Monster is missing his family – Daisy and OH are not here for various reasons.  Floss and I do are best but in our hearts we know it is not enough.

I hope OH is reading the blog so he can see this awful photo…..

And this!

Monster is never allowed on the kitchen table.  This is his (and mine) look of “we don’t care!”  The sauce bottles are always suspiciously clean – just sayin’ – and today I had to buy bread.   OH always makes bread.  Oh, the shame.

Ted was also shocked.

And Pepper was looking for anything edible or inedible that might hit the floor.

Meanwhile the playing never stops.  It is actually lovely, if exhausting, to watch.  Pepper needed Ted in her life and he is very happy with this role.

This film has sound…. enjoy!

Yesterday, the sun shone and we had blue sky.  Wonderful.  I took this photo of Haakon just after he had demolished his bucket of green sludge.

Haakon now seems to be back on track and, again, I feel we dodged a bullet (well, he did, literally).

Iacs thinks green sludge is possibly the best food ever. He waits for me, trying to catch my eye in his “restaurant”, so I will bring it to him. These days I am just everyone´s waiter.  That´s what it feels like.

The girls still haven’t gone south. Every Thursday seems to be accompanied by a southerly gale and so the captain cancels taking livestock. I don’t mind. They are enchanting.

Though, taking photos of them is proving very difficult!

They like to follow.

I have to go south again at the end of this month for a few weeks but when I am back, I want to start riding Klængur again.  His hoof has healed and the cut has grown out.  Now he has had lots of time off, hopefully we can get going again.

While I am south, I shall dream of tölting on Klængur.  We used to have such fun.  I miss riding but at the moment I am just too busy – I meet myself coming home – so it will be something to look forward to.

Farrier Day today so we set off first to Leradale for the Minions and Old Ladies.  All fine there.

We worked on the usual basis of those that needed to be trimmed, were trimmed.  Newt got off free today.  Methinks he should really have cloven feet!

Apparently there’s a farrier in there somewhere!

Then home.  As Stephen, our farrier, was only trimming and not hot-shoeing (one firey flaming forge + Pepper = disaster), I made the decision to let the dogs out to introduce themselves. New people and situations are always a good thing. Ted said hello and went quickly back into the house while Pepper stayed around outside to “help”.

This is Efstur’s “I am a good boy” face.

And he was.

Everyone behaved perfectly especially with a small inquisitive dog around taking the hoof pieces to chew.  I was very pleased with Pepper.

It was all relatively easy today.

And someone is going to sleep well tonight!

I dreaded going to see Vitamin today. If she hadn’t improved, I was going to seriously think about our next step for her.

So I steeled myself up, took the bucket (deciding to keep it “normal”, ie food Vitamin had been eating before all this started rather than trying out new things).  I didn’t try to catch her. I just called her to her little shed, put the bucket down and walked away leaving her to herself. Like I used to.

So she ate…….. and I cried with relief.

I was standing guard at the door where I had visitors.

Floss was guarding Fivla from marauders.

She also had the bag of carrots, carefully chopped into edible shapes for old ladies.  The marauders were then happy.

After Vitamin finished (there was only a tiny bit left), Vitamin walked to the door where I was standing and I offered her the carrot which she happily scoffed, caught her (there really was no escape), and quickly gave her the injection, which she hated.  Luckily Storm had barged in to finish the bucket and I used him as safety while she threatened to kick (that injection must sting). I washed out her mouth (literally and physically!) and gave her the painkillers.

You know how relieved I feel.  I think we have bought ourselves a little more time.

We are worried about Vitamin. I’m not going to lie to you. She won’t eat and is very depressed.  She has barely any energy and no interest in anything.  This morning we decided to go for make or break…..

We took her and Fivla back to Leradale to join their herd in the hope that this will inspire Vitamin to start eating again.  We have nothing to lose at this point.  The next choice will be to put her to sleep if she doesn’t pick up soon.  It is not fair on Vitamin to keep on like this.

So we brought Fivla and Vitamin across, having given Vitamin all her medication for the day (painkillers and antibiotics), loaded them up and drove very carefully over to Leradale (only a couple of miles).

Everyone rushed up to greet their old friends.  It was nice to see the Minions excited too. They had missed their ladies.

The “hay park” had been opened a few days ago and there is grass there.

Vitamin immediately put her head down and I think I saw tentative chewing.

We left them to it but popped back this afternoon with more water.  Vitamin did go up to Floss, who had the carrots, and asked for one.  She managed with a little difficulty to eat it but she was much brighter in herself.  More like Vitamin.

Obviously she won’t talk to me – possiby because I am giving her the injections.

There was a spare carrot piece, so it was thrown to Vitamin and she walked up and ate it.

I am hoping we are taking little steps to get better.  I remember when Vitamin lost her foal, she was very depressed for a long time.  She thinks and she minds.  Please keep this old lady in your thoughts.  We love her.