Getting Used to my New Life and Introducing the Dogs

Having this amount of free (-ish) time to work on this blog and care for my pets feels utterly luxurious to me. Don’t get me wrong, the blog is a ton of work if I want to do it well, easily a fulltime job. But for about 11 months I did that plus a fulltime job, so this is an incredible relief, as I had started feeling close to burnout in April when I stopped posting for a while. 

I finally feel I’m coming back to being myself, having new ideas and am able to focus on what really want, instead of just reacting to whatever is thrown my way.

Kachina 

Not sure about you but exercising still feels like work to me as well, which had me neglecting it a fair bit since I got Kachina. Ok, I did get a different kind of exercise like mucking out, doing lots and lots of groundwork with her and brushing her (My probably favourite pastime activity! Is there anything more relaxing than brushing a horse that enjoys it?) and slowly getting her used to all sorts of weird things. After waving flags at her, having her walk on noisy plastic pedestals and trotting over rustling tarp the one thing that freaked her out and jump 3 meter sideways was literally me sneezing. Go figure. She must think I’m a seriously weird horse.

Currently she is taking a bit of a break due to getting treatment for possible ulcers (the poor thing!) and filling in a bit of muscle mass via horse Pilates (better her than me!). No really, I’m back to doing Pilates too finally and am almost enjoying it. Almost.

And with all that spare time I finally managed to get the mudslide of a garden under control, which Wookie and Lilly had 3 years to properly dig up. Now it’s covered with bark chips. Ahhh, the relief of not having to wash muddy paws 3 times a day!

Meet Lilly and Wookie 

Oh wait, you didn’t meet Lilly and Wookie yet, did you? Yeah, as I said, very little time and my priority to share with you were recipes that help you find the balance of healthy and delicious. Decidedly more delicious, but still healthy ideally. 😉

This is Lilly

She is a VERY energetic mix of Bernese/Pyrenean Mountain dog and English Setter. I was kinda hoping for the Pyrenean size and temperament, but Setter was clearly stronger.
I got her as a puppy about a month before the pandemic hit and she needed to get her vaccinations before she could meet people. And once she was allowed…well…there were no more people to meet.

So she gets just ever so slightly (read a LOT) over-excited when someone is over to visit.

A little younger, at the beach:

She absolutely loves playing with Wookie. Though, when I say playing: Imagine her racing around him like roadrunner and him essentially standing in the middle and turning to face her. He has the agility of a truck.

This is Wookie

He is a Caucasian Shepherd (Ovcharka) and now about 3 years old.

He is sort of typical for his breed in that he takes his job of guarding the house very seriously. Car driving by? “Woof”. Car opening and closing door? A tantrum! How dare they get out of their car? Within 500 meters of his house! Unbelievable!

 As a Puppy he was about Lilly’s size.

Back then:

And the Two together last year. No, really. Look closer.
Just as comparison: Lilly is about Labrador sized. You can scale up from there to get to Wookies size.

Right, that’s enough of the pups. I mean, I could go on. But…

So what do I do different?

In this new part of my life I mainly work a lot more on this Blog of course. Over the last few weeks I did a complete Theme change and updated all 110 posts, so they match the new format. Plus edited any hiccups I found after having a bit more experience with all the recipe posting.

They should now all be properly structured and easier to read. Should…let me know if I missed anything. I mean, despite litres of coffee, tea and bars of chocolate, my focus did decline a bit while editing up to 12 posts per day (each took 30min to 1h, depending on how long it was and when it was written. Older posts needed a good bit more work).

Also, if you find any broken links or confusing bits, I’d love to hear about it, so I can fix it!

And When I Don’t Work?

What do you mean, don’t work? What is this “free time” thing people keep talking about? You think I should try it?

Joking aside, I do spend time on this every single day (yes, weekends too), but I finally manage to squeeze in some exercise in the morning and a little Kachina time before I start. That part will hopefully become a bit more once I’m done with the big overhaul and get back to creating recipes.

As for the holidays…I played Grinch and plain ignored most of it. Sure, I cooked for myself. Among other things this Ultimate Tiramisu from James Hoffman, which was marvellous! But that aside, I figured I make good use of the quiet time.

What’s Next

The amount of ideas I have currently is a bit insane I feel. There are so many posts I want to write, so many recipes I want to create for you, I have a whole notepad full of them.

Latest Updates:

I’ve Got Some Exciting News To Share!

Site Redesign

Though, if there is something particular you’d love to see, please let me know!

Would you like to see a certain recipe with sourdough?
Or your favourite with added protein?
Maybe a healthified version of something?

Please let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best!