Good afternoon,

Seems weird to see that posted on Blog Q.

Was reading the self-same article in the paper at breakfast.

Of more immediate concern here is the weather forecast.

The news bulletins have said every hour that a 'polar blast' is on it's way.

It's already snowing in Canterbury some 4 hours away.

The warnings have told farmers to shelter their stock, travellers to only
travel if it's urgent & to 'expect the worst'

The temp is supposed to go as low as -10c.

It is scheduled to hit us in an hour from now (1500)

If I sound slightly disbelieving it's only because as I look out of the window it is bright sunshine & I rode, as usual in a t-shirt this morning.

However, something I do believe is how quickly the weather can turn here. Almost as quickly as Scotland in fact. I have taken sensible precautions, extra hay for the neddies & made some pancakes for me. Got an irresistible urge to have them for lunch & made extra for my Saturday brunch. (did I really just type brunch ? Smiffy would be proud of me Weeny)

Feeding time yesterday started off being mildly frustrating & ended up downright comical. I am so glad nobody could see my cack-handed efforts as something as simple as feeding some neddies.

I started with mixing the 7 feeds & feeding the little guys in the hill paddock.

So far, so good.

I took Don, as usual.

As I reached the mares paddock I closed the gate as usual & did a double-take to see Kestrel standing there on his own. He must have jumped out of his paddock & come for his tea early I thought.

Kestrel can jump everything & used to routinely escape from wherever he was & follow the hunt.

By the time I had run back to him he had already eaten the wrong food, there were only 2 buckets to choose from but he gobbled the one without the Vitamin B supplement that he is supposed to have. I took the opportunity of him having his head shoved in a bucket to put a headcollar & leadrope on so that I could lead him back to his paddock when I had finished the other 4. Without food to distract him, no adult can get close to Kestrel, he will only allow a child to catch him.

He is one of the most attractive ponies I have ever seen with HUGE appealing puppy eyes. I feel he resembles a bush-baby more closely than a pony.

With him tethered I went back to feeding the other 4.

I have to feed them separately otherwise Jess gets 4 lots of food.

My routine is to feed Jess & Honey in the paddock by putting their buckets in with them.
Honey sytematically kicks her bucket over & prefers to eat her food from the floor.

I then release Fliss & Ben into the larger, sheep paddock, they make a dive for their buckets & I put headcollars on them & tether them to a fence too. Whilst they all eat I go around putting their rugs on. It's usually fairly straightforward except Jess who doesn't like her rug & tries to run away if she sees you carrying it towards her.

Last night went to plan up until the bit where I let Ben & Fliss out of the paddock.

I had forgotten that Kestrel & Ben adore each other (purely platonic you understand)
Ben rushed straight past his food & made a galloping beeline for Kestrel with much snorting & whinnying. In his excitement to get to Ben, Kestrel tried to jump the fence between them, he seemed to forget he was still tethered. I watched with alarm as he started to take off, realised & kind of stopped half-way.

This alarmed Ben who took refuge by galloping full tilt towards me.

I only manged to stop him taking off into the wild blue yonder by thrusting his feed bucket in his face, putting his halter on, ttaching him to a fence then going to sort out Kestrel who was by now, half on & half off a fence. Even though it was barbed wire there was no harm done.

As I looked back at the mares I noticed Don was rounding up the poor sheep again, unbidden & putting them where he obviously thinks they belong : the dressage arena.
I didn't have enough time or energy to do anything about him because I was just in time to see Fliss, who, having finished her tea & bored of waiting for me to put her back with her friends started wandering off into the paddock with the poor, harrassed sheep. Luckily, she is very biddable & by waving some hay at her I was able to catch her before she had gone too far.

I then started to put Honey & Jess's rugs on. I frequently congratulate myself on not being kicked when I do this every day as I am right between the hind legs of 8 horses twice daily. My luck ran out last night & as Jess started a fight with Honey, she retaliated by whipping around & aiming both hind feet at Jess. She missed my face but parted my hair.

Jess took one look at her rug & said 'Don't think so' & cantered off with her tail held prettily in the air.

Isn't it worrying when you find yourself shouting to an aminal's retreating quarters

'Fine. Be cold. See if I care ' ?

I then went & collected Kestrel expecting to see his mucker Horace waiting for him in their dump paddock.

Wrong.

Horace was up to his ankles in a lucerne paddock stuffing his scrawny face.

We still don't know how they both got out. Although Kestrel is well capable of the jump he would have to give Horace a piggy-back (or would that be horsey-back ?) The gate was still firmly closed. There were extra people on the farm yesterday helping with TB testing so maybe one of them let them free & was too embarrassed to confess ?

I started shouting for Horace, not really expecting him to come anywhere near me as he was up to his ankles in fodder. Bless him though, at least he came when he saw the bucket. With a sigh of relief I closed the gate behind them, gave Horace his food which Kestrel promptly stuck his head in & shared.

This routine normally takes just over an hour.

Last night it took 2.

It was pitch black by the time I finished & I couldn't find Don.

With a sinking heart I knew exactly where I would find him & sure enough, there he was, still guarding the poor sheep in the arena

I was looking forward to lighting a fire & getting warm when Mike came roaring around the corner on a tractor. He normally leaves by 5pm so I was surprised to still see him there. He asked if I could give him a hand feeding aout as the TB testing had but him well behind schedule.

Oh well - at least his truck has a heater.

I love driving Mike's truck, it has no exhaust & sounds satisfyingly raucous.

We loaded 2 bales of hay & set off for the top pastures in the dark.

Don sat next to me (or more accurately on me) as he was very excited to be IN the truck whilst Mike's dogs raced along outside. It took about 30 minutes to drive around two paddocks whilst Mike stood on the back chucking slices of hay at the cattle. It would have taken him over an hour on his own.

Mike is constantly amazed that someone like me would want to come & work on a farm & he routinely asks things like 'Bet you find this place a bit of a mess don't you ?'

Last night as we had just finished feeding, I waited a few minutes listening to the cattle chewing their baleage & scratching the dogs ears. It was totally & utterly magical, being there, in the middle of nowhere & hearing nothing. No phones, no traffic, no aircraft.

Mike asked me what I was waiting for.

'Just listening' I told him.

As we got back to the yard he asked if there was anything he could do to help me with my jobs. Yes please I said, make tea for 7.

'See you tomorrow then'



As we drove off the pastures