January went by too quickly, and I did not achieve anything of note. Well, I managed to get a glowing reference for my work at How Now to send out with my resume, so that was good, and surprising. Not that I've found any jobs to apply for. (yet, I'm supposed to add.)
But anyway. The weather swung to both extremes last month, with the 19th only managing to reach 12 degrees, and we had the fire going again. On the 26th we finally had our first day over 30 degrees this summer, when it peaked at 34 and we went for a swim in the lake (where Skuggi, for the first time in his life, was brave enough to attempt some proper swimming. Attempt being the operative word there, it was the messiest swimming style I've ever seen from a dog with an appropriate leg to body ratio). We had some decent rain earlier in the month, and a few lighter sprinkles later, including some pea-sized hail and a thunderstorm. The total rainfall was 67mm.
We got the shed fully stacked once again with firewood for the winter. There's a prediction for it to be an extremely cold winter this year, with intense frosts and sea-level snow, so it's good to have that ready to go. It's already been a much cooler summer than what we're used to. But I love snow, and our house is warm, so I'm keen to get more than just a day and half of it. We have a few more projects that need to get done before the winter, especially if it's as bad as they say, but there's something very satisfying about preparing for a harsh winter. It's been a few years since we've had to do so. At How Now in Shepparton, the winter wasn't bad enough to warrant any preparation (instead there was preparing for the summer and weeks of 40 degrees or more). And then on our block of land, there was nothing we could do even though the winters did suck. But enough of that train of thought.
I've been doing some agility training with Skuggi, getting his fitness up to start competing again. Doing the best I can with limited equipment and space. Hopefully this month I can get to the agility classes once a week and make use of their stuff. But he's running pretty well, I think, so we'll see how he goes when we next compete. The plan is to go up to Christchurch to do so next week (but don't hold me to that, we all know how plans like to fall apart and I've already had to miss one planned trial last week), staying in a cozy cabin and running some lovely jumping courses with judges I like especially. Some judges just make courses better suited to Skuggi than others - more of the soft turns and tunnel sends to allow me to get ahead, less straight lines and awkward distances between jumps that make him struggle with keeping the bars up. We've only done a handful of trials here but I'm slowly getting a feel for which NZ judges are my favourites, though for the most part the courses here have been better than Aussie courses anyway - no offense meant to the Australians. And I still love the more relaxed rules about rewarding your dog after the run. I've mentioned that before.
Here's a couple of videos. One of the dogs training agility, and one of what else we got up to in January.
Click HERE if the agility training video isn't visible.
Click HERE if the "month in the life" video isn't visible.
