We have lift off!

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Over the past few months we’ve visited dog shows, breeders, friends, dog parks and websites, all with a view to finding our Nunzio… and ended up with an overload of information, too many choices and high levels of indecision. Eventually I had to resort to a spreadsheet, entering size, weight range, temperament, grooming, exercise requirements and common ailments of each of the breeds we’d shortlisted.

We ranked them out of 10, based on our original criteria of size and disposition. Then we discarded all but the top four breeds and had another think. We could immediately rule out two of the four contenders: we already have one (but need something calmer for a second dog) and aren’t prepared to risk a repeat of the other (because of health issues). In the end it came down to a choice between a German Short Haired Pointer and a Welsh Springer Spaniel.

More discussions ensued. A decision was made.

Finally after all the procrastination, we have a puppy in our sites. Sometimes it’s good to simply go with what you know.

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Based on how quickly they learn and respond to commands, Welsh Springers are only ranked #31 on the smart-dog scale. However, this still means they tend to obey a first command 70% of the time or better. This is good enough – and a lot smarter than a most other breeds.

Besides which, we’ve realised that we’re not looking for clever. We’re looking for a good companion dog for our Doberman, one that will keep up with her but not be as wildly excitable. In this arena, Welshies score very well. Their temperament is predictable, they’re good fun without being super boisterous, and are very loving. Our Honey (above) really was a Honey 🙂

So, we have confirmation that one of these little cuties is our Nunzio. They’re only three weeks old at present, so we won’t know which one for a few weeks yet.
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She’ll arrive in Perth in early April, flying across from Quamby Brook (Tasmania) with another puppy also destined for Perth. You can keep an eye on their progress via Talzon’s website or email me for updates.

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Spider and Rosie, the parents. (Images courtesy of Talzon Welsh Springer Spaniels.)

Experimenting with a vertical garden: phase #1

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I’ve wanted to try out vertical gardening for ages, but it’s somehow never quite reached the top of the pile… until now. A couple of months ago some gear (a chicken house in kit form) was delivered to our house on a pallet. The build-your-own chicken run has long since gone up to Gallifrey Permaculture, where the chickens are enjoying the extra space. The pallet, however, continued to lurk in our front courtyard, pending action.

Every time I’ve walked past it I’ve thought about how to either use it or get rid of it, but without coming to any useful conclusions. Contemplating it again last weekend, I mentioned to Himself that it was now high on the ‘let’s do something about it’ list and asked whether he had any thoughts on what the ‘something’ might be… He said, ‘Well you’ve been talking about a vertical garden… couldn’t you use the pallet as a base for one?’OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Good thinking, 99! … although this did mean that ’99’ then ended up having to hunt down various tools to reinforce the pallet. That done, he attached the pallet to the wall above one of the raised garden beds with a couple of brackets and declared it ready to start its new re-purposed life.

While he was busy with all that, I scrounged around in the shed to see if I had any suitable sized pots and checked to on how much compost/soil mix we have left over from the last garden epic. The plan we’d devised was to pop the pots into the frame in three rows, about six pots per row, and to encourage the plants to grow up and over the frame. This sounded a lot simpler than the alternative, which is to cover the back, bottom and sides of the pallet with weed mat or landscaping plastic, then fill it with sand and plant up. Our pallet would need more horizontal struts for that to work, so this time I’ll stick to using the pots and see how it goes.

For this fledgling vertical garden I need to take into account that it will be in full sun most of the day. In addition to this, the pots that fit into the pallet-frame are (recycled) 10cm plastic pots; these only have a capacity of about 0.5L, so the soil will dry out fairly quickly. This means I need to select plants that aren’t going to develop huge root systems and that can cope with full sun and sporadic watering.

Growing things makes me happy and it’s a bonus if we also get to eat them (in whatever format),  so I try to choose useful and/or edible plants whenever I make additions – which probably explains our mini orchard and the various vegetable/herb beds scattered around the property. For this experimental garden I’ve decided on a combination of easy-to-grow favourites: cherry tomatoes, rocket, Vietnamese mint, Thai coriander, lemon balm and parsley; perhaps even some strawberries.

I’d promised myself a visit to the Garden Centre and to the horticultural fair this week as a reward for the epic hours spent (successfully) weeding the verge garden. My mission was quite clear… but Garden Centres and Garden Shows appear to be my particular nemeses.

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I ended up coming home with a Brown Turkey Fig, a beautiful orange and yellow hibiscus (Hibiscus Bali Sunset), and a Mr Lincoln hybrid rose –  and only three of the 12 herbs I actually set off to get! Not quite the outcome I’d planned, but they made me smile all day – as did the prospect of a return trip for the missing plants 🙂

 

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The weeded verge garden, also ready for planting when the weather cools a little.

 

Contemplating procrastination

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This week a lot of my thinking time has been done whilst weeding our very overgrown verge garden. I find weeding to be an exceptionally tedious task, with virtually no redeeming features. The only upsides I’ve come up with are: (a) the outcome = tidy garden = satisfaction, and (b) my mind is free to wander around and trawl through ideas that have been lurking just out of sight.

So far (a) has not been achieved – but I’ve spent a good many hours working towards that goal and am past the halfway mark. Satisfaction is within sight. Meantime various items under (b) have received a good deal of my (spare) attention. The issue that’s surfaced to the top of the contemplation pile is… procrastination… probably because the seemingly endless weeding I’m ‘enjoying’ is a direct result of just that.

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The following questions have been buzzing around in my head as I weed:

  • Why do we procrastinate? (…and don’t kid yourself, we all do it!)
  • How do we resolve it?
  • What motivates, inspires or drives individuals to get going on a project or task in the first place, i.e. what kicks people into getting stuck in and doing things?
  • And what makes them see it through to completion?

No doubt there are many and varied answers to all these questions – and no doubt those answers are slightly different for each individual. My starting point (in the hunt for some answers) was to try to categorise people into groups. I came up with three broad categories:

  • Self-starters: people who seem to walk to the beat of their own drum, a neat little rat-a-tat-tat that (to an onlooker) just seems to keep on going.
  • Pleasers: respond actively to motivation in the form of outside encouragement, rewards, etc. – or to a combination of reward/punishment.
  • Resistors: seem not to be swayed by any form of persuasion, from any source.

Once I had all that clear in my head, I boldly put myself into the self-starter category. Then I realised that I actually fall into each of the categories at different times or for different types of tasks. Sometimes I just get cracking and get something done – but other times I do things to please others or to avoid negative outcomes. I confess that there have also been times when I’ve actively (and stubbornly) resisted some tasks completely.

Reflecting on this I see that my own procrastination isn’t just because I don’t want to do things. Sometimes it’s because the task is tedious (weeding), or overwhelming (a lot of weeding!), or I feel uncertain (perhaps because I don’t have the skill to effectively complete a particular task). There are some things I have procrastinated over starting because not starting seems less stressful than doing it ‘wrong’, or because other things take priority, or when I simply fall into the trap of watching TV / social media browsing / email.

Plodding through all this – particularly whilst doing something I don’t really want to do (but do want done) – has made me realise that the first step to getting things done is to consciously acknowledge that I’m procrastinating. I had a think about what I do with my time instead of getting on with whatever it is that I’m avoiding (weeding!), then tried to figure out how much time I do actually fritter away on time-fillers (rather than on things I’ve theoretically actively decided to do). It turns out to that I manage to fill rather a lot of time with useful, but essentially directionless activities.

Later on I did some reading (yes, internet browsing…) and found that there are numerous websites that provide suggestions on how to manage procrastination. The tips that make the most sense to me are:

  • Motivation. Finding something that will get you going is often a tough ask, but you could consider giving some thought to Future-You. Or, as with the weeding, sometimes you might need to simply accept that you’re doomed and just need to get started in order to produce sufficient motivation to complete the task.
  • Chunk the task into bite-sized portions. This helps to make even the most overwhelming task less implausible. The verge garden as  whole seemed insurmountable last week, so I decided to chunk it. 1 – 2 hours of weeding every morning this week left my arms and back aching, my nails broken and provided me with no enjoyment it at all. But… rather to my surprise, it’s almost done…
  • Beat your own drum. Fear of failure / being judged by others is a fact of life – so acknowledge it and then set your own standard. In this example, the garden will really only be mostly weed free when I’m done – and I’m okay with that. Progress = success, even if it’s not perfect.
  • Reward yourself. My reward was that I set a time limit  for each session (more than an hour, less than two) and stuck to it. Tottering away from the garden was such a relief each day that I actually didn’t need more reward than that – although I did indulge in a very nice cup of coffee and a cookie afterwards anyway.

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I reckon two more sessions in the garden will see the weeding conquered. My reward at that point will be to go to the garden centre to choose some new plants. Perhaps a fig tree… or some pumpkin seedlings… Meantime, a surprise harvest of one perfectly ripe pumpkin this morning. Win!

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So long and thanks for the fish…

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Whilst I’m certainly not leaving the Genghisverse, this weekend I waved goodbye to the 2015/16 GenghisCon Committee.

GCon_logos 2002-2016Every committee has a very busy convention year, but we went a step further. Although our committee was quite small, we forged ahead and made a large number of (what we perceived as) necessary changes to our favourite Perth convention. Many of these changes were aimed at streamlining the planning stages for future conventions and/or breaking some habits. Some of those habits started out as good ideas, but had become inculcated as ‘traditions’  over time – despite waning popularity/feasibility.

Over the past 12 months we fundraised madly, selling chocolates and entertainment books, running two very successful sausage sizzles and hosting a quiz night and a games day. As a result we were able to drop the membership fee back to its original (2002) price – which was one of our main objectives.

We also prebooked the venue for the 2017 convention, booked dates for fundraiser sausage sizzles for the incoming committee, got the insurance sorted out, updated the constitution, invented a ‘dummies guide’ to running a convention and got paypal set up. We then ran a very successful (low cost) convention — and even fed everyone icy cold watermelon!

Capture the flag (aka water fights) at GenghisCon 2016

All in all, we achieved an awful lot and are confident that we’re leaving the new committee in a strong financial and strategic position. I’m sure that – once we recover – we’ll all feel a real sense of accomplishment. A big ‘well done!’ to all involved 🙂

Ginger Akers (the new GCon President) has a great team and I’m sure they’ll do an outstanding job in the year ahead. We’re all looking forward to the next convention with great an-tici-pation…

GCon 2017 promo with minions

 

To Nunzio or not to Nunzio?

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Life was unsettled when we first arrived in Perth and it took us a while to finally get around to choosing a dog. We talked about it endlessly, debating what size and kind of dog would be most appropriate when we finally got one, how much walking and grooming would be involved and who would take the dog to training. We had previously had Labrador Retrievers, a small mixed-breed (possibly Miniature Pinscher/Terrier mix), a German Shepherd, and a large mixed-breed (possibly Mastiff/Rottweiler).

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This time around we wanted a medium-sized dog, about the size of a Beagle. After heaps of research, a friend suggested that we go with her to a dog show. There we’d see a whole range of different dogs in action and be able to compare them. This was a great idea, since that’s where we found and fell in love with Honey – a Welsh Springer Spaniel. It turns out that these are fabulous dogs: not too big, cheerful, good-natured, reasonably smart and very playful. She fitted right in from the start.

A year or two later we happened to watch the pilot episode of a TV series called Dharma & Greg. In this, Dharma explains  to Greg that her second dog (Nunzio) been her ‘bar mitzvah’ gift to her first dog (Stinky). For some reason, this amused me no end. From then on we bandied about the idea of getting a second dog, a ‘bar mitzvah’ gift for Honey. Sadly we dithered for too long and she never did get her Nunzio. She died after twelve years of being an integral part of our family, leaving an enormous gap in our lives.

When we finally decided to get another dog, we turned to the list of what are widely considered to be the 10 smartest dog breeds for some guidance. The list was rapidly whittled down, as follows: Border Collie – too crazy active, Poodle – too woolly and poncey for me, German Shepherd – love them, Golden Retriever – too hairy, Dobermann – well, the neighbour had one and it was kinda nice…, Sheltie – too small and barky, Labrador Retrieve – love them, but… health issues, Papillon – too small and floofy, Rottweiler – too big, Australian Cattle Dog – tend to become barrel-shaped. The choice seemed pretty straightforward.

Several years and two German Shepherds later, we know better. Both our Australian GSD’s were beautiful dogs, bright and responsive – but they also both died from inherited autoimmune related conditions. This effectively removed them from our rather short short-list for future additions to the family. We now share our lives with a young Dobermann – and the whole issue of whether to get her her very own Nunzio is pretty much a daily conversation. As it happens, this Saturday is National Pet Adoption Day  – and the temptation to just get out there and pick out a companion dog for her is huge…

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But this is a forever-decision – or at least one for about the next 10 years – so it’s important to get it right. We – and anyone else thinking about getting a pet – need to consider a number of factors, such as what size pet is appropriate, cost (purchase price, food, equipment, inoculations, kennelling if you go on holiday, etc.), whether to get a male or a female, how much space is available and whether said pet will live inside or outside. Then there’s the issue of how much time can be made available to devote to the pet, who will take responsibility for cleaning up behind it and who’ll do the training.

Having worked through all that, we know we don’t want another big dog… that it does need to be energetic, friendly and happy… and there we’ve stalled out. So this weekend we’ll be visiting some likely candidates… and perhaps one of them will turn out to our Nunzio. Or perhaps it will be like Honey – a surprise choice on the day that turns out to be perfect.

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