Some of you already know that hubbers and I bought a farmhouse built in 1834 last year and are going through many steps of clean up and renovation now. We think it’s a great place for Ayla because there is lots of room for her to run around but not so much grass and dirt for her to bring in the house with her when it’s raining.

As of yesterday, spring seems to be arriving here and we’re looking at least 2 weeks of sun and temps in the 60s…which is a very, very welcome change from the last 2 weeks which was grey, rainy and in the 40s. Of course, Ayla loves it that way but it doesn’t make me so excited when I need to clean the kitchen floor every day. Yes, our stupidity for cream colored tile but at least I can see when it’s dirty this way.

Anyway, I decided I would take the opportunity to clean out the rest of the former bird areas that we have here (the previous owner of this house raised doves and chickens and who knows what else) and Ayla was totally on board to help as much as possible. But she thinks “help” involves eating the bird poop so I politely declined her assistance.

I’d been working about an hour and Ayla was starting to get a bit more persistent about helping. Despite me taking a few short breaks to play with her, she still wanted to do her part. We actually tried to get her to help us move vines from the backyard this weekend but all she wanted to do was carry them to the other end of the courtyard and leave them so she could come get a new one. So I snapped this photo of her above and went back to work. Apparently I was a bit too distracted with her because a few minutes later, I smashed my head into a beam that runs above the door. Not too smart and I’d been doing so well…

I must have hit it pretty much full force because it felt like my head was exploding. I actually checked for blood (hubbers is a hypochondriac – I think it’s rubbing off lol) but my head was only a bit tender. It did bring tears to my eyes though and that’s when my nurse came to the rescue. I sat down on a little bench outside the door and she was jumping up on me to make sure everything was still ok. I have no doubt that she started over when I whacked my head because I seem to recall it making a really interesting sound when I struck it. Thankfully Ayla helped wash away my tears very quickly and then she decided I would no longer be going in that room.

As you can see, she laid down in front of the door and wasn’t moving for anything. I finally just rolled her onto her back and gave her a good belly scratching. I guess that proved to her that I must be feeling ok because she eventually went to lay down in front of the horse stalls instead where she could keep a close eye on me. My little Newfie nurse – always there to make sure we aren’t killing ourselves – after all, someone has to provide dinner 😉

If you’d like to read more about the bird area clean up, please visit our house blog or view the clean up post.