A lovely day again but we had to keep the old men and the girls in the small paddock as we needed them for later.

The old men now have a daily fibre block each which I soak for 12 hours. It resembles green sludge. I know this because while lugging it to their field, I managed to spill the sludge bit down my trouser legs.  They get half for breakfast and half for supper as well as unlimited hay and a bucket of grub.

The old men love their green sludge and it has really helped Haakon post colic.  His pee is a lovely pale Chardonnay now and the blood results are back.  All normal except for a few that indicated colic.  So phew.  No kidney problems.  I am so relieved.

I also gave Klængur a bucket of sludge too and he liked it.

The girls hate this food so we gave them a couple of haynets to keep them entertained.  Yes, we have muchos mud.

And we (ok, Flossie) hung haynets everywhere.

There was a weird thing in the sky today. We have no idea what it was.  Still, the horses liked it and everyone rested.

Who knows, the bright thing in the sky might dry up some of the wet paddocks as well as make the green stuff on the ground grow.  I am hopeful.  Stupid, but hopeful.

I think today was what is known in Shetland as a day “between weathers”.

After feeding haynets, carrots, checking Minions, doing buckets, filling more haynets, etc and even tidying up the feedshed (I know, who am I?), I saw the sheep all soaking up the sunshine out of the wind so I sat down beside Harrel-the-Barrel to enjoy it too.

I told him to budge up as I didn’t want to sit in the dirt.

He duly budged and Maggie came to chat, which was lovely. We had some real quality time together.

Always before, Maggie has been a bit nervous and on her guard.  Today was different. We had progress.  This is definitely the way forward. No more the scared hill sheep who just wanted food. A different sheep now. My girl.

And the unknown bright thing in the sky left us quite late in the afternoon.  The days are getting longer.  Yes!

Today we practiced with Lilja and Sóley, loading them into the horsevan, ready for the off, whenever….

We set up the horsevan first in the indoor school with lovely enticing and easy to eat haynets while filling our pockets up with bite-size carrots.

Sóley marched straight in and we put the partition across for the first time.  She was happy to stay there and munch her haynet.

Lilja was a bit more cautious but, with lots of praise and carrots, she did load and I think Floss and I are going to practice this speshul skill every day.  We took her in and out a few times rewarding her massively while Sóley continued her munching.

Sóley would live in there if she could.  The haynet was her friend.

But we succeeded, which is an achievement.  Flossie was very good with Lilja.

So practise, practise, practise and more practise until they sail.

Today has been a mud-drying windy day.  The Old Men are still being put out in a field every morning, and while Haakon goes off to eat, Iacs stands by the gate looking hopeful.  So I gave him a haynet to appease my guilt that I was mean and put him in a field with his best friend.

Good old Haakon. He waits for no man. Not even Iacs.

Being me, I am constantly looking at the weather forecast wondering if Lilja and Sóley will get to travel south on Thursday.  To appease their new owners, because I am not hopeful, I took my big camera over to their field to try and take some nice photos.

And one of Klængur who said “could we start the riding thing again soon, Mum?”. I said I didn’t know and it all depended on his hoof being healed 100% plus a promise of no spooking.  We will see.

I am just praying the wind will turn round (currently standing at Force 7 southerly).  A northerly is better than a southerly for sailing but who knows. I am not the captain of the ship.  Fingers cross, peoples.  They need to go to their new homes….. safely.

Ok, so one duster has appeared.  Thank you Pepper but where is the other one? No one knows.  OH met his wellies in the garden. She drags them through the cat flap!

But Pepper continues to enchant.  She is a very determined little member of our family.  She makes BeAnne look like she wasn’t really trying.  This weekend I am going to blow an egg or two to fill with chilli as she steals freshly laid eggs.  Yesterday, she stole 4!  Awful dog and the farts were not much better.

A little known fact – the word “no” does not actually apply to Pepper, ever. So you know.

And, although I am very ashamed of Pepper’s appalling begging and stealing behaviour, she gets nothing at mealtimes – ok, she gets a little something but only at the end of the meal. I keep telling myself this. I am not to blame but how can anyone resist this little face?  I mean, seriously? She is adorable.

Meanwhile Monster remains happy, fat and equally awful.

He is not allowed on the tv table so of course he did this and then I had to take a photo because it made the perfect backdrop.

The only one with any vague semblance of manners is Ted.

A total suck-up while very aware of who is also trying to climb up his ladder of success.

And Ted wins. He doesn’t beg at meals or climb onto the tv. A winner in my book. I have low standards.

Looking at these photos, I feel very ashamed.  **** sigh ****