I have 16 bales of silage and, this year, I am not going to let the big birdies and their big beaks/talons get into them.  Last year, I spent my winter hovering around my silage bales armed with a cloth to dry the bales where they had been damaged with silage bale tape to mend the holes left by the birds standing on them.

I am trying  a new invention – recyling old tyres and fish net.  First, I put one tyre on the top of each bale.

After an advert on a local website asking if anyone had any spare fishing net, we collected a large old salmon net.

First we laid it out – we have visitors staying so I roped them in as well – they did offer!

As ever, one small family member got in the way.

Having laid the net flat next to the bales on the track to establish the net’s actual dimensions, we then started to roll it over and lift it on.

Perhaps not the lightest or most helpful of net.

Daisy, being small and agile, was tasked to gently stand on the top, lifting the net over the bales and the tyres.

The net was enormous and spread well.

I am very happy with this set-up. I hope it works.  There is also enough net at the base to deter the hill sheep from the bales.

Once finished, we let BeAnne out from her “helping”.

Afterwards we went for a ride, knowing full well that the horses should be introduced to the new scary monster.  Taktur was fine.

Haakon’s eyes were out on stalks!

By tomorrow, they will all be used to it.

Success!

So bring it on Birdies!

Lambie is on top form. He spends most days, when OH is out of the house, coming inside for a chat and a quick look round.  Now the midges have disappeared, for the time being, he has given up sulking.

I ❤️ my Lambie. I can’t help it – we are imprinted on each other.

Meanwhile, I am feeling a tad guilty about the foals.  I haven’t spent nearly as much time with them as I ought.

But then, my ethos, is that foals should learn to be foals first from each other and their mothers.  There is nothing I can really teach them at this age.

They come up, they talk and that is all I really want.  But these two are very sociable, well balanced and happy.  I would make more of an effort if they were incredibly shy or their mothers were keeping them away.

Brá is not that kind of mother.  She would give Dreki away if she could.  Having Hetja around with Lilja helps, though.  Last year, I think she sometimes felt very alone with Efstur.

The mothers share the foal care.

Soon we will move this four over to Lyradale. I am not weaning the foals until next Spring at the earliest.   No one is pregnant so it doesn’t matter.  Nature can do the hard work.

Anywho, I was out with my camera just as the rain was threatening (yes, my washing was outside so of course it had to rain).

This are a different style for me.  I used the flash.

I think I quite like the “drama” but it is not something I will do very often.  A bit too arty-farty for me.

I think I might ride Haakon tomorrow.  See how it goes.

After my spinal steroid injections, I have been on bedrest for 24 hours so they can work on the localised spot so obviously not out and about with a camera.

When a friend offered me her photos of the Viking Show last week, I didn’t say no plus they are very good.

So, here they are……

Dimma trying to get Floss’ burger – not a chance, though full marks for trying.

The judges’ conflab.

All that hard work. Exhausting.

(Me.  Diet. Now)

The winner.

(And again, oh God, that is me – tomorrow The Diet to end all Diets!)

Congratulations!

Thank you, Jean Sinclair, – you have done good, filled a gap and seen my life from a different angle.

And here are some spare ones from me.

(practising)

(waiting)

(winning)

Enthusiastic little person determined to feed everyone.

Right, tomorrow I am properly off my bed rest and I will go back to my duties.

I have decided that I am not going to ride for a while.  I want the steroid epidural to do its bit – the side effects are hot flushes which are vile. I may have to live outside for a while, in Lambie’s shed (wifi and radio).

Funnily enough, Daisy and I were driving home from doing the veg packing at Transition Turriefield, when we thought we recognised two sheeps on the road – Rammie and ‘Ster.  So we called them home and they happily trotted behind the van.

Then when we discovered that Lambie and ”Bert were not home either so we set off again in the car and found them further up the road.  I got out and Daisy drove the car home, while I walked back with two errant sheeps in tow.

(at the moment, my life consists of ridiculous sheeples)

Yesterday, while the weather was vile, I suddenly remembered I hadn’t seen the Boyzenberries recently.

So donning my full wet weather gear, I went out, opened the big gate and shouted.  Two bedraggled and shivering sheep arrived (Lambie and ‘Ster) closely followed by a huge Shetland hill ram.

So, I put down food, opened up Lambie’s best bedroom which has been resting and distributed  a bale of straw down in the shed (wifi and radio).

I left them to it, slightly worrying that ‘Bert hadn’t appeared but he is a free spirit.

When the rain stopped, I found ‘Bert hanging about waiting to come home. I let him in.

No one seemed to mind “Rammie”, even though he is seriously stinking.  He first appeared a few months back when Fivla and Vitamin lived in their hill park.  He moved in with them and followed them everywhere.

I did approach him with a carrot but he duly rammed me in the leg.  Ouch.  There were words.

But the other don’t mind Rammie and he is horribly lame.

I hate turning my back on ill sheep because they usually die at me outside the gate and I have to live with the guilt that I did nothing.

So this time I have done something.

Floss went out with the statutory Rich Tea biccies for the lads.

Best sheep food ever!

Rammie was interested.  He is quite greedy.

So Floss threw one over and he instantly was hooked.

I tell you Rich Tea biscuits are the way into anyone’s heart.

This morning, after breakfast, I opened the big gate and everyone went out into the hill.  I then went to hospital for my spinal epidural injections under severe sedation.

According to my anaesthetist and the theatre staff, while I under sedation, I am the woman who talks about “my sheep, my ponies and my daughters”!

What is said in Theatres. Stays in theatres! (please)

When I got home from hospital, all four were back home!

Rammie can always leave us. He has not been sheep-napped and if anyone wants to lay claim to him, feel free.

There was so much rain last night and this morning that the fields flooded.  A rare sight for summer.

(the view from the front door)

It even went up as far as the rickety bridge (which has been doomed for some years now).

Everyone was fine.  Happily eating.  So we were not especially worried.

(the view from the back door)

After the Shetland “monsoon”, the sun made the effort and shone.

We went out to check on everyone – to see they had not melted or washed away.

And to give them carrots and hugs.

(Daisy, en passant, has just remarked they look like a mare and foal – not Klængur and Newt , ie one Icelandic gelding and one miniature Shetland pony gelding!)

It was amazing just how quickly everyone had dried out.  You wouldn’t have known it had been raining since yesterday afternoon.

Flossie had, in her pocket, a carrot for everyone.

So that would be thirteen carrots she was carrying.

Poor little Newt struggled with his full-sized carrot.

It is almost too big for him and he was not sure how to attack it.

Obviously, help was on hoof, in the form of Tiddles.

But Newt was having none of it.

That carrot was his and his alone.  It was not his fault that Tiddles’ carrot was long gone.

Floss dutifully went round dishing out her supplies.

Even far into the hill to Iacs, and beyond, where Haakon was.

No one had washed away and the grass will now keep on growing as it has been watered.