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That time of the year already?

 ♥Jul. 12th, 2020 // 03:01 pm♥
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I came off Benny a few weeks ago, and bashed my hand on the fence. It’s still not right, so I took myself off to the hospital this week and had it x-rayed, which confirmed that (as I thought at the time) nothing is broken, so now I’m going to play “hunt the physio with in-person treatments”.

(And speaking of in-person treatments, I’m off to get my legs waxed next week! But I can’t have my eyebrows done, even though it takes two minutes and I can wear a mask during it. But men can get their beard trimmed, sans mask, and that’s safe. Hmmm.

And I had a probably-illegal-but-sod-it Pilates session, which was nice.)

Although the sore hand hasn’t stopped me from riding, last week Benny went A Bit Funny in trot. We had the vet out, and he’s to have a couple of weeks off in the stableyard. At least we don’t need to take them up and down the hill, I guess.

The broadbeans are pretty much over, but the mange tout are just starting to be useful and the peas aren’t far behind. One of my experimental attempts to grow lemongrass seems to have worked; I have no idea what the actual plant will look like or how one goes about harvesting it once it’s grown, but I’m looking forward to finding out.

I need to decide if I’m going to do Christmas hampers (I know, I know, but it’s cherry season). On the one hand, it’s getting a bit dull. On the other, I’m not sure it’s as dull as trying to find over a dozen quirky, thoughtful, non-tat presents every year.

I really should change my default usericon. Not sure I’ve got any good ones of Bob.
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Start of summer

 ♥Jun. 7th, 2020 // 04:33 pm♥
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Bob started the week with a wobbly front tooth, and was anyway overdue for his jabs and checkup, so I booked a visit for him. The tooth came out before the visit, but we went ahead with it anyway, which involved waiting in the car, speaking to the vet by phone, and then putting Bob’s lead onto a wall hook and stepping away while the vet took him inside on a disposable lead (repeat in reverse order afterwards). He’s got a clean bill of health, and the tooth was probably just bashed when he was chewing a stick or playing fetch. He has, however, rather scraped his nose trying to get his muzzle off, so we’ve gone back to just his (newly tightened) head collar and being careful. Things do seem to be getting quieter again, with not so many strangers about, which is presumably a combination of the weather changing and there being more things for people to do now.

(Oddly, the dog vets were pretty relaxed about his jabs, saying that he only needed to start from scratch if they were more than three months late. In the horse world, you can’t even be a day late before you have to re-start the sequence.)

In good nature news, the swallows have hatched at least five chicks. In less good nature news, the horse flies have arrived (although the change in the weather seems to have slowed them back down). The change in the weather? It has indeed gone colder and grey, although I was hoping for something a little better than the 8mm of rain we’ve had this week.

The garden work is starting to slow down a bit, with the last of the squash planted out, the damaged polytunnel plants replaced, the pruning up to date, and the weeding much more leisurely than it was. (The tomato side shoots that we put in water are starting to root, but we also realised that we had a couple of the right variety in the spares tray, so the new ones will probably go in pots in the conservatory.) We even shared a strawberry, but have strong competition from animals domestic and wild so I’m not sure how many more we’ll get....

Today, we moved the horses up the hill to their summer pasture. They seemed quite pleased with all that grass!
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May rainfall: 18mm (average: 45mm)

 ♥May. 31st, 2020 // 05:02 pm♥
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The veg bed is now all planted out for the summer, and we picked our first broad beans (at least ten of them! There are lots more coming on, though, and the first courgettes, and bean flowers). The kohl rabi is just starting to swell at the base (note to self: check if it wants to be earthed up a little, or have straw put around it to support the bulb).

When I pinched out the tomatoes, I kept a couple of bigger side shoots of the variety that ZuZu’s been at: they are apparently very easy to root, so we’ll see what happens. I’m also having a go with some left-over lemon grass, as apparently that’s quite easy to get going as well. (Also some tarragon from a bag of supermarket cut herbs, but I don’t have any great hopes for it so am still keeping an eye out for some in a pot.)

All that’s left to do veg-wise is some more autumn squash, that are going in the front garden: we took out a bit of overgrown hedge, liberally “underplanted” with ground elder, so I was planning on dumping a load of manure on it, covering it with weed fabric, and seeing how it looks for planting something new later in the year, and if I’m going to do that anyway then I may as well leave the manure in heaps, cut slits in the fabric, and stick the spare squash in there. We’re just waiting for the boys to produce a bit more organic matter and then we can sort that bed out.

I’ve even finished the first big weed of the garden that I’ve managed since September, so now it’s the much easier job of tidying up occasional seedlings: at least the lack of rain is good for something?

I was worried last week about some of my sewing ladies: predictably, all the missing ones got in touch shortly after I sent the newsletter out, and all are doing ok.

We went to check on the orchids, and the monkeys are doing splendidly now. We also saw some fragrant orchids, just coming out, and a fine butterfly orchid, although whether Greater or Lesser is a mystery to us.

Mike finally cracked and had me cut his hair. It’s a bit shorter than he usually has it, but I think it’s ok and he hasn’t shaved it all off in a panic or anything.

The woods seem to have got a bit quieter again, so we think we can risk leaving off Bob’s muzzle, at least during the week.

This afternoon, we went to set up the boys’ summer pasture. Mike did a lot of clearing of brambles and nettles, while I plodded up and down the hill setting up the electric fence to keep the boys away from the barbed wire.
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I could do without the excitement....

 ♥May. 24th, 2020 // 06:14 pm♥
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In the garden, everything except the autumn squash and the sweetcorn is either planted out or in final pots. Fenced off from the beans, Zu Zu is taking it out on the tomatoes and has managed to kill at least one plant; I’ll have to figure out a way to keep her out of the polytunnel, at least until they get bigger, which is annoying as I want the runners in there (and in the veg bed, really) for pest control.

We ate the last of last year’s squash this week, and are near to the end of the passata. I’m hoping to pick a few broadbeans soon, as there are a few plump pods.

We were very hopeful about yesterday’s thunder storms, but in the end we barely got a quarter of an inch of rain (and hail). They were sharp but short.

(My mother has potted on her tomatoes. I’m still getting photos twice a week and detailed updates on how they’re doing!)

GB’s been looking quite stiff, which is worrying: it won’t be long before he has to walk up and down the hill to the summer field, hopefully he’s still up to it.

We had a bit of drama in the week, when Bob slipped his head collar and went for a couple of dogs. We were very relieved when all that came of it was a tiny cut on one of them, because it looked like it was going to be bad, but we’ve taken to walking him with his muzzle on for now. The woods are much more crowded than usual (both with locals who don’t usually go for walks and with people driving here) and seeing lots of strange dogs seems to be making his behaviour go backwards. A shame, given how much progress he’s made over the years.

We went to Costco in the week (no part-baked bread or vitamin D, still one-per-customer on pasta), and to the garden centre (vain hope of getting aubergine plants).

I was wondering how my sewing group ladies were doing so I emailed around and got them to send me updates, which I’ve put into a little newsletter and sent out for them all (didn’t want to risk them sending photos to the whole group, which was definitely the right call based on what they sent me). Slightly alarmed that one of the ones I know is good with email didn’t reply, but hopefully there’s a benign explanation.
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Bitey bastards

 ♥Aug. 6th, 2019 // 05:24 pm♥
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Over the years, I've got used to the regular cycle of bitey bastards that we get here.

The horse flies come first, from mid-June to mid-July. They mean that I have to keep GB's hat on all the time, or he'll get an eye infection, and both the boys need to wear fly sheets on sunny days, and I average one bite a day from the little (enormous) buggers.

Next, it's the harvest mites. They only bother GB, the poor thing, and give him nasty scabs on his feet and muzzle. They appear from about mid-July to mid-August, although his poor immune system means that it's often into October before all the scabs are properly healed. I put Frontline (dog flea spray) on his feet, which helps a bit.

After that, it's the ninja bugs. The ninja bugs seem to be silent, invisible and immune to fly spray. I have no idea what they actually are. They most often come in the night, and love to suck my blood, leaving me with tasteful red bullseye marks, which then fade to just a red circle that itches like anything for a few days. They start in mid-August, and go on until the weather gets cooler in mid- or late September.

So with all that in mind, how is it that in the last few days I've been bitten by both horse flies and ninja bugs, while at the same time GB's face is covered with scabs?

ION, we had a BBQ, it was nice, thank you to people who came along!
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Cossacks!

 ♥Jul. 5th, 2019 // 08:09 pm♥
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We went to the Kent County Show today. It was a bit warm, but we had a nice time, with ducks and chickens and dogs and horses and flowers generally being my favourite bits.

We saw the ferret racing, too:


It looked very much like red was going to win, as his nose poked out of the end of the tube, but then he turned around and went back again, so it was blue who was first out in the end. Yellow and green decided that it was too hot, and stayed in their boxes.

Exciting as that was, the highlight was seeing the International Dzhigitovka Show. There was some excellent trick riding on display, most of which I didn't get pictures of because I was too busy watching:




(I do, however, feel honour-bound to add that the actual riding wasn't as impressive as the Met Police display team, who I've seen a couple of times now.)

Seeing all the beautiful sweetpeas in the flower tent made me feel quite despondent about the pitiful state of mine this year, but back at home I was cheered when I went to tie them in and found a flower on one of them, so hopefully they will get going properly soon. I think I might start over-wintering them again, because they do get going much earlier that way.

This week, in between things like visits from the plumber, Little Quilt Club and Mike going into the office for the day, we've finally started painting our bedroom. The ceiling and three walls are done, so it shouldn't take too much longer to finish it off. Except that we're expecting our hay to be delivered over the weekend, and it's the village fete tomorrow, and the boys' rugs are being collected for cleaning on Sunday, so we need to sort them out, and....

Also this week, I have given away four boxes of eggs, and made two four-egg cakes. We have quite a lot of eggs. The ducklings are twelve weeks old, now, and still gradually getting their adult colouration through.

I've planted out the second-try french beans that Mike started a month or so ago, when it became apparent how destroyed the first lot were getting. I've also, more in hope than expectation, direct sown some more beans and peas. They'll probably get eaten as soon as they pop up, but we might be lucky. If only we had some sort of large carnivore that could keep the rabbits out of the veg bed.... Maybe we need to rabbit-proof that bit of the garden.
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Starting to harvest

 ♥Jun. 28th, 2019 // 07:48 pm♥
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It's not terribly impressive. A couple of weeks ago, we had similarly-sized crops of broad beans and mange tout, and that's probably it for the broad beans. The peas and french beans have just been destroyed (slugs, bunnies, maybe pigeons too; we netted off all the legumes this year, to keep the muscovies from the peas, but I think we need to re-think that next year to get better slug control), the runner beans are spindly but at least alive.

We have had a couple of courgettes, though, and the courgette and squash plants are just starting to attempt world domination. Lots of green tomatoes in the polytunnel, too, so that's good (and needed: Mike -- whisper it -- used a jar of shop bought passata this week).

More encouragingly, the ducks are continuing to do their job, and we're getting three or four eggs a day (Zu Zu, having laid enough for a clutch, is having a rest while she tries to figure out what happened to it). Our riding instructor has a B&B; when we give her eggs, she always makes a point that they're not going to be for the B&B guests, but we're hatching a plot (ho ho) to possibly sell her eggs for the B&B once the ducklings come into lay.

Speaking of the ducklings:

Middle Duckling has developed a distinct brown patch above her beak, and both she and Pale Duckling seem to be coming through with cream feathers on their bodies (as well as the patch of whatever she was sleeping in: this is a pre-morning bath picture).

Although there are only four baby swallows in this picture, we counted seven (five babies and the parents) flying around this evening as we were putting the boys to bed:


The boys are doing well, although when I rode Benny yesterday and today he was being a bit of an idiot about the wind. It has been very windy here, although nice and sunny with it (except on Wednesday, when we had inexplicable fog for much of the morning). Tomorrow is supposed to be horribly hot, although not as bad as it is on the continent.

Still, the vet came out to give them their 'flu jabs the other day, and to give GB a quick check-up: all good, and she was particularly impressed to hear that he'd managed to rear the day before, but then so were we.

Bob, sadly, has discovered the delights of badger poo. On the plus side, he's an awful lot easier to bathe than Jodie was.

Mike's been busy doing prep work for decorating the bedroom. This seems to involve a lot of trips to B&Q, as well as putting lots of polyfiller on the walls for me to then sand off. I'm sure it makes sense really!

Annoyingly, when we moved one of the chests of drawers I found this:

Some spot checking in the rest of the room, and the other bedrooms, suggests that we've found it before the moths really got established. We were planning to replace the carpet as well at some point, but that's now more of a priority than it was and in the mean time we'll have to keep pulling the chest of drawers out to vacuum underneath. I need to pull all the clothes out and check them, but it's mostly my riding and pilates stuff in there: mostly synthetic fibres, so I'm not too worried.
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All The Eggs

 ♥Jun. 16th, 2019 // 04:48 pm♥
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All the (adult) girls are laying now, so we're getting four or five eggs a day, now:


The ducklings are also doing well, and I think just starting to get their proper-coloured adult feathers (Dark Duckling in particular has a couple that are noticeably black, rather than grey). I went to take a picture of them, with Agnes and Letice, but Light Duckling decided that she wanted to hide in a plant, so you can only see the edge of her bum:


If it weren't for the fact that I'm still keeping them penned in while they have breakfast, I think that the ducklings would spend most of their time with the adult runners. Zu Zu is in full-on "Ok, something went wrong with that batch, must try again" mode, so keeping her penned in with the ducklings in the morning is also a good thing, as it means that she lays her egg in her super secret nest in the corner of the stable, rather than somewhere in the garden where I can't find it.

The swallow chicks have also hatched, so mum and dad are busy with feeding duty (to the extent that they've gone "Ah, sod it, just ignore the humans" rather than trying to avoid going into the stable if we're in there). They are less easy to photograph than the ducklings, but there are at least four small white blobs in the nest:


Fortunately, the nest is above an empty patch of floor, rather than, for example, the saddles!

The boys moved to their summer pasture this week, and are having a lovely time stuffing themselves silly. We always keep an eye out for orchids, Mrs Ex-Up-The-Hill having once seen a bee orchid in the field, but have never seen anything other than a couple of lady orchids until last year when The Bee Orchid deigned to flower. I put a post in the ground so that we could keep an eye out for it this year, but there's been no sign of it.

On the other hand, in the last couple of days we've found two patches of pyramidal orchids, just coming into flower, and at least three (probably four) different bee orchids:



I guess having the horses grazing in there is a good thing for the flowers! We popped up this afternoon and put some temporary fencing around the bee orchids, to stop the boys from trampling them. Benny came over to see what we were doing, and very nearly did step on one.

This afternoon, I took a break from the weeding to do some pruning. Must have a bonfire soon:


Hopefully it's going to warm up now, and the veggies will start to grow as well as the weeds.
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Here, have some pictures

 ♥May. 19th, 2019 // 08:01 pm♥
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My leg is much less swollen than it was. This makes the bloody great lump more obvious, but at least I can wear my boots again now.



We've been busy in the garden, both removing things (grass and weeds) and adding things: the courgettes and all the legumes are now planted out in the veg bed.



The shade netting is there to stop the muscovies from getting at the legumes and eating their leaves. Ella spends an ominous amount of time standing on the hay bales and looking speculatively at them.

When she's not doing that, she's often to be found harassing the ducklings. Not sure what's going on there, but she's forever having a go at them. Zu Zu doesn't seem at all bothered, though, so I guess it's all ok.





The ducklings are starting to get their adult feathers in, and their voices as well in the last couple of days. We have definite quacking going on from at least one of them (and we think at least two; they're still peeping a lot of the time, so it's hard to be sure). This is excellent news: only the girls quack.

GB's leg is bothering him. He was quite lame last night, and although much better today is still struggling a bit. He keeps scraping the skin off the back of one of his legs, which we think is because he's struggling to get up off the ground after lying down at night. Still, he seems alright in himself. I must take some pictures of Benny, who is looking particularly glossy and healthy in his nice new summer coat. (GB, of course, is still in his shaggy winter number.)
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The sloes are early this year

 ♥Aug. 25th, 2018 // 02:40 pm♥
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The swans are sewn, now I just need to wait for the backing fabric and get quilting:



(I'll also have to rearrange the living room to get enough floor space to pin the layers together, it doesn't fit in the study!)

GB has crossed some sort of watershed: he's not quite finished shedding last year's winter coat (the long, paler hairs that you can see against the black) but he's already starting to fuzz up with this year's growth (which you can see against the white):


Still, not bad for an old man. Even if he does spend half of his time with his willy hanging out a bit these days....


I had a lovely long session on Benny this morning, the weather was just right: sunny, bit of a breeze, and enough of a chill in the air that we didn't overheat. Much more satisfactory weather than lately.
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Bloody animals.... (Insects are animals too, right?)

 ♥Aug. 24th, 2018 // 10:03 am♥
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On Wednesday evening, as I was leading the boys in from the field, Benny decided that he was sick of having to walk as slowly as GB does and started rearing in protest.

The first three times weren't really an issue, but on the fourth he managed to hook one of his forelegs over my arm as he came down:



My back also felt rather peculiar, so Mike played it safe and told work that he wouldn't be at the company away-day yesterday (he was devastated, especially at the prospect of not having to go out at 6:30 to drive there). As it turns out, it wasn't too bad (although I skipped our riding lesson yesterday afternoon and let Mike have a longer session), and he's off in London today.

As well as my various scrapes and bruises from Benny, I'm covered in mozzie bites. I seem to be getting half a dozen a night, and am not sleeping well as a result, so I'm quite pleased that it's going to be chilly tonight so that I can spray the bedroom and, with the windows closed, hopefully not get nibbled on. Even Mike has had two or three bites over the last week.... I think I prefer horse fly season. Grump.

GB is also suffering from the insect life, getting nibbled on his feet and face by harvest mites, which appear in the grass at this time of year. The poor things has some horrible open sores on his feet, and is terribly itchy. Actually, I think that Benny's getting a bit bothered by them, too, which might explain the grumpiness the other day.

Still, it was *lovely* to be out first thing this morning and feel a bit of an autumnal chill to the air, even if it did warm up fairly quickly. We're actually going to close the polytunnel tonight (which will at least stop Bob from stealing the tomatoes...), and maybe put light rugs on the horses!

In good animal news, I'm very happy to report that Ella, the new muscovy, has started laying (I guess they mature more slowly than mallards), and is doing so in the duck house. Even better, Erzulie has taken the hint and is now also laying inside, rather than in one of her hidden nests. Of course, this means that she refuses to come out of the house in the mornings, so that I have to tuck her under my arm and carry her to breakfast, but I'd rather that than the alternative.

Must post more often!
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Busy busy

 ♥Jun. 27th, 2018 // 01:57 pm♥
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We had Mike's family visiting over the weekend, so it's all been a bit busy. Still, it seemed to go well.

Bob did very well, once he'd settled down after people arrived. He's very noticeably more barky at men, especially if they have beards. Fortunately, the dog-phobic visitor found the combination of howling and wagging tail to be very amusing, and even brought herself to feed him a treat, so that was good. The kids made a huge fuss of him, which he seemed to enjoy tremendously (at least, he didn't get up and walk off after a few minutes, like Jo would have).

( The Bob theorising bit )

( The horse theorising bit )

Before that, I'd ridden Benny in the school, just some dressage basics in walk. He was being a bit of an idiot about going into one corner, by the orchard, which makes me wonder if our grass snake is back. I'm very pleased if so, because it can help the little owl to keep the rodent population down:


(Ok, it's a bit Sammy The Brown Pixel, but he's quite shy so I took that from the house! Click to embiggen. Which is now a word!)

After I'd ridden, while we were waiting for the Back Lady, I shut the gates to the field and the road and left them by the school, where the grass is in need of a trim. When I went back half an hour later to get them, GB was mooching around in the school (he quite likes to have a little run around in there for old times' sake, and he *loves* to have a good roll on the nice big, flat, soft surface) and Benny was... standing in the middle of the field eating grass. I suppose, if he's going to jump the gate, it's better that he goes into the field rather than out of it...? (I'm reminded of the way he tried to jump into the field when we first got him.)

Other things? I've been saying for a good year that there's something wrong with a couple of keys on my Macbook keyboard, and a couple of weeks ago the spacebar started to go iffy as well, which is good timing as apparently they've now admitted that it's a Thing and will (hopefully, as this is the original and worst design) give me a new keyboard: handy, as I've now had this for long enough that the keycaps are wearing off!

My wrists are misbehaving. They were really bad a couple of weeks ago (I always struggle at this time of year, from weeding), but seemed to have improved. I am finding that my right hand is going numb whenever I drive or ride, which is annoying. I've been off the sewing, because of this (and visitors), but have done two swans so far.

My mother said the other day (from Greece) that my sister said that their lawn was all brown, because it had been so dry. I woke up today to the news that the moors are burning, so I guess it really has been dry there. Hope they manage to get it under control. I'm quite glad that my brother-in-law is retired from the fire service.
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Antihistamine time

 ♥Jun. 14th, 2018 // 06:33 pm♥
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The horse flies have arrived for the summer, which is as delightful as ever. Mutter.

This afternoon, we went to get things ready in the summer field, ready to move the boys up there tomorrow. It went much faster with Mike's giant new strimmer, but I fear that the woods are starting to encroach on the edge of the field: brambles and saplings are starting to appear, mixed in with the ever-present nettles and thistles.

Bob is also on the antihistamines: he had a lovely time in the field, charging around the undergrowth sniffing for bunnies, just like Jo used to. Unfortunately, Jo had a substantially thicker coat than he does, and those nettles I mentioned...? He's a bit uncomfortable still, but at least he's stopped charging around the house at full speed trying to find the perfect surface to roll on and stop the stinging. Poor lad!

Something, probably the same black and white something that was digging up the squash plants, has now dug up the slug traps as well. Which, I suppose, is preferable, if likely to lead to a hung-over badger!
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Encouraging animal news

 ♥May. 24th, 2018 // 01:25 pm♥
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This morning, after a couple of weeks off, I had a quick go on Benny and he was barely hopping at all, so fingers crossed that he's recovering much more quickly this time than he did last time. I didn't stay on for long, because my leg is still not right and -- based on last time -- he's always more hoppy when he's tired, so I didn't want to do too much.

The vet popped in to give GB a blood test, and said he looks well. We did talk about his problems having a wee, and she agrees it probably is a bladder stone and therefore not something we can really fix. (Given that he takes months to heal a little scratch, cutting him open doesn't really seem viable.) He's happy in himself, though, and as long as he is we'll leave him be.

We also had a phone call from Bob's vet, to say that the lab report on his lump is back and it's entirely benign, which is what we expected but is always nice to have confirmed. Bob's going a little loopy from lack of exercise, as he's still not allowed to have zoomies in the field, and indeed is currently wearing the Cone Of Shame as well as his pooch pants, because this morning he was zooming as much as he possibly could on the lunge line while we were getting the ragwort out of the field, and the wound is now oozing slightly again. I think we're going to have to go back to just the lead, as the lunge line lets him get up a bit too much speed. (Yesterday morning, while I was poo picking, I left him tied to the gate on the lunge line and turned around at one point just in time to see him do a mid-air forward roll as he reached the end of the slack....)

I've given up on the bird 'flu rules: in the last few months, there's been nothing but a couple of dead buzzards two counties over, so I'm not sure why they're still keeping it going. Anyway, we're not feeding the garden birds any more so now that the adolescent crows have found the food bowl, the swallows have started nesting in the stables, and the wagtails are spending all day on the muck heap it's not like there are more wild birds in the garden than in the stableyard. We're still lucky to be getting one egg a day, usually from Magrat (traditionally the worst of the layers, which is very odd; Esk, our 'oh, I thought I'd lay two today' girl, still hasn't managed any that we've seen). If something *isn't* going in and stealing them before we let the girls out in the morning, hopefully the more varied diet will get the others going!
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Benny and the Laydeez

 ♥Apr. 25th, 2018 // 06:05 pm♥
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Spring is in the air, and a mare's thoughts turn to stallions....

Unfortunately for the mares, there aren't any near here, but Benny seems like a nice virile looking chap all the same.

After much coaxing (not helped by all the fence-building stuff around the place making it look Different), I got him out of the field and into his stable, where he's now alternating bites of hay and shouting for his new girlfriend. Who is shouting back. Based on last night's form, they'll still be at it when I go to bed tonight and when Mike gets up in the morning.

I kinda hope that Mr Next Door is on night shifts this week, so that they aren't keeping him awake, although I fear there's no hope for Mrs Next Door, in their bedroom that's right next to Benny's stable and next door to the shelter that the mare is in.
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It's positively tropical....

 ♥Mar. 3rd, 2018 // 02:49 pm♥
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Well, temperate anyway. We've not got the fire lit!

It's been above freezing all day here, and we even had a bit of sun this morning (after the mist had cleared), although it's clouded over again now.

The snow is mostly gone from around the house, although fortunately it's not due to freeze again tonight as there are a few slush patches.

The boys even got to go in the field, albeit with plenty of hay to keep them going, after Mike went out there with a lump hammer to break the ice on the troughs:



(GB does like rolling in snow, the daft old bugger. The field's almost entirely snow-free, now.)

The ducks are *much* happier, and are having a nice rootle around in the stableyard rather than sitting, shivering, in their pond and trying to avoid the icebergs.

The outside pipes have defrosted, which is good, but not-entirely-surprisingly the last bit of copper piping has burst. On the plus side, the outside piping will be entirely plastic after we get it repaired, but I suspect that that will take a few days as there are people with rather more urgent plumbing problems even if it weren't the weekend. We got by this morning with duct tape, and I plan to have a go at sticking a g-clamp on it as well to try and get the hole better covered.
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Brrr

 ♥Feb. 28th, 2018 // 10:22 am♥
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Yesterday, the forecast for overnight was -7C, so we were expecting our usual 'bloody cold' temperature of -10C or so.

Our weather station consistently reads a couple of degrees warmer than the actual temperature, and when Mike got up this morning it was saying -15C....



We weren't expecting it to be so cold, so we hadn't turned the outside water off or drained the pipes. Fingers crossed there are no problems when it eventually thaws, but this morning Mike ended up filling the water buckets in the house and carrying them out to the stableyard. I, meanwhile, learnt that it's harder to muck out when the poo is frozen solid, because it bounces off the fork rather than squishing into place on it.

We also had another inch or so of snow overnight, so we could see where a bunny had come looking for food:


Benny would very much like it if we stopped playing silly buggers and put the grass back:


Jo would have loved this weather, poor thing.
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Animal news

 ♥Feb. 14th, 2018 // 03:43 pm♥
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The Only Honest Horse Dealer In Kent has just been to see Benny. First, he watched me ride. After a couple of minutes, he said 'the problem's you, when his balance goes, so does yours and you give him a canter aid without realising it'. (Which kind of made me go 'surely someone else would have noticed this if it were the case?', but ok.)

Then he got on, and Benny did it even more. His conclusion is that there's nothing physically wrong, rather that Benny's got poor balance (true) and is trying to canter when he wobbles because it's easier than trotting. The prescription is lots of hacking to let him learn better balance in a straight line, only going in the school in short sessions, and changing him to the more gentle bit that we bought soon after we got him (but he didn't like) so that he can't lean on it so much to compensate for not balancing himself (the inability to do so being - TOHDIK says - what he didn't like). Also I need to be stricter with him about things like standing still and not pulling on the reins when I'm standing holding him (this is true, he is in danger of going out past 'showing his personality' and into 'a bit bolshy').

If he'd gone straight into reason two without having tried reason one first, I'd be a bit more reassured, but no one has found anything physical and everyone agreed that he's the person to ask, so.... I'm going to talk it over with my riding instructor, but if she says to follow his advice then I will. Edit: hrm. She's a bit dubious as well... she's going to come and ride him herself on Friday.

Jodie's increased medication has had good effects and bad. She's moving around well, and the lump hasn't got any bigger, but on the other hand she's spent much of the day doing what I can only describe as going through the motions. Last night, I had a lot of trouble getting her to eat her pills and she wasn't keen on going upstairs to bed. Today, when I got up she came over for her morning cuddle but lost interest and went away after about five seconds. When I put the boys in the field, she stood up and walked a few steps over for her treat but just let it drop back out of her mouth. When I put her breakfast down, she walked over to it, sighed, and started eating in a very dutiful way. She also only ate half of it, and then threw that up while I was upstairs changing the bed. She then spent the morning lying in the hall, not even giving me a wag of the tail when I walked past and gave her a stroke.

When we went outside to get ready for TOHDIK, she had a very liquid poo but then seemed a bit brighter. Not sure if that was because she'd got rid of something making her tummy feel bad, the steroid wearing off, the painkillers she'd just had kicking in, or just being out in the fresh air. Mike's in London today, so it'll be interesting to see if he gets the usual enthusiastic greeting when he comes home.

I spoke to the vet (inevitably, he phoned just as TOOHDIK arrived) and we're going to reduce the steroid and he's going to bring around something to help her stomach this evening.
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Jodie update

 ♥Feb. 12th, 2018 // 10:18 am♥
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We started Jo on the steroids on Thursday evening, and she improved dramatically on Friday and Saturday: we've even all been sleeping upstairs for the last three nights, which is a relief.

By Saturday morning, the lump was much, much smaller, and slightly spongy (rather than hard from being stuffed full of fluid). On Sunday, I thought it was maybe a bit bigger again, and it had gone hard. Today, I'm sure that it's bigger, although still nothing like it was pre-steroids. I also think she's maybe looking a bit skinny, even though she's eating well since the steroids started, so I might see if I can get her up to the vet and pop her on the scales, although I'm not sure when that will be possible (or if there's anything to do about it if she is). She does get a bit restless about an hour before her painkillers are due, so also on my list of things to mention to the vet is the possibility of taking her up to four times per day rather than three.

Still, she's getting around well, and is bright and happy, so we'll just keep playing it by ear and crossing our fingers.

The saddler came and checked Benny's saddle, and reports that all is well there. When I rode him for her to see, he was slightly better again than he has been, but still doing his thing; whether that means it's a temporary thing that's getting properly better or a long-term thing that's bothering him less because he's not working is up in the air. I've got the Only Honest Horse Dealer In Kent coming to ride him on Wednesday, so we'll see if a) Benny still does it and b) he has any ideas.

Slightly concerned because the boys are both off their hay. This probably just means it's a bad bale, but actually they went off it half way through a bale, then refused the next one, then started off eating the one after that but changed their minds this morning. Not sure what's going on there....
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Pay attention, dear...

 ♥Feb. 5th, 2018 // 01:30 pm♥
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It was snowing this morning, so I just let the boys have a wander around the stableyard while I mucked them out. Pleased to report that the ducks were much less unhappy at being shut up than previously, and Magrat wasn't too much of a bully.



They weren't terribly keen, though, and as soon as I went in the barn and started filling haynets they came over to poke their noses around the barn door than then started wandering in and out of the stables.

As they were in the way, I grabbed Benny and tied him up while I put the hay in their stables, and cleaned the snow out of his feet. Then I cleaned the snow out of GB's feet while he was standing outside, and put Benny back in his stable.

GB gave me a look, as if to say "Why aren't you letting me go into my nice dry stable to eat hay?"



And I was like, "Dude, you aren't actually tied up...."

(Hurrah! We *finally* have a new food waste bin!)

We took Jo to the vet this morning, and she has more painkillers now. Hopefully they'll make her a bit happier.
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The vet; the other vet

 ♥Feb. 1st, 2018 // 03:27 pm♥
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Today, the vet came to see Benny, who was maybe a little better than he has been but still doing his thing.

The vet has no idea what the problem is (to the extent that he can't even think of which tests might give useful information), so we're going to have his back and saddle checked (again: only had them done a few weeks ago), and if that doesn't turn anything up then we're going to ask The Only Honest Horse Dealer In Kent, who's about 200 years old and has ridden more horses than I've had hot dinners, if he'll have a go and a) see if Benny still does it with him and b) see if he's got any ideas.

While I was out with the horse vet, Jodie's vet called. The lab didn't get much that was useful out of the biopsy, but there are a few cells that they're going to stain to try and identify them. If they can't, there are a few unappealing options (basically, more biopsies, possibly with added CT scans) but I suspect that we'll just do what we can to manage it with painkillers and steroids for however long that works.

(Unless the lab results show something different, the assumption is that she has this.)
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Name that book

 ♥Jan. 5th, 2018 // 07:32 pm♥
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Failing generation star ship that actually turns out to be a prison ship in orbit around Earth, which kinda explains why the society is so seriously unpleasant and criminal. Weird religious women live in the upper levels, possibly in the dark, and they have a Token Male who must Suffer on behalf of all men (eg, leather collar with broken glass on the inside). Particularly nasty criminal gangs live at the bottom. Everyone else huddles in between and, eg, trades for old pairs of shoes. Some of them use the guards' shuttle to go back to Earth, where they're arrested (? taken away, anyway) even though they were born on the ship. Ring any bells? Edit: James P Smythe: Way Down Dark, thank you [personal profile] groliffe!

This morning, we had a riding lesson. It was a bit damp, but we went ahead with it anyway for about five minutes. Then it started hailing, the mares over the road went nuts, Benny froze and looked terrified, and we gave up. (On the plus side, that was the absolute worst behaviour I've ever seen from him, and he was perfectly safe and didn't do anything except panic quietly.)

Benny also had a visit from the dentist today, which he did not like at all, although he again wasn't in any way dangerous. Dentist has done enough to sort him out but would like him to be sedated for next year's visit so that he can get it really perfect and just needing a bit of maintenance subsequently.

Mike says that I am weird because my stomach hurts when I'm hungry.
Poll #19267
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20

View Respondents

Does your stomach hurt when you get hungry?

View Answers

Yes
7 (35.0%)

No
13 (65.0%)

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Life in the country....

 ♥Dec. 28th, 2017 // 01:35 pm♥
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(Or indeed the inner city, I suppose!)

Our food waste bin has had a hole in it for, oh, about six months. It was almost certainly caused by the bin men, who have the really bloody irritating habit of picking it up by the locking mechanism, which is detachable, rather than the actual bloody handle, which isn't. When they swing it around exuberantly, the locking mechanism, um, detaches, and the bin goes flying. This isn't the first one that they've broken, and it's presumably not just us that it happens to: the first time we happened, a year or so ago, they just sent a new one out when we complained. This time, they said that they'd check the records and see if the crew had reported that they'd broken it the previous week.

(1, we're crap and it had already been broken for a few weeks; 2) are the crew really likely to carefully make a note each time they break one? 3) if they *are*, why the buggery aren't you just sending new ones out automatically when they do so...? In fact, why not just have a little stack of them in the bin lorry so that they can just leave a new one?)

About three weeks ago, probably-a-rat discovered the hole and went diving in, resulting in a few days of finding egg shells and bits of orange peel scattered on the floor near the bins. I moved the food bin to on top of the main bin, which worked for, oh, at least 24 hours. I told Mike to just pay for a new bloody bin, which he did and was told it would be with us in a few days, or possibly after New Year.

Given the messed up bin collection schedule around Christmas / New Year, I didn't really want to put the remains of the Christmas duck (which has, since Christmas, been in the fridge and then the stock pot) out for ratty, so I did what I've been avoiding (because stinky) and brought it into the porch. The hole's in the bottom of the bin, so I prudently stood it in a spare washing up bowl.

Several hours later, I went out into the porch and discovered that the spare washing up bowl had a crack in the bottom. Sigh. Fortunately, I had another spare washing up bowl*, which appears to be leak free.

* We have an old butcher's sink, which doesn't take most large washing up bowls but looks comically empty with most small ones. It took us a little while to realise that this meant we could only buy washing up bowls from John Lewis. Of course.

Yesterday, it rained most of the night and snowed most of the day: the boys stayed in. Last night, it froze, hard, which on the plus side meant that the mud in the field froze but on the minus side also meant that the road was icy and the school like concrete: the boys were able to go out for the morning (it's melting a bit now, and anyway Mike's gone to see Star Wars and I don't want to have to manage both of them on the road if it's still icy, so we brought them in early), but I couldn't ride. Tomorrow, it's going to rain again. I'm hopeful that I might manage to find a gap in the rain some time in the afternoon, when it's supposed to be showery rather than constant. Ok, that last bit maybe isn't such and inner city problem.
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Hmm. That's going to be a problem....

 ♥Dec. 24th, 2017 // 01:32 pm♥
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This morning, I took Benny out for another hack, and we had a couple of nice canters up in the woods. Then I had to duck to go under a low branch, and learnt that Benny treats leaning forwards when hacking as a signal to canter.

Oops.

Yeah, going to have to work on training him out of that one!

Other than that, we had a nice (if tiring) time, although it didn't take as long as I was expecting: we were back in 45 minutes, when that route would have taken maybe an hour and a quarter on GB. Might have to do something to slow the walk down a little! Now that I think back, though, I remember the time when I was plodding along on GB and a nearby neighbour came up behind me, had time to say two sentences, and then vanished off in the distance, all without moving out of walk. She favours horses with the same breeding as we think Benny has....

GB did better this time than last, Mike reports, which is also good. Maybe we will be able to manage without the sedation in a few weeks more?

Benny's been doing well in the school as well. No massive progress yet, but we managed a visible leg yield the other day, and we've started on turn on the forehand.
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Everything's better with drugs...

 ♥Dec. 17th, 2017 // 11:44 am♥
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This morning, I took Benny out for a little hack, for the first time since Bugsy left.

That meant that GB was Left Alone, which we were a bit worried by, so in a fit of organisation I'd already got a tube of sedative from the vet.

He wasn't terribly impressed when I shoved it down his throat ("It's palatable," said the vet, "so you can put it in his feed if you want." "Yeah, right," I thought, and was right: no way he would have eaten his food with it in), but when I went to pick his feet up fifteen minute later he was swaying slightly, and by the time Benny and I left he only managed to stagger up to a trot to chase across the stableyard to come with us.

Mike reports that he shouted for about fifteen minutes (as opposed to screaming, which I was worried would happen) and then calmed down to eat hay with occasional shouts. When we got back, he did just about manage to get up to the field, but he was a bit wobbly on the slope: I'm not sure how he'd do if it had been slippery rather than frozen solid, so if we do the same thing on a muddy day we may have to remember to take them to the field the long way around.

Benny was also very good. There was one icy patch on the road, which he took very slowly and carefully, and he had a good look at a few things (eg, pheasants, water troughs) but wasn't as worried as last time. When we got to the end of the road and I told him to keep going, he was a bit concerned, but once we got onto the bridleway he was very much up for nice run (which I denied him, keeping it down to a sedate trot instead). We didn't go very far at all before we turned back for him, but I want to take it slowly and was a bit worried about GB!

We had his front shoes taken off a couple of days ago (having had the back ones off the day he arrived) but he didn't seem at all bothered by that, which was also good. (Actually, he'll have done better on the ice without them.)

On the way home, he was rushing a bit but nothing too bad until we got level with our school, when the mares over the road started running around and GB shouted: Benny did break into a little trot then, but he came back to walk fairly well, so all in all I think it was a success.

I suppose I'd better get a permit to go in the woods, after having let it lapse!

I've got enough sedative for five more goes (possibly more, if I give him a smaller dose after the first couple of times: he is very susceptible to it), and then we might try him without... or we might just get another tube!
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Animal updates

 ♥Dec. 12th, 2017 // 02:02 pm♥
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Bugsy left this morning, gone back to a girl who used to own him where he'll go back in the field with a Shetland who used to be his best mate (and hopefully still will be). GB called for him a few times, and stood by the gate looking confused a bit, but reacted much better than he did when Jonny went. Very relieved, both about GB's reaction and that he's gone to someone who knows him.

Benny had his back checked, as well, and the Back Lady is happy that his wonkiness is just muscle development, from how he's been ridden, rather than anything structural, which is also good news. He was very good with her, considering that he's unlikely to have ever had anything similar done to him before. She wants to come back in a couple of months, to see how he's getting on, just before the saddler does the same.

GB also had a very quick five minute check, and she's very impressed with how well he's looking considering that he's not in work any more: very little loss of muscle along his back (although he has lost some on his neck).

Jodie... well, I think she's getting a bit dotty in her old age, or rather getting more so. As a breed they seem to get a bit funny at about 8 or 8 and a half (she's nine in a couple of weeks), so it's not entirely unexpected. She's even more clingy than she used to be, these days, and it's not been helped by the fact that GB bit her on the bum a few weeks ago. The boys have been not-in-the-field a few times in the last week, and when we do that we let them wander around the stableyard while we're doing our jobs; normally, she'd stay in the barn while that happens, but this week she's been refusing to, and instead following us around and getting in the way (and making it more likely that the boys will catch her out in the open than if she was in the barn). Still, hopefully they'll be back in the field soon and she'll be happier!

Erzuli continues to spend most of her time on her own, looking nervous, as the runners poke around at the other end of the garden. I've got a saved search for a friend for her....
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Decided not to ride this morning....

 ♥Dec. 10th, 2017 // 02:46 pm♥
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GB Not Terribly Impressed:


(It turned to rain at about 10am, and it's all gone now. Of course, now we have a severe weather warning for wind instead....)
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Whips (no chains)

 ♥Dec. 8th, 2017 // 10:56 am♥
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I've been riding Benny without a whip since he arrived, because he doesn't need it for the basic stop / go stuff and I wasn't sure how he'd react to one, given how scared he is of being hit.

Last time I rode him, though, I was starting to feel the absence of a whip when I was doing things where it would have been helpful to use one to give him a little nudge left or right, so I thought I'd give it a go and see how he felt about it.

This morning, I tried it out, and he is indeed terrified of it: he was ok if I just carried it, but every time I swapped it from one hand to the other he jumped, even though I didn't touch him with it at all. We spent a little while going around in walk with me swapping it over, and then I put it down and went on without it.

I suspect it's going to take a little while to even get to the stage where I can just move it around stroking him!
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Snow! In November!

 ♥Nov. 30th, 2017 // 02:02 pm♥
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Ok, not very much, but still not at all usual here:


Today has been all about giving money to vets.

I took Jo off to see her vet first thing, because I was a bit worried that the scar on her side had got scabby again, but the vet thinks it's just a bit of a reaction to the internal stitches and nothing to worry about. I also showed her a new lump I'd found. The initial reaction was 'it's probably a cyst', but after shaving off a patch of hair to get a better look it turned into 'let's send a biopsy to the lab'....

Later, the boys' vet came to see them: 'flu jabs for all, and an added blood test for GB (he was thrilled, I tell you, thrilled), as well as a tube of sedative for us to try GB on when Bugsy's gone (Tuesday week: his old owner is having him back to keep another horse company, thankfully) and I want to take Benny for a hack. (He gets very distressed when he's left alone, which isn't good for him at his age, but Benny needs to be hacked out to help his development.)

After that, we crossed our fingers and put them all in the field together. There was a bit of initial charging around but they've mostly settled down, and it looks like Benny is going to be boss. Wonderful 'wish I'd been videoing that' moment when Benny and Bugsy cautiously bumped noses: Benny got distracted and turned his head to watch the mares running around, seeing which Bugsy stealthily turned around and kicked him. Benny span on the spot, kicked back and Bugsy fell over in a heap. Did rather serve Bugsy right!
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Who'd have 'em?

 ♥Nov. 29th, 2017 // 04:41 pm♥
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Benny's going into the field with the others tomorrow, for the first time, and I thought I'd try to stop GB from immediately going for his throat by letting them see more of each other overnight. I swapped the stables around so that Benny is now next to GB, with the grill between them so that the can bump noses, and moved Bugsy down to the end.

This afternoon, I went to get them in. I should have known it'd be a pain when I found Benny standing in the muck skip (no idea what he was doing in there. The only thing remotely edible would have been a few wisps of hay with duck poo on them), but he did at least manage to get himself out with no problems.

When I went into the field, GB and Bugsy were charging around like idiots, having a go at each other. Sigh. I've been bringing them in the long way around -- past the school and along the road -- because of the mess that Benny's made in the stableyard (and because of the temporary fence). We got as far as the school before Bugsy reared, which made GB rear, and off they ran down the road to stop outside the stableyard gate and look a bit confused.

(This set off the mares, who were already unsettled because their new friend was missing, which added to the fun and games and made Benny start getting nervous as well.)

I went and grabbed the boys and took them into the stableyard, where GB took one look at Benny's head sticking out of Bugsy's stable and started fretting so much that I just shoved him in his stable while I got Bugsy ready for bed. I tried getting GB back out to get him sorted out, but he immediately started trying to tow me across to Bugsy so I gave up and sorted him out inside instead.

GB then spent the next hour shouting, with occasional counterpoint from one of the mares, but he seems to have settled down now. I hope. I'll go and check him in a bit: hopefully he didn't work himself up enough to get his rug sweaty, because we're in for a bitterly cold night.

I dread to think what kind of a state GB's stable will be in tomorrow, but I hope that he does at least make some effort to make friends with Billy Benny!
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Now I'm tired....

 ♥Nov. 27th, 2017 // 05:09 pm♥
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I had a text message from the saddler this morning: she had a cancellation at lunch time, would I like the slot. I said yes, and she came over. In fact, she didn't have to do very much: adding a temporary pad (which we'll take away again when he's muscled up a bit) meant that Benny can wear Bugsy's saddle with no adjustments (which, given he's not been ridden and so has lost muscle, is probably more than Bugsy can do these days!).

Things I did before the saddler got here:
- clean lots of dust, cobwebs and swallow poo off the saddle
- find a clean pad to put under the saddle
- take the nice stirrups off GB's saddle
- clear the brambles out of the riding school

Things I did not do before the saddler got here:
- cut back the two bushes by the side of the school whose branches have grown into it over the summer.....

Still, I have now ridden Benny at home, albeit fairly briefly, and it went well: compared to when I was trying him out before we bought him, I got a steadier trot and a nicer canter transition, so we're already making progress, although the steering left a fair bit to be desired (not helped by the bushes!).

I am very glad that the saddler was able to fit us in before Friday, but I could wish that it hadn't been on a day when Mike was in London, so I had the joy of mucking out and poo picking on my own, for three horses, in the pouring rain. With an incredibly clingy pooch being under foot the whole time. Ah well, it's done now. Well, the saddler. The mucking out and poo picking will, I fear, be back again.
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Oh, FFS. Again.

 ♥Nov. 26th, 2017 // 03:58 pm♥
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I downloaded an (App Store) Animal Crossing update this afternoon, and when I reopened it it wanted a 50MB download in the app as well.

Must be something big, I thought. Maybe clothes crafting, which is 'coming soon'?

I checked the update log: 'minor bug fixes'. Note to self: don't download any Animal Crossing updates unless going to somewhere with mobile signal soon....

(I did manage to get the 50MB in, but over half of it was in the stableyard while we were putting the boys to bed, so it's possible that my phone got a bit of mobile data to help it out.)

In other news, Benny was a lot calmer about being in the stableyard today. I discovered that the duck's corn is also food, but it's not terribly practical to carry around in my pocket.

We took him in the school again and I had a go at lunging him. We'll have to do some re-training, because he's previously been lunged-as-exercise (start, walk a couple of circles, run until tired, stop) rather than as a way of helping his schooling, which involves far more changes of pace and stopping and re-starting, but he was very well behaved when he knew what I was asking for. Rather nervous of the whip, which didn't surprise me at all. I think he is getting a little less nervous in general, but it's going to take a while.
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Finally....

 ♥Nov. 22nd, 2017 // 04:08 pm♥
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(After so many failed attempts, I thought I'd wait until I was sure, but I say yes, and Mike says yes, and Riding Instructor says yes, and this afternoon Vet said yes, so....)

On Friday, we expect to be taking delivery of Mr Benny!



His advert.

He's quite young, and his balance will need some work, but he's fit and healthy and neither brain dead (eg, looks around to see what's happening) nor too excitable (eg, doesn't actually do anything when he sees things happening).

He looks quite like GB, but he's a couple of inches taller and has a bigger white patch on his nose.
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Duck politics

 ♥Nov. 2nd, 2017 // 05:37 pm♥
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Erzulie seems to be a bit more settled, after a week here, and Esk and Agnes seem fairly unconcerned about her. Unfortunately Magrat continues to be unimpressed, and keeps going for her when she gets too close / chasing her away from the other ducks. They're still sleeping at opposite ends of the duck house, which I suspect is also Magrat's doing: I've given in and put a second pile of hay in there, so that Erzulie's not on the concrete.

I'm half thinking about getting another magpie duck to keep her company, but Mike says that That Way Lies Madness, which may well be true.

A combination of harvest and bizarre injuries meant that Mrs Farmer only brought our hay down last weekend. I switched to using it straight away, because I'm not sure it will keep as well as the stuff from our usual supplier, but the boys seem to be loving it, which is good.

I've mostly been playing the new Mario game this week, but I suspect I may be getting close to having played it as much as I want to: I've finished the main plot, can't be bothered fighting four rabbits in a row, am finding the Darker Side to be a bit tedious (and repetitive), and have collected pretty much all the Moons that I can find other than the racing game ones (yawn). There are lots that I still haven't got, but I don't really think I can be bothered to sit and work though an online list to find them all, even supposing that anyone's had time to put one together yet. It is very good, though. Top tip: until you've played through the main plot, *just* play through the main plot. Don't go looking for secret stuff, because you're only going to have to cover exactly the same ground again later.
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Better luck next time

 ♥Oct. 19th, 2017 // 04:01 pm♥
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We went to see a horse this afternoon. He was a very sweet lad, owned by a teenage girl who's too busy with GCSEs.

The only thing that I didn't quite like was that he wanted to run off in canter: he came back ok when I asked him too, but he had a stronger bit than I'd like which makes me worry what he'd be like with a gentler one. (He wasn't very keen on standing still, either, but then I realised that he was only being fidgety when he was by some plastic in a partly-built drainage ditch next to the school, and later found out that it was only put there yesterday so actually he was doing amazingly well with it!)

Unfortunately, it turns out that he doesn't like men much: dad had mentioned that he wasn't too keen, and when Mike got on him he started getting nervous, which made Mike nervous, which made the horse more nervous, which.... He didn't actually do anything dangerous, but he also wouldn't do what he was being asked to.

Ah well. We will find something eventually, right?

Jo's doing much better now that she's got a t-shirt on and can't scratch. Back to the vet tomorrow to have the stitches out, and then soon she'll be able to have proper walks (we hope: she's getting a bit bouncy)!
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Horses

 ♥Sep. 30th, 2017 // 08:04 pm♥
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We were going to go and look at a very nice-sounding horse yesterday, but then the Riding Instructor Spy Network reported that the (devastated to be having to sell his beloved horse because of a relationship breakdown) 'owner' used to work for one of these lovely people, and that his former boss is out of jail and back living in the same village as the horse. So we cancelled. Sigh.

In better news, GB's been very awkward about taking his pills lately but a little juggling of how he has his feed seems to have fixed it: he's cleaned his feed bucket at both meals today. I'm a little worried about this year's hay, though: they've both been leaving a lot of it this week (two different bales of hay), which I had put down to there being plenty of grass. It was a different bale today, though, and they've eaten it all up. I hope we've not got many dodgy ones.

I've been doing a bit more of the hand quilted cushion, so I guess that I am going to finish it. Didn't manage very much today, because my hands are bad, but I *think* that's more because of using scissors to cut up an enormous pile of chillies to make jelly from rather than the sewing. I got Mike to do half the chillies, but probably should have had him do all of them.

(I've also made apple and sloe jelly: Mrs Farmer thrust a huge pile of apples on me last week when I was at the house, so we didn't even have to go scrumping on the common to get supplies. Gosh, you get a much better set with cooking apples than with random wild ones!)
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Wedding anniversary

 ♥Sep. 15th, 2017 // 07:13 pm♥
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Today was out wedding anniversary.

I made Mike a card:


(I've only had the book on paper quilting for a year, after all!) Worth clicking to embiggen, ifIdosaysomyself.

Mike very kindly did all the mucking out.

(While he did so, I took Jo to the vet. Over the last week or so, she's been occasionally yelping or whining, but it's got more frequent and last night she had a particularly bad spell that involved her making a noise for a minute or so. The vet couldn't find anything particularly, but did think she was maybe not *quite* so keen to take her weight on one of her front legs. It may also be a neck thing, although she did have a good feel around there. Short walks and more painkiller than usual for a week, and we'll see how she goes on.)

We had a quiet lunch at home.

(During which I took some ibuprofen for a headache and Mike had a migraine pill)

After lunch, and Jo's walk, we headed off to darkest Sussex to look at a horse.

He's called Thunder Joe, a name which is definitely going to be unused in full.

We liked him enough to ride, and it seemed to go quite well.

Even if it did hail while I was on him, and we were in a field with overly-long grass, which is one of my least favourite places to ride.

We'll go back and see him again next week, with riding instructor, using a school that they can borrow just down the road.

If riding instructor answers her text messages....

Afterwards, we headed home again.

I'm not sure how the day has been utterly exhausting, but we're both worn out now!

We had a lovely special anniversary dinner...

(Party-left-over soup from the freezer, and the other half of the loaf of bread that neither of us ate much of for lunch

...and now we're on the sofa with a bottle of wine.

Thankfully, Mike did a run to France yesterday!
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Definitely autumnal...

 ♥Sep. 10th, 2017 // 06:01 pm♥
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- fungi in the woods
- misty mornings
- light rugs on the boys overnight (and associated repeatedly checking the rain radar to see when we should bring them in to make sure they don't get caught in a shower just before the rugs go on them)
- no longer need to water the garden
- two evening haynets for the boys
- bringing them down the hill on my own when Mike's in London
- entrance to ex-Mrs Up The Hill's field turned into a swamp....

So, today we moved the boys back into our field. That meant a busy morning: leave the boys in the stableyard; go up the hill for a final poo pick and taking down the electric fence; put the electric fence back up in our field (the grass is still growing, so we'll put them in a small bit of it for a month or so and then start strip grazing for the winter); point out to the boys that the gate to the field is now open and watch them charge in to start noshing).

I've also started the sloe gin, which will be much more abundant than last year. It somehow seems wrong to be picking them so early, but some of the ones we picked today were almost over-ripe.

It's nearly time for jelly making, once we've fitted in a day scrumping on the common. The chilli one last year was quite a hit, and the patio chillis have done well (unlike the conservatory ones, which are pathetic), and I've not made a sloe one for a few years (and have plenty of sloes still in our hedge if needed). I probably want one more, suggestions welcome....
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Ah well...

 ♥Sep. 7th, 2017 // 07:37 pm♥
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The vet says "no".

Back to the adverts we go....
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Hay ho...

 ♥Aug. 4th, 2017 // 09:21 pm♥
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The day before we went Up North for The Wedding, we were due to get our hay delivered. Shortly before we were expecting it, I got a text from the Hay Lady to say that they'd decided that they'd put it in their barn and bring it to us later.

This was somewhat ominous, as normally they don't have enough room in their barn for our hay. Mike has taken Jo up there the day before and when he came home he said "they've cut it and there's nothing there!", so I made a mental note to get it from her ASAP before someone came and offered lots of money for it: it's been a bad hay crop here, because it was so dry, so prices are going to be silly by the new year.

Today, she brought a trailer-load, which is a third of our order. As we were unloading it, she said words to the effect of "er, yeah, about the hay crop... I can do you one more trailer load but that's it". She's got half what she usually does, has already told her first-time customers that she can't do anything for them, and is trying to spread the pain around her long-standing people.

After she got home, she called a much larger-scale hay producer to see if he could help: he could, but wasn't very enthusiastic (he was 800 bales rather than his usual 1200 this year and, again, wanted to save it for his regulars) and so quoted a fairly silly price.

I had a vague memory that Mrs Farmer had mentioned having a good crop this year and, as luck would have it, she was blackberrying when we took Jo out for her walk. She did indeed have a good crop this year, and has about 500 spare bales. When we got back from our walk, we drove up there to get a test bale ("ooph, we won't need as many of *those* as we do of our usual supply!" I thought as I staggered to the car with it). The boys seemed happy enough to eat a handful of it this evening, although the real test will be tonight: GB has a haynet of Mrs Farmer's as well as a net of his usual.

The Hay Lady came over in the evening as well, and took a third of the bale away to try it on her horses. Based on looking at and sniffing it, though, she said that if the horses were happy then could we put her in touch with Mrs Farmer to, if Mrs Farmer would like, find homes for it all (as long as it's a reasonable price. I've got no idea what Mrs Farmer is going to charge us, and suspect I'll be bargaining her up rather than down).

It's not nearly as nice as our usual stuff but I'm hopeful that the boys will eat it as long as we give it to them while it's still fairly fresh. And hopefully all the rest of the Hay Lady's customers will be sorted out as well!
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The sweetpeas are taking over

 ♥Jun. 25th, 2017 // 05:42 pm♥
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Last year, I planted a couple of perennial sweetpea plants in one of the flower beds. They did ok, but weren't really anything special.

Either they needed a little while to get themselves established or they much prefer the weather this year:



I had a go at putting normal sweetpeas along the drive this year, as I had spares and thought they'd look nice if they grew up the fence. They've rather been out-competed by the stuff on the other side of the fence (in the stableyard), though. I think I might get myself another pack of perennial seeds and see how they do there!

We went to see a horse on Sunday: he seemed to have a lovely personality, and looked nicely put together, but he'd never been ridden properly and didn't have a clue what he was doing in the school. Hopefully she'll find him a nice home where he can do nothing but go for long hacks....

I went to London last week, to see the dentist. Some sort of viral thing seems to have come back with me, which explains why I was so knackered all weekend, and probably also the upset stomach. I'm not exactly *ill*, but I'm also not entirely well. Possibly, in the light of this, I should have spent less time weeding today. It did need doing, though: it's been too hot recently to contemplate working in the garden.

We seem to have a lot of what look almost like yellow thistles appearing in the garden this year. Not sure what they are or where they've suddenly appeared from!
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Hot hot hot...

 ♥Jun. 17th, 2017 // 08:17 pm♥
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This morning, we went up to the summer pasture and set up the electric fence (to keep the boys away from the (rickety and barbed-wire-topped) real fence), and then took them up there. It was quite warm. As ever, they spurned the water trough up there and so drank all the water in the stableyard when they came back down. Sigh. (It always takes them a few weeks to deign to drink from the trough up there, presumably because it tastes different: it's a stone trough when they're used to plastic, and/or the water doesn't go through the softener that treats our water.)

I'm a little concerned by Agnes, aka Limpy McDinosaur Duck. She's being even limpier than usual, and holding her wings very strangely as she hobbles around the place, and when she's lying down she's been wibbling her beak and twitching her wings. I was half thinking I'd pick her up for a quick check when we put them to bed, even though she hates being handled, but she made it easy by getting most of the way to their house and then just collapsing with a splat on the ground. Couldn't find anything obviously wrong, and I'm not going to be calling a weekend evening vet for her, but I am quite worried that she's suddenly got much worse. Fingers crossed that the magic 'pick her up to see what's wrong' cure will work and she'll be better tomorrow.

The garden, on the other hand, is going along well. The polytunnel's looking very green, and there's at least one actual tomato set on the early russian variety:



(10th May, to compare: they have grown!)

We've also got actual you-could-eat-those baby courgettes, very teeny squash, lots of tomatillo cases with baby fruit inside, and runner bean flowers. This afternoon, we shared the first mange tout of the season. The wild strawberries by the riding school are also doing well, and the jar of strawberries in vodka is filling up nicely.

I have been appreciating my hammock, which is on the grass in the shade, and so lovely and cool. I *almost* came inside to get a light blanket when I was in it a couple of days ago!
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Here are some things that have happened

 ♥Jun. 12th, 2017 // 03:59 pm♥
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Last Tuesday, it rained. It rained lots and lots and lots. Because he is a special snowflake, GB decided that it was nice weather for a walk and so Mike and I spent an hour or so walking around the stableyard in circles until the vet arrived and gave him some drugs.... I'm increasingly convinced that he gets gassy when the air pressure changes rapidly, because this is by no means the first time that he's had a colic in the pouring rain after a sunny spell. And then there was the time he did it in the snow.

Anyway, he was fine fairly soon after the vet did her thing, so no harm done! (It was also Little Quilt Club that day, so I missed going to that for the morning: bah. On the other hand, if I had gone then Mike wouldn't have had the car to go and collect people, so....)

While we were enjoying our lovely walk, our incoming visitors, who were cycling to see us, phoned to ask if we could possibly go and get them from where they'd spent the night. Once the vet had been, Mike did so, and shortly afterwards the rain (inevitably) stopped.

Still, we had a nice visit, including a trip to The Sportsman, which we'd never previously been to as we'd not got around to booking a table sufficiently far ahead. It was quite nice, but I'm not sure we'll be rushing back, and we weren't terribly impressed by the veggie-friendly-ness of the menu (which didn't have any veggie mains, although when we asked they were able to make two of the starters into mains).

We went to see a possibly horse (not Git Face; someone who managed to co-ordinate better with the owner's schedule got in before us and he's sold), who was terribly nervous of Jo. We put Jo back in the car, but he was still terribly nervous: not actually doing anything, but very tense. While the woman was riding him for us to watch, Mike said "I'm not sure I want to get on him," and I said "I'm not very sure that I do, either," so we said thank you and went home instead.

We've sent off some soil samples from our field for testing, in preparation for getting Mr Farmer to fertilise it when we've moved the boys up the hill to their summer quarters.

My hands seem to have got over their over-use, and I've been able to do some weeding and some sewing, which is a relief. I'm slightly concerned that the tomatoes in the polytunnel aren't setting fruit. We have been leaving one of the doors open, so there are insects in there, but it's possible that we need to open the other one for a few hours each day to get a bit more pollination going.

Today, we've had more visitors, but just for the afternoon. It turns out that iPads make small children much more easy to entertain than I had feared, and that running down our field is terribly fun but walking back up it in order to do so again is less interesting. Horses are a bit big and scary up close, though, which GB would probably be happy about if he realised: he was very grumpy this morning when I put his saddle on and rode him twice around the stableyard to check he would be up to a pony ride, but it turned out not to be necessary in the end.

I realise now that that's probably the last time he'll ever be ridden.
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Sigh

 ♥Jun. 1st, 2017 // 03:50 pm♥
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( Jodie )

( Horses )

( Wrists )

Oh, and grandad got thrown out of an expedited discharge from the hospital because he was causing trouble, and it looks like he's about to be thrown out of the latest home as well.

Still.

The ducks are laying well and the horses are busy getting fat.

The tomatoes and tomatillos are flowering, and I'm expecting the veg patch to suddenly explode into life any day now.

Mrs Farmer gave me a couple of evergreen honeysuckle last week, which I've planted next to the front fence in the hope that they'll grow over it and look / smell lovely, and the dahlias that I thought had been lost by the courier have arrived and been planted out.

I've just realised that the Pilates book that I bought months ago and never actually looked at not only goes through the exercises but has some ready-made routines in it, which helps with my vague plan to give up on classes in favour of doing it myself at home with an occasional (monthly?) private lesson to check I'm not getting bad habits.

Even with the good things, though, I'm feeling rather brittle and balanced on edge, which isn't a good way to be if you then have a wobble.
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Things we have done

 ♥May. 17th, 2017 // 08:11 pm♥
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The swallows have come back: we've seen lots of activity in the last few days, including plenty of flying in and out of the stable, so we didn't scare them off. Phew!

The bird 'flu restrictions are, finally, over, which is also a big phew. The ducks are very happy to be back in the garden, and it's meant that we could put the boys in the stableyard, which was getting rather overgrown, so that the field could have a rest. It's currently raining steadily, and set to keep doing so for a few more hours (another phew!), so hopefully the grass will be able to get a bit of growing done tomorrow without being instantly munched back to nothing.

It's been quite hot for the last couple of days, so the Jug Of Minty Water has reappeared in the fridge:


It was much appreciated this afternoon when I came in from weeding the jungle front bed, which is always a sod and got away from me rather this winter, not helped by the lack of ducks disturbing the weeds. It's taken me a week, but at least it's not quite a Forth Bridge job.

I finished off the quilt from my workshop:



("How did you get it done so quickly?" someone asked me at a fabric sale last weekend. "I've had my mother-in-law staying..." I replied. Then she mocked me because I was carrying bolts of fabrics in two solid greys and three beige patterns, so I picked up a plain teal as well and bought some just to show her!)

Does anyone fancy having a go at some orchid identification? I'm stumped by this one, which is potentially more troubling than it would otherwise be as it's in the field we borrow in the summer and I don't want to let the boys near it if it's rare!


It's probably just an odd common spotted, but.... It's not monkey or military, or an insect one. The pink buds make it look like a burnt, which I don't think we get around here and the petals aren't right for anyway. The petal colours look a bit like a chalk fragrant, which is local, but the shape is wrong. That pink border, and the lobe shape, have me quite stumped. It *might* be a lady, but I can't see any 'arms'. They do have the pink buds, and the two-lobes on the petals, though. Hmm. I might go and have another look at it tomorrow....
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Animals....

 ♥Apr. 9th, 2017 // 09:46 pm♥
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Yesterday evening, we took the fence down so that the boys can have the whole field.

(Fingers thoroughly crossed that we'll get some bloody rain some time soon so that it can get to work growing before they strip the new half to bare earth.)

This evening, GB is in an utterly foul mood, waving his teeth at me at every opportunity and not eating his hay. Can we say 'tummy ache'? I think that we can.

Sigh. I'm sure he'll be ok in the morning....

Still, polytunnel's ready to go for when we get back after Easter!
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Mmm, Zelda

 ♥Apr. 2nd, 2017 // 02:50 pm♥
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[xpost |http://flick.livejournal.com/1208337.html]

On Friday, the nice young men from the tree surgeon came to visit. They took out the last few leylandii (we are free! Free!), and the variegated conifer by the front gate, which was getting a bit too big and squashing the ornamental cherries (we now have a much better view of the road, as an added bonus).

They also took the top off the beech hedge along the side of the house, so now it's hopefully at a height we can keep better in check. (Unlike all the letlandii, the beech is actually useful, acting as a windbreak.) Unfortunately, doing that involved standing on the roof of the very dilapidated shed, at least until one of them put a foot wrong and did the comedy disappearing from sight thing.

We'll be looking for a new shed, then.

Yesterday, the Nintendo Switch arrived, so I was mostly playing Zelda when not moving the contents of the shed to a different outbuilding. First thoughts are that not only do the controllers indeed frequently drop their connection but that they do it in a bloody stupid manner: rather than just stopping moving, Link wanders off in a random direction, eg: off a cliff. It is quite fun so far, though.

Today, we went to see a horse. Either we've been lucky or we've got a lot more picky about which we actually bother to go and see (probably a bit of both), because we both liked Galahad enough that I'm trying to set a date to go back with our riding instructor to see what she thinks. (Unfortunately, she's in France without her diary. Back on Tuesday, though.)
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That was quick!

 ♥Mar. 29th, 2017 // 06:56 pm♥
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Quicker than expected, in fact: the new floor's all done, when we were expecting it to take until tomorrow. Unfortunately, we'd ordered things like new shelves, rugs and little felt pads to go under the furniture to stop it from making scratches for delivery tomorrow to tie in with it, so we're still a little short of furniture in here. Hopefully, we'll be all sorted by tomorrow evening. Hopefully.

Jo is pleased that she has her sofa back. The sofa bed was just not a suitable substitute, her legs were always hanging off the edges.

Both the anemones and the horses have been making the most of the sunny weather we've been having recently:


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Bits

 ♥Mar. 8th, 2017 // 06:05 pm♥
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We're still rather up in the air about the new living room floor. In fact, I've just booked another quotation: wood-flooring guy replied to a request to quote for vinyl with cheaper wood options, vinyl-flooring guy a) still hasn't actually produced a quote and b) lost a lot of brownie points when he looked at our upstairs bathroom flooring and pronounced it to be cheap B&Q stuff. That didn't quite ring true with what we know of previous-owner's decorating habits, so we checked the box and it's actually the brand he's pushing us towards, admittedly their cheapest range....

On the plus side, we do have a new sofa. On the minus side, we don't have two new sofas: one of them didn't make it onto the delivery lorry and is in the wrong warehouse somewhere, although we're assured that it does actually exist. At least it's only Jo's one that's missing, not ours!

My mother has panicked me slightly by revealing that she's got her outfit for my sister's wedding all sorted. I did have a look in the shops in Canterbury this afternoon, but the only thing I was ever slightly taken by was a £200 (in the Hobbs discount shop) beige linen trouser-and-tunic combination. Given that I have at least one much nicer beige linen trouser-and-tunic-and-jacket combo in the wardrobe upstairs, my next mission is to rearrange enough of the living room furniture currently in the spare room to actually get into the wardrobe and see what I have that might be suitable. As my parents are coming to visit in a couple of weeks, I may enlist mother's help. (Father is tasted with putting up the new living room lights, which should do to keep him happy for a few hours.)

I think I have found some suitable shoes, though: some lacy Skechers, which look vastly nicer in the quick snap I took in the shop than they do in that official website photo.

We were supposed to be going to look at a horse this morning, but then the owner sent me a message to say that they'd decided they couldn't bring themselves to sell him. This, I suspect, will be the down side of trying to buy someone's beloved but no longer needed middle-aged horse.
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Brr

 ♥Jan. 18th, 2017 // 06:47 pm♥
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It's been quite chilly here (yesterday, on the evening weather forecast, they mentioned that the afternoon had been sunny with a high of 13 in Scotland, and sunny with a high of 1 in Kent...), and we think that last night may have been the coldest since we moved here: the ducks' water bucket, inside the duck house inside the stable, was frozen over this morning, and when Mike did the animals' water this afternoon the garage tap (which gets the sun, unlike the stableyard one, which he didn't even try) took a while to run: both pretty much unheard of. (The weather station seems to be broken, so I don't have an exact figure. At least -10, maybe -12?)

Mike bought new carrots for the horses a couple of days ago, and yesterday I forgot to put some water in the bucket to store them (carrots keep better under water if it's -- ha ha -- warm weather). This morning, they were rather frosty looking, and the bucket of water from GB's stable that I poured over them had ice floating on the surface, with the end result that the carrots in the boys' dinners looked rather... chilly.



It turns out that the new people in the flat, who we've still not spoken more than a few words to for largely weather-related reasons, actually have three horses, all mares. Bugs was very interested in going to say hello when I brought the boys in past their field yesterday.

Jo had her first (this time around) swimming lesson today, a very easy session to get her back into it but she seemed happy enough and the physio was happy with how she looked in the water.
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