Lockdown projects and accidents

Some of my friends have been very busy with lock down projects, like this box of bits turned into to a tractor, not that I'm jealous or anything but this would look better here shifting tons of horse doings rather than sat in his garden as a very grey ornament. 

One of my projects has had a bit of publicity, the battle of beersheba models featured on the website of the manufacturer and oddly enough a friend then tells me 

his sister living down under is a real life Australian Light Horse re enactor.

My latest painting has been picked up by the manufacturer wanting to use them as advertising. These are 10mm scale, so a lot smaller than the picture :) 

This is what happens if you use a small child as a weight training aid, no, not really, the apprentice had a bit of a bump at school and has a magnificent but very painful bruise to show for the collision. 
 

Home improvements

 When lockdown means you cannot go to the gym you have to use what ever is available as equipment. Here we see the apprentice dutifully serving as weights. 

Jungle clearing

There are times when Will.I.Am is quite helpful.....that said I cannot think of a previous time he has been helpful and really thinking about it he is normally a pain in the backside not least of which as he has in the last 24 hours opened the workshop door and found the new sack of chicken feed which is now distributed over a wide area instead of contained in the sack. 

So here he is, the only time being helpful.

Ably assisting in the jungle clearing, removing the vegetation from the old pig pen before the digger goes in and levels the site. That's level the site in a living on a mountain  type way, so a 45 degree or less slope. 
 

May I help you

 In a similar vein to the previous post working from home has its benefits as I can work in the evening and have the undoubted help given by Summer one of our goldies. 

A sign of the times

 With a global pandemic comes novel ways to carry on "normal" life and so the boys are now adept at making themselves scarce while yours truly is in some form of virtual meeting via zoom (other platforms are available) and they see me writing up notes from said meeting.

So I have just found this by the computer, a hand written note by Rug Rat Mk2 which I think is his notes from yesterdays family zoom meeting. A real sign of the times.

Pathfinder

Rug Rat Mk2 is flexing his skills at pathfinding on the bonsai mountain and in the spirit of solidarity 

where one boldly goes then the rest of us follow. This route has been done once before by yours truly but this was years ago, BC (before children) in fact. Its a tortuous slog near vertical in places 

which is not helped by having K9s charging front to rear making sure all of us were keeping together.

The target was this ledge which we failed to get to on account that in the 9 years since I trod this trail the gorse bushes have grown waist height and were more determined that we shall not pass than were were to. 
 

Staying safe

 The apprentice has taken the Governments stay safe message well and truly to heart. 

Life sentence

The rounds got done super quick time today and whilst yours truly was ponder life the universe and everything in the company of way too many K9s, here is DarcyDoo with Spotty2 in the background, a thought popped into my head about the different lives our many dogs lead (ha dog lead) so ours are used to rolling around in fox poo while their relatives

live the life of pampered pooches in luxurious manor houses with their own servants to carry them across the mud. 

Thoughts of dogs turned to useless equine waste of organs Will.I.Am who had opened the door to the bale store and spent the day stuffing himself while poohing it out the other end in a non stop lets make as much mess as possible record bid. Pausing only to open the bin bags and throw the contents into the mix he was finally expelled with a flea in his ear.

Bad tempers were abated by a wonderful dinner to celebrate 15 years or wedded bliss to my beautiful and oh so patient wife, this is the prawn cocktail starter created my master chef rug rat mk2 aged 7.

As we know each other so well she bought me a bottle of whisky 15 year old of course and I got her flowers and chocolates which is so original I know but it got me lots of brownie points. 

 Ideally she would like a mustang, a car version, not a 1/72nd scale airfix version, still as I said its the thought that counts :)

Birthday boys

Time flies and before you know it the little pups are suddenly huge handsome 3 year olds, so today (yesterday) Shadow, the best looking,

and his brothers Benson closest and Loki middle had a celebration jafffa cake hunt 

with Ace the youngest of our retrievers joining in.

The apprentice 

polished up his horse whispering skills

by persuading Will.I.Am to follow him back to the stable.

This is Willow, she being the sister to our boys and the only birthday pic we got yesterday. Lunar and Phoebe did send a text so they have mastered the use of mobile phones despite not having opposing thumbs. 
 

A different way of remembering

So normally on this day I would be laying a wreath at the local war memorial but today as covid has cancelled all mass gatherings I remembered those that paid too high a price for our freedom by going for another 10k run. 

My trip hazard path finder led the way, or dogfully brought up the rear depending on your viewpoint 

Finally in not too shabby a time but no where near as quick as I would have liked, 1 hour 7 minutes 31 seconds, the shuffling was over and 

I could relax with a cuppa and bacon sarnie.  Looks like I've raised over 250 pounds so thanks to everyone who sponsored me. Very kind of you all. 
 

Lets go!

 When a dog this big wants to go for a walk you soon know about it!

PGOOOR strikes again or Mork saves the day..

MBAOSPW returned from a venture out into the world today and aside from the usual greeting shouted "They've all run off". Sensing by the tone that something untoward was happening and "they" must mean something with 4 legs as the young bipeds were at school I broke the glass, grabbed the emergency bucket of allure and set off along the track in the vain hope of catching "They" or to be more accurate...them.

Yes the PGOOOR had struck again (Phantom gate opener of Old Radnorshire) letting out a motley crew of equines and mini donks. 

What the equines had not realised in their cunning bid for freedom was that yours truly had a secret weapon.

Mork did not like his night out on the common a few years back and has never forgotten the trauma of wild badgers walking by so when he saw me he charged back eyawing happiness 

closely followed by Mindy. Somewhat slower were the equines who knew they had been busted.
 

no records broken...or bones

In my effort to shed a small persons weight in body mass/fat the lets run 10km every sunday morning is in its 3rd week and as storm Aiden was making its presence felt a slow time was on the clock so I thought I might as well do something different and "run" up Stanner Rocks.

Run turned into a painful stagger at points but far quicker than I had envisaged yours truly was 3.5 miles away from home and on the top

of a very pointy hill with great views, well worth the effort. Now to get down involved traversing an equally steep section which thanks to the amount of rain was a tad damp

and slippy. Here we see the groove cut by my feet as they gave up any pretence of grip, the big crater at the end was my backside, so no real damage done. 

10k later, more money raised for charity and hes happy, nasty big hill in the background. 

Next week a different day, better weather, less hills, no falling . 

Not many people run this way but Ill take that ward while its there.