Tag Archives: old age

More Weather

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You know me and my obsession with the weather.

Well, it was on full force today confirmed by Gulberwick Weather’s forecast on Facebook.

And, according to Yr.no, it is never going to stop raining.  However, other forecasts are a little more optimistic.

Also a friend texted me that she was probably going to rug one of her horses “with a rain sheet, no fill tonight, weather is going to be grim tomorrow”.

Well, that was all I needed to know.  I hastily phoned Daisy and we had a discussion about what to do best.  I like a second opinion. It confirms that I make sensible decisions.

And then I looked around my extensive library of rugs (yes, another obssession) and found the ones I wanted, lugged them plus two headcollars, in case of uncooperation, to the field.  Five rugs of 0g weighs a good ton.  I carried the headcollars were around my neck.  I looked like a demented bag lady.

They all knew and behaved (I swear I heard Fivla mutter that I could take her rug off next June).

Bibble looked particularly happy.

While Haakon looked fed up that summer seems to be leaving rather rapidly.

And then I popped into Tiddles’ field and put his little dressing-gown on.  I know he has a container for shelter but if the others all go off to find grass, he will be left behind bare-nekked and miserable.  He also is a perfect weight with nothing spare to lose.

Here we go again.  The break was nice while it lasted.

Looking So Much Better

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I went with my usual buckets at breakfast-time and found no one waiting by the gate so I had to shout, hoping I wasn’t in for a long walk looking for everyone.

The horses and ponies duly appeared – I think they had been sheltering in the valley part of their field.  The weather was closing in fast.

While I waited for the horses and ponies to eat up, I walked around thinking to myself that actually everyone looked spot on. Just right.  A good weight now.

Iacs looks lovely. I am very pleased with him.

 

Kolka again looks nice.

Vitamin is perfect.

Fivla might be a wee bit on the fat side, but she gets nothing in her bucket (a scant scoop of soaked beet plus her vitamins).

I think she knows this.

And Haakon at last is looking just right.

The summer grass is working it’s magic.  30 acres of this mixture of plants plus lots of exercise wandering around looking for it.

So they all chose to stand in the paddock and look miserable about the rain.  Fivla and Vitamin made a bee-line for the little shed and quickly took up occupancy.

They refused to let Kolka inside.  Nope, she had to stay outside in the rain.

A little later on, I took this photo when I was trying to take the dogs out for their walk.  I love Kolka’s face.  She is resigned to the knowledge that she will never get in the shed.  And how the rain poured.  The dogs refused to come with me and took themselves straight back to the house so I gave up and went back inside with them.

Lots of Lying Down

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The two cousins ate their breakfast together today (I love seeing them like this – never an argument, just two old friends eating together).

When I went back later on my dog-walk, I found Haakon lying down, resting so I opened the field gate for them and continued with my walk.

The dogs and I went over to our favourite spot, Clothie – a five acre croft with a derelict house (it was a school once).

While the dogs did their own thing – bunny hunting with no success, mostly – I went looking to see what flowers were now appearing.

Bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) – “Gulsa girse”.

Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis),  “mayflooer“.

Dandelion, Taraxacum palmeri -“eksis girse”.

Heath Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata) – “curly Dodies”.

Red Campion (Silene dioica) – “clockie-flooers” –

After wandering around Clothie looking for more orchids – it is early days though, I went back to the horses’ field only to find they hadn’t moved so I showed one the open gate and the rest followed.  As Fivla and Vitamin weren’t around, I decided to shut the gate as those two don’t really need the extra.

After making my customary sheep, I came outside to poo-pick around the place only to find Haakon and Iacs lying down again.

I hope it was just the nice weather and the feeling of being full of grass rather than anything more sinister.

I told myself that the fact that Iacs was also having a snooze hopefully confirmed my original theory.

I don’t want sinister. I really don’t.

Iacs Today

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The vets from south (Ardene House Vets) were in Shetland and Iacs was on their list.  He sees them annually for a check up after his operation a few years back for penile squamous cell carcinoma.

Iacs’ appointment wasn’t until the afternoon so OH and I got on with another looming chore. We finished sweeping out the sheep shed and left it to dry.

Afterwards, I took some painkillers and went outside to sit in the sunshine.

It was a beautiful day.

Later on I received a message saying that the vet was on her way to us so I went into the field and led Iacs out so he was close by when they turned up.  Haakon followed too.

(I have no idea why Haakon has to stand like a giraffe).

I was already feeling windy about Iacs having a general anaesthetic at his great age so I had a chat with Daisy (who is Iacs’ owner) to decide what was the best way forward.

The vet arrived and we discussed the pros and cons of sedation bearing in mind his age (31yo) and possible complications (colic).  Because Iacs’ last examination had been clear, the vet gave him a good clean/feel and said it all felt very normal and no obvious growths.  Ok, she couldn’t see because Iacs would need a general anaesthetic for that and, as there has been absolutely no signs or symptoms, we decided to leave it with the view that if I observed anything over the next year, then obviously we would do something if it was considered necessary.

Colic is an ever-present enemy at their advanced ages.

So that is what we decided.

(and the vet said she wouldn’t have known Iacs and Haakon were 31 and 32yo and they looked amazing – I breathed a huge sigh of relief).

No Electricity

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We had a planned power outage today – new power lines were being put up in our area, I think. We all knew it was coming weeks ago, but, still, it is never much fun.  I spent my day having those ridiculous quick thoughts like “well, I’ll just switch the light on” or “I’ll put a wash on” only to realise it was not possible so I vaguely polished furniture instead while OH went to town for supplies.

It was my turn to walk the dogs and the weather was not great – windy F8, a moderate gale.  I found all the horses and ponies in the sharp cut of the valley which has lots of shelter and grass.

Iacs thought I had brought carrots. I told him I had nothing and got this rather stern stare in response.

Vitamin was close-by too and I noticed she is suddenly looking even grayer. I guess it is her winter fur coming out and the new summer coat arriving with increasing white hairs.

I found a rock to sit on out of the wind – the dogs were happily doing their own thing – hoping Fivla would have a chat but she walked off.  Humph.

Fivla needs a good brush – they all do.  Maybe tomorrow – I have visitors coming over.

Bored with no electricity, I went into my shed with the now-hopefully-worn-out dogs to make a hand-felted Shetland sheep.

And the electric came back on, as they said it would, around tea-time.  It is amazing just how much we rely on it and now I can turn on lights, and put the washing on.