06.28.10
June 28th
Lots of ash these past few days and it looks like the winds are in our direction for the whole week…let’s hope it rains! Not like me to hope for rain. Hehe My eyes feel like they have sand in them even though all the windows are closed. The dogs legs are charcoal grey each time they go into the yard and we try to rinse them but it is almost impossible to get the ash out without using shampoo, don’t want to ruin their coats with too much of that. I have noticed Klói chewing on his feet a little from the ash so obviously it is bothering him a bit. We haven’t waited too long at a time to see if the ash will just fall out of their coats because the floors are black enough as it is with them tracking it in and I also am feeling stuffed up with scratchy throat and tight chest so don’t want them laying around me with too much ash on them. So needless to say the poor dogs and me are hanging around in the house as much as possible, totally missing out on summer, before we know it it’ll be over…hard to believe June is over already. All our friends who live in different areas keep saying what awesome warm sunny weather they are having, getting tanned and burned and all we get is overcast (that’s what it looks like) grey with cool breezes and no sun what so ever. I think that anyone coming to visit Iceland should just plan to stay up North or on the West or East coast, the South is not a good place to be this year. My heart definitely goes out to those people who live closer and had the worst of it during the eruption.
Rúnar rinsed off the BBQ as well as the windows and the deck a couple times yesterday but no sooner he did and they’d need it again. He even rinsed off the car before we got into it. We couldn’t not use the BBQ though despite the ash as we had only bought food to grill over the weekend because we had thought we’d be enjoying the nice summer weather. Doh! No way I wanted to cook grill steaks on a pan in the kitchen. LOL That Weber gas grill is one of the best things we’ve ever bought let me tell you, it doesn’t matter what we cook on it always delicious and perfectly cooked. I actually think that even I could grill on that thing without burning the meal and that my friends is what they would call a miracle as my brothers and sister Mandy can attest to my grilling abilities. Rúnar seems quite happy with it too and tries to keep it as clean as possible. 
We went into Reykjavík and Hafnarfjörður on Friday because Rúnar was off just after lunch time after working until 9 p.m. on Thursday. We wanted to look at a car that has been for sale for quite awhile and finally we managed to get into town before the dealership closed and you guessed it, the car was sold. Grrr r We managed to spend lots of money though as usual when we go to stores that actually have good food and veggies, and all I went to get was my glutenfree flour from Toro…what would I do without Toro?
Klói went with us again and got to run on the way home since the girls were still being a bit overwhelming with their aromas and he has been so stressed and not eating at all. It seems the girls have finally finished their heats now and Frigg is the last one. Talk about relief. Klói is calm again and back to his own self, boy I “missed” him. Funny how the poor male dogs (females as well) change during the heats. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome for sure. The girls would be humping each other while poor Klói would have to be locked in a cage and he got so frustrated at them and barked when they would start their antics, I’d try to get the girls to calm down and behave so poor Klói could calm down in his cage. We have three cages in the bedroom that the girls slept in during the night so he could spend some time out of the cage. Thank goodness there were only three girls in standing heat at a time and Frigg could wear the denim pants until she had to be “put away” when Hófi was finished her heat so that we didn’t have to move out our bed to bring in a fourth cage. Hehe
So now Klói needs to put some weight on him, his bones are sticking out all over the place, stress really takes it’s toll he wouldn’t even eat the raw food. Now I remember why I had told myself back in 1993 when I found a new home for Snubbur that I would never again keep back a male dog with females. How quickly we forget when it’s only a couple weeks a year though and Klói is just so much more of a character than the girls, I love having a male dog. If I wasn’t breeding then no doubt I’d only have males. We are bound and bent that Skella and Frigg will get the hormone needle before the next heat since it’s cheaper than surgery.
Trying to remember what we did on Saturday but I think we just lazed around the house as well as yesterday after staying up half the night watching movies together, it’s been so long since we’ve done that. Next weekend will be a busy one so we needed to have a good rest. Next weekend we are starting a new clicker course and this time we are getting a couple professional dog trainers and veterinarians which is a bit nerve wracking but so exciting and we are really looking forward to the class. We have decided to change it a bit so it will be finished before we have the litters. Meaning we will be going into Reykjavík Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday then a couple times during the week I believe instead of once a week…it’ll be sort of a bootcamp style that way but we think it will probably be more successful in terms of the dogs since they do learn so quickly that sometimes people get stuck if they have to wait a whole week to come back to class. It will be interesting to see how this works out anyway and will just add to our experience for future classes.
When Klói got to stop on the mountain along the way home on Friday evening I thought I’d just sit and wait in the car but he hates when I do that, since he wants the “pack” to stick together and I guess he thinks if he has to run around everybody should want to come out and watch how cute he is. He never barks just runs around the car and looks at me. Then when I came outside he went to play, such a silly boy he just wanted me out there too! Can you see the little “speck” on the mountain? Rúnar had thrown a rock for him to find.
He was playing around with a water bottle the other day and I thought now wouldn’t that be a great add for the place that Rúnar works.
We had just seen a photo of his clone Tumi in Akureyri holding onto a plastic bottle so I grabbed a photo of him too. How funny when Rúnar called Tumi’s owner on the weekend and heard all the stories of his antics it was as if the character has been inherited just as strong as the looks. Tumi helps the owner with the laundry as well without any training just like Klói did as a puppy. He plays with his toys the same way, just all by himself in the yard running around throwing the toys up in the air and catching them, but we must be fair, both Skella and Klói do that and Skella loves to hold onto toys around the house. Tumi is a really quiet and calm dog too so we are so happy to hear that about him that his owner is just over the moon happy with him. Klói has come up with a great game, I throw him the soft ball and he nose butts it back to me or catches it, good game to play in the house.
It’s so good to see him actually sleep again, as you can see Hófi is thinking she is pregnant these days and she is being really sucky and cute. We really hope she has a litter since she has at least 4 puppies with homes waiting already.
Rúnar has been working on the school website and it’s looking pretty good we also have a counter on it now and are flabbergasted at how many people are visiting it since he put it up a few days ago. We’re trying to figure out how to hold courses while having two litters we think it’s probably impossible but no doubt we’ll be busy next winter and so probably was a good idea to get the litters done at the same time. Dewclaws crossed! I’m supposed to judge an obedience trial for the HRFI (Icelandic Kennel Club) in November, actually both lowest and class 1 test. I want to hold a retrieving course like I used to hold back when I had German Pointers. There are alot of owners of non-registered retrieving dogs both purebred (the Retriever school here ONLY allows purebred registered dogs in their classes so it’s an untapped market here) and mixed as well as just pet owners who might want to teach their dogs a good retrieve not to mention I’d love for people to use their dogs more for assistance around the house to give them jobs to do and that calls for a good retrieve as well.
Well, Rúnar is back home from work, I’m so glad that he might be back to his normal work schedule of 4 p.m. (gets home at 4:30) which is great I’ve missed having him around when he works later. We’ll see how long it lasts before they make them work overtime again. They just sent a big shipment over seas so hopefully he’ll have a few weeks of normal hours.
