Since Beti, almost total neglect.

[Ricard with an H]

A puppy is hard work if you want raise a dog to good habits and Beti coming at a time I had catching up to do with painting and other annual, the grass has been growing so fast I'm having to cut for two hours twice a week.

My raised beds kitchen garden has been neglected.

I'll pull it back but right now I don't even have the spare time to tidy up the overgrow and gone to seed stuff. The kale is lifting the enviromesh even after I culled it for the second growth. My leeks are massive and the last carrot I pulled was nine inches long.

Three tomato plants I let grow naturally without pruning and fafffing have produced no tomatoes in the case of two plants and lots of green ones in the case of the bush plant so I won't do that again.

The best I can hope for considering the work I still have to do is to sow some green manure and some garlic.

[oldherbaceous]

Evening Richard, you were nearly on my hit list for a PM.....
Puppy training is more important than keeping all the jobs done, the jobs will still be there waiting, but if you don't get the basic training done now, it's a lot harder to do when they get into bad habits.

You posts have been missed though.

[Ricard with an H]

Very kind of you to say my posts have been missed OH, my view is that in any conversation group like this where a regular contributer stops contributing they are noticed by their absence though the only other forums Inhave been involved with a good portion of the members would have been glad to see the back,of me because I was regular critic in the case of both. Not to be confused with what I assume trolls do because I didn't hide my identity.

Those criticisms were based on safety in sport aspects in one case and my experiences in another. In both cases this irritated those who live their lives with their head in the sand.

With this forum, if I had the topic experience I had with the others my criticism may well be more acceptable amongst a more mature membership.

Happily I have yet to learn many things from the membership of this forum rather than be a schoolmaster in the way Imhad been on those other two forums.

I only use this forum now, if you remember I did have a difference of opinion and personal experience on the subject of garlic being given too dogs. I'm now going through that patch again because I don't want to be constantly filling my dog with pharmaceuticals products when I have other options. Garlic can be a poison to dogs in the same way alcohol is a poison to us.

Pharmaceutical products are marketed in a big way, we are recommended to treat our dogs with a transdermal concoction to kill fleas the dog doesn't have yet no study tells us, and dog cannot tell us what that concoction is doing. Thankfully the vet who recommended I try garlic capsules also recommended Imtreat my dog for fleas when I See fleas. Some doges never get fleas though not because of those concoctions.

Back to vegetable plot, I Had to spend more time teaching Beti that my raised beds are not play-places to dig. She has floored a complete row of flowering planting though it was past its best at the time and there are so many things I have to teach her that are not allowed.

And to get you-completely up to date it's taken three years to get a broadband service into this valley that doesn't rely on BT cables snaking over the hedge rows and annually crashing to the ground during high winds.

I now have 30 MBPS for £15 a month, the Welsh assembly government paid almost £1000 towards the infrastructure. I used to manage on 1 MBPS for £17 a month.

Other than that all the surrounding farmland has grazing sown on it so Beti and I have many acres of grassy walks.

[Westi]

I wondered where you were Richard then I thought 'New Puppy'!
Amazing time wasters when tiny & time consumers when the real training starts!

I give my dog garlic which works just fine unless there is a real problem but haven't had the weather for that this year & anyway the Vizsla doesn't go into the the undergrowth or creeks like the Springer did so that also helps! Unfortunately there is no alternative than the nasty stuff for cats but I do tend to keep on top of it on them with just grooming with a fine comb.

I really don't mind what people post so long as it is not a personal attack on an individual. I am amazed with the knowledge that forum members have on certain topics & they have made me think & sometimes change my mind about where I stood on a subject.

Yep! Damn fine forum - all of you!

Westi

[Ricard with an H]

As far as I'm aware it hasn't stopped raining now for 24 hours and will probably continue raining during the night and into the morning. Little Beti doesn't like going out in the rain and this has stalled the toilet routine which until now was working well in-we had very few accidents. It amazes me that such a tint sweet puppy can make such a stink pile.

Our new internet service came to a standstill today at 10.30 until 4.30. Sheep had chewed through a cable at the bottom of a portable tower that's in place whilst a more permanent mast is being built. This mast will bend the signal round and down into the valley and will always be powered by solar panel supported batteries. Such is community spirit round here we couldn't find a host property to support the small repeater.

I did manage to clear a raised bed so I can plant garlic, it's such an easy crop to grow and an autumn sown crop has so far been ready for harvest when the soil is warm enough for summer crops, also I have kale seedlings that will be ready to go into the ground in a few weeks.

I have so much work to do that isn't getting done now because of wet weather, on the odd dry day when grasses have dried I Have to cut grass that is still growing far too quickly for the cutting opportunities.

The comfrey patch that also now grows borage needs cutting down so I'll be digging the growth into the ground perhaps alongside the garlic rows.