Stairs, opinionated pups, flying with eagles - Nurhan's take

Nurhan's take:

Finally got him to stretch out so I could measure him from the tip of his tail to his nose... he's now 2 m (79 inches) long... intention wasn't to measure him, intention was to put meat on every step to try and get him to come up the stairs. This is as far as he got. His right back paw, was tempted to go up onto the next step, but this is as high as it, and he got! Any suggestions for how to get ~ 67 kgs (148 lbs) of opinionated, 11 month old 'puppy' up/down the stairs would be gratefully received!

'Crashing' out on the back door step he shares with Karma, main difference is that Karma was never as opinionated as Kin is:

Here he is looking in through the window wondering why, 'his human', is dallying and hasn't yet opened the back door, at his command!

Notice the use of resources so he can keep tabs on what's going on! 

Here he's decided that he doesn't want to go where I want to go... he's discovered that he can't out run me so he's laying down under a tree and no amount of pulling on the lead has any affect... an opinionated puppy is a terrible thing (when his opinions differ from your own!!!). The red bit under the lead is a red cycle light, he has a white one on the other side. These little LED lights are great for keeping track of where he is when it's dark (and as with boats/planes, having the different colours you can tell which way he's moving - always handy if you are chasing after him!).

I thought he had wet exceema on the top of his hind quarters; this is a strange place to have this. I've now figured out what it was. Temperature has dropped here, we've already had snow up in the hills, many folk have swapped over to piggdekk (metal studded tyres - in winter almost everyone in Norway swaps tyres from summer to winter, not by law but your insurance is worded such that you should have the appropriate tyres on your car for the conditions). This means that I've been using my fire, which is right next to the back door, and despite my efforts, Kin has a habit of leaning against the stove, whilst waiting to go out. I think he's realised that I don't want him there but about a month ago he was leaning on it; he seems not to notice, and I make it very clear that he shouldn't do this. On this occasion he was very wet. I think that he was burnt, but because he was so damp the affected area was not permanently damaged, but whilst it's repairing itself the regeneration seems very similar to wet exceema, looks healthy now but obviously itches as he keeps presenting this area to me to be scratched (which is how I discovered it). He doesn't lean on the fire now, but I think this is more to keep me happy than he realises that this is potentially dangerous.

 Snoozing is a major past time, especially if he can do it wrapped around furniture!

And contrary to how this looks his lips aren't stuck to the floor by suction.

The gap in between the tiles breaks the suction!

He's enjoy outdoor pursuits, here he is on a climbing trip, although (as with the stairs) he chose not to climb. Dina was using him as a foot warmer at one point (from top to bottom, Dina, Kin, Mel, & May).

And talking of climbing the below picture is of Jostein clawing around trying to get some lift and it's such a fantastic pic that I had to include it:

Jostein flying with an eagle at JHPGK's main flying sight. Picture is taken by Robert Oedegaard and full version of photos can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertoedegaard/6225498671/in/photostream/
but what an awesome photo and experience! (Only incredible jealous!)

Devastation, and trips in the mountains, - Nurhan's take:

 The little chap with Kin is a six month old Pyranes Sheep Dog.

 He's not shy and he's unfussed that he's the same size as Kin's head as the two play together!

Locally Staten's Vegvesen (Government agency that deals with roads) is cutting down a whole heap of trees as they need access to get a machine in to do test bores for a new tunnel that is planned to go under Stavanger for the main road Oslo-Stavanger-Bergen. We'll see how this develops.

More irritatingly is what is going on at Bråstein. Bråstein is owned by Sandnes kommune, and admistrated by Staten's Skog (Forestry Commission). So in effect the people own the forest. Now as far as I can see it someone has become greedy as they have now allowed a private company to 'help' maintain the wood... by the paths, they have thinned out the trees:

Away from the paths, they seem to have gone for a 'scorched earth policy':

 This used to be a beautiful, tranquil woodland, which has been laid waste in the most brutal manner. This is not sustainable harvest, it's rape of a natural resource without any reflection on the folk who regularly enjoyed this area. There are many more areas that have been destroyed in this manner.

As the large piles of felled trees indicate.

Also they are destroying the paths, that the Kommune worked on only about two years ago:

The machines that are being used are just about 'go anywhere' and make a land rover look like a 'sissy mobile'.

The articulate arm holds a tree, has a blade at the bottom that cuts the tree, and then the 'appocolyps now' rollers that strip the trunk of limbs. Whilst the folk using the machinary are obviously skilled they show no regard for folk who use the woods. Felling trees across the paths, sending wood chips flying.


Someone should be brought to account for the damage that is being created.

This weekend it was planned to take a trip into the mountains and give Kin his first taste of being in a kennel, unfortunately it turned out that it is a school holiday and the kennels are all full. Happily for me, Jan looked after Kin from Saturday to Sunday meaning that David, Svein, and I had a weekend up in the mountains.

(From left to right, me, David, Svein). Saturday was lovely, sunny but four degrees Celsius. Above 650 m there was some snow where the sun hadn't got to it. We took an 11 km stroll into Skåpet, a Stavanger Turistforening cabin.

Here we tried to fit Svein with a sheep bell so we'd know where he was when he wondered off.

Cabin sleeps six (friends) and is very cosy:

The walk out the next day wasn't so good weather. We started off walking in sleet with a wind of ~ 12 m/s fortunately coming from behind. There were fresh elk footprints going straight past the cabin the next morning (and I'd thought the noise that I'd heard in the night had just been David snoring).

Jan, as always, had done a sterling job with Kin;  the little chap was happy to see me, and I'm slowly achieving the balance between being a 'single parent' family and doing other things that I enjoy.

Interesting Times - Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's take:

Kin at his most dangerous.


the Chinese have an insult, "may you live in interesting times"; this pretty much sums up my week.


Looking on the bright side of things, I now have weekends and evening again, and I am no longer working under the shadow of an unrealistic workload. On the good advice of a friend of mine (Jan-Inge), the first paragraphs in this blog have undergone a dramatic edit. J-I raised some good points. I still have a very bad taste in my mouth and my views haven't changed, but it has been made abundantly clear to me that, despite public airing being one of the two forums that I have been left with, it's not in my best interest to use this forum. The last bastion of righteousness is conversation with my friends. 


Now the second 'cock up' if you'll excuses the pun, is I wrote 'pikk' when I meant to write 'pigg', so need to go and rectify this one. Look up the Norwegian words on google translate, and you'll see why this was a 'cock up' ;-)


It's been established for accidents to happen, normally a set of circumstances has to be present, in a specific order for the accident to happen. Last Tuesday, I had a car accident. I put my car in a position where it was hit by another car. Happily no one was hurt, and both cars can be economically repaired. I've been trying to get the local Subaru dealer to look at my car since July. After contacting them five times, I got a time for last Tuesday, I was also told that they'd give me a courtesy car whilst they worked on mine. Turn up at the garage, they then told me that I had to rent a car if I wanted one. Very busy at work, no bike in car (as I'd been told that I'd get a car); so I told them that I'd have to bring the car back another time. It's probably five k from the garage to the place that exploited me and then screwed me royally, and I was hit by a car on a roundabout on the way. Undeniably my fault, but had I not been so tired because of work, or had the garage given me a courtesy car, the parameters might have been enough that there was no white lorry coming off, where I was coming on with a white car tucked behind it...


For various reasons the last car I bought, I bought brand new. I did my homework and chose a car that is recognisable form it's 1972 inception (so they should have sorted all the issues out on it), had ESP (very helpful on iced roads, add piggdekk {metal studded tyres} and you feel very safe), four wheel drive, higher ground clearance but looks like an estate car. Most of the driving I do is on roads, but because of the sports that I do, I drive down farm tracks and into strange places on a regular basis,

 a Land Rover type vehicle would be excessive for my needs but the Subaru Outback should have done the trick. Like most folk, I believe that the guarantee that comes with something is a 'nice to know it's there' but something you never want to use, sadly this isn't the case with my car, that has had problems with the wheel studs falling off the hubs so that three of the wheels were only held on by 2 or 3 studs (out of five). It's had problems with the clutch (which has been replaced, more than once. It has problems with the radio, the windows, the jack for an MP3 player. The lowest gear is too high to negotiate steep tracks where you need to control the speed of the car. Car drives great on the roads, and the boxer diesel engine has so far been excellent, no power lag and plenty of umph when required spread over four wheels.


Whilst my car is being repaired/serviced, I have a rental car (my insurance company is 'IF' and they have been most efficient in helping me out). Now I am no fan of Audi's or BMW, both of which I consider to be overpriced and you generally find that these are the cars that are humping your rear bumper on the motorway, BMW are rear wheel drive, that is just a flawed concept in a country that has snow, and I don't like red cars (red cars tend to die violently). The rental car is a red BMW 316 d, top of the range. It struggles to get up the hill at Bråstein, if you have to stop, the back wheels claw impotently until it gets grip, and it's ground clearance makes speed bumps a challenge, and the controllability of the Subaru is sooooo much better. But to be fair to the Beemer, it is really well thought out, sitting inside you think, it would be handy if they had 'that', 'there' and it is. It's got some great features on it

 and the Subaru seems agricultural by compassion. I wouldn't swap the Subaru for the BMW, and I wouldn't advocate a rear wheel drive car in a country like Norway, but I am impressed by the attention to detail on the Beemer. What confuses me is why a Saab, Subaru, Land Rover dealer is doing with a top of the range BMW as a rental car?


I did ask them if they could give me a more practical car, and pointed out that I'd have to have Kin in the car, they told me just to keep him dry (yeah right) and if he messed the car up I'd be charged to get it professionally cleaned... and thus:

an integrated protection system was born!
Note that the front of the seat also needs to be protected:

Now when I changed from a Mondeo estate to the Outback, Karma liked to make out that the Subaru's boot was tiny, this BMW's boot is tiny even for a 10 month old Newfie.




So as the guarantee is running out on my Subaru should I sell the car and look at a Skoda Yeti or a Volvo XC70 (looks like a traditional Volvo but with 4 wd and greater ground clearance), that maybe better for Kin, &  my requirements?

Finally we've had summer, all two days of it, but great whilst it lasted. Here's Jostein flying a 30 minute drive away from my house (I'd already landed), we'd chosen the wrong flying area for hanging/staying airborne, but shorts, t-shirts and look at the view! And a weekend off!

Needed a proper camera to try to capture the light. This is one of those beautiful summer evenings where the air smells/feels fresh and you just want to be outside (and it's warm enough that hypothermia isn't a problem)!

I love going for walks in the early morning (not the waking up bit, but once you are out), and watching he dew burn off the fields. I haven't seen this at all this year up until this weekend.

Although for Kin, it's still business as usual... although a bit hot at the moment... although a nice dip quickly fixes that.


Anyway, the good weather seems to have broken last night and we are back into the monsoon season; and Kin and I are off to Bråstein.