Monday 30 June 2014

All gone well

By contrast to last evenings trials and tribulations involving all things pig and tagging, this morning, under a fresh sky, things could not have gone better. Ms Pork, Ms Bacon and Ms Sausage collectively the three not so little pigs happily followed the bucket of allure into the back of the trailer ready for the short trip to the land of endless sunshine until their return to Rock HQ as pork jigsaws for storage in Mr Whirlpool. This picture was taken two minutes after loading and evidently they are stress free porkers.
Talking of stress, Chester is still causing concern, we think he is on the mend, but then he seems to have a relapse, so more vet time is required tomorrow, meanwhile Misty the shitland keeps vigil.
Late this evening the equines decided that all was going too swimmingly in the realm of chaos so they decided to try and escape. This entailed leaning on a gate that had not been tied as well as bolted and once it was sprung with the whinny of "Freedom", Trevor led the way and Snoop followed trying to impress him. The high tide of their escape bid is captured (as they were) here, they basically weighed up a night out on the common against warm hay and horse nuts and decided that full tummies was a better option than rough mountain grass and milled around waiting to be spotted.
While we were on evening rounds we were treated to another spectacular sunset
which doesn't look quite so good on mobile phone pics but you get the idea and even at this resolution beats
anything on offer by Santorini.

Sunday 29 June 2014

Mucking about in the water

 After a very quick 40 miles with RKR the rest of the day was spent mucking about and ignoring the jobs list. Critters got fed and watered, walked, fussed and shouted at depending on what they were up to at the time.
 A family walk to the river exposed rug rat MkII to the mad antics of some of the clan, heres Ripley at mach 1 about to exit the river. Bear managed to avoid falling in, unlike the last time
 and Ritchie "jumped" in and came out smelling less of dead things and more of wet dead things.
 But it kept us entertained until home time when the fun and frolics ended
thanks to a technical hitch with a tagger that was making a pigs ear out of a simple job. Why I should be surprised that there is a last minute glitch is a surprise in itself. I am sure it will all sort out by tomorrow morning.

Saturday 28 June 2014

Not looking good

 This is Chester our old gent of a thoroughbred out in between showers today having a leg stretch and a munch. He is not looking good, not a well horse.
 Around a week ago he didn't show for breakfast, an unheard of situation, he usually lurks around the yard, walking in and out of his open stable, taking it easy and enjoying life. The no show to breakfast got worse when he did show up as he was staggering, walking slowly and at times cross legged.
 Vet called and diagnosed laminitis, an illness horses get when the sugar in grass they eat creates a bacteria that turns them lame, or something like that. Bit of a design flaw really if you think about it. The food you have to eat can kill you. So the poor lad has been shut indoors on a soft floor of wood shavings, been fed hay and bran mash with the drug of choice of idiots at festivals, ketamine. Vet has done blood tests and found that he has Cushings disease, no idea what that is or if I have spelt it right, but that is what has caused him to get laminitis.
He seems to be a bit better, at least he was stood indoors, but as soon as he was out today he started shaking in the legs region and had to be carried (almost) back inside once yours truly had cleaned his house. Its not looking too promising for Chester but we will do what we can to make him better.

Thursday 26 June 2014

Its that time again

 Our little flockers got a short back and sides again today thanks to The Godfather. This entailed yours truly getting up at sparrows fart and heading off up the Bonsai Mountain to where the bleaters were last seen and try to coax them down with a bucket of allure. Actually that's a lie, it wasn't that early, for once we all overslept so instead of a 5am alarm it was a 7.45 rousing and then panic as all jobs had to be done, including a full cooked English, before paid work commenced. As the real alternative to work, meetings, were scheduled right from the start there was no leeway to wander in late. Naturally the flockers sussed this out and took an age to dawdle down from the crags and meander along the lane to captivity.
 Sad news is that one of the peachicks has been and gone, probably cat food.
Once again we owe a debt of gratitude to The Godfather as he did a grand job and a bowl of Goulash seemed a paltry reward for such an effort.

Wednesday 25 June 2014

In only 7 days

 Spotty the action Berner having a bit of bother with the gate to number one pig pen
 where in the glorious but about to change weather
the three little pigs (now not so little) Ms Pork Ms bacon and Ms Sausage (nearly a years supply) continue to enjoy the benefits of Rock HQ. Their date with Mr Whirlpool has been rearranged to next Sunday after my able assistant who "volunteered" to take the pigs to their final destination had the misfortune to kneel on a nail and get blood poisoning.

Tuesday 24 June 2014

Losing it

Our little flockers are due a short back and sides, this will help them in the hot weather and gives us a chance to give them preventative treatments for maggots and worms. It also means they leave the "salon" spray painted with our initials, striped blue for anti maggot and pink crossed for worms and flukes. I gives us something to laugh at other than football.

Monday 23 June 2014

Ideal!

 Our backyard is very picturesque
 and is
 ideal
 as a training
 ground for an
 adventure planned for
 later in the year
with a couple of friends.

Sunday 22 June 2014

The silence of the pigs

Make sure your volume switch is easily accessible as you might need to turn it down quickly. This is the cacophony of noise encountered while feeding piggies. They get very excited when faced with yellow buckets of allure and boy do they let you know it. 
But once they get their rations, silence is golden.

Follow that!

There is no point having the longest day unless you fill it to the max with things to do, so yesterday found yours truly decorating a carnival float for the local town festivities. Last years dismal turnout of no floats and 6 entrants in the child's fancy dress show meant that there was a renewed effort to make the carnival a success. Or lose it.
Hence Red Kite putting on a Toy Box themed float, now naturally I cannot show pics of the excited little kiddies that took part, you will have to trust me that there were enough Scooby Doos, Tom and Jerry's, Penguins, Clockwork Ballet Dancers, Robots, Panda's, Mat Poppins, Minnie Mouses and me as a dinosaur riding cowboy to make the float look crowded. I ambled alongside throwing sweets at eager spectators or jumping on members of the crowd lining the street that knew me. The apprentice and rug rat MkII failed to appear due them both going down with lergy, so no pirate or Noddy and my beautiful and oh so patient wife sat at home with them her 101 dalmatian costume put aside for next year.
This was my favourite float complete with squashed hedgehog on the tracks.
We followed the band to the parade ground and
after a bit of judging the tank came first even though it was last, so to speak.
I thought work was over, so did George the dinosaur so he headed over to a food vendor for a Indian flat bread stuffed with dead chicken. George loved it but complained when I got gravy on his head.
Actually work wasn't over so after more judging Red Kite got 3rd place! And before any wag comments there were more than three floats.
Show over I got to move house
it was a tight fit but we made it onto the trailer for the ride home.
Where we had a confrontation with idiots on trials bike who tried to convince me they were farmers looking for their sheep. The fact that I didn't but their boo peep antics and asked them not to race through our property did not go down well with them and they resorted to swearing and threatening me as they had been looking for sheep for 30 years and what did I expect farmers to look like in the modern age. I responded by saying that I expected them to be able to tell me why they were playing shepherds, who's sheep they were looking for and where were the sheep anyway. This was all too much for the particularly fat motorised non shepherd who resorted to more foul language and they managed to get past Gerry and continue their riding along the footpath thus breaking several bits of section 58 (I think) of the highways act. Lucky for them their illegal number plates were too small to read otherwise they would have had a visit from the local Police who haver the power to seize nuisance motorbike riders toys.
Once Gerry was unloaded and free from the trailer we set of to the land of the Stable Sprite where I fed and watered his pigs. They were very hot piggies so they all had to be cooled down with a cold hose. This task went without incident save for yours truly accidentally locking himself in the dog kennel and only escaping thanks to an ingeious use of a two inch twig and amazing dexterity of my left hand.
Back at HQ we almost missed the finale, the sunset, so here it is.
The furthest point west the sun sets.
And there it was.
The longest day.

Gone.

Saturday 21 June 2014

The longest day

 An early start at Rock HQ for yours truly on a mission to discover my inner Druid.
 Perfect weather conditions meant that a summer solstice sunrise was guaranteed.
 So we waited, we being Rocky, Spotty, Reba and pathetic triever Poppy.
 Sunrise
 time
 sun worshipping K9
 Almost done
 Its a beautiful day.
 Walking back I got a second sunrise, this picture taken in the same place as the first one. Its strange to think its 6 years since my beautiful and oh so patient wife's father died. He made it an easy date to remember.
Having started the day so well and so early it kind of makes you wonder how much you can pack into a day. So let it begin.