Newt has a bad habit – when I am busy tipping up the bowls to put food in, he sidles up to the other ponies and kicks them to get everyone away from “his” bowls.

So now the others refuse to eat near him and he is ostracised.  His own fault.

I don’t blame them.  Newt can be quite vicious and accurate with his sharp little hooves.

Later, while out poo-picking, I came across Newt enjoying the sunshine and I tried to explain to him that he was making himself very unpopular in the herd.

And this was proven by the fact that the others wouldn’t let him eat from the one hay net I put out when they went into their paddock for the night.

I watched as Newt mooched around, asking if there was a space for him.  Silver said a very firm no, and so Newt dug deep and tried to work his charm on Tiddles, who is a soft touch.

And, after Tiddles said ok, but you’d better be nice, Newt was allowed to join in and eat the hay.

Meanwhile, Vitamin and Fivla told me they wanted to join the others in the field-of-nothing-to-eat, so I let them in and off they galloped (yes, they can shift when they want to).  Then they spent their afternoon shouting at me that there was no food and could they come back, please.

I had to make up for their ridiculous decision by giving them tons of food.  Hence the many buckets.

I title this “you can never have too many buckets (or handbags)”.

New plan – I am trying to leave everyone outside for longer as it saves on mucking out and it doesn’t get dark these days until after 6 p.m.

Thank you for all your kind words of support and advice.  All hugely appreciated and I am feeling much more like myself today. ❤️ (and I found MyShetland FB page again)

Anywho, onward ever onward and someone else is in the doghouse……

We were out first thing with the breakfast buckets and Pepper took up her usual role of hoover/vacuum snaffling anything that was dropped.  The horses are used to her doing this and are messy eaters.

Today, I was watching Haakon who had finally finished his bucket and was just having a look around to see if there was anything he’d missed on the ground.  I was busy thinking awww, how sweet, look at them together touching noses when I saw Pepper give Haakon a cheeky nip on his nose!  He was very surprised and I was shocked.  I told her so.  She looked very embarrassed and a bit shifty, wagging her tail hopeful I wasn’t cross.

She was sorry I had seen her and sorry she had got caught.

Pepper knows I will be watching her in future.

“Ooh, look a squirrel!”

(only we don’t have any squirrels up here ….)

Wicked girl.

Yesterday some of you may have seen my flounce off Facebook.  I threw teddy (not my Teddy , but a metaphorical one) out of the cot and deactivated my account for precisely 12 hours when this morning I realised that I couldn’t deactivate my account because I am an Admin on two rather important groups/pages.

I am now feeling very raw about Facebook. I need to be there for my Admin duties but really don’t want to be there, to be criticised by folk who don’t know or want to know the whole picture but are more than happy to make judgements instead.

I am not sure really what to do, if I am perfectly honest.  I think, for the time being, I will just put up my daily blog link, perform my Admin duties and try not to get involved with anything else.  I don’t think I want to put my head above the parapet for a while.  Being roasted like that was horrible and very hurtful.

I hope you understand.  I am feeling very threatened and vulnerable because of it.

And in the process, I seem to have lost my My Shetland Facebook page, dammit!

Honestly, this lot.  They make me laugh.  What is it with the rescued hill sheep?  They always want more food and then some more. There is never enough.

(I took this photo having lured them all into the field with Iacs’ barley rings and of course they wanted more).

Dahlia had been at the lick bucket, which I was pleased about.

Edna was hopeful but the others knew they had already had their ration – two barley rings each.

And eventually the flock went up into the hill field to graze for the day which is where I went to find them later when I took the dogs out for their walk.

I might have had in my pocket some more barley rings and I think Gussie knew that – he is part sheep, part hay bale and part scrounger.

Dahlia is very partial to all things edible too.  Like mother, like son, only she has far better manners.

It was lovely to see Dahlia and Gussie as part of my flock of sheep.  No bullying anymore, no arguments, just sheep together. What I always wanted but seemed to take a long time to achieve.

And little Gussie had not forgotten his friendship with Pepper.

So sweet together.

And if you count them all, there are nine sheep – all together, all grazing happily, all not arguing.

Even Lambie!

Up and at ’em at the usual time (8 a.m.) to feed everyone animal.  The mornings are becoming lighter, which is much nicer for us all.  The sheep have tummy-clocks worthy of NASA and are always waiting for me.

Ditto for every horse and pony that I own.  They are all waiting for me to arrive with their individual buckets.

A rushed breakfast and off I went to Turriefield (“Terry Field” according to my phone).

Planting today – this time broad beans, I think – and then down to the polytunnel which was blissfully warm (the planting shed had been freezing) and we picked out seedlings.

I could’ve set up home in that polytunnel if only for the warmth.

I was home in time for lunch and resentment from a certain smelly little dog – I brushed her which immediately increased the level of indignation.

So I went into my shed to add another sheep to the collection that will eventually get to the shop in Lerwick when they need more.

(I’ve been cold all day and am currently sitting at my desk with a hot-water bottle on my lap to try and warm up.  The cold really got to my bones when I was putting the ponies to bed this afternoon so I gave up and came indoors leaving my poo-picking chores until tomorrow.)