Pottering…

After the strenuous time so far, I decided today that I’d take things a little easier.

Abe went straight out at 7.30am when the dogs rousted me out of bed (there’s nothing quite like a pair of whippets walking off with your duvet to get you moving on a chilly morning!) The dogs had breakfast, I had breakfast, checked emails on the phone (note to self – must organise internet here….) and replied to one about George the Suffolk – the trainers want to keep him another week or two, is that okay? I said yes, provided he’s happy and learning things, though Abe would probably disagree with me! I miss his big beaming face in the mornings, but his education should probably take precedence over my feelings. Possibly even over Abe’s feelings!

After that Abe came in for a while and I took the dogs to my mother’s, dropped them off, went on up to the stables to do Poppy and Dancer (they consented to stand near the ramp this morning) and then back to Mum’s, where I did the ferrets and bunnies, then loaded the small trailer up with taller step ladder, wheelbarrow, weld mesh (for rat-proofing quail cages) and some canes.

Back to Cairnorchies, where I unloaded everything, turned Abe out and mucked out (one barrowload instead of several buckets to carry to the muck heap – good decision on the barrow!), discovered I’m still three feet short on getting into the loft to fix the water tank’s overflow, and then turned my attention to the fencing for the geese.

The chicken wire I found the other day is about 6 feet short of securing one end of the run.

The fence on the other end is, I think, long enough – but it’s not allowing me to remove it from the posts, the posts don’t want to come up and my pliers won’t cut it!

I’ll have another go at shifting the posts tomorrow, perhaps.

John and Lynne came by with a more powerful drill John had borrowed from a friend and the slip rails are now up in the barn (They also gave me some flowers, a welcome to your new home card and a beanie hat with a USB-rechargeable light in it!) I’ve left the bales where Abe can reach them, in case he wants to pull them around still, but he was thoughtfully chewing the rails when he came in tonight, the monkey! He was also militantly uninterested in his dinner – he looked at the bucket, took out the carrot and walked off crunching it in his teeth. I think he’s too full of grass to bother with chaff! That’s fine – I’ll just drop a carrot or two in a bucket for him instead.

I had another go at the toilet seat today, too – I tried with bare fingers but couldn’t unscrew the fixings, so then I tried a pair of piers. They wouldn’t grip it so I moved up to bigger pliers, today I tried an adjustable spanner. The plastic nuts are just disintegrating so I’ll pick up a hacksaw from Mum’s tomorrow and just saw the darn things off. The new seat has its own fixings included so no loss!

After all that, I headed back to Poppy and Dancer (foot of the ramp again, but Dancer almost touched it with a hoof at one point!) and then back to Mum’s for evening rabbit and ferret duties, followed by dinner and home with the dogs.

I’m typing this by candlelight, as the lounge bulb just blew – I must get spare bulbs laid in! I’m also almost out of firewood so tomorrow I need to saw up all the wood I’ve pulled out of blocked doorways so far and stack it handy for an armful or two each evening on the fire.

I still have the small trailer here – tomorrow I’ll load it up with all the rubbish I’ve dragged together and sacked up so far and have a tip trip. I want to pick up a metal blade for the jigsaw so I can cut perspex to replace the stable shed’s window, which is currently almost filled with (for unknown reasons!) a 40mph sign. I think I have enough perspex to make repairs to the workshop windows, too – that would be good, because I half-expect the panes to have fallen out every time the wind blows, possibly taking the frame with them!