The highland clearances

 I managed to take a couple of hours off this afternoon to do some gardening. Plans to turn this wasteland into a neatly terraced raised bed veg patch of bountiful abundance will stay in the fantasy garden league while other things take priority such as training (none) and finishing the Swiss Chalet Style Kennel Block.

 As there is a longer than usual weekend coming our way and being fed up with falling over the detritus of DIY and weeds action has been taken and the new path cleared ready for concreting, the trees that self seeded and were not a problem and now are have been cleared, along with a massive rambling rose that was intent on taking over the universe. The goat proof fence which never was has been dismantled (its no longer visible from space) and the rest of the wood stacked neatly ready for the extension. Actually this is all needed for floors and ceilings plus the last bit of the end gable and fascia boards.

 The rest of the evening was spent attacking the highland with a series of ever increasing power tools with sharp blades. By end of play it all started to look on the cared for side of unkempt.

We are all getting used to the kennel block. The Berners, used to sleeping in a variety of locations are rotating through the block so there are less of them to trip over on the night time dash across the landing but we still have above average numbers of K9's at strategic points around the cottage. Two nights ago all inhabitants at Rock HQ and most of the county were kept awake by frantic barking from the kennels. As it was not fully occupied the dogs in the house and conservatory joined in. Every half hour or so. Morning saw very tired people establish what was the cause of the Berner chorus. A duck had wandered into one of the empty stalls and after having a snooze laid an egg. The dogs partial to eggs and sometimes duck were keen to get their bids in hence the noise.