No time to Blip

Last night or rather this morning, managed to catch up on comments. Apart from Dave who reliably posts at midday, some were later than usual - Emmy; the night sisters, Angelique & RedFlash kept me waiting as very usual and finally MissWF in New York State got around to uploading once she had rehoused Arthur. I then pulled the plug, no longer able to wait for Evelyne on the west coast/side of US who was forcing poor staff to keep the bar open until late in the (US) night ;-))

Another warm day so no lie in. While Angie looked after the horses & dogs, I mucked out the chickens (weekly unpleasant task usually done by A). Then some woodwork improvements to the nesting/egg laying boxes, a few hours collecting up leaves with the garden tractor and finally making the chickens enclosure, wild bird "proof". The covered enclosure about 8m x 4m and where we feed the chickens when it's raining, attracts literally flocks of garden birds who can pop through the large anti fox/stoat mesh. They love the expensive wheat & maize but the problem is they may well be the cause of the red mite infestation we had last year. Legally we also have to prevent this if bird flu virus broke out somewhere in Europe - the chickens must not have any contact with wild birds. Luckily all quiet on that front the last few years but reminds me I haven't yet completed the annual (31/12) animal census (horses, cows, pigs, chickens etc) & from which our bill for "Epidemic Tax" is calculated. The horses cost 1.00 Euro each, the chickens 0.025 cents - per year that is. In the event of them having to be slaughtered (bird flu/foot & mouth etc) we would get compensation.

Good news on the bee front - the "presumed dead" colony is still alive if in very small numbers. More on Bee journal.

Blip is of Angie on a somewhat sweaty Rosie. Angie has a few layers on as there is a bit of a wind but can open buttons whereas Rosie is stuck with her winter coat and with such warm weather, she struggles to stay dry. Her hooves are looking good, farrier due Saturday so with luck this will be the first time the shoes have held. Hopefully there is now enough hoof wall to allow him not to use the very expensive plastic wall cuffs - each shoeing has been costing a good 100 Euros more!

Hope all had at least as good a day as I did.