new blog

so now that we have internet at daycare, i've been working on the business blog. we still don't have access to the website which annoys me. i want to link the two so customers can check out the blog and see pics from daycare.
anyhoo, for now if you want to see some daycare stuff, check out the new blog.
the plumbing is almost finished and then we can start on setting up the shop and spa. more pics to come when we get going on that.

one month later

so having completed our first month of doggie daycare/huge life change, i have to say "so far so good."
i really want to do a LOT to fix up the place.
the indoor area is stuffy and kinda stinky first thing in the morning so i want to get a better ventilation system going.
the cement floors and bare walls increase every bark to an ear splitting level so i want to install recycled rubber flooring.
i also want to paint inside and add some 'hominess.' the clean slate of it is starting to wear thin on me and i need to fix it up. i'm almost a bit embarrased for new clients to see it and think that this is how i live.
it is also very, very dirty. i know that dogs are dirty but i think it can be a bit tidier and not leaving me feeling that i was the one rolling around in the dirt all day.
we also lost our groomer, but i think this is for the best because i'm beginning to judge her as flakey. so my friend sam has been acting groomer for us. we are all learning how to do some basic clipping and trimming along with the bathing and brushing we can offer. we have a plumber coming in next week to move the groomer from the master bedroom of the main house to the garage. we also want to add self service washing which will hopefully make up for our lack of a trained groomer.
the shop will also go in the garage and i have been searching online for eco friendly and recycled products to sell.
i also want to compost the dog poop since we fill a kitchen sized trash can every week. i've found a few sites on how to do it and i think the trash service will thank us for it.
sam, when he is not bathing dogs, is planning a farm/garden for the rest of the property. our long term goal is to have fruit, vegetables and flowers and be able to operate a CSA. basically, customers pay us a fee and get a basket of food and flowers every week.

so that's the irons in the fire right now. as for the day to day it can be a bit tedious. mel and i end up exhausted at the end of the day not from physical exertion, but rather from a lack of it. there is no internet or cable yet which means that i can't do any research or blogging from work. we try not to have the dogs barking too much which means that play time can be cut short when the kids get too riled up. if we have enough people per dogs then i pop in the house to do some cleaning, but i can only do so much right now. i think once the plumbing is done i will have a lot of projects to work on.

as for the dogs, we have some sweeties and some naughtys. they naughty ones tend to be younger and just want to play more than anyone else. i feel bad for the sweeties; that they are being neglected because my time has to be spent with the naughtys. "don't eat that rock", "quit digging", "get away from that poop." sometimes the barking makes me cranky, but nothing is better than snuggling up for some fuzzy therapy.
pictured above is one of our top naughties, sumo. i don't get very upset with him because he is my little sad clown.

doggie daycare owner

well we did it! today was our first official day of doggie daycare ownership. we rolled out of bed at 5am to be in Wheat Ridge by 6:30. we had to do some opening stuff like fill water bowls and empty the poop can. we had 9 paying customers today but 16 dogs total. i gotta say that doggie daycaring is pretty easy. i wasn't bored but i felt that i could have multi-tasked and better utilized my time. i could have had a tv cos watching dogs play is pretty easy. pick up when they poop and break up any humping. we have a big project right out of the gate though. we need to run plumbing out to the garage so we can have the groomer out there and not in the master bedroom. sam is going to do some major planting on the property and we even get water rights to the little creek (irrigation ditch).

i think we made the right decision, i will just like it better when i have some tasks to accomplish.

wedding planning 101

i feel that i am pretty experienced in the party planning department, especially themed parties. and what's a wedding if not a huge theme party? since i don't plan on doing this again, here's my lessons learned so far in the fine art of planning a wedding.

1. Secure a venue/Pick a date. i have learned that these are the first things you should do when planning any event and tend to go hand in hand. i was floating around in a newly engaged haze and propably would have remained there if it hadn't been for my event planning friend. his second remark after "Shut up!" was "You need to get a venue." turns out he was right. this was February 15 and my original date of October 4 was already taken.

i could have kept the date and gone sonewhere else, but it wasn't the date so much for me as the venue.

http://www.botanicgardens.org/

my original date was going to be when we met, August 2o or our first date August 27, but those fell in the middle of the week and the middle of the Democratic National Convention. make sure there are no huge community events going on that will make travel and accomodations difficult for guests.

after much checking of schedules, we settled on October 3. yeah it's a Friday, but the groom figured that gives folks 2 days of party recovery. he's so thoughful.

so back to the venue, this required a lot of hemming and hawing on my part. the garden offered many sites individually or a wedding package. i was emailing back and forth with the venue coordinator then running down to my 'wedding planner' then back to the groom in my attempts to stay off of Mt. Spendy. it took about a week of this before i finally settled on the wedding package including the polly steel house from 5-11p. the final decision was to have 2 hours for set up and have the farmhouse for the entire time as dressing room/storage/additional bad weather seating.

so now that this part is locked and loaded, it was on to the theme.