertised with the animal refuge in Badajoz, so hopefully we'll find them homes soon. Donny is still desperately thin, however he is eating well and I am sure that he'll look less like a bag of bones soon. He's a bit fussy with his food, which is where the same came from, we call him Prima Donny.

Rosie Has a Problem

Rosie can't understand why the rest of the pups can sit quite happily on the back of the settee but she can't quite manage it. That is her back leg by Ian's ear in the top two pictures as she is trying to squeeze in where Henry had been sitting...

Chicken Housing

The chickens have their new house and a penned area where they can roam. Ian has been working on this over the last week and this, and the other fencing, is looking really good. If you look closely at the second picture, you will see that the chickens have a squatter in their house. Fibs was under the distinct impression that it was her house.

We've had a few meals on the sun terrace and it's great! Admittedly it will be a lot better when we have some furniture to sit on, however even now we can get an appreciation of how we will use it. The sun goes out of the patio at about 7.30, however we can stay sat in the sun until 9.30 on the sun terrace. We didn't really appreciate the benefits of sun terraces when we moved here, however we now understand a little more about how things work, and the houses are generally designed to be in shade as much as possible to keep them cool, so many houses have a small sun terrace so people can enjoy the evening sun. We'd originally thought that we'd have a terrace in the patio, however when the roof fell in on the barn, it seemed like a good solution to put it there as we'd have to get it reroofed anyway. I'm glad we did, as it is nice to look out into the country.

So the outdoor kitchen is going to become a priority so we don't need to keep carrying things from the house. We use a lot of plastic stuff anyway, as tiled floors are particularly unforgiving, however we'll need to have a good sort out and get organized.

I've started cycling again early in the morning which is something I thoroughly enjoy. I love cycling through the lanes and paths and watching the countryside change. There is a great sense of freedom when I'm out cycling and it's a great start to the day.

Unsurprisingly, no owners of the puppies has appeared - so I've started to advertise them through some animal welfare websites. I don't think there will be a problem finding them homes. They are very friendly - and lively! Yesterday we thought that the mastin was going to have to be put to sleep, however today he has started eating. Not much, but this is the first that he's eaten since last Monday. He really well make a great pet and we think we may know someone who is interested.

Poppies

The poppies are still looking like a streak of red along the sides of the lanes. They are really quite a sight. The farmers are well into harvesting now, which is a sign that summer is on its way!

Nothing new to report on the pups and the young mastin. I hadn't really expected owners to turn up, so assuming that we don't hear anything by tonight I'll start looking for homes. We won't start looking for a home for the mastin yet, as he is still not eating and I guess it's a 50/50 chance if he pulls through. The three of them are in the barn, which gives the pups plenty of room to run around, we're not introducing them to our gang as we fully intend to find them homes and don't want them to become part of the family.

Aaaaagh

We took Mummy to the vet as she had sicked up an amazing amount of undigested food. A truly surprising amount. This meant that she was even thinner and wasn't drinking or eating.

We had steeled ourselves for several minutes of the vet grimacing while he prodded the dog with the tip of his toe. What we weren't prepared for was the vet's pronouncement that Mummy is in fact a boy. Not only that, he is a mastin puppy, and a very high quality one at that - or at least it would have been.

So what a mystery!

But also what a concern. The puppies are very fat and well. We assumed that the reason that 'Mummy' was in such a poor state was because she was doing such a good job in looking after the pups. But, apparently not. The mastin is definitely a stray, but this made me think that the puppies aren't stray and perhaps are just lost. We have put up a poster and been to the police and to a couple of bars. I'll give a note to the children when we have class this week. I've also stopped trying to find homes for the minute to give it a few days to make sure that the owners don't turn up.

The police said they could arrange to take them to the dog pound, however the mastin would definitely die, and the pups will make lovely pets, so I'd prefer to keep them here and find homes for them. But first we need to establish that there aren't any owners. If the pups were thinner I'd definitely think that they were stray, but with such little fat puppy tums, I have a nagging doubt...