Open Day

We had a farm open day yesterday.  It was a pretty low key affair but we had quite a few visitors and the shop did  well.   Our next event is on the 14th May and is a coffee morning in aid of Devon Air Ambulance.  There will be coffee and biscuits included in the £1 entrance fee (children free), a cake stall, raffle, and an agility demonstration- which will actually be an agility course set up so that any of our friends in agility can practice.  One of our neighbours, Tony is very knowledgeable about antiques and he is going to be the "expert" for an Antiques Road Show for which donations will go to the charity.  If the weather is good it should go quite well but could be a disaster if it rains.  The curse of all village fetes and similar events!!

Today we transferred the last two sets of twins back to the goathouse.  Last night they slept without the benefit of the heat lamp and woke up quite lively this morning, so fingers crossed they will  be OK overnight tonight. They were all having a great time during the day frolicking in their paddock.   I shut them in fairly early this afternoon so they did not over tire themselves after being used to quite a small enclosed space for most of their little lives.

When I did my daily walk round the farm with the dogs which includes checking that the alpacas in the winter paddocks are all present and correct, I came across a dead owl.  This seems like a very unusual event to me as I have never seen one before - only heard them in the night or seen them flying around.  I think it was a tawny owl but I could find no obvious reason for its demise.  It seemed to have its head in a small hole in the ground (not a mouse hole though) and might have lost a few feathers from the back of its neck.  I had to pick it up and put it in the manure trailer so the dogs did not pick it up.

Dolly has been in season since last week and unfortunately Charlie managed to end up playing with her in the garden and one thing led to another.   I thought I heard a dog squeal and went to investigate and found him taking advantage of my little treasure.  She was extremely distressed as I had not had time to explain things to her.   Luckily Charlie has been castrated and so no unwanted pregnancy will result.  I just hope she won't have the dreaded phantom pregnancy.   She seems fine so far and although Charlie is being walked on a lead and shut in his crate for quite a lot of the time due to his bad leg, we have to be very careful  as he is very interested in her and she seems to want to tease him.   I suppose it is not surprising really as they are best friends anyway.   A lot of people think that Charlie is her Mum as they look very similar.

In an effort to make her less interesting I gave her a bath this afternoon and as everywhere was wet and messy anyway I thought I might as well bath the others so 5 of the 7 dogs are now sweet smelling and looking smart.  I thought it was still too cold for Sandy (our seventeen year old terrier) and Jake is too big and heavy for me to deal with on my own.  Mike and I will have to give him the treatment another day.