Hot Days

Early December brought the heat of hell upon us! We live in a gorgeous location, but the house sits in a little bit of a depression and the breeze is blocked frequently. So when the temperature climbed into the 40s Celsius (104 Farenheit!) we really started to melt.

On one day, the temperature outside reached 48 degrees (118.4 F) and it was 40 inside! We spent the days wearing wet sarongs and putting our heads inside the freezer. Yes, it's true! We even spent part of one day sitting in the car with the air conditioner running!

It was unfortunate timing when Susan developed a cold and started running a fever. I drove to Tweed Heads and bought a portable aircon for the bedroom. What a difference it made. (And yes, Susan did get better.) The heat and humidity were finally broken by huge rains. Yea! The beginning of the wet season was finally here! We'd had no rain for nearly 8 weeks and the lawn and plants were dying. We were so excited to see the rain as our water supply had reached critically low levels and we had no water for any plants. Domestic queens that we are, we celebrated by doing tons of laundry!

Buddha Goes to Boot Camp!

Buddha all packed with his favorite toy and food dish, on the eve of his boot camp training!

Our little Buddha is a very smart, active 9-month old puppy who has a desire to please HIMSELF, not us. So when Buddha constantly refused to "come" when called -- well, actually, it was not even that he would not come, he would bolt and run the other direction when called -- it was time to call in the big guns.

It all came to a head when there was a bushfire down our road and I wanted to get out until I knew what was happening. Buddha thought it was a great game to avoid getting in the car and it took me 30 minutes to catch him. (I was on the verge of leaving him on his own.) We found a woman who trains police and military dogs nearby and we signed up Buddha for an 11-day/10-night reprogramming experience. (While Buddha was in Boot Camp, we were relaxing in Byron Bay again. Ha ha!) He did very well, but we were briefed that he was truly a Jack Russell in a Pug body!

We got him home with our own DVD of his training and more skills to work with him. The choke collar and frequent behavior corrections will be a part of our lives for quite awhile. While we still have our "moments" with Buddha, it is much more enjoyable having a (mostly) obedient pooch! We love ya, Buddha (most of the time).