Tonights weather is....

Snow.....

for a change!

Pit Pony

Years ago this little chap might have been unlucky enough to be a pit pony, although thinking about it in reality that should read, years ago there might have been a miner unlucky enough to have Trevor the shitland as his pit pony. That's more like it. So faced with the task of getting some coal to Mad Keith who lives halfway up the bonsai mountain, on the dark side, he wont see the sun for another month at least, William "volunteered" to venture out into the frozen wastes carrying a sack of the black stuff to the frozen Hermit's abode. William is a tame and calm animal whereas Trevor is a maniac who would stamp the brains out of anyone who dared ask him for help.

Williams growing, so after finding straps and fiddly bits that fitted his girth we set off and despite never having carried a load on snow and ice before he did a grand job. Mission successful and a nice juicy apple was given as a reward.



















Hermit was pleased with result and made the really helpful observation that I had brought my horse with me. The "Funny I hadn't noticed" reply was wasted on him. But William laughed between mouthfuls.

The yard is still an ice rink providing lots of opportunity for amusement for all the animals and the dogs have taken to sitting to watch the chaos unfold. Current chaos involves catching sheep. The Ryelands are coping quite well with being wrestled to the ground and having eye ointment squirted all over their faces in the hope that at least a micro gramme will get into the right place. They seem to be recovering and their appetites are returning now they can see what they are eating.

We do exist!

Greetings to Kathy and Simon over in the Adelaide hills who also own a white beagle. People apparently don't think they exist, well they do. Here are our two very ancient beagles, 17 years old, Passion above and Preston below, brother and sister. No trouble at all, now that is. Previously they have learned to open the fridge, ran off with a cooked Christmas turkey, re decorated the house purple, yellow and green (they found the paint tins) and helped me in my quest for fitness by having impromptu cross country (very cross when over)runs with their owner.

Many thanks for the expert help you e mailed in dealing with "pinkeye", it was extremely helpful and we are treating the flock in about an hour using your techniques described, the power of technology :) Thank you.

Eye spy trouble

While I was checking the water level in the reservoir I saw Easter, one of the Ryelands behaving very strangely in the yard. She was by herself, walking into things and bleating, not the usual performance from a hungry Ryeland who is usually observed sneaking up on buckets, bags or other animals eating in the hope that they will share. A quick check, instead of the usual clear sheep eye hers was opaque, like cataracts. Problem. Somehow she seems to have got a highly infectious eye complaint commonly known as "Pinkeye". Quick check of the others, her sister Springtime almost the same and poor little Barry was showing signs. Bright light exacerbates the condition so the radiant white of the landscape was causing them some pain. As they all feed from a trough at the moment its bound to spread, great. So the three casualties are now tucked up in the back stable, along with the chickens, in the dark and they seem much happier. As the snow seems to be holding off we are going to breakout to civilisation once more and get some eye ointment for the poorly flock.

Caught napping

Now the flock has been gathered around Rock HQ for most of the cold snap, and for the majority of the time a really handsome Ram has been with them, belonging to the militia he has been fed and watered since before Christmas and flirting with our girls.

On the whole he has been no trouble, admittedly he put Crispen, our rams, nose out of joint and yesterday he nearly blotted his copybook by getting his horn trapped in the trough, in his panic he picked it up and very nearly has a disastrous encounter with Fifi. Luckily just before impact it fell off leaving the car unscathed. As you may already know we are marooned, snowed in, and as the picture above shows our lane is deep snow, a real playground for us all. Yesterday I noticed a new set of tracks on the lane, leading up to the entrance of the yard where they stopped. The vehicle then reversed and turned by the barn. It was quite a mystery for a while.

Until this morning when I fed the sheep and found this handsome chap had gone. Obviously a member of the militia had been told of the whereabouts of their prize ram and ventured up the lane to find him asleep under the eaves of the stables. Safely loaded they took him away. We missed all this as I am ashamed to say, when all this was going on, with 10 guard dogs no doubt giving their opinion of the goings on in the yard we were both asleep on the sofa. Well it had been a hard day!

Breakout!

We are enjoying our isolation here at Rock HQ, snowed in, our track impassable to wheeled vehicles and neither of us have work to go to. Beth and Tom walked here bringing essentials last night, baked beans (they are real beans you know), milk, eggs and a Nimble loaf. The shelves at the supermarket were empty as everyone is panic buying as the ice age is set to continue, hence the diet bread. We are fine here, the freezers full of home grown meats, quite a few tinned and dried stuff stored in the pantry and a huge quantity of alcohol thanks Ben's Christmas on line shopping spree. We have enough here to last til the thaw.

Our animals on the other hand are not so fortunate. Unable to graze or forage they are even more reliant on us for sustenance. There is enough hay for about a week left but the hard feed ran out a while ago. As we are unable to get a trailer up with a load of the usual stuff a daring plan was concocted on the second beer last night. Rene the reliable Rx4 is out of action, his exhaust having fell off. Fifi the focus is unsuited to the track in good weather so in the current climes she is about as useful as goats are at garden maintenance. The plan was to get Fifi to the main road, drive over to Countrywide, fill her to bursting with yummy goodies for the critters and then as a reward for her hard work drive her back and abandon her in The Oracles yard and use Rene to ferry the feed back up the hill. Failing that use the wheelbarrow or sledges. What could possible go wrong?

For once, absolutely nothing. Fifi broke out onto the main road despite the inches of snow and ice. She managed the skating rink of a yard at Countrywide. The suspension didn't break when loaded with a fortnights feed for sheep, horses and dogs. Much of what we wanted was not there so alternatives had to be bought, hardly surprising, most people are in the same boat as us. As I was there a farmer pulled away in a tractor the trailer loaded with the last sixty four bags of calf nuts. The cost must be massive, the food I bought today for ours will last, if measured carefully for two weeks. For the same cost we could have got two months supply from our bulk supplier. Still needs must.

To cap it all Fifi really pulled out the stops and somehow managed to get all the way up our lane and is currently not so much parked as abandoned in the entrance to the yard, her impressive progress stopped not by ice but by lazy Ryeland sheep who chose to have a snooze exactly where the car wanted to go. I would like to think it was driving skill that got the focus there and back again but in reality I know it was luck. As I came home via the supermarket where customers are rationed to two loaves of bread, the shelves are bare in places, we are even more stocked up with vital supplies. The forecast is for more snow over the next few days, for me the novelty has yet to wear off.

Garden raider

Here's a couple of quick snaps of a scary visitor to the bird table, a buzzard. I have seen buzzards take frogs from the pond but this one was eyeing up the refugees assembled around the bird table. I don't think it got anything, buzzards prefer not to have to work too hard for their dinner, maybe it was after one of the fat balls.

X marks the spot

If you look closely you will see a red X in the picture above, it marks the estimated position of Joan our little black Ryeland who took it on herself to explore the countryside and get hopelessly lost. To make it more interesting she did it when the snow was at it its deepest and the wind was at its keenest.

Now you might think finding a Black Sheep on a white background would be extremely easy. Think again. The rough location of the offending sheep was given by the militia. Thinking she would be with the militia's sheep we headed for the flock gathered waiting for breakfast, what we hadn't counted on was her sense of independence. Sheep are supposed to flock together, to follow each other, stay in groups, that sort of thing. Joan on the other hand having been born with the exploring gene felt no need to stay close to others of her kind, setting up camp two fields further on. We found where she had spent the night, a clear patch of grass under the hedge was an obvious clue and so the simple task of following her footprints began. Until they ended. In a hedge.

Now I assure you we looked long and hard in this peice of hedge but could not see any sign of Joan. Either she had been beamed up by aliens or, more likely she had pushed through the hedge and gone further. After a huge detour along hedge and fence lines we found nothing. No sign. Eventually we broke out onto the lane and bumped into The Oracle who was feeding his sheep. He confirmed that we were looking in the right place so we wearily turned back and trudged through the snow to continue the search. There sat patiently by the gate was Joan. Somehow we had managed to walk past her at least three times and so having proved she is the ultimate sheep hide and seek champion 2010 she gave up. She also gave up walking and had to be carried back. I have booked my appointment with Agnes the nice osteopath to repair the damage.