The weather has disintegrated all day.  It started with torrential rain and now we are heading towards a Force 8 gusting 12.

Hey ho. That’s the way it is up here this time of year.  The Equinox gales have arrived but just a bit early.  Hatches have been battened down, haybags for sheeple filled and we have a supply of hen and sheep feed in the house so we won’t have to struggle with any feed-shed doors in this wind.  As it will all get a bit violent and dangerous outside, we plan ahead while keeping everything that needs to be done outside to the absolute minimum.

There is shelter in the fields and the horses are not stupid (please not today, Sóley, and do whatever your mother tells you.  She knows best.)  The clever boys are situated on the other side of the already flooding burn where there is no wind.

So today was an inside sort of day and once chores were done, I decided to plan and set up my latest stop-motion film.  Lambie arrived.

And Her Maj.

Lambie wanted shelter from the rain, happy to leave his two friends outside – they swiftly went back to bed next door.

Lambie was a bit wierd about my wellies.

At least he didn’t have an argument with them like the office chair. The other day, Lambie decided to spend ages telling off (butting) my chair while getting crosser as it spun round, annoying him further.

Then Lambie asked to go out and then stood outside asking to come back in.  He dithered there for a bit so I shut the door and he rammed it. We went on like that for a while.

I am looking forward to getting to grips with my new film with or without my idiot sheep.

Sóley is almost, just almost, happy now about having her headcollar put on.  We give her mother, Hetja, a small handful of food in one bowl and set out another for Sóley – the theory being if we can get her interested in eating it, we can use it to teach her how to load into the van later on.  When in doubt, resort to bribery – that’s always our motto!

While Hetja would eat anything, Sóley is dubious.

She is still obviously nursing so not really into anything else much.

She is inquisitive, so we encourage this.

And then she gets distracted and forgets!

Afterwards, we swapped the ladies around. Hetja and Sóley went into the bigger stable.

Sóley:   Seriously, you want me to do what?  Walk on a lead rope next to mother!  Are you serious?

Sóley:  I am not convinced this is a good idea or one I want to entertain.  No one does this, surely?

We started to teach Sóley how to lead nicely by walking Hetja around in both directions and letting Sóley follow.

Sóley:  So not happy with this.  So not going to do it….. grumble, grumble, grumble…. possibly ever.

Sóley:  And your promise I can follow Mum’s bottom?

Sóley:  Oh ok, well, I have discovered that I can do this but I am disappointed that I can’t stop and throw myself around a bit.  So cue the sulk then. I shall await your apology.

There were a few tantrums but patience and calmness won the day.  We wanted Sóley to learn never to pull away and always go with. Little steps.

We also discovered that Sóley holds onto a good grudge.  She enjoys a sulk and has to be cajoled out of it!

Not unlike another I could mention……

These two are the best of friends which is lovely.

They share beautifully.

It is good to see.

These days, there is not a nasty word between them, ever.

Inside, Monster has made himself very much at home.

While outside, he remains totally invisible.

BeAnne is happy and smiley, which makes me happy and smiley.

(This is not going to be a long blog – migraine.)

I am feeling a bit sore now so spent the day doing easy things.

On my to-do list was “wash the Wensleydale locks” I had recently bought from Home Farm Wensleydales.  I adore their wool. It is wonderful to work with and what makes my curly-wurly sheep extra curly-wurly!

I am new to this fleece-washing but I remembered what to do by reading my blog again – the one called Washing Lambie’s Fleece when I received expert instruction.  I was rather thankful I had written everything down for posterity as I couldn’t remember how many “elephants” of Fairy Liquid were required (five, so you know).

As I was washing a much smaller amount, ie not a whole fleece, I decided to work in the kitchen.

I had most of the kit here anyway and wouldn’t have to lug it over to the stable, where I worked last time.

The Rayburn was very useful for boiling huge quantities of water.  Soup on the right = lunch.

I worked diligently away.  Washing, then rinsing….

More rinsing….

And the final rinse, hoping no one mistook them for noodles!

Then I lay the washed locks on a towel to drip dry.

Once there was no more dripping, I moved them to a rack on the top of the warm Rayburn next to our lunch.

After lunch, I spread the fleece on a bigger rack where they are looking very good and drying nicely.

This afternoon, I spent hours trying to make this video “work”.

Hopefully I will sleep tonight and ache less tomorrow.

Today’s unguent of extreme usefulness is Arnica Cream for Bruises.

And why do we need Arnica Cream, I hear you ask?

Because a certain small Icelandic filly foal and her big sister went adventuring and ended up over a fence in someone else’s field. Oh, the shame.

Early this morning, I heard horsey shouting but when I peered out of the window only saw Efstur trying to play with Haakon and thought it was them. I now realise it was probably Hetja calling to her baby, Sóley.  Later on in the morning, when Daisy and I went to catch them for Mr Headcollar training, we quickly saw Hetja in the field while her two daughters were the other side of the fence. *** sigh  ***

We caught Lilja and tried to find a gate to get them out through but it was no good, we ended up phoning (yes, there is a signal in the hill) OH and asked him to bring his wire cutters.  We were perched on a cliff/small ledge/bank bit of the stream as that was the only bit of fence we could cut in half.  With Daisy holding Hetja, Sóley was quickly lured through.  Lilja was a different problem as she would not go under the top wire so we had to cut that too (curses, such curses) and I dragged her through to the other side.

But Daisy and I were caught in the cross-fire – Daisy’s hand and arm were crushed when Hetja was panicking she would never see her darling daughter(s) again and I got it on my leg when Lilja rushed past having got through the fence.

The ladies all reunited, OH then patched up the fence while we limped home and went to look for the Arnica Cream.  Nothing broken, just bruising.

Bloody horses.  I am keeping goldfish next.  They can’t be such hard work, can they?

And yes, they have been asleep ever since.  Funny that!

And someone was very thirsty too.

(I went out later to take photos and look cross (if relieved) at them!)