Poor Marley’s having a tough time! I noticed he had a head tilt last week and took him straight to the vet for a check over. They’ve all been flea/mite/tick treated and Marley’s been on twice-daily antibiotic drops into both ears, which he hates (of course!) but I thought on Wednesday he looked better and he’s been improving steadily since, until last night there was hardly any visible tilt at all.

This morning it’s back and it’s so bad he’s travelling as a corkscrew, falling off his feet at intervals. I’ll have him straight into the vet again tomorrow morning, and I’ll mix up a good batch of Royal Canin convalescence food and spoon-feed him through the day, since I doubt if he’s eating properly right now!

He’s a young ferret, only a year old, and very healthy otherwise, so I doubt it’s a stroke. It could be a brain tumour, of course, but I don’t think that’s very likely at his age and given that it was responding to the antibiotic. It’s possible he has something in his ear – they’re on a wood-pellet litter and it may be turning into sawdust and working its way in there. I’ll switch them to  shredded paper today and see if that helps at all, and I’ll continue with the antibiotic until tomorrow morning as well.

Naturally he’s done this on a Sunday morning so the vets will do their utmost to avoid seeing him today – it’s not a life-or-death situation, he’s just very uncomfortable and falls over a lot.

It’s amazing how much bigger everywhere looks when I’ve sliced and diced more than a foot of grass down to a more reasonable height – not to mention the docks, which are auditioning as Triffids!

Here’s a photo I’ve just taken showing the before and after of strimming in the goose paddock.

The geese approve, though.

I’ve just ordered more hay, so I’ll check back through the posts in a minute or two and work out how long the 63 bales I got last time have lasted – I still have two and a half left, which should take care of tomorrow even if it rains, and hopefully the delivery will be on Monday.

Twice today George has come in just to talk to me. I’m flattered! I also noticed he was scratching his mane on the wall this morning, however, so he’s had a good spray of Smidge in his mane and tail in case he’s sensitive to our local midges. I did everyone else’s tails – Dancer and Abe were slightly surprised but relaxed enough, Poppy briefly considered going back out but then went back to her hay when I put the spray in my pocket and offered her fresh hay instead. George just looked at me with a sort of ‘don’t get between me and my grub!’ expression and then ignored the spray. The idea behind spraying their tails is that they may spread the stuff on themselves when they flick their tails around… it won’t hurt, anyway!

I’d forgotten when I ordered a dozen Silkie eggs that my little incubator holds a dozen quail eggs – but only 7 full size eggs! I’ve pulled the turning device out and managed to cram all 12 eggs in, just, but each now has a little pencil mark on one side so I can tell if I’ve missed any when I turn them by hand twice a day!

The engineer from BT turned up today and I now have superfast fibre all the way from Peterhead to the box on the living room wall! The phone works, too. I celebrated by playing loads of music videos off youtube this evening.

I’ve also done another four strimming sessions; the geese mostly approve – once the noise vanishes.

I need to order more hay tomorrow, we’re down to the last 4 bales! The horses have spent the day meandering in and out and eating hay while they’ve been in, although it’s been a lovely warm dry day.

Tiger and Nightshade’s kits are now all out of the nest and starting to steal their mothers’ food in all directions – poor Tiger had to have a second carrot because the first vanished under a furry carpet and she couldn’t push them away with her nose faster than they could flow back in over the carrot!

I’ve had some nice snuggles with George today, although I’ve also had an OMG! moment – I was digging through a box looking for stuff in the workshop and since George was standing watching through the big dairy shed door, I walked over to the workshop door to leave, opened it, and found myself right under his nostrils! He jumped, I jumped, then we apologised to each other nicely and he enjoyed a good scratch under his chin. He quite likes getting his chin, his ears and forehead and particularly under his mane scratched, but last night he was troubled with an itch on his tail root and when I scratched that for him, he loved it so much his nose went all wibbly! Provided nobody else is around he’s a real softpot – though I think he’s improving in company as well. I was scratching Abe’s bum this evening while checking haynets and George was getting jealous until I gave him a good scratch under his chin at the same time, while explaining to the interested palomino nose Dancer poked between the boys that I am only human and therefore there were only two hands available!

I had to stay home today for several reasons. The first was that Dancer’s second flu jab was due, so I had to be able to grab the horses at ten minutes’ notice for that. As it turned out, they were all standing about in the buildings chewing hay when I got the call, so I just went round with headcollars and tied them all up safely. The jab took just a second and Dancer behaved very well, and then I untied everyone – so Poppy took the entire herd hurriedly and firmly to the far end of the field!

They’ve been in and out all day, scoffed nearly two bales of hay between them but probably walked it all off again with the travel!

The second reason for staying home was the new broadband hub was due today and I wanted to be sure it arrived safely, given the engineer’s due first thing tomorrow. It arrived right when Royal Mail said it would and was all present and correct, so that’s now sitting ready for the engineer when he reaches me.

In between all of this, I’ve been strimming. I’ve trimmed right along the electric fence so stop weeds reaching up and touching it, I’ve done another big chunk of the goose paddock and I’ve done most of the horse walkway, too, so that’s a good swathe of destruction visited on the nettles and docks!

Roll on tomorrow morning – the mobile signal at the croft isn’t great and it’ll be a relief to have a good clear landline to talk to people on! My daughter called last night to say she’d got her uni degree results (she has a First!! She deserves it, she’s sweated blood and gone through hell twice over to get it!) and was having trouble hearing me, which makes it hard to congratulate someone the way you want to!

Honestly, he’s like a cross between a labrador puppy and a tank at times!

The three light jobs were due for a hoof trim this morning so when I found them all in at 6.30 this morning (it was raining hard) I just shut the yard gate, filled up the haynets and went back to grab breakfast.

I went out again at 7.30 because I heard heavy thudding noises and George was standing in the North Paddock, on top of the flat gate, looking quite apologetic. Poppy was standing  in the middle of the yard looking smug. My immediate conclusion was that Poppy had managed to corner George (only twice her weight and ten inches taller, after all!) and he’d tried to escape by climbing over the gate into the North Paddock, which promptly collapsed under him.

I told her off, with the predictable utter lack of contrition on her part, and took her back into the shed. Dancer followed, then Abe mooched calmly into the shed again, and George, still looking abashed, followed him in. I went round with headcollars and tied Poppy to her haynet string safely, then tied Abe to his haynet string and took George into the horse barn and tied him up as well.

He roamed around the confines of the rope for a few minutes looking aggrieved, then it dawned on him that he had two well-stuffed nets under his nose and Abe was standing in his stable just a few feet away, so he settled down peacefully.

I went to inspect the damage once the horses were safely separated. George had bounced the gate off its hinges but it’s otherwise sound so I could put it back up easily, but the post it was tied to had splintered at ground level. Fortunately the yard gate and the north paddock gate are close enough together I could get a length of heavy-duty baling string around that post to secure the North Paddock gate, and I think George was shaken enough he won’t want to challenge it again, provided Poppy hasn’t got him cornered with no way out.

All was quiet after that so I groomed them all, swept the floors, brushed dry mud off their legs carefully, picked out hooves all round and generally ensured Odette had all she could ask for in terms of clean dry horses and premises to work in.

Dancer was tired and grouchy – it appears Poppy has called closing hours on the milk bar and isn’t letting Dancer help herself at will any longer – to the extent of lifting a hoof and shoving the baby away firmly! By the time Odette arrived, Dancer had carefully pawed all the fallen hay from Poppy’s net into a heap and was preparing to settle on it for a nap, so we did her feet first.

Dancer fidgetted. She took her feet away half-rasped and had to be retrieved. Finally, she decided she was going to have her nap regardless. I found myself suddenly with both arms full of an outstretched head and then she shut her eyes and started to buckle at the knees!  Odette had a shoulder wedged under Dancer’s elbow to hold her up long enough finish the last hoof off and we were both very glad to put the baby down and let her go lie on the hay in peace! (I re-measured her last night and came up with a much more believable 300kg on the tape!)

While she napped we could at least do Poppy’s feet in peace, without the usual baby nibbles, and then we did Abe. I opened the field gate and went back to open George’s door and take off his headcollar, and he was very civilised about it, stood quietly until I’d released him and then followed me sedately out into the yard, pausing to say hello to Odette very politely and then padded off after the others into the field, since the rain had stopped. He’s easing his legs a little from time to time but that’s all and I can’t find any swelling or blood, so I think he’s got away with it.

I’ve just seen Dancer having a hopeful nose under George’s tum, possibly in search of an alternative source of milk. He was very patient about it but clearly quite surprised and a little ticklish!

The new electric strimmer arrived and is doing very well, tackling even thick cow parsley, dock and nettle stems with ease. A couple of very hefty thistles defeated it this morning but I’ve met plenty of petrol strimmers that would have failed on those monsters, too! All in all, I’m very pleased with it. It’s quiet enough I don’t need ear defenders, the battery holds up in use for nearly an hour and charges fast, and I can use the strimmer ambidextrously, so when my arms get tired in one position I can just switch around and carry on!

The horses have been fascinated by watching me strim as I clear the goose paddock gradually. I’ve got right round the fruit trees now and pruned the trees somewhat, so I gave the cherry and apple prunings to the horses to play with. They’ve had a lovely time pulling leaves off and chewing the bark.

I’ve had some excellent sessions with the horses over the past couple of days – Abe has paraded around the yard in his headcollar with the new saddle on, the others have all sniffed the saddle and been rewarded for being brave about it. Today everyone but George had a full groom including manes and tails, ready to have their hooves trimmed tomorrow morning – George explained (via a heavy frown, swishing tail and a warningly-stamped hind hoof) that he wasn’t in the mood. It was amusing doing Abe and Dancer, who were standing outside in the yard together and took turns leaning on my shoulders with their noses while I was grooming the other! I introduced the weight tape to the herd this morning – I started out with Poppy, who can be quite suspicious of strange things, but Dancer insisted on getting her nose in and then Abe and George heard me talking to the girls and I had all four of them stamping about wanting to know what was going on! Poppy let me wrap the tape around her middle after that and I measured her at 458kgs, which is about right for an adult Arab (weight tapes are always an estimate anyway). Dancer’s little tum came in at just 46kg which seems exceptionally light – foals normally turn up at 45kgs or more, so I think I’ll remeasure her later and see if it comes in at a more reasonable number for quite a chunky, even chubby, yearling, not a skinny one. When I persuaded her to stand next to the height measuring tape she was around 13.2 hands – that’s about a hand she’s put on since coming to Cairnorchies in February.

By then George was getting het up watching others getting all the attention and Poppy was grouchy about him trying to sneak into the action, (George trying to hide behind Abe so Poppy doesn’t notice is amusing but quite pointless!) so I retired to the other side of the rails before I got squashed by milling over-eager horses! I did some touch games with George so he did get his treats and didn’t feel left out, but I measured both boys only last week for their new girths so I don’t need to put the weight tape on them to know what their circumferences are. Abe comes in at around 500kg, which is probably close – he’s still quite a tubby lad! George is off the end of the scale, understandably. He’s in very good shape for a three year old, not too fat (I can find his ribs with my fingers nicely) and not too thin, with a good depth of body developing, though he’s still short of muscle on his rump and needs to fill out across his chest a lot more – that’s all normal for his age and breed and I’d guesstimate he’s between 800 and 900kg.

Tomorrow is hoof-trimming day, Thursday I have the vet coming out for Dancer’s second flu jab and I should also get the parcel from BT with my new router. Friday the engineer will turn up in the morning to set up the phone and broadband for me – I have a phone sitting ready to connect. I couldn’t resist it when I saw it on Amazon – it’s a black rotary-dial GPO replica, just like the one we had when I first learned how to use a phone in the 1970s! I strongly suspect my daughter won’t know what to do with it when she first sees it…

The car is in the garage and will be there for a day or two more – they’ve so far confirmed that the body control module has indeed blown and needs replacing, but they also determined why – there’s water getting into the electronics compartment (perhaps Ford shouldn’t have put it so low down on the chassis!) so they’ll need to find out how and fix that before trying to replace the module, or the new one will blow too. The whole thing is looking depressingly painful financially since they’ve already quoted me nearly a thousand pounds and there may be more if there’s more parts needed to fix the water problem…

Perhaps a good bicycle would be useful… I have one but it needs some furbishing up.

When I sold my trailer a few weeks ago, the bloke I sold it to mentioned he gets grass mats in sometimes. He came by today to offer me some rolls of grass mat he’d just picked up and since it was a good price, I bought three rolls.

I intend to put them down on the field end of the walkway and its gateway, to prevent mud forming in wet weather. We’ve had a few soggy days and there’s mud building up now so I’ll have to wait until it’s dry before I level the ground and lay the mats – but by the time winter comes, they should have bedded down and the grass seed I plan to sow into the gaps between the plastic ribs should have grown strong and vigourous to help anchor them in place.

It’ll be yet another different surface for the youngsters to get used to!

I had a new visitor to the bird feeding area today – this handsome chap (though his tail is a little ragged, admittedly!) popped by to pick up some of the seed the sparrows have been dropping.

He was remarkably tame – he walked into the yard and up to the food while I was standing by the back door watching him! I think I saw him yesterday in the field.

Speaking of birds in the field, I was amused to watch George dealing with some impertinent jackdaws last night. They were squabbling in his path as he ambled across the grass so he put his ears slightly back and shook his head at them a little. They clearly understood Horse perfectly well as they all took to the air and made off hurriedly! It’s quite sobering to reflect on how well other species seem to understand each other, while we struggle to get past our own preconceptions and listen to others properly.

 

The horses, that is.

I went out just now to check haynets because it’s damp again and the horses have come in, and as I walked in, Poppy was standing quietly in her favourite place (what was originally George’s stable) while Dancer was lying down under the haynet. Young horses need lots of rest and sleep compared to older ones and I sometimes get the impression she still spends as much time flat as upright in the field! I spent a few minutes petting Poppy, then crouched down and talked to Dancer, making sure she wasn’t feeling disturbed by my presence – it takes time and effort for a horse to get up and they won’t stay down if they don’t trust you, so I always take care not to rush in and force them to get up when I find them down. She didn’t mind as I stroked her nose and even pulled a few bits of bedding out of her hooves, and then I gave Poppy more attention before going through to see Abe, who was snoozing on his feet in his old stable. He was quite amenable to being talked to and scratched under his mane (he’s the most easy-going of horses, really!) and after a bit of that I looked through into the barn, where George was lying down, scowling at me.

Fair enough. He does have security issues and he’s a very big horse to have to heave himself up and down hurriedly, so I crouched down in the doorway and talked to him quietly for a few minutes, until he stopped frowning and looked the other way. I crept a little closer and eventually he allowed me to hold out my hand and he rested his nose on my palm for a few seconds. I crept away again and raided the fibre nuggets.

Poppy’s still ribby (that’s because Dancer is still sucking every couple of hours!) so I gave her several handfuls of nuts, which she liked very much. I went through and offered George nuts, and he accepted them without getting up. After he’d cleaned my pockets out of nuts I went back for a refill – again, some for a delighted Poppy and then the rest for George – and as I was holding out a handful of nuts to George, Abe walked in and poked George in the bum with his nose, quite hard. George grumped a bit and got up, but I gave him the rest of the nuts once he’d had his stretch (they always want a stretch when they get up!) and then left them to it for a while.

On the subject of Abe, he’s managed to catch his face on something and taken some fur off his cheek in a long line. It looks terrible, of course, since he has the black Arab skin under his grey coat, so he has this very obvious four or five inch long line that looks like a gash across his cheek under his left eye. I have looked at it carefully and it hasn’t broken the skin so I’m not doing anything with it. He’s made sure it’ll get in the way of his bridle, however, so it’ll be a few days before I do anything more with him – his headcollar’s probably alright but there’s some bruising and he’s better just taking a few days to get over it.

Marley the ferret has had a trip to the vet this morning – I noticed last night he was carrying his head tilted to one side, so he’s been in to check for mites and infections – the two most common causes of head tilting. We didn’t find any signs of mites, though he has a bit of wax in both ears, and there was nothing obviously wrong so  I’ve come back with flea, tick and mite drops for the lot of them plus some antibiotic drops for Marley, to be put into both ears twice daily for the next week. He’s not enthused, though he’s being polite about it. He also only escaped from the carrier twice – once a hundred yards from the vet’s and again in the carpark in the spar shop when I paused to post some stuff! While I was at the vet’s I booked Dancer in for her next flu jab as well as paying for the last one so that’s happening on Thursday.

Also on Thursday I should get a broadband router and the engineer will be out on Friday to hook up the phone line! I will then have a landline and internet at home, which will make life much easier. I will have left the Stone Age, as my daughter likes to put it…

The strimmer arrived last night and has now been assembled and battery charged, so I’ll get going on clearing the goose garden of weeds from Sunday morning, weather permitting.

I brought Abe out into the non-horse side of the yard this afternoon when I fed the herd and tied him up next to his bucket. I gave him a quick groom while he ate, then he started eating grass while George stole the remains of the feed in Abe’s bucket. At one point he did look discontented, but that was when George reached over the fence and took hold of the lead rope in his teeth fairly close to Abe’s nose, then tugged poor Abe sideways!

I slung a roller over Abe and tightened it up without getting any reaction, hooked the long reins through the rings and changed his headcollar for his bitless bridle. Still no concern from Abe; he was perfectly co-operative and amenable.

I didn’t ask for much from him – just a quiet walk around the yard and back, checking out ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘whoa’, ‘walk on’, ‘back’ and ‘stand’. He responded to each perfectly, while the other horses suddenly realised he was the wrong side of the fences and shot out to the field, then George came storming back into the yard, yelling! I’m not sure if he was upset at losing his pal, jealous he wasn’t the one getting all the attention or what, but he was certainly stirred up about something. Dancer was equally roused, leaning over the fence to sniff the bridle and whinnying repeatedly.

I think I’d better build up slowly in long-reining Abe around the yard for longer each day, so the rest of the herd get used to the idea, before I try taking him out onto the road for a walk! All the same, Abe was totally calm and responsive to bridle and voice, even when a timber wagon went by on the road, so that’s excellent.

Perhaps tomorrow morning I’ll bring him in and get the Christ Lamfelle pad on him, get the girth adjusted to fit and walk him about in that in-hand for a few minutes while the others watch, if the weather’s favourable.

I’ve had another exasperating time with the car. I pulled into the petrol station the other day and the indicators failed. When I try to signal, the handbrake and ice warning lights come on instead, and while they fade out a mile or so down the road each time, the engine warning light comes on instead. The doors don’t lock, either.

I took it to my local garage and they know what the problem is – the car’s lost communication with its body control module, which sounds weirdly sci-fi and makes me think of Apollo 13! They can replace the module easily enough but they can’t code it into the computer system – so it’s booked into the nearest Ford dealer for next Tuesday, which is the earliest appointment I could get.

I will give the car points for creativity since it has yet to repeat a problem. On the other hand the MOT and tax are both due next month and I’m fed up of garage bills!

In the meantime, I’m cadging lifts and stealing my mother’s car when I need to, which is exasperating.

Due to this exasperation I’ve ordered the closest thing I can find to packhorse harness in the UK – a Walk-My-Horse pack. It’s less than the cost of 2 tanks of diesel and should last significantly longer! It’ll actually be quite good training for both Abe and George to have a bit of weight on their backs while still having me walking next to their heads and both will carry far more weight than I can – about 45kg for Abe, around 75kg for George (though he’ll mature at 1,000kg or so and capable of carrying 100kg as a pack) so now all I need is to make friends with someone who lives near one of the shops in Mintlaw, which is only a couple of miles away through the woods, and who’d be willing to hold my horse for five minutes while I do a week’s shopping….

Both Tiger’s and Nightshade’s kits are now starting to open their eyes and their ears are coming up nicely – when they’re very small their ears lie flat against their necks, but they’re starting to lift and twitch a little now, showing the muscles are developing well. The quail chicks are coming along well too – I’ve now raised the height of the electric hen twice as they’re getting taller, so they don’t have to bump their heads on the underside.

After the silkie eggs finish in the incubator, I’ve got a local source for fertile Khaki Campbell duck eggs.