2012 has started with the tumultuousness that a new year can sometimes bring- we have decided to move house (again!) and this time not just around the corner but three provinces over.
Candi's (the missus) doggy business kicked off to a hit-the-floor-running start, with people actually having to be turned away. The trend was going that way by the end of last year but the onslaught was somewhat unexpected. So, decisions have to be made, at the moment Furbabies still mainly an at-home one (wo)man operation, as it is it cannot get any bigger - space wise essentially. There can never be more than one class on the go and at present its impractical to extend training hours any further than they are already reaching. Also Candi has dreams to teach other forms of dog schooling, agility is already taking off (in a dedicated but casual sort of way) and other types are on the cards.
Me myself have had a dream for a number of years now to take up my Mother's offer of putting up a wee house on a corner (swathe??) of unused wooded hillside overlooking her bed and breakfast operation, Millgate Cottages in Balgowan, KwaZulu Natal. Me, I'd like to turn the forest into a walk-around attraction - a mini version of The Lost Gardens of Helligan in Cornwall a place we visited a few years ago. There's a small hill, some steepish bits, lots of indigenous trees and plants and an overwhelming lot of undergrowth and alien plants that really need to be hacked out - but, I have a vision, somewhere in here (taps head). Any advice on deterring snakes will be welcome, I also got eaten alive by ticks up there!
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| Somewhere in here... |
There is ample space for a professional dog and puppy training facility and although it'll be starting from scratch again and not having the urban market to tap as easily as in Johannesburg, it's do-able. It also has the added facilities of the existing bed and breakfast - accommodation for extended training camps - a small but ample snack/coffee bar, gift shop, gallery, and a pub! I spent a week down there a fortnight ago, pacing things out, hacking through undergrowth, looking up cabin builders and utilising the Mole and Pig!
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| Site of new Furbabies School |
So we're packing up operations in Johannesburg and shifting lock stock and barrel down to the Midlands. We have to sell the Auckland Park house first of course. This has meant the last week and a bit has seen me doing all the bits n bobs I had planned to do over the next few years ;-p. Pulling up the remaining carpets for a start, I hate the filthy things, with good wood underneath I could never be bothered with the foul dust and smell trapping things. Painting a few more rooms - the previous owners had a love affair with yellowish-beige enamel paint, it was everywhere. I'd completed half of the house so I tackled most of the rest. On pulling up the carpets in my office I discovered that the slight sag in the corner was worse than I thought. An old case of termites and dry rot, although cured, hadn't been properly repaired - just carpeted over. So, up with the floorboards, in with some new timber supports - and new floorboards, skirting etc etc!
I'm dreading the actual move, we don't have much actual furniture but I'm a habitual hoarder, a collector of things-that-might-be-useful, tin cans, glass jars, my vinyl collection, odd jars of mismatched nails, a pile of guitar amplifiers, comic books etc etc. It's all got to go (well, not the vinyl!! -or the amps!!!), along with piles of books, magazines, clothes...No room for it down there, we'll start off with a wee one-bedroom cottage and grow from there. Besides, the semantics involved in actually getting stuff down there are somewhat mind boggling!!
1 comment:
A pile of guitar amplifiers that have to go? Let me know what you've got!
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