Sig got his first bath on Sunday and was really not impressed with the ordeal at all. I do not think he is going to be much of a water dog… but the good news is that Ryno is starting to at least tolerate him and doesn’t go running to hide in the closet every time Sig comes in the room. Baby steps. But also, you cannot blame Ryno one bit – those super sharp need teeth hurt!
Monday morning I picked up our girls! Yes, that is right Kheta and Tivara have finally made it to South Africa and my heart could not be more happy! I was worried that after nearly 2 years apart, Kheta would not recognise me, but she absolutely remembers me and has been completely glued to my side since I picked them up. Poor Tivara girl is definitely showing her 12 years of age, but at least now she is home with us for the reminder of her years ❤ Ryno and Kheta were over the moon excited to be reunited again, those two are the best of friends. The second Kheta jumped out of the car her and Ryno had such a ball jumping on each other and catching up on all that has happened to them while they were apart. The only down part is that the girls not only want nothing to do with the snappy little velociraptor, but they too try and snap back. Hopefully with time they will learn to accept him and he will learn to have better manners with the older dogs.
Akira being the clever girl she is learned a new trick – “halter.” When I hold out her halter she excitedly runs over and shoves her nose right in it. This will be very useful when she’s much bigger. One if my challenges with Phoebe the shire mare has been when I try to put on her bridle, she lifts her head straight up to the heavens and 5’3” of me has no chance of reaching her 18.1 hh head when its all the way to the clouds. I wanted to make sure this would never be an issue with Akira, so this was high on my list to teach her, and I just am so amazed with how quickly she caught on. She really is insanely clever!
Ellery left on Wednesday to drive up to Tzaneen to hang out with Cole for his birthday. I cannot believe he is already 14! Holy cow that’s just crazy to think about. He is becoming such an awesome young man. Him and his dad had a great time hanging out and I was lucky to receive a video call from Cole so we could chat and catch up on how his first few weeks of high school have been going. He said the food is absolutely terrible and bland and made me promise to make it up to him with cooking all his favourites on the next school holiday. But overall, he is enjoying it – Merensky Agricultural Academy has some pretty cool traditions like at the beginning of the year the kids have to all hike out to the farm and get dunked in a pool of mud and cow poo. They also had a school sokkie (dance) where the 8th graders had to bring mops and brooms dressed up as their dates. Cole said the prefects decorated faces on the dates for them. Being the younger guys on the block, the 8th graders are “bought” with 2-minute noodles by older kids and then have to spend the year as personal assistants for the older boys making them coffee in the mornings, warming up toilet seats, etc… Boarding school is a very new concept for me as I went to public school in the states. I am sure there are a lot of aspects of it that are tough, but also a lot that sound really fun and great character building.
Being left to hold down the fort, the rest of my week was rotating dogs through different sections of the house. Kheta still wants to be glued to my side, but Sig, being a baby also wants to be close to a human and right now the combo just is not working. So I have the deck, our bedroom and the passage open to the big dogs while Sig and I hang out in the house and garden then every few hours we flip flop who goes where. I am not going to lie, it is extremely exhausting and I cannot wait for Ellery to come home on Friday. When he is here Sig can stay with him and Kheta with me then all is good in dog world. While Ryno just continues to do his own thing – he is pretty much dog Switzerland. Neutral in all the dog drama wars.
The Pollards came by to drop off somethings that they will come and pick up at a later date and we had to heartbreakingly say our goodbyes for now. I am really, really going to miss them!
Saturday morning, with Ellery back, we went and picked up the flooring for my office!! We put down the 4mm rubber mat then had the task of laying out, linking up and cutting the laminate flooring into place. Ellery might not agree, but I was actually quite impressed with how generally easy the whole process was. It went quickly too – the whole thing only took about 4 hours from start to finish. And the finished product is gorgeous!! I am super excited to have my own space and office area to work in! Plus moving my desk out of the dining room gives space to position the dining room table nicely and really opens the whole house up even more.
The pool should be finished next week too! Very excited to see how it turns out and to be able to cool down with a dip. It is coming along so nicely!
….. and more doggo photos because my heart is so happy to have everyone together ❤
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