I can't help it

I don't know why, but for a long time now I have been taking photographs of old tractors. For at least 17 years or so. Here's the latest. I don't know why I do it. Just because they are there I suppose.

Oooh me plums!

Last year the branches of the plum trees were so heavy with fruit they were breaking and we had piglets scoffing the windfalls as we tried to gather them This year these two are the ONLY fruits so I have watched them carefully and today judged it right to pick them. Carefully. I then carried them into the kitchen to share. Then, and this often happens, I got distracted and forgot about my plums. Tonight I mentioned them to my beautiful and oh so patient wife and questioned their whereabouts. She did not know, but had found two plum stones on the kitchen floor. Probably a Berner ( the one who got taken to the vet today, see dog blog)who counter surfs and is partial to soft fruits.
Ah well, next year is not far away.

Pig Club

 I've been a bit slack lately updating pig club so here are some pics taken today of the trainee

 sausages enjoying breakfast on their sun terrace.

Always the sun

Preston our 21 year old Beagle enjoying a brief sunny spell on the helipad.

I want to be like you dad!

 Strange things happen in the world of smallholding so today when all Ryelands reported for duty at first light it was one of those great moments when you just knew the day could go as planned. Goats vacated stables, sheep took up their positions and waited for Defra who arrived right on time, didn't get flattened by enthusiastic Berners and set about obtaining the right amount of blood from all the lady sheep for testing.

 As we had goats they were tested too and the nice lady from Defra went up mightily in our estimation as when introduced to our compact herd let out a cry of "Nubes!" which is code for Anglo Nubians and waxed lyrical about our choice of breed as she herself used to keep Nubes until hers exploded from old age. In five minutes she gave us more useful advice about keeping the beasts from self detonating that we have managed to gather in five years. The goat herd book we keep is a sad reminder of those that went with a bang.

Sheep and goats looked over she had a good old look at Chester who is a spring chicken compared to her 28 year old Arab. She also commented on the handsome pigs in the pen, they being the pig club crosses, and thought they were coming on nicely. We were very surprised with how nice the Defra lady was and how helpful, not like how we imagined at all really. Her role was to monitor how small farms were doing, this includes the likes of us. Ours was the last blood survey of some 300 across Wales. The fact that it was supposed to have been finished in May is neither here nor there, we were the last ones and she was happy with that. So were we.
Little t kept himself entertained by trying on my cycling helmet. After much concentrated effort he managed the buckle too.

Situation Normal

This is situation normal at breakfast time here at Rock HQ, a ravenous horde of Ryelands led by a Welsh Mule Cross called Ferny Fern Fern from Ferntown. Rain or shine these woolly bucket robbers wait patiently for yours truly to emerge and provide calories to supplement the meagre mountain grass that is their usual fare. So as Defra are arriving tomorrow to blood test the lady sheep it will be no problem as the breakfast club will oblige by lining up in the lane to donate a drop or two of the red stuff in the hope of getting an extra portion.
At least that's the plan.
This took a knock this morning when lane at front of cottage, the usual haunt of hungry sheep was devoid of life forms aside from a belligerent shitland and a hopeful piglet. All mutton was conspicuous by its absence and was finally tracked down to the dark side of the smallholding, lurking at the base of North Face Gully. There they stayed, united in their defiance of the allure of the blue bucket. Ferny Fern Fern from Ferntown totally refused to comply and lead the flockers to base camp where they would be fed. It all bodes well for a very interesting morning tomorrow.

Open sesame!

 Chester got his first workout since his fall in spring when he hurt his back right leg quite badly

 but with lots of TLC and cash (vets bill!) he is now 100% and back in action.

 So here he is with my beautiful and oh so patient wife demonstrating how to open and close a gate without

 dismounting, very clever.

 And so we went for a brief stroll around the village, luckily I ignored my own advice and took the time to put little t in his anorak

 because at this point everything was nice and dry

 and all was well

 but at the same point on the way back things took a turn for the worse weather wise

 one of us refused to wear our hood but we made it back in double quick time

where one of us got a hot drink and a meal while the other spent part of his evening looking for the rain cover for the baby carrier he put in a safe place a while ago.

Bitty

Its been one of those days where its been all go but not much seems to have got done. Certainly nothing got crossed off the jobs list. Time was spent organising the return of the baby trailer (that's a small trailer, not a trailer for babies) and a pig roast for trailer owners wedding. The sheep seem to have got wind (always) of the planned visit by animal health inspectors midweek to blood test them as part of a national survey for a virus we haven't got and so only half of them turned up for breakfast. This meant only half of them got checked, dagged and drenched. But then none actually got drenched as we thought that it would be best to do this en masse post blood test. Still on the plus side those that were here were maggot free and after a close encounter with yours truly and a sharp cutting implement they had cleaner bottoms.
Weather changed as predicted and laziness on  my part meant that by the time evening rounds were well past due it was hammering down again.