Our next house sitting assignment was for 7 weeks and it was so nice to be in one place for that length of time! We were staying on a few acres in the country and cared for a beautiful Border Collie named Scotty and 3 cats, one quite elderly who required medication.
Scotty was a beautiful dog and so loving that he wouldn’t eat his food in the morning until I had given him a hug. He was funny when we drove our car up or down the driveway because he would chase the car like he would chase sheep. It was like he was rounding up the car! Our teenage grandchildren came to visit one day and Scotty loved them throwing the frisby for him. He got a LOT of exercise that day. The cats were friendly too, especially the one who was allowed outside. He seemed much more contented than the other two who were only permitted in certain areas of the home.
One of the home owner’s hobbies was to grow and propogate African Violets so we had about 50 of those to water, as well as many delicate indoor plants. I managed to keep them all alive, in fact some of the newly propogated Violets grew so fast they fell off their shelf, so I had to reorganise them. There were also some orchids to keep alive. I had tried growing African violets myself before and never had success, but now I know what to do!
While we were kept busy on the inside of the house, we had jobs outside too. John used the ride on mower to mow some of the lawn. He couldn’t get the old push lawn mower started to mow the lawns near the house, so did them with the old whipper snipper instead. For the first few weeks of our time there, it didn’t rain and none of the plants were being watered, so I contacted the owners via facebook messenger. They had turned off the irrigation system thinking it would be sure to rain. So, following their directions, I downloaded their irrigation system’s app on my phone and went around the block looking for the right place to turn the system on and activate the app. We worked it out eventually.
Then, after a few weeks, the rain came down and hardly stopped. That meant the pool was starting to overflow with water, so we had to work out how to get the pump started. It’s a great idea to record the home owners when they’re showing you how to use different equipment. But, you also have to make sure no-one else is talking so much you can’t hear the important instructions.
You may read the review for this house sit here