Table manners 101 - for Vinnie, and other miscellaneous happenings

Today we implemented Vinnie's 'food friendly' programme. I was feeding Angus at breakfast time so A and Stylish fed him his bikkies by hand. A held him firmly and made him sit before each mouthful and Stylish fed him from the palm of her hand. Spikee helped as well and gave him a few handfuls, and both kids put their hands and faces in his bowl while he sat and watched. He doesn't really do calm eating but he is certainly getting better, he is calm while we eat and doesn't beg which is positive. For lunch he had left over porridge. I made him sit down and I patted him enthusiastically while he gobbled it down. At dinner time Stylish and I fed him. She held him and made him sit and I let him eat his foul and disgusting kangaroo mince out of my hand. He did quite well and there was no growling or snapping. I suspect that this all stems from his lack of socialisation and the fact that they were giving him the tiniest amount of food at the pound. They were feeding him half a cup of biscuits three times a day and that's roughly half what he should be eating according to several sources. According to common sense and other more reliable sources he could have developed this nasty habit due to hunger and socialisation. So I believe we're on the right track!

Today we did a tip shop run and got a door for Spikee's room. We were looking for one for the back door but we'll have to keep looking. We took our door off the hinges and put the new one there instead, then our door went on Spikee's room. For some reason that fits much more geometrically there than it did on our door frame - go figure!? While we were there we also got a heap of bottles out of the recycling crates and A has been sterilising them, scrubbing labels off and prepping them for the next beer brew (chili and lime - due for bottling in a day or so) for hours. We got a complete fish tank, a book for Stylish, a bag of toy animals and a wind up dinosaur skeleton ... all for $20! We love tip shops!!!

We cracked open our first ginger beer brew yesterday and have nearly finished it already, it's too good to leave sitting around. We have another lot fermenting and still another batch of starter on the go. I think the next lot will have lime in it instead of lemon, just to see how it tastes. It's safe to say that home made ginger beer is one of the finer things in life!