Dirty stopout

Will.I.Am disappeared for a few days off into the wilderness which is where Benjy our naughty shitland currently resides and totally refuses to follow the blue bucket of allure home. So imagine my surprise today when I got back from icanfoster visits to find that Will.I.Am had returned

was in his stable and with his was this wild pony girlfriend!

I suppose in an equine sense she is good looking.
 

Slow progress

So, icanfoster up and running means less time for chores and so the task of concreting the area in front of the Swiss style kennels began this evening after George the mixer got a new set of innards. He did very well..

and promptly over heated at the 2 metres laid stage. 
 

Personal best

It is just over a mile to the top of the bonsai mountain and even from the easy side its super steep.

The easy side is via the Ghost House route.

Yesterday the apprentice and some Berners went to the top

and even though it was a very hot day

and there were some stops for pictures

the apprentice 

got to the summit cairn in less than 30 minutes. A personal best for him.
 

Stick with it

 Observant readers will see a bit of a repair job holding the window on Stan's cab after three bolts fell off on a trip to town. 

work life balance

Now that icanfoster is up and running there is more work to do 

but thanks to covid 19 it has shown us all that work/life needs to be in balance and a lot of work

can be done in different locations rather than being stuck in an office. Hence this sequence of pictures which was actually work and a lot of fun at the same time .

It also ticked off the list a trail I have been meaning to walk for years but never got round to 

which is a bit of a surprise considering its so close to Rock HQ and quite breathtaking scenery wise.

As we plodded on work issues were resolved 

and the bonsai mountain climbed.

This is Richard, our RI, its good to work with one who actually knows what the role entails and holds the same values as me.

This young man joined the team after the interview today so team icanfoster is growing. 

Lunch was a frugal affair for yours truly, the others had pot noodles and and chocolate, I abstained on account Im so heavy I don't need spare calories. 

From the top I dictated a letter that thanks to admin and technology was on my desk for signing by the time I got back to the office.

Not a bad view for writing letters. 

Summit cairn.

By the peak HR recorded I must have put a bit of effort in at some stage. 
 

Birthday special

No idea how this happened but Rug Rat Mk2 is now 7, a birthday in  week of birthdays shared with his sister, aunty and brother all in 4 days of each other.

Very happy day for him as you can see.

Luckily lockdown rules and variations on a theme across the devolved kingdom mean that super grandma and his sister could come to a birthday tea 

where he wore his birthday cake with pride.

Big sister very happy too, and turns out her boyfriends birthday is the day after hers, the same day as my sisters, September eh? Christmas must be a good time of year :)

Big brother is now 35 and a major... how time flies. 
 

For my next trick...

 In an effort to reduce my considerable bulk I have enrolled onto this challenge, four 10km runs over four weeks from 14 October to 14 November to raise money for the Royal British Legion. Well, the RAF 10k was just too easy... ahem 

Looking good

George is now fixed so work has commenced on making things a bit less muddy at Rock HQ with plans to fill the gap between the kennel block and the rest of the world with nice easy to keep clean drains well concrete. 

Talking of nice and clean this is how my truck is supposed to look,

Well its cleanish,,, or as it was described yesterday by a laughing mechanic... its a distressed patina.
 

fifty fifty

Todays the autumn equinox

and yours truly

up early doors

to the summit of the Bonsai Mountain

with a few K9s

five to be precise, Ripley, Sven and Mrs Bear of the Bernese ilk,

Riley and Shadow from the Berner cross clan

came along too. Here is Sven and Mrs Bear watching while yours truly gets all arty farty with the camera.

Its hard to take a bad shot when the subject matter is so beautiful 

either the landscape or dogs 

where ever you look there is 

something worth taking a picture of

and some are quite stylish. Boom!