FAREWELL FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS....

I may not have time to sign in again until we have returned from the World Golf Championships in Pinehurst USA, Steven is training hard and hopefully will do well, its such a big event to have qualified for at the age of just 13!... But we have to sort everything out here ready for our Laura to take over whilst we are gone (there is lads..I have no idea ..unless I work through the night..how I am going to manage it really), but don't know what I would do without her....She did have a lovely break herself with Adam earlier in July they went to Paris from Saturday - Thursday and Disney land Paris so they had an adventure....probably saw more than we will!....We will be on a golf course the whole time!...Anyway here's to Steven and speak when I get back....

BADGER TROUBLE

We haven't had duck or chicken eggs now for a while, and we have lost a few chickens, not a mark on them but they are dead in the morning. They haven got any disease or anything, so it was really confusing. I stood out in the garden 11.30pm with Shadow and heard a noise in the chickens, they never make a noise at night, so called Pete and put my wellies on with dressing gown!!! its a white dressing gown too, if anyone saw me they'd think it was a ghost!.....plus wellies????... Anyway...Pete came out and ran down with me behind..in case there was any big monster things!!!...At first we thought it was a rat, so as Pete got braced to open the house and get ready for the big rat to jump out, when a badger ran straight for him into his legs....luckily it was only a teenager one and didn't get too nasty, as they can get really vicious and attack you. It ran off to the corner of the hen area, so we blocked the hole it had made to stop it coming back in....It all made sense then, the chickens had been dyeing of fright and they had gone off the lay because of fear. So we have spent the last 24 hours blocking any holes that may be able to be used to try to keep the badger out. The are pretty things...covered in fleas but quite pretty....but they are very dangerous and if they did get in the hens they would rip them all apart, it would be terrible. SO eyes peeled and hopefully he wont return.

DUCKLING UPDATE

The ducklings...since there escape to the big pond have survived relatively well. The buzzard did get one, although we were out there flapping our arms around to try to distract it. We still have 5 ducklings and they are right little trouble makers. They squeeze out the mess around the pond to swim in the paddock...the pond overflowed with all the rain and they have taken to swimming in the field...Its not a safe place for them to be, but every time they see us coming they hop back inside as if they had never escaped!...What is it with our animals they just take the mick out of us!

SWALLOWS FLY THE NEST

Its time that the swallows left home and over the past few days have been practicing leaving home, I think out of the 5 fledglings 3 have made it to this point. They are quite beautiful creatures and hopefully will return to nest next year. They have nested here for the last 3 years now...so lets hope....we have seen a lot of bird activity this year, baby robins, starlings,blue tits,swallows to name a few.

WOODY HAPPY WITH HIS LOT!

Woody is such a happy pig, he even sleeps with a smile on his face...and to honest the way they get treated ....I would be happy too!...Hopefully he will still be happy when Buzz turns into a man and tries to mate one of the clan.. They are quite a foursome really, they go everywhere together and go absolutely nuts when you try to separate them from each other.

SHADOW ON GUARD DUTY

Shadow was in her element helping us to catch the escaped pigs, she waited wherever I told her too (and where she wanted!) so we could herd the pigs into the relevant paddocks. She is happiest when with me...but then she isn't often without me!!She felt she had worked really hard today and was even asking for an early lunch!.....

ESCAPED PIGS

7.05am one morning we had a phone call from next door....Have you lost a pig?...a black hairy one?....yeap that sounds like ours ok, but how?... So wellies on and summon the troops to recapture our escaped pig!....Walked all the way up the road only to find after a good half hour that she was in fact in our paddock.....But how.....Well we found a secret ole, where she had scaled the vertical or near vertical hedge and went for a wander and then when she saw us, ran back to where she should have been like she had never been out...What a sneaky pig!!....So with the rain lashing Laura and I set about ringing Baileys to get wood delivered to repair the paddock...I am just so glad Laura is on college holiday at the mo!...I don't think she is today!...Baileys came quick smart and we repaired the paddock, it took hours and hours, and by the time we had finished we were plastered in mud and soaked to the skin....but at least its done now. Hopefully that has put a stop to Pixies antics!!!....Oh I forgot we had the Steven school run in the middle of all that and Pete had to change to go to a meeting....funny that...bet he wouldn't have had a meeting if it was sunny?????? Actually not sure how pete got to be in this picture!

COMPUTER PROBLEMS!

Well as you can see I haven't signed in in a while, that because my computer crashed and burned in style, and lost most of the stuff I need. I had backed up but the problem ran back to the back up and corrupted some of this also....AAAAHHHH so with only a few days left to get packed to go to USA I am having a mare!...

SAW A KITTEN

Couldn't believe my eyes when I was showing someone around, there in front my eyes in the car park was a kitten...must be about 8 weeks I guess, I tried to catch it, but I have a feeling is a Ferrel cat that has has babies as she wasn't too friendly, I didn't see it for a few days and then as if by magic she appeared half way up the path, tried again to catch her, but no luck. She is black with white paws, she darted back to the huge pile of stones and I think she may well be living there....We'll keep an eye out!...No picture as yet, she is too quick!

A ROCK

I thought I would share this with you!!! Lucky you, I like this rock there is something about it. I am a bit of an expert on rocks as I am usually stuck between one and a hard place!!!

But this one is rather lovely don't you think!

TULULA IS GROWING UP

We only have one little welsh/saddleback and felt sorry for her, having to share with the Kune Kune so after a brief visit to the vets I came home with 2 more little ones!....I just cant be let out really can I!! Pete wanted to call them Venus and Sereena!! really worried about him, think he may be coming down with Michelle-itus, but in the mutated form!!!

THAT DIDNT LAST LONG...

After a couple of days in my duckling contraption, the mum escaped!....I lifted the lid to check she was ok and she flapped out and took a bath in the pond, I just couldn't catch her, so after me and Pete spent hours wading through the smelly pond trying to reunited the mums and babies we gave up and gave in to the ducklings tweeting fro their mum. We let them swim to their mum and they were happy...Not sure how long it will last but we haven't weeded the pond area so that at least they have as much cover as possible, the mum is a great mum, although the ducklings do spread far, at other ends of the pond sometimes,but if something comes near they regroup in a tight bunch and swim as fast as possible to cover. They are the cutest things, I just hope that they will survive, we'll see.....Isn't nature difficult to deal with sometime!!!

ONE OF MY FAVOURITE FLOWERS

I love it when you see surprise flowers, and poppies are my favourite in this regard, you think that only grass will grow in certain areas and then as if by magic a poppy appears!..These ones are great, don't know what they are but the more the merrier, wild flowers are great, some see them as weeds but a flower is a flower whatever shape/form it comes in. I just hope they will spread to other surprise places for next year...and avoid strimmer dad!!! or Pete for that matter and Tractor Annie did threaten to use it too!!!!

A NEW CONTRAPTION!

We thought to try to keep the ducklings safe we would rig up a safe house, so after Tim and Pete carried the cage down...we made a waterside house for the ducklings and their mum, hopefully this will keep them safe. A ramp was screwed into place so that they could walk up from the water and all the holes fixed so that the fox couldn't get in or buzzard or anything really. Lets hope this will work!

STEVE'S TEAM WON!

Steve won his place to play in the Pro Am last Sunday and the team played to 15 under and won the whole Pro Am, Steve was delighted he won a pair of trousers and top worth £100 and had a medal and £40....So what a day...He was accompanied by Margaret Holmes( ladies team) and Dave Saget (men's team) and Steve qualified to play through a men's competition in which he beat stiff competition to be selected for the Pro Am. The Pro was Phil Brooks. So a great day was had by all!

WE HAVE DUCKLINGS

A little tweet was heard from the duck house and we had a quick peep inside to see the babies hatching, I hope this time the buzzard leaves them alone. They are so cute, no idea what they are, they are a multitude of colours and shapes so maybe one of everything??? We also have the Moorhens using our pond as a nursery, the babies are really funny, little black hairy things with legs that go like rockets over the water.

LETTUCE!

Who says the Americans have the biggest everything!!! Look at our lettuce....now thats what you call a lettuce, must be all that tender care and attention we gave it and spoke to it regularly......Ok so it bolted, you cant win 'em all!!