Tag Archives: sheep

A tale of two taxis

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It’s been a tale of two taxis today. My favourite driver, driving for my favourite company came back from Christmas holiday today and brought me some Albanian lemons. He claims they have a soft skin you can eat and a flavour that’s a cross between a lemon and an orange. I will allow Julia to try first just in case this is an elaborate Albanian practical joke.

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Albanian Lemons

On the other hand, my unfavourite taxi company has just kept me waiting an hour and ten minutes because the taxi was late. One of our clients likes people to be punctual to the minute and the rest of them (several of whom have other things to do tonight) don’t reckon much to it either.

Me? Well I can’t wash the floor ready for tomorrow’s yoga until everyone has gone, so I’m not too happy either.

It all starts with social service trying to save money, so they take the firm that gives the cheapest quote instead of the one with the most reliable service.

Today, when they eventually arrived, we have had a lecture from the company. It seems it’s our fault because we should ring after they are 10 minutes late instead of waiting patiently for fifteen or twenty.

That, it seems, is what you get when you buy the cheapest service – you get bad customers like me.

Anyway, apart from that, we’ve had a good day. Everyone worked like a proper team, pruning blackcurrants and using the offcuts as cuttings, checking trees and moving the sheep to a field closer in because the accidentally pregnant ones (don’t ask) are close to lambing.

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One of them managed to get through the fence within 10 minutes – leading the pursuing staff through three gardens, over a brick wall and through a hedge.

Then the farm apprentice fell through a hole in the barn floor and cut his hand. The hole was, unfortunately,covered with pig manure, but luckily I have air freshener stored next to the First Aid kit.

So there you go, a day of mixed fortunes on the farm, though it has given me a good laugh.

Check out the Book Review page for a review of They Can’t Ration These – a guide to foraging in wartime.

 

 

Black Cats, Sheep Wars and Apples

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The Farmer is on holiday and, as usual, things are going wrong. I’m not sure if he plans it like this or not, but I do know we got a phone call yesterday because he had said we would sort out the kitten problem. I also know he has made provision for someone to help move sheep in a couple of days, and has left details of where to buy fencing materials if we need them, so I’m suspicious that he knew we were going to – not that the sheep are any of our business – we just help with them for something to do.

We had a number of complaints about the sheep wandering so we went down for a look. They had pretty much eaten all the grass and then, as they do, forced holes in the woeful fence looking for more grass.

We blocked the holes, gave them a bale of hay and are currently keeping our fingers crossed that this will do the job for another couple of days. It probably won’t  work now that they have the taste for escaping, but the farm apprentice who has been left in charge doesn’t want to move them until the appointed day. Imagine me letting out a big sigh here…

Whilst checking the fence we found it had actually been cut. Added to the incident a couple of weeks ago when somebody turned an electric fence off and several other things it’s looking like we have a vandal problem. It’s not the Pleasant Valley War (though the Farmer is currently visiting Arizona) but it’s still a nuisance.

So, I hear you ask, what is the “kitten problem”? Well, we were given two black cats – brother and sister – last year when one of the volunteers decided we needed a farm cat. He first fixed us up with a Bengal, which spent six months attacking people and drifting off for days at a time. It was the “attacking people” bit that had resulted in her being given away after two attempts to rehome her with people who appreciated the breed went wrong.. We just wanted a cat so, though she was an interesting cat, we weren’t that bothered when she spent less and less time with us (obviously finding a better offer elsewhere, as they do!)

The second attempt were the brother and sister black cats. They were from a charity – chipped, health checked and supposedly neutered/spayed.

The male ran under a car shortly after he got here but the female kept putting in regular appearances, even coming into the office sometimes.

Yesterday she was spotted in the company of half a dozen kittens.

That leads me to one of several conclusions:

  • She wasn’t spayed
  • She’s not the original black cat we had
  • She’s running a creche

Despite asking people all day I can’t find anyone who wants a kitten so it looks like a trip to the RSPCA. I suspect they won’t be grateful…

Apart from that we picked apples. It’s that time of year.

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A sheep story

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Generally I ignore the sheep on the farm. They tend to be quite disdainful about me too.

However, after reading this article I’m looking at them in a different way. It’s quite clear this is too bizarre to be a random event and nobody would dump this on purpose so all I can suggest is that the sheep arranged it.

Good luck to them. A sheep’s life is mainly about wet wool and foot rot so if they can do anything to make it more fun I’m all for it.

On a more serious note, fly tipping is a growing problem in the countryside and the RSPCA treats 7,000 animals a year after they are injured by litter.As if that isn’t enough we add to the burden by releasing balloons and sky lanterns.  The sheep were lucky to find the bags full of recreational drugs: it could have been a lot worse.