This morning I put out a mineral lick bucket for the sheep.

Everyone wanted a shot and I like them to have access to it this time of year when there is little grass around.  They have unlimited hay.

Edna had first dibs (she has one tooth now) and was instantly in her happy place. She adores a lick bucket and ‘Bert soon gave up trying to have any. He would come back later.

And then Madge, who spent a good long time with it too.

Leaving them to it, I drove over to the Minions who were equally hopeful about having a mineral lick bucket.

They don’t need one.

While the ponies don’t believe me, I am standing firm.  Lick buckets for Shetland ponies are made of molasses and no one needs the sugar.  Absolutely no one.

I might get them a salt lick, though (they had run out at the feed merchant when I looked last week).

Everyone was very chatty and I spent some time talking to them all.

Every Saturday afternoon, I play flute duets with a friend.  Lambie usually turns up to listen.  He likes classical music, even flute duets.

He stands listening and then eventually falls asleep.

Luckily my flute partner doesn’t mind the faint smell of sheep pee while we play. To me, having a sheep listen to music is perfectly normal. The rest of the world might not agree, though.

I knew today was going to be a busy day so I had my Cunning Plan all ready which was basically to feed everyone and get them where I wanted them as quickly and painlessly as possible.

I even managed to herd all the sheep (and that included Lambie) into the small field to keep them out of the way of traffic.  Amongst other things, we had BT arriving first thing to look at our terrible phone line which sounds like everyone is talking through a thick towel.

It is nice when a plan comes together…. ie when everyone participates.

My clever little Lambie and yes, it took a whole packet of ginger biscuits to achieve but I’m not proud. Whatever it takes, I say.

Meanwhile indoors, Floss was trying to eat her breakfast and described this as the “Holy Trinity”!  Crumpets and marmite are apparently Food of the Gods.  Scroungers, the lot of ’em.

Later, when I came home this afternoon, having achieved all I needed to including Minions, I was greeted with huge enthusiasm.  Pepper and Ted were having an excellent game of crocodiles which involved much gnashing of teeth.

Apart from the odd battle, they all seem to get on fairly well these days which is a huge relief.

Monster knows where it is safest to be as you can’t see him, right?  Cat, what cat?

So this afternoon found Floss and I sitting in the car waiting for our farrier playing that well known game of “Name that Precipitation”.  The weather ranged from rain to sleet to snow to hail all in the space of 30 minutes.  But we both agreed it was “bloody cold”.

The farrier arrived and we took him straight to Leradale to trim the Minions’ feet first.

We usedthe gable end to give us shelter from a cruel wind that seemed to come at us from all directions.

And of course, we always had “help”.

It was very windy – gusting Force 8 (I can only think in the Beaufort Scale or I get frightened).

Seriously, it was windy. I have proof.

The little ones behaved beautifully – easily caught and hooves trimmed.  And then we went back to Thordale for the others.  I am now warming up drinking gin.

Every day, I see my huge piles of bagged wool in the stables and I think to myself “I must wash some and use it for my sheeple” and then I promptly forget and do nothing.

So today, with my instructions from a previous blog, I washed what I thought was ‘Ster’s fleece.  (Yesterday, I washed Ster’s fleece which turned out to be ‘Bert’s – but it came out very well).

There is very little difference in them.

I just do a large clump a day and I had it all ready.  Water very hot and lots of it.

I remembered to put a some cold water at the bottom, added the bonkers hot water and then 5 elephants of Fairy Liquid (count up to 5 elephants as you squeeze the bottle). Then swirl but don’t make bubbles to mix it all in.  Bubbles make life impossible.

Then completely immerse and soak for 20 minutes (I set a timer and went and hoovered the sitting room).

Then rinse, rinse, rinse in slightly cooler but still very hot water, not agitating just soaking.  This is my method of drying and, yes, yesterday we found Pepper bouncing around dragging the wool around the garden!

I told the dogs to leave it all alone.  Ted promised faithfully.

Pepper said she would try but she wasn’t making any promises as it was THE BEST FUN EVER!

So now ‘Ster’s wool is drying.

I hope I keep his gorgeous curls.

I will wash everyone’s fleece eventually.

I spent my afternoon combing.

Monster’s brush and a piece of suede.

It worked very well. I only combed a bit.

Enough to make this little chap.  ‘Bert’s wool is gorgeous to work with.  Much nicer than I thought. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to do this.

(note-to-self – keep the original wool washing instructions handy, like at the top of the blog!)