Rain / Mango / Festival
Posted: Monday 9 October, 2023
Monday 2nd October
Cooler than yesterday, with a brisker breeze. Cloudy start but sun got out late morning. I saw it through the window.
I did have help though. To distract Diesel, I removed my fleecy shirt. Cold now, but at lest I can get on.
Distracting Diesel.
Then Thomas stopped by.
Thomas, helping.
I attended a meeting this evening and met a lady to whom I gifted a Coloured Ryeland fleece. She gave me this - looks just like Juno, one of our original ewes. I love it.
Needle felted Coloured Ryeland, Juno.
And now it’s
Friday 6th October.
It’s mild and dry, but we’ve had a fair bit of rain over the last 48 hours. Yesterday was particularly dreich. Not much in the way of smallholding other than the routine feeding and watering. It’s all Festival. Still, only eight days to go.
Meet Mango – not ours, but belonging to Dan’s nephew and his partner. He’s a Huntaway x Collie. Can’t wait to meet him.
Mango.
Dan and I have decided that we’re going to set aside a week in January to do non-time critical Festival stuff, like printing prize cards and exhibitor numbers, when there’s not much to do outside anyway.
Tom had a vet appointment; he’s lost a lot of weight since Penfold died, not from grief but because we started to restrict the food. In some respects, he looks far better, because he was really fat. He had no discernible neck and was pretty much a cube on legs.
Vet couldn’t feel any sinister mass or anything, but she took bloods to test for thyroid and kidney function, and we’ll get the results next week. Because he’s a rescue, we don’t know how old he is, but he’s been with us for almost six years and he was an adult cat when we got him.
Saturday 7th October
Today’s heavy rain was forecast but even so, it was heavy and persistent. I’ve kept Blizz, Rora and the calves in to stop them cutting up the ground.
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Cattle in. For now.
The ponies were tied up in the barn for most of the day, with hay, just to give them a break, but they had to go out this evening.
Dan strimmed the hens’ winter pen; we were planning to move them up before the Festival anyway, but we’ll probably do it tomorrow.
Preparing the hens' winter quarters.
Sunday 8th October
This is kind of squeaky bum time for the Festival, when it all comes together but any gaps become apparent. I just can’t wait to get it over so that we can start improvements for next year. I’ll start to enjoy it somewhere about 3pm on the day of the event.
Before breakfast, Dan moved a pile of pallets that we’ve kept for firewood further into the barn to give the ponies a better tie up area.
Ponies' howff.
After I brought them in, I fed and mucked out the cows while Dan brought the hens up to their winter home.
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Hens in winter quarters.
