House Stuff and Other Plans

We have been doing lots of domestic type things over the past few weeks, and preparing to a certain extent for winter... as much as hibernation would be nice it doesn't pay the bills!! Sooner or later I think we will probably need to replace some or if not all of the windows as some are a bit draughty, but first things first... Alex kindly insulated our loft, and we are having the cavities completely insulated as well, it made a huge difference to the old place, plus there seems to be government grants available at the moment - it cost us £20 to do the loft so I would definitely recommend it.

We have also had our shiny, new, lovely leather bed with the new orthopaedic mattress delivered, and it is sooooo comfortable, I mean it is a world away from sleeping on the mattress on the floor anyway, but from my point of view the softer the better, even though we went for medium-firm as its better for (mainly) Alex's back. I just love the new bed though, and it seems that Kiah likes it too, she loves evening time - or prefers the morning at silly o clock after I've got up - snuggles with daddy.

Otherwise we have been continuing with our training over the last few weeks, even Davy has been on a couple of training days and he and Alex are both coming on fantastically well!! Davy loves his contacts, is very nearly on full height jumps, getting the hang of his channel weaves - and they are both successfully putting sequences of all the equipment together, so next season may be a good one!!

For Kiah and I, it doesn't do either of us any good to give up completely over winter, firstly as it blows her brain if we 'suddenly' come back to it, and secondly as I think their stamina falters. However we certainly don't go all out or push it, just like to keep her active, and she is very much more than just a dog - they are athletes at the end of the day. However, there is plenty of time for R&R, playtime (see picture!) and spoiling too of course, the most important thing to be able to come back afresh. To be honest I do think that the autumn/winter is very much about reviewing what we've done, learning and only then, starting to plan for the following year, so that's what we're going to do, and we have a couple of training days coming up to help us learn.