Market day

Woken at 7:40 by Rachel checking to see if I wanted to go to market with her hubby Alistair. This was news to me as hadn't seen the text she'd sent me the night before. Anyway, up an' at 'em within 10 mins when he arrived to collect me!

There were 2 feisty animals to take, a heifer about 2 years old and a bull calf of about 8 months. All cattle must have 2 eartags, but the heifer had lost one of hers. I won't bore you with the details, but we were unable to replace it ( remember I did mention that she was feisty ). Loading them was easier than I expected and we managed to get the trailer out of the field ok too, so I guess you can say 2 out of 3 ain't bad!

At the market it was all plain sailing and they were even very understanding about the eartag. In fact, that was about the only thing that the auctioneer said that I understood ( " theeartagisintheoffice, theeartagisintheoffice )! Alistair got a good price for them, £1000 for the heifer and £750 for the calf ( which, by the way, was the product of a naughty bull jumping out of his field and servicing a cow he wasn't supposed to, so " not bad for a mistake " as Alistair remarked!).

Back to the farm for breakfast and then the blacksmith arrived to shoe Nelson, who was playing up a bit so I went out to hold him still ( except I'm not Ironwoman, so it was more a case of bribing him with a few bit of the rolled pellets that the cows get to eat as they're milked ).

Then into town with Rachel and Mary to bank the cheques and return overdue library books - good job people of Uttoxeter are used to smelly farmers mingling among them!

Home now, feet up after a shower, a bowl of porridge and a cup of tea.

Great excitement tomorrow - Louise and Winnie are coming up for the weekend!