Mine!

The view onw side of me as I try and eat my dinner! Left to right, Ace, Ripley, Sven, Belle, Isla, Arfur dog and Tasha.

Do you want to build a snowman?

Overnight we had a load more of the white stuff which could only mean one thing!

Snow patrol!

Naturally this entailed building a snowman but this proved a bit more technical that we thought as the snow was the cheap powdery version not the good stuff.

Still we persevered under the watchful eyes of the K9s who being mountain dogs or part thereof were at home in the white stuff.

Several hours of meticulous snow engineering and the snowman was complete.

To the victors the spoils, hot chocolate with all the extras. 

This was then worked off on a 24km bike ride which did not get off the the best of starts, another for bicycle repair man to fix!

I had forgotten how happy cycling made me 

and I meandered around the lanes on the panzer bike 

viewing the bonsai mountain from a variety of angles.

The river was low enough to cross safely on a bike with massive floatation devices on the wheels.

The roads were fun too, no traffic passing meant no slush created by the salt and grit.
 

its back

Soon after storm Christoph left we were treated to a winter wonderland again

which meant we just had to get out and get some height 

climbing up onto the ridge with K9s and kids. 

Naturally there was time for arty farty snow scenes

and the dogs were in their element, Riley here never having seen proper snow was beside herself rushing about.

We also found our naughty pony who still wont let me anywhere near him but is quite happy for the apprentice to give his some fuss.

He thinks this is his kingdom now so if he wants to stay outdoors and eat gorse bushes instead of living in a warm dry stable with hot and cold running oats then so be it, who am I to argue?

Mmmmm yummy gorse covered in snow. Again.

Still theres lots to get through.

The 496 challenge has evolved into biathlons now as yours truly cant manage a half marathon run every day so its walks and bikes. The wide tyres on the panzer bike very handy in the snow!
 

Big jobs part 2

This coil of drainage pipe arrived at Rock HQ

as did this huge big digger 

which despite its size managed to squeeze into small spaces

which meant Moby had to vacate the yard.

Having driven up the lane the lorry had to reverse back down it only to reverse back up it to drop its load of small rocks without blocking itself in. 

In the same vein as you cant make an omelette without breaking some eggs the digger smashed the equivalent of several dozen digging trenches across the yard 

and between buildings in order to lay new French drains, this one will hopefully keep the workshop dry.

The dumper was needed again as the trenches were filled with clean small rocks so the dirt needed to be added to the landscaping project... more of that in the spring when all being well a massive bank of flowers will be on display for the planned Bee project, but first plan A move the dirt. 

The water gets in between the rocks and runs along  the perforated pipe and out the other end.

While all that was going on, apart from freezing to death yours truly set about reshaping the huge marble worktop saved from the kitchen refit 5 years ago. It will now be windowsills in the refurnished conservatory. 

It wasn't all work, I still had 21km to complete as part of the 496 challenge and the river had lowered enough for a nearly dry crossing .... yeah right. 

The boys have decided that this is the ideal location for a Fort

as it affords splendid views 

of any lorries approaching.  I declined their request to stay out overnight. This time anyway. 
 

River deep..

Unusual for Wales I know but as storm Christoph passed by we had a bit of a downpour which made our normal crossing place a bit wetter than we would have liked.

The boys have been joining me on my 496 challenge so they have been outdoors quite a bit.

Thats quite a bow wave of water, good job the bridge was there, the gate had been swept open by the current and was just about hanging on.

 

Happy Kiliversary

So, 7.30am 2017 we summited KIlimanjaro, a huge effort from number one daughter who has fibromyalgia to contend with as well as all the other effects of high altitude. 

Normally we would climb something big in the UK to celebrate

but covid says no.

So instead we had a laugh at  the pictures.
 

Thats a bit deep

If you can zoom in on Benson's expression as it says it all really, poor lad never expected to go swimming, there he was walking around a new bit of the river when

suddenly he took a nose dive 

and had to clamber out a bit wetter than before