Saturday

This is a picture of most of the herd. We have Mums with small cria and Mums about to be in the top paddock, Non pregnant females or females due later and Mums with older cria in the next paddock and the boys in the distance. The grass is staying nice and green this summer as we have had plenty of sunshine but also enough rain to keep the grass growing well.

Still trying to find out where the hens are laying eggs. We are only finding three a day at the moment. I noticed one of them was wandering up the drive this morning and then she went behind the barn. I tried to chase her back into the yard but could not, so ended up just observing her. I watched for about an hour and she went nowhere. I was bored to start with but became quite fascinated by the different things she did. She nibbled unripe blackberries, scratched around presumably for insects and worms, pecked at grass seeds and rummaged under the trailer and landrover looking for interesting food. Eventually I felt I could spare no more time and left her. A complete waste of time.

Mike is at a dog show today so I have had time to catch up on the paperwork today. The ironing looms, and I have a pile of sewing too. It will be my turn to go to the dog show next weekend.

The cat still comes for a walk with us every morning. She comes to the door and meows for us to hurry up if we are late. When we get back she waits outside whilst breakfast is being prepared for the dogs and her. I think she might be having an identity crisis - thinks she is a dog. Yesterday she started to climb up a tree in the bottom paddock. I am sure she is quite capable of getting down if she goes up but given our poor track record of losing animals lately, I caught her and carried her away, much to her disgust. If the grass is too long and wet she meows to be picked up and carried to shorter grass. I am so gullible!

We have started to have quite a few farm visitors now that the holiday period has started. It is surprising how far people come to visit Devon. Yesterday we had a couple from Norfolk. We often have visitors from London and the Midlands.