I too am in front of a blazing fire after having eaten. Watching Silent Witness at the moment. Girls all tucked up now, popped out after Corrie and found Zen back out again, escorted her to bed, very cold tonight,strong wind as LG says, no rain is a bonus
Glad to hear you were nice LG, its nice to be important, but its important to be nice, and hoping your man is a longstanding member of your team now he has been shown round and met everyone.

'evening LG - very rare that everyone except you & Griff are 'off line' and I know dearest Griff keeps herself logged in even when watching one of her favorite horror movies Must be something on the box which has attracted all of them like some gorgeous hunk maybe

I hope that your new man slots into position quickly and that you can really step back a few paces. Even when running my business many years ago I had very little recruiting to do but most people I've known have said it's the hardest part to get right. You mentioned Helena the other day and I well remember her telling us about the trials and tribulations of a series of mechanics which her OH took on and mostly only lasted a few weeks or months. She is one of only two Dogsey members I've actually met in the 'real' world Very nice and I kinda wish she would come back but I somehow don't think she will.

I don't take the dogs out after dark because if Casey was to see a cat he might well go for it and unfortunately there's an 'A' road outside. I didn't take them in CZ either but that was because we lived on the side of a mountain and there were no tracks or trails and it was rough ground even in the forrest.

I read your post last night about the sheep, very interesting, the last two years we were in CZ saw a big increase in locals taking on sheep, they keept them in the back garden and the plan was to buy them in Autumn, fatten them up, and sell them in the Spring, but it never seemed to work, and they were often around for much longer.

We still have high winds but nothing like you've got up there, one of my enduring memories is driving on the M62 across the moors, at night, raining and a winter gale blowing, was breathing a sigh of relief as we headed down to Junc.20 I can tell you

June I loved that bit in corrie when Mary said abort the H word. Classic. Windy here but not as bad as up your way. Recording SW so I will watch it tomorrow as on here before reading. TT have a good night with not to much whistling round the eaves.

Evening Harvey.
Ref the fattening of sheep over winter, it would be very hard to do unless the owner was willing to give them as much corn as they could eat. They fatten best and cheapest on spring and early summer grass, so this could explain the delays they were experiencing. If they just fed them on hay and odds and sods (so to speak) they'd finish winter about the same weight as when they went into it, if they were lucky.
I can see why you'd find it inadvisable to let Casey run loose at night, if he's anything like mine, their senses seem so much sharper after dark and they're away after stuff at the drop of a hat! Fortunately it's a fair way to any roads from my place and if they head off out of sight it's usually toward the centre of the moor. Which is where they feel sure they'll come across Charley fox. So apart from getting mucked up, bigtime, they're in little danger.
You're right about recruiting being difficult and nowadays there are not many people who want to become part of a feudal set up like mine. Most are from estate families who have been brought up in similar conditions of employment. So this cuts down on the number of people who would find it a bit of a culture shock. Good workers are hard to come by, this much is true,
but we take pride in looking after ours and it's not often we have to find replacements.
Odd that only Griff and myself were on-line before, although I have noticed the amount of evening traffic on the site has slowed somewhat in recent weeks. Just hope it picks up and doesn't suffer a downward spiral. Providing I've enough free time I enjoy my little dabble on the tinterweb or whatever it's called. Not something that I would have thought I'd ever have entertained, to be honest, but there you go! lol !

Evening all,
LG...pleased you were nice to the new boy and hope things work out well
Hi Losos...i don't take mine out after 9pm at night...well except in the summer
Brenda, caught a bit of corrie and was chuckling at Mary...i doubt there is one person on that street who hasn't done worse lol
Been off to training tonight..yes we made it..was proud of Kota as we were used to demonstrate mat work and she did a controlled down onto the mat at distance whilst running to me.....never done it before and she absolutely smashed it!!! She is very hard work but so smart...i think that's half the problem....brighter than me lol

Oh Well Done Kota, you have done amazingly well with her Griff, just goes to show what a difference the right input from the right owner makes to a dog that had the worst start possible in life

I do think she was from a puppy farm originally and me being her4th home at 10weeks must have had an effect on her, she was by far the hardest pup I have ever had to deal with and I don't fully understand her now and that's 2years on!! Deags is starting training for the Gold next week too so I am going to have to put in a lot of effort....considering both of them weren't wanted and were passed from pillar to post, they have both turned out o.kish lol

Well done with the training Griff. You'll make it onto the TV yet, with your team of performing bullterriers! Really glad you made it to training - I know that it costs you in sheer physical effort, but I hope you enjoy it once you're there. Better than staying in surely! Shudder to think what it'd be like with Fagin in a training class - doesn't bear thinking about.

They have turned out wonderful, Griff, give yourself a massive pat on the back for that one

Thanks both, the trainer is lovely and so supportive, she understands that I struggle physically and will let me sit on a chair in the middle of the class if needs be, she also gets that I can't always walk them as far as I would like so shows me mentally tiring games. I am sure if I hadn't met Jan I would have had to give Kota up...as much as it would have hurt me, Jan runs a rescue and rehabilitates dogs...one of her long stayers who was a bait dog and couldn't be near another dog is hopefully off to his new home tomorrow and I saw the video of him wiith another dog!!! Amazing given what he has been through