Global warming

 we have our first dusting of snow..... best go and check out the Bonsai Mountain 

Heavy Duty

Any job at HQ usually involves mud and dogs so here we see Benson and Shadow helping me sort stuff out in the annex in a desperate attempt to create more room and find useful things.

The reason why room had to found was that the stuff dumped in the stable needed to be moved because a horse now needed to use it because of adverse weather.

These bags of joy arrived and George who now works with the aid of a broom handle stuck up his jacksy managed to churn the contents into 

the almost final stage of converting the boggy mess of the area loosely referred to as the garden into something a bit more people and dog friendly. 

The area laid looked beautiful in comparison the the previous patch that had to be smoothed back into shape 3x before being abandoned to the ravages of animals. By the time it had dried 4 dogs 2 cats 1 peacock and a misguided snail had all left their permanent mark on the surface.

Not so this time, yours truly put gates, electric fence, barbed wire, searchlights and remote sentry machine guns around the new stuff which meant it stayed pristine. Noting got in, not even a snail. 
 

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.