http://www.salvamea.org.uk en-gb salvamea.org.uk 2009-10-24T00:00:00Z salvamea.org.uk http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#51268 The first frosts have hit our little piece of Scotland and we are into our Winter training regime. Dawn and Layla have been getting out several times a week to get the dogs fitness up to race standard. We are finding the short days mean we are training at twilight or even in the dark. This weekned sees the clocks going back and we will be needing a good set of lights to train with. We have been running at Deer Park in the main which offers a choice of trailssurfaces and hills. We have seen the girls getting better and better. Hex has taken on the role of lead dog and appears to relish the challenge and is a natural leader. She is however relentless and Cruz and Voodoo have been keeping up with the pace she sets. We have been particularly impressed with Voodoos improvement this month. her Seppalla lineage is coming to the fore now. Our older dogs have been tootleing round the trail as they do. It has been good to see Zillah getting his Mojo back and seeing him working hard again. Pagan... 2009-10-24T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#49625 So it is decided....Dawn will run the fast girls at Aviemore and I will tootle round with the boys. Dawn has never competed at Aviemore before so this will be a great experience for her and fair play she has been out training with the dogs when I have been stuck at work. I will be super proud of them all as I cheer them in at the finish line. With the first chill in the air our thoughts have turned to the up coming season ahead. We have high hopes for our pups who come from some of the most prestigious bloodlines in the country. We have been so fortunate to have been entrusted with them and we owe it to our dogs and to their breeders to get out there train hard and compete.It is always so exciting just now as we await the first race which for us will be in November at Culbin. Dawn has been great and has got the dogs out even when I am at work. A huge thank you to Layla who has lent us her rig while we wait.....and wait.....and wait for Halfords to tell us our new wheels are in......m... 2009-9-28T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#48578 We always knew when we lost one of our dogs it would be awful but we had never expected it to be so soon or in such tragic circumstances. It was over a month ago that our beautiful Seppalla girl Romany died in an awful accident and only now do I feel able to write about it. It is not my usual banter about life here in Scotland. This entry will tell of that gut wrenching pain I had upon the death of our beloved pup. Romany was our beautiful noisey blue eyed girl who was just over a year old. We often joked that she was a German Shepherd in a husky body because unlike many Siberians she just wanted to be with you all the time. There was nowhere Romany would rather be than on the sofa snuggled up or on the bed having a late night cuddle. And my God she was noisey. She would woo woo at the slightest thing even at nothing. When she ran in harness she would bark and yap as she ran as if to remind the world that she was there. Romany was the dog that was so easy to fall in love with. Her dol... 2009-9-12T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#45158 It is a strange day when you see your little girl all dressed up for her Prom. Bella had planned her prom dress for years I recall a plan to arrive on the big day on a pink unicorn Unfortunately the pink unicorns were all booked out so Boo and her friends hitched a lift on a WWII jeep for the short journey from Ewell to Epsom racecourse. Bella looked stunning. I was so proud to see her with her friends all getting their photos taken and enjoying being glammed up for a night. I have to confess I was a bit of a promdoubter in the past but I saw what an important coming of age ritual it is for the kids. It is a moment when they pause on the brink of adulthood and remember all their school days as they have grown up together and to look forward with both excitement and trepidation to leaving childhood behind. I was so proud of my Bella. She has been through a lot in the last few years but she has won through and looked stunning and happy on the night. I was a very very happy El Daddio X... 2009-7-18T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#44549 Independance Day the 4th July.......today we opened Thirteen Moons the sustainable Cafe and Shop at the Mill of Towie. After months of hard work and outlay the big day was upon us. The sun shone and the omens were good. We were lucky to have Debbie and Sally with us. They had flown up from darkest Addington to help Dawn for the first week.....you just cant buy friends like that......Emma and Ian have been helping for weeks to get the place shipshape Lesley took a day off work and Diane donned her apron to help. Our two young helpers Nicola and Francis were also standing by to recieve customers. 10 am came and we were officially open. Our first customers were Fee and her grandaughter Juliet. It was about now that I realised just how steep a learning curve we were actually on Despite reading the instructions several times when it came to real live customers I could not get the damn cash register to work When I eventually got the drawer open I realised on our first transaction that I had... 2009-7-8T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#43395 You know you are living your dream when....... ......you are filling the pigs water bucket up at 2330 at night it is still light. As you bend at the riverbank you see something paddling upstream. You think it must be a bird or something but then it sees you you see its brown head and then it flips and dives beneath the water and you realise you have just seen an otter at the bottom of your field ....you get home from work and the first problem I have to deal with is not where to park but instead you have to get your pigs and goats out of the back garden. Despite being very very bad pigs and naughty naughty goats you realise you love these pesky critters. ....everyday the shell of the building you took on is transformed into a wonderful tea room and a space for your friends to display and sell unique amazing works of art. You realise you SO believe in this business this dream. And you are sharing this with your beautiful wife and one day you may really live and work together every d... 2009-6-16T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#39621 Things have been busy at the Mill as we work our little socks off preparing to open the tearoom and craft shop. Ian and Emma have been helping us and we cannot thank them enough Ian has wired in our fancy new cooker and done numerous jobs around the place. Emma has helped me pave the dog run and taken part in intense numerous creative discussions over numerous bottles of wine.....its a dirty job but someones gotta do it...... Andy has helped me move a shed from Ronnie and Lynns. We have bartered free range eggs for the shed. Sounds like an easy job but the shed was Quality heavy and big add to the mix high winds and Andy and I getting hysterical as we nearly blew away while carrying panels in a Wizard of Oz style and the job was more complicated. I fear I may have contravened several road traffic laws as we strapped the shed panels to the back of the van for the trip to the Mill. Eventually the panels all arrived and have been erected a new roof put on and Dawn has painted and added ... 2009-4-11T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#38735 2009-3-26T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#36646 We have been frozen up for the last couple of weeks. Temperatures here hit a low of 16 and our pipework frozeour new boiler stopped working and we found ourselves with no heating no hot water.....actually no water But we have our beloved wood burner so we wrapped up warm kept the living room heated and waited for the thaw.........we are still waiting. But we did have a mini respite last Tuesday morning miraculously our central heating started to work and we basked in warmth for a night but were lured into a false sense of security. I worked a night shift on Tuesday and came home tired Wednesday morning. I returned to find Dawn our kitchen which had been transformed into one huge power shower.....all the pipes in the kichen ceiling had burst as had the mains pipe to the sink the kitchen was ankle deep in water water was flowing down the hall and our home looked like a disaster area. Dawn had not rung me at work as there was nothing I could have done instead she had tried to stem the f... 2009-2-14T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#36141 18 Eskimo words for snow N.B Since English does not offer the necessary diacritical marks the spelling used here is an approximation. It is based on the Umingmaktormuit Inuit dialect. Since Inuit like German is polysynthetic it strings participles together tacking them on to the root word thus it is difficult to know where to stop. But I have listed 18 clearly differentiable words here. N.B These data are based on a 1979 article in The Straight Dope. akuvijarjuak thin ice in the sea anijo snow on the ground hiko ice generic expression hikuliaq thin ice ivuneq high pack ice kaniktshaq snow generic expression kanut fresh snow without any ice kuhugaq icicle manelaq pack ice maneraq smooth ice for the skating fans nahauliq snow bunting nilak freshwater ice peqalujaq rather old ice pugtaq drift ice qanik falling snow quahak fresh ice without any snow tsikut large brokenup masses of ice blocks tugartaq firm winter ice And of coarse which is NOT a typo kaniktsh... 2009-2-5T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#36137 We watched the pictures of the snow in London our friends tales of snow days and frosty frolics with a degree of envy. The BBC promised the snow was heading north it seemed to take forever to arrive but when it did boy did it arrive. We woke this morning to in excess of 15 of the white stuff. I was due to be working and I did try to move the van but it just was never going to happen. The snow was knee deep and the hill was thickly covered. Oh well.....up here we have inclement weather days and we have spent today taking photos keeping warm in front of the wood burner and watching inordinate ammounts of films and TV. A proper lazy day for once The dogs loved the snow. I let them into the big run and they just went crazy bounding through the drifts playing tag and having a fine old time. Lenny was funny disappearing into mounds of snow then appearing covered. The chickens were trapped in their houses and had to be released the goats and donkey were wisely sheltering in the bar... 2009-2-5T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#35606 For the last 26 years the last weekend in January sees the ski centre of Aviemore turn into one massive dog town as the Siberian Husky Club of Great Britain arrives in town. Aviemore is the venue for the largest and most prestigious rally in the United Kingdom. Mushers from all over the country and abroad make their way to north east Scotland to compete. Looking down on the competitors car park on race days is like looking at a huge bowl of dog soup....dogs everywhere Siberians Malamutes Samoyeds and a smattering of other breeds vansvansvans and their owners. It really is quite an amazing sight. We have been competing at Aviemore since 2005 but there are competitors like Rob Hydon who have been at every single Aviemore rally. Every year this event gets bigger and we still get excited as race day comes closer. This year we had been asked to help organise the Junior race with out friends Alan and Debbie Nabeyo. As our kids had enjoyed racing their dogs it seemed appropriate that we help... 2009-1-27T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#35127 Well the New Year is upon us and things at The Mill just keep getting busier. Work at Dr.Grays has been mad people keep getting sick and beds in there just doesnt seem to be enough beds to go around. Dawn has got her mojo on and is working like a Trojan to get the business ready for our opening at Easter. There is so much to do and so many things to put in place. But this is a labour of love we are in the amazing situation where we have the opportunity to live our dream. So although it is scary we are going to go for it and the possibility of living and working at the Mill is the prize to be had. Much stuff has been going on around us. Dawns Mum and Alan got married at Graceland in America. The pictures look wonderful and Yvonne says they had the best time.....our love to them both and all th best for the future. The biggest husky event in the country is nearly here. Every year we get so excited. This year we will be organising the junior race with Alan and Debbie. So we are both n... 2009-1-17T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#34194 This Christmas was one of our quietest in years. Sinead and Bella arrived on17th December for a week and returned home on Christmas eve. Bella is still suffering from the after effects of glandular fever and following her recent jaunt to France arrived with us a wee bit run down. The Scottish air and a few long layins and a few late nights up with Sam saw Boo feeling a bit better by the time she left. Sinead is in love with our dogs and all things animal at the moment. She gave me a hand with all the animal chores and even came round on the rig at Deer Park. On 20th we raced at Culbin at the SHCGB Christmas Cracker. We had a nice trot round with Team Tootle but the main reason was to get all the pups used to the rally atmosphere. Congratulations to Adrian and Team Valuiki who contine to turn in amazing results despite Adrian being in agony following his back injury. On the night of the 20th we hosted the Auchindachy Christmas party. Arranged by Dawn Alison and Diane the evening was an... 2008-12-26T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#33384 Our dream of living and working from our home took another step forward this week with the incorparation of our company. Our company name has been registered at Companies House as Thirteen Moons and we will be trading as Thirteen Moons at The Mill. Why thirteen moons I hear the collective voice of cyber space cry....well for many reasons dear reader........everything we do here is closely related to the seasons we want to live close to the natural rhythm of the year to honour that. In a year there are thirteen lunar cycles there are thirteen full moons......hence Thirteen Moons....also it will be a year from the time we decided we would go for it with the business to our opening date .....Easter weekend 2009. So this is all very exciting and daunting at the same time. Having a dream is one thing but having the courage to make that dream a reality is something else....what happens if the dream fails where do you go if your dream is not what you thought it was going to be Dawn and I kn... 2008-12-7T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#32754 So we are slowly getting back to normallity. It has been hard after such a wonderful time. But life goes on and bills have to be paid jobs have to be attended dogs need to be run stables have to be mucked out......ok enough already. We have been building the mileage up very slowly with the Valuiki girls Hex and Cruz. We have to remember they are still very young cause these girls just want to keep going. Zillah has done a sterling job of showing the pups the ropes but bless him he is now getting necklined by the wee girlies. His time is up and he will drop down to Team Tootle as we bring the girls on. I still dont think they have their directional commands yet but wont learn until they have to make decisions for themselves. We have also started the Seppala girls in harness just a 30 40 yards to start with. Sam ran Voodoo and Romany for their first ever run. We are employing an overarching principal of No bad experiences as we bring pups on just let their confidence grow let their mus... 2008-11-23T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#32139 ....and so it is done Dawn and I are handfasted On the evening of 31st October we celebrated our binding. It was a truly magical evening........ The build up started on the Wednesday as our children and Dawns dad arrived by plane. Not before we were completely blown away by the early arrival of our fab friends Alan Debbie and Alf with Nabeyo dogs in tow. These guys consistantly surprise us and we love em to death. It took two vehicles to pick Sinead Bella Luke Liv and John up from Inverness airport. For John this was a momentous day as he was never going back ........Dawn has found a cottage in Keith for her dad he had packed his belongings and now has become a white settler Englishman in Scotland along with us. For the rest of the family who were driving up things were not so simple. Yvonnne and Alan had satnav mischief and from being nearly on our doorstep managed to do a tour of the NorthEast of Scotland....their 11 hour journey being extended to a whopping 17 hours. Mike and Li... 2008-11-9T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#31615 Shame on me.....been a while since i updated this blog. But I have a good excuse simply so busy that blogging went on hold. We are preparing for our binding ceremony here at the Mill. Dawn and I will be bound for all eternity on Halloween in our handfasting ceremony. We have wanted to do this for many years but at last the time is right. Dawn was always adamant that we should have our ceremony on halloween after her 40th birthday. Despite all the other things going on we have decided that this will happen.....and now it feels so right. We have been fortunate to cross paths with Fiona who will be our celebrant on the night and has crafted a ceremony that could not be more perfect. We have a hogroast booked owls being flown and one of Scotlands best fiddle players to entertain our guests. Our children will all be here as will our dearest friends and family......we are so excited. What has been lovely is that we are not stressed things are dropping into place....everything is as it shoul... 2008-10-26T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#30490 Ive been for a spin....2000 miles later Im back at The Mill. Last Thursday saw me off in the van to head south...not because the weather was turning and I was makin like a swallowbut because I was helping move my eldest daughter to Brighton University. It is traumatic enough when your baby girl gets al grown up and leaves home but we really are now at opposite ends of the country. The Transit was dedogged decaged and air freshners installed. Off I went. 11 hours and 600 miles later I was at the girls home. After a long drive I relaxed with a chicken dhansak then into my sleeping bag. The Friday was Unieve and Sinead also had her birthday coming so while she was shopping for Ugg boots Bella and I braved Ikea to get a bed for the Yurt. OMG Ikea v Hell.....I cant tell the difference Eventually we had our bed on board and back to the girls. Friday evening I caught up with team Nabeyo. A flying visit but always good to see Alan Debbie and the boys. Charlie is off to Finland to work at the ... 2008-10-3T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#30007 We are on it We have had one of those super productive weekends. We have run the dogs both Saturday and Sunday and stepped up the pups runs to about a mile. We are now running Hex and Cruz with Zillah. Poor Pagan cant match the pups speed already. Zillah is keeping up and working hard. I cannot begin to explain how much of a thrill it is to ride behind these pups...they are amazing nutters who just want to run Our dogs are now split between the puppy development team and team tootle....Pagan Ghost and Reef who tootle round at their own pace. Seppala pups have been coming along for the ride and to meet some other dogs. We met Cameron and Lisa this morning and pups got to romp with Natalie a dog not a person What a beauty.Voodoo and Romany are lovely cheeky little pups but hey they are only young once The pack are a happy bunch at teh moment. On Friday we blitzed the goats all wormed hooves clipped and dedagged. We had our first attempt at clipping the Angorra goats. It was ok We just t... 2008-9-21T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#29741 We have new arrivals Romany and Voodoo two pure seppalla pups from Helen and Dave Patterson. They are too cute and they are pure Seppala For those of you huskyfolk you will know how thrilled we are to have these historic dogs in our kennel. We hope they will compliment our Zero girlies Hex and Cruz. Pups come from McinleyArticmoons Attilla httpwww.pawvillage.compedigreepedigree.aspID8A6LJCQYQU and MistyChatanikas Misty httpwww.pawvillage.compedigreepedigree.aspIDXN9OZ9YALO and we are thrilled to have them here. And today we ran Hex and Cruz with Zillah and Pagan. They are truly mentalWe are running about a mile and they just seem to get faster as they go round. This is a very exciting time for us. We have no excuses now We have pups from the finest bloodlines in this country. The awesome ZeroTupilak line and now pure Seppala dogs who can be traced right back to Leonard Seppalas original dogs with a tight carefully planned breeding behind them aiming to keep that orig... 2008-9-15T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#29503 A timely reminder before the season starts proper that this sport of ours whilst being crazy fun also carrys a degree of risk.....and some lessons to learn. Dawn was a way down south for the last 2 weeks and I decided I would take Zillah Pagan and Lenny to explore Ordiquish forest and try and find some new trails. I took the bike and set off. Well true to form we got lost and our 3 mile jaunt turned into nearer 8 miles. Eventually the trail became familiar and with relief I called the dogs on to take me home. I was tired they were tired and a classic sled dog tumble ensued...that old corker of going over your slack tug line wheel immediately locks and off you go. In my case straight over the handlebars landing in an untidy mess wind knocked out of me and excrutiating pain in my ribs. Somehow I got back to the van loaded and limped home. Over a week later the AampE doctor tells me I have bruised my ribs and damaged intercostal cartlidge. Being the rock hard musher I am I have taken ... 2008-9-9T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#28909 Its a bit lonely tonight Sinead has left today after being here all week and this afternoon she flew home. Dawn is also still down south looking after her dad so Im home alone.....and its losing any novelty it had. Oh well up early tomorrow to run les mutts. Dogs have been out every day this week for walks as Sinead discovered the magic of wellies. Hey ho....... 2008-8-29T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#28798 There is a slight nip in the air some mornings you think I could really do with a jacket on and you realise that Summer is slipping away and that must mean the next sled dog season is just round the corner. Rig maintenance and equipment checking need to be done. But most importantly the dogs need to get fit. Here at SalvaMea last year was hectic with the move from England to Scotland new job home educating Sam.....and that impacted on our training and competing. This year we have bigger plans afoot not least as we will be bringing Hex and Cruz on to join the race team by the end of the season. Zillah Pagan and Reef are out on the trail again. These guys will never be the fastest team but they work well and enjoy competing. Our challenge will be to find the right combination of dogs to allow Hex and Cruz to achieve their full potential. And whilst it may seem obvious to run them as a 2 dog Im not as young as I was and in this class musher fitness is probably as important the dogs...sad... 2008-8-27T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#28460 Way back in time when we were living on Gander Green Lane in Sutton we had a dream that we would live in Scotland in a yurt. A crazy dream but hey ho we sold our house bought a yurt httpwww.mongolianyurts.co.uk and made an agreement with Vanessa that we could rent a bit of her field to live in while we looked for our home. Well events conspired and with less than 2 weeks to go before we moved the opportunity to rent The Mill came up. So here we are living a new dream but there was still a little bit of us both that regretted we had not lived in yurts for a while....oh the romance....oh the cold and wet. So the yurt was stored around the house and in the steading. Nearly a year after we moved in we were in a position to get it up at last. Our first challenge was to construct a base that would raise the yurt up off the soggy Scottish soil and provide ventilation. Whilst I am happy to bodge together a hen hoose out of pallets this was out of my comfort zone. So in true Highland hippy st... 2008-8-18T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#27850 This morning Hex and Cruz had their first run in harness. Just a 100 yards or so with Mr Lover Lover in wheel Zillah as we can always rely on our big power house. Once they realised they were supposed to go forward and not just follow me back to the rig they were great....speedy little things those Valuiki pups The racing season will be upon us before we know it so I need to get the big dogs fit but even here in Scotland it has just been too warm. But I need to start putting some miles on the dogs.....get them fit. Hopefully this season I will be able to compete at more rallies as my job allows me to know I will be off at weekends. I love this time of year as I start making plans and preparations for the coming season. The pups wont be able to run until the last couple of races but I will be aiming to bring them on slowly and steadily with no bad experiences as the underlying principal of all their training runs. In other news....we have 5 Angora goats who we obtained from Philip ... 2008-8-3T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#27522 So its a lovely Friday afternoon your at work weather is lovely....what would you fancy doing at the weekend.....a cold beer a glass of wine a lay in......or drive over 600 miles to see your mates in Scotland for 36 hours This is why we love Alan and Debbie We cannot begin to tell you how priviledged we are to have friends like this. Leaving New Addington at 5pm to arrive with us at 0430 am on Saturday morning. What nutters We had the best time as we always do. We miss these guys all the time and we have been trying to work out why Is it Als colourful use of the English language and associate Tshirts is it Debs drinking stunts......no.....its because these guys just get it. We share the dream. So fingers crossed they will one day find themselves our neighbours up here. In the meantime they are always welcome in our home. Saying adios this afternoon hurt...but we will see you soon. There are no goodbyes......see you soon And this week we also had Dawns Mum and Allan staying with us. A... 2008-7-27T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#27193 Tonight we are recovering from our first proper Ceilidh which was held at the top of Cairn Gorm....for those of you who race at Aviemore will understand our sense of bizarreness as we drove past the rally site and carried on up to take the Furnicular railway to the summit of Cairn Gorm. The evening expedition was organised by Vanessa and David who convinced myself Dawn and Sam Emma and Ian and Andy and Diane that this was a good idea. And indeed it was. I have to confess I was apprehensive about being swung round by the Gay Gordons or haveing my willow stripped but I have to say it was bloody good larf as they say in the Highlands. Ofcourse having the evening lubricated with wine and whisky helped .....but by the end of the evening we were well and truly ceilidh sluts...wed dance with anyone and not even remember their name the next day Although the only true Scots in our party Emma and Ian were not seen on the dance floor all night. They cited childhood dancing trauma as the reason.... 2008-7-18T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#26718 My daughter has been up for the last two weeks helping us at The Mill as her work experience. It was a WinWin situation as I got to have time with Bella and she got to do some interesting stuff instead of stacking shelves in Tesco or the like. Bella was fab. She was enthusiastic and got stuck into all the jobs we asked her to do. Building fences making bee hives sanding and varnishing cleaning out animals.....all done with enthusiasm. Twas great. On Friday she will be heading back down South and I will miss her like crazy. But Im sure she will enjoy the company of her friends and Mum and sister. Thats the only problem here you cannot just pop out.....every trip has to be planned or involves a car trip. Consequently life has pauses and gaps.....not so much for us adults as there is an unending amount of jobs to be done but for the kids life runs at a different pace. Our other news is that the bees are here. Dawn picked up her nucleus from Tony at the Moray Beekeepers Association a few... 2008-7-9T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#26251 We want ducks......We want to rescue ducks....we have found an organization that offers battery ducks a second chance at a life.......we have our name on the waiting list for our rehome ducklets. Only problem is that ducks need a pond and we have none. Never fear With the promise of a barbie booze and unlimited access to a trampoline our friends donned wellies grabbed a spade and turned up for a day of digging and drinking. With 8 people slogging away in the mud and Dawn providing refreshments the work was done amazingly quickly. We shifted scary amounts of earth and drank amazing amounts of beer and wine. The result was a duck dream home. A huge thank you to Matt Helena Andy Diane Emma Ian Layla Craig and encouragement from Vanessa David and family. We honestly could not have done it without you guys....and it wouldnt have been so much fun. After a days hard labour we retired to comfort of the front room the warmth of the woodburner and the hilarity of grown men competing and they w... 2008-6-29T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#26040 As we speak our difficult cockeral Lucky is in the oven Our first home grown chook to be eaten. Our friend Dan Buckley popped over for tea and ended up giving us a lesson in killing and gutting chickens. Whilst not the most pleasant of experiences....especialy for Lucky....we are somewhat euphoric tonight as we take another step towards selfsufficiency. I hate factory farmed chickens and we have thought we either stop eating chicken or we start raising and consuming our own animals.So tonight we dine on aggressive cockeral Our other big news is that our bee hive is here. Made by John at Moray Bee Keepers this hand made cedar hive is a work of art. Tonight we heard that we will be able to get a nucleus of bees Saturday week and our honey production will start. This is very much Dawns venture and she has been reading like mad and telling us all the wonderful things bees do.... On Saturday we are digging or duck pond. As is the way here we will provide a barbie and booze and our friends... 2008-6-25T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#25491 Today we picked up 4 chicks from our friend Ishbel. Sam has taken to caring for all our birds so he wanted to raise some chicks himself. Tonight the wee birdies are snugged up in his bedroom. Our house becoming like Fort Knox as we have to ensure the cat doesnt get to the chicks the dogs dont get to the cat the dogs dont get to the chicks the snake doesnt get out and eat us all........ The chicks will stay in for a week or two until they get their secondary feathers then they will go out into a hoose and their own run in our garden cum farmyard. We also ran the dogs at Deer Park. It was a horrid day but at least that ensured there were no dreaded dogwalkers on the trail. We ran the 4 big dogs and Dawn has started the pups education. We try and let the puppies see the big dogs get harnessed and as we are about to set off we get the pups all excited......then as I set off we hope the pups will be busting to run. At this stage we hold on to them and just let them wish they were running ... 2008-6-13T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#25343 Never famous for my DIY skills but unable to afford vast ammounts of wood or to buy....stuff I am rapidly becoming an expert in pallet wodwork. This basically entails picking up as many pallets as I can stuff in the van from Laylas work place dismantling them.....involving lots of hammer work...and reassembling them into hen houses duck houses tree houses fencing gates and anything else I can think of. Whilst these constructions are not perfect and a little bit.......wonky they are most definitely FREE Lovely My Dad is arriving next week then Bella will be up at the end of June. There seems to be an unending stream of visitors to The Mill which we love. We have visits booked right the way through to the racing season. Met up with Adrian and Lynn our pups breeders for a walk. Already getting excited about next season. The pups wont be ready until the end of the race calender but we will be bringing them along to get them used to the excitement of race days. Training will start when t... 2008-6-10T00:00:00Z http://www.salvamea.org.uk/page8.htm#23182 We have been meaning to set up a web page for ages. 7 dogs 12 chickens 2 goats etc etc and sitting infront of a computer just never seemed a priority.....until my daughter Sinead bought me this web site for my birthday. Now we had no excuses. So bear with us as we get up and running. At the moment the SalvaMea kennel is being dominated by our two new arrivals Hex and Cruz from the Valuiki kennel of Lynn and Adrian Tilsed. These fantastic little girls are keeping us on our toes ...... and testing our patience around the house. We will be investing in a Vax carpet waher very soon me thinks. We hope this blog will be a way to keep our friends old and new to keep up to date with our news.Watch out CyberSpace.....here comes SalvaMea 2008-4-21T00:00:00Z