Monthly Archives: January 2022

One Man and His Bucket

Floss and I were out at the first glimpse of daylight this morning with everyone’s haynets and/or buckets.

I stood guard beside Haakon because his bucket (TurmerAid and soaked sugarbeet) is bigger and he takes longer to eat it. I was deliberating whether to put a rainsheet rug on him for the next few days as the weather is disintegrating again.

In the end I thought I wouldn’t as Haakon hates wearing anything and walks about far more without one on. There is plenty of shelter in the field and he is nice and fat too.

He has a thick winter coat and I could see he had been happily rolling and gathering mud in case I felt the need to brush him.

Luckily, I didn’t.

We tied the Old Men’s haynets on the gate so they didn’t have to stand in the mud to eat. When the wind is this fierce, there is no point putting hay on the ground – it just instantly blows away.

And then on my way home, I met Harrel. These days he is trying to be a small table.

Maggie came to join him and I took a family photo.

So, now the wind is howling and it is raining a bit but I am glad I didn’t put a rug on Haakon. He will be fine. I will not worry. I will not worry. I will not worry.

You Had One Job, Lambie

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Edna was shouting for the hill ram by our boundary fence. The hill sheep come and go past our croft and we have an electric fence at just the right height to stop any spring lambs potentially appearing. But, to be on the safe side, I put my sheep in the small paddock behind the house, away from temptation.

Everyone happily went in, with the promise of biccies galore, except for Lambie who decided he was different and no rules applied to him. The minute you want him to do something with everyone else, he gets suspicious, then stubborn with a hint of hysterical, and then sometimes resentful because he is on his own!

Lambie of course proceeded to make things worse by boasting about his successful freedom due to his bloody-mindedness.

You did, Lambie, you know it!

He was so pleased with himself. I was less so.

But everyone else had lots of biccies (I pay my debts) because they are good sheep who do as they are asked…. sometimes.

You had one job, Lambie. One job! Yes, of course he got his biccies too. How can I refuse that Winning Smile?

Inside

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Last night I lay in bed and listened, for what felt like all night, to the wind and rain howling and crashing down outside. All I could think was that the horses would be suffering horribly as it sounded so violent. By the time it was morning, I was convinced we would be met with dead horses everywhere.

I told the troops (aka Daisy and Flossie) that we would bring whoever was left alive inside to rest and eat their hay. The boys went into the stable (Daisy’s problem) and the old men and girls into the indoor school.

Of course, they were all absolutely fine and wondering what all the fuss was about. Being Icelandic horses, they probably thought it was a normal Icelandic summer!

My lot had their breakfast – everyone gets the barest nothing apart from Haakon and Iacs who have their TurmerAid.

Haakon had been wearing his new no-fill waterproof rug last night and was, incredibly, absolutely dry. This is the most amazing rug. It works! The first one ever that is properly waterproof.

And then, because they were in the sand school, everyone finished their food and decided to roll. Iacs started it. The school is large but yet he had to roll behind Haakon and preferably under his back legs too.

I mean who does this? Iacs does. That’s who.

Haakon politely stepped to one side to let the idiot finish and we agreed that Iacs stands for “I Am Completely Stupid”.

The others chose more sensible places to roll. So we tied up five haynets, put out lots of buckets of water and left them all to eat and rest while they wondered why we had brought them inside.

A Tad Blowy

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As I type, it is gusting at an ambient Force 10 now.

Earlier the weather was slightly better so I took these photos while I was with the Minions this morning and am now struggling with our pathetic interweb to load the photos. If I go, we had a powercut! Candles and matches are already put out for the inevitable.