Gremlins in the matrix

 Not sure why but the blog is having real difficulties at the moment.

 For example these two pics are from 1999 found on the internet, the reason they are here is that I painted them, in a past life.

 This pic is from my future, 2019, January.

This is also from the future, but 2017. Once this is all sorted out it will make sense.

All change

 The amount of weather we are having has caused major delays to the jobs list. The nice shiny metal roof for the stables remains in a pile by the side as breaks in the torrential rain and high winds have not coincided with any free time where I am able to risk life and limb up ladders.

 As often happens, delay in one area causes major problems in others, in this case goats who so far have defied nature and not exploded. The goats were in the stable, which also housed the Mediterranean Donkeys who, fed up with the rain (join the club) and falling out with the Shitlands, Trevor and Misty (again join the club) had to be taken out of the "garden" and placed in the cozy stable. This does ignore the fact they had a purpose built donkey sanctuary opposite the Swiss Style Dog Kennels. For whatever reason known only to stubborn donkymindfullness they steadfastly refused to shelter in it, instead they gathered in a sodden mess outside the back door sending donkey mind waves everytime they saw yours truly pleading to be taken in. Eventually it worked and they were, but this meant over crowding in the stable and as the other side was full, or rather not full of hay, three sheep, two smaller goats, but needed to be full of Andelusian Horse called Pronto.  So the plan to move Pronto in would mean moving sheep and goats and hay out, but new delivery of hay also meant more room was required and lack of new roof meant the two rooms at the back of the stable recently re roofed were not waterproofed as the old roof where it joined the new roof was not weathertight. Presuming you have kept up with all that the following then had to happen all on the same day.

 First the runway had to be cleared of the attention paid by three hungry horses, as well as the bays of the old kennel/balestore/wood store. This multipurpose building is destined to be demolished this year and a swanky 3 bay stable and bale store put up in its place, until then it is now: Bay 1 horse shelter for Snoopy and Apollo, bay 2 wood store, Bay 3 Donkey Sanctuary for Mork and Mindy, Bay 4a Sheep shelter Daffodil, Springtime and Snowy plus one goat called Gizmo (Widget escaped, then Gizmo followed ((the rule of smallholding any animal can get through any hole half its body size applies)) but was soon captured by a blue bucket of allure) Bay 4B now holds mentalist pygmy goat called Katy.

Hay and sofa (did I mention the sofa) were moved out of stable 2 and placed in stable 1 (previous home of goats and donkeys) and Pronto took up residence in stable 2. Stable 2 was then filled with a new delivery of hay and the log box was refilled with a months supply of wood from Bay 2 which all meant that all animals were accommodated in nice warm berths close the cottage with ample food and water in easy reach and for once we were ready for the big freeze set to start later in the week. Thats probably why our central heating then broke down.

Look out!

 The mighty Christmas Cracker litter is almost ready for dispersal to their forever homes. This is part of the mayhem that we took to the V E T on Tuesday to ensure they are healthy happy pups.

Ear defenders were required! V E T thought that mum had done a grand job looking after so many mighty pups and all got 100% health checks.

Where are they!!

 A few weeks ago these were small balls of fluff!

 They grow so fast, the Christmas Cracker litter were bathed last night hence the bedraggled looks.

 The face if trouble if ever there was one.

 Messing with Mum's ears.

Snoozing on the kitchen floor.

Kayaking for begginers

 A brief interlude in the rain so yours truly took to his bike, only to find a Kayak would be more suited to the road conditions.

 This is our river lane.

 Having thrown down the gauntlet to Steves everywhere and making them do 30 minutes exercise for 30 days in a row it was no surprise to find the Stable Sprite trying to top trump yours truly by a sneaky bike ride, thankfully I thwarted that plan by sneaking out myself. We met accidentally at the quarry while composing text messages to goad each other.

 Mind you the ride was more of a swim at times, I chose the bridge here as the river crossing was mental. Look at that wave forming just to the right of the bridge.

Further along it was just as bad! But it has to be said, great fun!

Love is.....

Bryn and Belle, best of friends now.

A different perspective

 Not too flattering pics of yours truly ignoring health and safety and getting on with roofing, this inside, feet planted on saddle racks

 This outside, hoping saddle racks take the strain.

 Halfway tea break

Trying to find the last bolt and way down.

Happy new year IT issues and weather

 With a lull in the rain, which has been virtually non stop for 40 days and 40 nights, and a sudden decrease in wind speed yours truly decided the new year could not get off to a better start than to get out on the roof of the stable and tackle on of the bigger jobs on the list.

 The stable roof has seen better days, the very smart onduline covering now sagging and holed and far from waterproof rendering the two rear rooms, med bay and the tack room, unusable. A very posh and hideously expensive box metal roof has been ordered, delivers and lay in wait ready for action. The weather on the other hand has been suited to building large wooden boats with enormous animal carrying capacity rather than roofing.

 Having evicted the frogs from the small ponds that had formed yours truly set about combining his two greatest fears into one exciting afternoon, these being falling and spiders.

 My beautiful and oh so patient wife was key to the success of the operation by providing endless tea, unlimited ooohs and ahhhs as yours truly wielded various tools in as manly a way as he could muster and basically provided the necessary emergency back up in case of probable self inflicted injuries and /or falling whilst escaping from a spider.

 In no time at all (read 5 hours) the wind picked up and the rain thundered down, but not before the whole of the two small rooms had been waterproofed. This achieved with no self harm incidents (I did suffer one big cut after MBAOSPW enthusiastically shoved a large chunk of sheet metal my way) and the spiders keeping a respectful distance, the threat of mutually assured destruction (large orange hammer with rubber grip) should they make any advances clearly working.

Back indoors, more pleasant tasks, such as clearing up after 9 puppies resident in the kitchen!

IT issues, rain, means no internet connection. Means no photos when we do get one, hence delay in posting.

But happy new year anyway, on day 5 of it :)

Last 2015 walk

 The last day of the year was spent in grim weather with two friends and an action Berner

 who decided no mountain walk could be completed without a huge piece of tree.

 So began the assault on Crybin, the smaller mountain next to Pen-y-fan in the Brecon Beacons.

 Just before the jump off point the weather changed from drizzle to extreme hail so we donned suitable apparel, the trousers owned by yours truly decided at this point to give up in the face of extreme weather and an epic leg length zip fail thus rendering them less than waterproof for the next 9 miles.

 Not easily put off yours truly led the way to the steep ridge that makes Crybin such fun.

 It narrows the higher you get and in a fierce crosswind its even more fun.

 Spotty kept an eye on our progress, getting ever closer to the edge.

 The view down with John closing in on the summit, Keith is a dot lower down.

 Further along just before the summit of Pen-y-fan the wind was so strong that the waterfall didn't, it went up instead of down.

 Even worse weather was closing in

 so we took refuge by the lake and had a spot of lunch with the twin peaks bagged as a vista.

 This is me sampling Spotty's lunch while mine heated up, it tasted like really cheap unseasoned pate/pie filling but Spotty seemed to like it, both cans.

9.8 miles later when the seriously bad weather arrived we reached the sanctuary of Gerry parked in the old firing range. In all a grand adventure, despite zip errors, leaking boots and poor lunch choices, a fitting last of the year mountain walk after all the mountain adventures of 2015. Who knows what 2016 will bring.