An exhausting week

Last week was exhausting, and expensive.

I don't think there was a day that one or other of the dogs escaped and had to be captured. Not so bad for me if it's Sarah as I can usually capture her, she usually heads straight for the sheep to work them. But Jess won't be caught for love or money, you have to use trickery with her.

Michael spent a large amount of money on Tuesday afternoon, buying his Miele cooktop and ordering our Bosch oven and fridge. Hardly Normal agreed to match The Good Guys price on the oven and fridge, so he was saved a trip to Warrnambool.

On Thursday, Sarah escaped but didn't go for our sheep. Instead she decided to head over the hills on the neighbour's property. Despite calling, she ignored me and continued on. It was 2 hours before she returned, rather contrite. In the meantime, Jason from Austar arrived to install our satellite dish and connect us up to 400 channels of crap. He was lovely, working well even with Gomez insisting on barking at him every time he moved a muscle (he was shut up in Caitlin's bedroom eventually, Gomez that is, not Jason). Jason even had to kick Morticia out of his car!

On Friday, Damian and his sidekick arrived to install our solar hot water system. They coped quite well with the dogs .... and even if Mim, who decided she wanted to be one of the boys. She spent a lot of time on her swing chatting to Damian, and when they had a coffee break, she came in to get her cup of water and joined them. Damian admitted that he had a little girl as well, and she follows him around so he was used to it. I eavesdropped into some of their conversation, it was all about their favourite characters on The Simpsons.

Then, just as the guys were cleaning up, I was dressed for work and taking the dogs to the shed to lock them in, when Jess slipped out of her harness. She was off and running. Up the paddock, next door, back into our paddock and around. The girls tried chasing her, coaxing her but no success. So, I jumped in the car with Sarah and drove to the bottom of the paddock. Whilst she'd circle the car, she wasn't game to come near enough to jump in. She was starting to get wise. So, I drove slowly up the paddock, stopped half way and opened the door. She jumped in! I carried her to the shed after that, I wasn't taking any chances!

Jenny looked after the girls on Friday night whilst I was working, she even fed them and me a beautiful roast pork dinner (I'm not a big fan of pork but this was beautiful, hardly surprising coming from someone who ran a restaurant for 20 years). When we got home, I got the dogs out of the shed. Was leading them in when Jess pulled back suddenly, and out of her harness! I tried following her with a torch, but gave up after 15 mins. Went inside, got the girls to bed and had a shower. Took Sarah outside for a pee, Jess was waiting in the yard and came inside quite happily with Sarah. That's when I decided that I would invest in an electric collar. But I can't find one that has a 1000V setting!

On Saturday, the girls and I went down to the post office to check the mail. We were almost in town when the car started juddering. Not good! We finished our task and went straight home. I tried calling the mechanics but they'd closed less than half an hour before. As Michael had left his car at the airport (he was in Brisbane for the weekend), we were trapped at home all weekend. At 4pm I suddenly realised, Phil (Caitlin's teacher) was a mechanic. Gave him a call and explained the symptoms. He thought it sounded like a missing spark plug or spark plug lead and offered to come out and have a look. He and Annie arrived half an hour later and had a fiddle under the bonnet. He didn't have tools but did what he could. He said that was most likely what it was and it would be fine to drive into Hamilton to the mechanics on Monday. That was a relief.

We went inside to have a coffee. Mim was being her 'helping' self. Earlier in the afternoon, I'd caught her sitting at the bench, cutting up an apple and celery using a sharp knife directly onto the wooden bench. I'd taken the knife away from her and told her that you can't make a fruit salad with celery. Five minutes later I caught her still trying to cut the apple and some lettuce, this time with a butter knife! So as I made the coffees for Phil and Annie, Mim tried to serve 'snacks' (her fruit and veg salad), unfortunately she dropped it on the floor. There was lettuce EVERYWHERE! And not large leaves that were easy to pick up, no it was minutely shredded pieces! Annie was trying so hard not to laugh - after 7 kids, she's used to this sort of thing!

Then, after I'd farewelled Phil and Annie, I came inside to find Mim had poured herself a small coffee cup of milk...... with two teaspoons of sugar in it, and was trying to drink it!!!!!!

On Sunday, Mim decided to help me paint the front of the house with undercoat. She was doing quite well, despite dropping her brush in the dirt twice and getting flecks of white paint through her hair and all over her hands (which she then wiped on her pants). I couldn't go to the firefighting training (wasn't game to drive the car anymore than necessary), but did manage to get some ironing, painting, cleaning done.

I'm ready for a holiday!