Being Precious

I know I can be rather "precious" about my animal charges, but sometimes my paranoia about their welfare is perfectly justified. Today is a case in point. I got up early to walk the dogs and sorted all the birds before I went to a hospital study day. It was a mandatory training day that was to last for around 7 hours, so I thought the field animals would be ok with me being out of sight for a while (The dogs had been taken to Carole's house)
How wrong I was.
When I arrived home at 3.30, Rogo, Stanley and the young male cockerel in the nursery run were free on the field. It was obvious from the start that they had been fighting. Rogo looked unscathed, but Stanley and the buff male were extremely bloody and battered. I caught both and cleaned them up in one of the water butts, Stanley looked the worst off, as his comb and wattle had been badly pecked but he remained feisty and pumped up, and obviously ready for round two!........Even though all of the cockerels have been physically separated, when they are left totally unsupervised, they always seem to find ways of getting at each other. The quicker the young buff is relocated the better.(below pic)
Anyhow, after sorting out these prizefighters, I did a quick head count of the other animals. The pigs were fine, though had upturned all of their water feeders, and the hens and turkeys looked ok. When I checked the ducks I found Connie (below) tangled in the fence netting. She was quiet and exhausted but looked ok after a pet, drink and feed.
I turn my back for a short shift period and all hell seems to let loose,

Little acts of kindness

This morning there was two plastic bags attached to the kitchen gate. One had a week's collective vegetable peelings; in the other was a small bunch of over ripe bananas. Both "gifts" were left by separate neighbours as treats for the pigs, and were two of many that have been deposited over the past few weeks. At breakfast time, Della, another neighbour rang, She works in a local supermarket and had arranged for a ton of out of date bread to be kept for me for the birds and pigs. It was very thoughtful of her and is one of many such kindnesses I have received since living in the village.
Now I am not getting all saccharine about country hospitality here, but I will mention that if there is one lesson I have learnt during our time in Trelawyd, it would be the fact that being thoughtful and going that extra mile for people does reap benefits in return.
Being sociable and friendly with people has meant them feeling included with the field and menagerie news. In turn I have received extra food for the animals,hutches for the broody hens and offers of practical help when we are away. Delivering egg orders and dropping off the odd freebies has built bridges with some of the older people in the village and the acknowledgement of my limitations when it comes to fence building and practical farm work such as hedge cutting has encouraged a rather gruff, pragmatic help from the farming fraternity.
I guess the whole thing underlines the slightly old fashioned meaning of the word community!

Anyhow, Chris is away in Cardiff overnight, so I have indulged myself with a bout of OCD cleaning. With a tidy cottage, a sleepy, exhausted pile of dogs on the hearth rug and with a glass of Pinot Grigio in front of "Primeval" I can now relax with my blog!

Nora is actually a "woman"

Just received an email from "Gren" a self confessed pig expert who runs a pig sanctuary in the UK......apparently the behaviour I thought was epilepsy....is in fact normal behaviour for a pig in season!............
duh!!!

Pig "absences"

And I said I have no news!
I am convinced that Nora has epilepsy! Very occasionally she will stop dead in her tracks and literally will stare into space for several minutes. At first I thought she was pissed off with me (I was cleaning out her bed in the pig house) but tonight she showed classic symptoms of Childhood absence epilepsy.(Starring eyes, subtle chewing, unresponsiveness)
I dropped some food into the pig pen when I was locking up the hens. As Gladys galloped over, Nora (who had minutes before been squealing hysterically) just stood by the gate and ignored the food I had thrown out for her.
I tried to push her and gave her a slap on the bum, but she didn't react at all. I even waved a few pig nuts under her nose, with absolutely no reaction whatsoever......It took a full three or four minutes for her to come around, in that time Gladys, who is the quietest of the pigs, scoffed every pig nut she could find.....

Ho Hum

Today has been a rather "nothing day". No matter how hard I have looked, there is very little to report in the way of news.

I have planted shallots and onions today, and have had to cover them all with nets, to protect them from the marauding rabbits, which is a laborious job. The weather has been icy cold and miserable, and I have seen no one except for a passing troupe of hikers, who upset the egg laying hens roosting over their eggs in the side of the compost heap by crowding in to spy on them through the lane fencing.

The slowness and coldness of the day has been rather oppressive. I could have done with a mooch around some city shops and lunch out!

In actual fact I sat in the pig hut sharing two bananas with Gladys and Nora

ho hum

Putting your money where your mouth is..........

I dropped down to Prestatyn this afternoon to have an interview for the volunteer position at the Scala cinema. I was slightly over awed by the panel of three (it felt like my senior nurse interview) but enjoyed the chat about their vision for how the cinema is to be run. I made sure that they knew that the cinema featured highly in my film mad pre teen geeky life, and I was very honest when I said that I felt strongly that the cinema and town needed support.
They said that I would get a nice uniform!
I said I could work one night a week!
Tee hee..........

I sold the three grey bantams AND the small buff rooster chick this morning. The lady that bought them had no box in which to put them, so we had to improvise by placing them in a cupboard of her Winnebago! She has put in a provisional order for some hybrids when I get the chance to get them into the incubator too, which is nice. With the money I got for the hens I got all four dogs treated for fleas (and Meg injected for worms!) Meg still has the habit of eating sheep poo every time we go out, so needs a stronger dose of wormer than the other dogs! With the change left, I bought some extra pig feed!

pic is one of the "dog attack survivors" from last year sunning herself in the Churchyard. I have called her Jane

The Best Jokes.......

....are the ones that are not hurried or forced......"An 18-year-old has secretly painted a 60ft drawing of a phallus on the roof of his parents' £1million mansion in Berkshire. It was there for a year before his parents found out. They say he'll have to scrub it off when he gets back from travelling."
VVV Funny...thanks Nige

Quality

Some actors can portray huge emotion in the simplest of actions, and I must surprisingly say that Julia Roberts rates highly on my list!
Watch out for the most genuine of smiles at 3.58 mins..it is incredibly moving