Chesnelay

I would endorse everything that has been said in the above posts - urging caution on the use of indoor crates unless they have been created as a place of comfort and introduced gradually - but if the reward of praise for peeing/pooing outside is given completely OTT to the extent that your neighbours think you have lost the plot - then you should soon be able to get your dog to pee on command. Very useful at times!

We had a tax habitation bill the first year we bought -2003 but then got an exemption the following year due to the renovation works, and havent had one since.  We completed the form when all the work was done and the builder signed it and sent it off - we even sent a second one 12 months later just in case he hadnt posted it. We do have the tax fornicere but when we queried the lack of the tax habitation at the maries office the lady said 'c'est vide n'est pas? and they know we only go there a few weeks a year and intend making it permanently shortly but heh, I could be living in cuckoo land and end up with 4 years of tax bills!! 

Cooperlola, the reason that the Defra site may sound vague with regard to the 'normal period' is that it depends on the type/batch of rabies vaccine used by individual vets.  Our vaccine only expires after 3 years from the original vaccine so no wonder people get confused. 

Too late to help you with this sailing - certainly our booking for Fri 17th was cancelled but at least Transmanche phoned us 24 hrs in advance as gale force winds were expected.  Coming back on the 23rd on the 1 am, we had a 11.5 hour ferry crossing from Dieppe which had to go to Portsmouth instead of Newhaven and the delay was extended as we had to wait for a berth vacancy.  We were still pleased to get home safely.  Other ferries over the weekend have had delays so it is worth checking before you leave home.

We placed a dead rat on a buzzards perch and it really struggled to fly off with it, so it just flew a short distance and didnt gain much height and then stopped to eat it in the adjacent field. As I understand it, the Buzzards are quite lightweight around 3 kg so would imagine they would struggle with a rabbit.  Lovely to watch though!

Dave - Try on a different website - www.equinonline.com - try the forum there.

Well done Harley - looks like you have set a ball rolling with your persistance - long may it continue.

I work 40 hours a week, night duties and my own time for an animal charity and would willingly do more.  First point,  however, what I find makes a difference to sponsors who do donate - is how their donation is received by the charity.  All too often we become complacent and don't give people enough genuine 'time' - it just needs someone to make the effort to say 'thank-you' and mean it, to encourage the person to donate again.  Cries of 'oh thanks, just stick the donation in the corner with all the others' is just going to put someone off taking the trouble. 2nd point - Friends of mine, however loving and kind will not donate to animal charities - their rationale is that there are so many starving children, they should be the priority.  Each to their own.  

I believe they are about 17 euros per sq metre at places like Leroy Merlin.  They do have a large selection so its worth a trip to see. However, we couldnt afford to do the whole patio so ordered 4 ton of driveway gravel from the local firm of hardware Lambert Materiaux and that cost  68 euros and delivery was 46 euro delivery. Sorted!

We had difficulty locating our fosse septic tank as the previous owner just showed on a sketch where the grease tank was situated outside the downstairs bathroom door.  He had put plant pots across the driveway to make sure vehicles didnt drive over the pipe system. As we wanted to put up a fence across the driveway, we went to the maires' office and they had lots of diagrams and paperwork relating to the installation some 6 yrs previous.  However when the SARL wanted a technician to inspect it, we made an appointment with them and they came on the right day and time and he explained that the actual filtration system was way down the field, about 40 metres away.  This was sort of shown on the diagrams from the maires' installation but we thought it was just an inspection hatch and didnt realise that the 5m x 6m filtration was so far away from the house.  When we asked if we could plough over the top of the filtration system he was a bit undecided so we shall play safe and just rotovate it (or put pigs over it)!  My advice is to ask at the maires office first

I started watching it last night but had to change channels as it was too embarrassing to watch. Esther did not seem to grasp the fact that the French hosts seemed affronted that she was not taking the programme seriously and I thought this reflected badly on her - I think the producers could have made the programme less difficult for the participants and more humourous for the viewers - still, what else was there to watch on the box!

I dont think you over-reacted at all because had one wasp managed to sting her tongue or throat it could have easily swollen and stopped her breathing.  You may be advised to do the 'distraction' modus operandi - like shaking a noisy tin or squirting dog with water but I always find I never have the object to hand just when I need it!  The only bit of comfort is that the wasp season is relatively short and it may be that next year she is that little bit older and wiser!  Can't think of a better way to spend money - as you say, vets just love us!

Has anyone had any problems with regard to their dogs suffering in the heat when they are incaserated below decks on the ferries recently?  We normally take our dogs on speedferries, but was very glad we didnt last weekend as the temperature in the car was 27C.  We kept the windows open but the air was very still and suffocating.  I know the crew went round the cars tapping on the windows of those with dogs just to make sure the dogs were conscious.!  Although it is advertised as a 50 mins crossing - it is more like 2 hrs but the time the cars are loaded and unloaded.

We had oak quarter turn staircase to our lst floor put in and that was 3,458 euros excl tax in Sarthe.  [blink]

Porthcawl may not do it for you but there are not many places that can match Rest Bay on a sunny evening - definately picture postcard stuff - and only a stroll away from the dreary reputation of Porthcawl,