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Sunday, 31 October 2010

Holy Dog and other news

A little add-on to the last post about our day in the slow life. You may remember that on my morning walk Eddie the Beagle made a dash for it and disappeared for half an hour. Until yesterday I didn't know where he had gone during this period, but the mystery is solved.

As we were walking along the road yesterday a nun passed by in her car, stopped and rolled down her window saying: "I know that dog! Did he escape last Sunday?" Thinking a moment I confirmed that he had. "He came visiting us at Mass! He's lovely dog isn't he?"

So there was me telling the dog for getting up to nothing but mischief and it turns out he went to church confessing his sins! Come to think of it I'm sure I've noticed a tiny halo above his head since then. If you enlarge the photo below, see if you can't spot it.

(...not to mention the dog collar... I think he may be destined for the ministry...)

The weather for most of the week was quite good, but last night we had severe storms and it's a grey rainy one again today.



Getting on top of most of the autumn tidy-up jobs, I've had a go at our Earthship once again. I restarted my initial efforts as I hadn't filled the rims of the tyres properly with earth. I have excavated a large useless corner at the back, which provided me with the earth to fill the tyres and will give me space for the foundations. The foundation wall is now 10 tyres long and 2 tyres tall as you can see. There's room for a further 4 or 5 tyres lengthways once I have completely excavated that corner.

Now I only need more tyres. This is the problem, you see. Whilst the actual building material is free, it isn't free to transport them to our land...

Susan in the meantime is keeping herself warm in these nippier temperatures by tidying up around the wilder edges of our land.


15 comments:

Angela said...

Definitely a halo above his head! What a surprising dog you`ve got there. Now better watch your language, no cursing under your breath anymore when the weeds have grown again and the moles are piling up heaps!
And NO stealing tyres from cars down the road! Eddie would tell the priest!

Heiko said...

I am now waiting for the first miracle, so he'll become Saint Eddie and people will come here on pilgramages. I can open a souvenir shop for them.

Mr. H. said...

When people come on their pilgrimage to visit Saint Eddie make sure each brings along a spare tire and you will have that earthship built in no time. I have 4 tires you can have but...well you know.

It's been raining and raining in our neck of the woods too...blah, I'm tired of rainy weather.

Jan said...

How could you doubt your dog like that!!!

Heiko said...

Mr.H, that rain has got an awful lot worse since this morning. It's coming straight through our bedroom window! I have done nothing but mop up all day! Those tyres you've got, they are not still attached to a car are they? Especcially not to your neighbour's car.

Ayak said...

I always thought Eddie was destined for higher things!

Anonymous said...

Eddie's just too darn cute and I reckon he pulls that pose every time he sees the opportunity to snaffle communion wafers ;-)

LindyLouMac said...

Thanks for your recent comment on 'News From Italy' I hope you manage to find some jujube trees to plant on your land. What a great doggy tale :)

Angela said...

Heiko, did you find Martijn`s comment for you on my blog? He is your great follower!

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Hello Brother! I send you greetings with this mention:
http://adventuresinthegoodland.blogspot.com/2010/11/pumpkin-ravioli.html

Now I'm off to find some greens to make your supper from the other nite!
:-)

Angela said...

And his reply to your kind invitation? Hey, I feel like a messenger! Anyway, that IS Martijn`s - also, wie soll ich sagen, ich glaube, er sieht Dich als großen Bruder, der es richtig hingekriegt hat, aber er weiß einfach nicht, wie es geht. Dabei würde ein Besuch bei Dir ihm wirklich guttun!

Heiko said...

Hi Sis, any left overs of that pumpkin ravioli? I'll be right over for supper!

Angela, just tell Martijn to get his act together and get out of there. You only have one life (unless your a Hindu or Buddhist of course), make the most of it!

Stefaneener said...

I'm on Team St. Eddie all the way! Lovely.

Ruth Trowbridge said...

Do you know Mike Reynolds and his earthship yet? It would be my pleasure to make introductions:

http://earthship.com/

This guy is the real deal. Wish I could share my tire stash with you as we are no longer going to do this. Peace

Heiko said...

Hi Rose, Thanks for the link, I have come across it before. My Earthship is going to be much more basic in design and it's going to be more of a slow growing / evolving project than a properly built effort. I have no money to buy ANY parts, I don't have and cannot afford power tools to help me with the job, I have limited transport to get materials up on the site. I will work things out bit by bit and hopefully, in a year or two, we will have a shelter keeping rain of our heads, with a reasonably comfortable sleeping area, a washing showering area with compost toilet, a cooking area based on wood burners and somewhere to store our tools safely. I wish I could afford to hire 60 men for 20 days and build me a hyper-modern building, but on the other hand this will be MY project and probably even more sustainable.