This is the muddy bit that I was talking about yesterday.  It may not look much but believe me when I say it is about 3 foot deep and very bouncy. I know this because I stuck my stick in it,  right down until I hit bedrock.

So, after feeding everyone their breakfast, I shut the Shetland ponies in their paddock and took my trusty fencing kit out to the boggy bit.

I pulled the electric fence back from it’s original track first to create a lay-by for the ponies to use instead.

And then I fenced off the boggy bit so no one will be able to walk over it.

Then I switched the electric fence energiser on full blast and went back up the hill to let the ponies out of their paddock.

I told Waffle what I had done and how I expected him to make sure everyone behaved themselves in the new bit.

This was last year’s slippery slope – when I refenced a boggy bit and they all escaped…… and it then went so horribly wrong.

(but this time, OH strimmed under the new fenced off bit so there will be no part of the fence not zapping away on full blast).

It took the chaps a while to work out what I had done.  They didn’t get to the new bit until the afternoon.

And it was interesting to watch who ate where.  Tiddles ate some grass and then wandered away.

The others were the same eventually.

Although this grass is deep, there isn’t actually much lush stuff.

It is mostly the finer hill type with tons of flowers etc too.

So, please God no laminitis and no escaping.  Please.

I have absolutely nothing to say about today because absolutely nothing has happened (which is how I like my day to be, if I am honest).

I made a quick trip to town to get some essential supplies and to fill up my shop field with sheep.

A large boat was in – Viking Vela (998 passengers) – and the town was fairly busy with folk wandering around.

I came home and went straight into my shed to make more hand-felted sheep.  This is a never-ending project.  The weather was very muggy, windy and headachey.  There was a threat of a thunderstorm coming our way but I think it has given up.  I hope so.

Later, poo-picking, I checked on the boys who are all fine, so they tell me, but there is a very boggy bit at the top of their track which needs to be avoided. Tomorrow, I will keep them in their wee paddock while I make a diversionary track around it for them.

I don’t want to lose anyone in a bog.  That would be awful.  Ask Tiddles.  It happened to him in 2016 – https://myshetland.co.uk/omg-tiddles/

A day I never want repeated.

I think I have a new friend.

Last evening, when I was getting the sheep to bed, I saw this little chap (?) sitting on a rock very close to me.  He was very close and didn’t seem to want to fly away, just kept coming back to me, a few feet away.

Girl or boy?  What do you think?  And is it this year’s fledgling or an older adult.

And then I saw him (he will be a he unless proven otherwise) again this morning, sitting next to me on a gate.  I think it is the same bird and, again, not scared of me and was just around while I was doing stuff.  Most strange.

I just pray others don’t take advantage of wee bird’s apparent tameness and obviously I now need a name for him.

They both have form on the bird front and I would be sad if they succeeded.

I’ve not had a proper bird friend. At the moment, I am mostly just sworn at.

No one, and I mean absolutely no one, is talking to Waffle.

Mostly because he spends many hours in his day wrecking my fences (please note that he has not lost an ounce of weight either.  Funny that.)

I watched him deliberately tread down on the bottom part of the only run of wire fence, stick his head between the top wire and the actual fence to bend over it and eat the long grass on the other side.  Little sod.

My non electric fences are wrecked all thanks to Waffle.

So, today, I walked the original electric fence fixing things that needed to be fixed, while testing both wires every few paces.

And I do feel bad because the grass on the other side is waist high.

This fence was zapping beautifully and that is when I decided to extend the fence to the bit that wasn’t electrified – the bit Waffle was standing on.

And so Waffle is not talking to me now and I’m not talking to him either.

I did see him canter off down the track in an unexpected way.   I do hope he got zapped……

I know it’s wrong, but I really do.

I am so fed up with him.

Yesterday evening was “Thelery Thursday”.  I had come back from Turriefield (the community growing project where I volunteer) with a massive bin-bag full of unwanted celery leaves for the ponies.

So I rattled my bin-bag and called them up ……

And they didn’t need asking twice.  Celery is always a huge hit with the ponies and is the only treat they are allowed.  I only buy it if it is under 50p so they haven’t had it recently – sorry.

The ponies shovelled it all in trying to get as much as possible in one mouthful.

I left them chewing happily away.

The noise of munching celery leaves was fairly loud too.

And later, when I went back, there was no trace of a single leaf anywhere.  Not one.  All gone, thank you very much.