Dumb dog

Rei has arrived !

We finally picked Rei up from the farm on Saturday. He was very well behaved in the van and when we arrived home, he seemed keen to meet Bo.

Andy said we had to call him 'Rei' rather than 'Ray' (sounds the same) as not to change his real name (Reindeer) but just to shorten it.

Bo was a little shy at first introductions.


















Checking each other out for a while.


















Then finally, the meeting.

It didn't take long for them to decide who was boss. Despite his size, Bosie is a real baby so Rei showed him how he likes to eat first! I guess when you are brought up on a farm with loads of other goats, you do have to fight to get your food.

There is plenty to go around here though.






















Of course White Cat came down to check out the new boy.

















I'm sure the two of them are going to get on fine.

Bo has been showing Rei all the best places to forage. Rei follows Bo around like a shadow.

Only a couple of problems really. One, he can jump the fence and does so constantly. I guess we are going to have to get something better. Two, he STINKS. I'm hoping that this is just from the farm and it will wear off. He smells like REALLY STRONG goats cheese. Not good.

Rei has a funny pink lip.

Rei seems very happy with his new home. Running and jumping around.

I can't bring myself to take down the old sign. I think I'm just going to paint another one for Rei and put it above.

Ray

FMD movement restrictions have been lifted, so fingers crossed we are off to collect Bosie's new friend tomorrow. The farm we are getting him from have called him 'Reindeer', but I'm thinking 'Ray' might be better. Peahead suggested just 'Rein', so together they would make a 'Rein-Bo'. Cute. We'll see.

Bo is very lonely without Oscar. He won't forage without someone watching his back, so I have been cutting brambles and branches for him. If I'm out and about, he isn't happy unless he is right there with me.....even in the greenhouse!

We have finally found him a potential new friend, an 18 month old Toggenburg from a Cheshire meat farm but luck has not been on our side. We hired a truck and got everything ready, but the day we planned to pick him up a new case of foot and mouth was announced and a national ban on animal movement was put in place. Fingers crossed, the F&M outbreak will be sorted soon and we'll still be able to get him.

In the mean time, we enjoyed the last few weeks of summer. Eugie discovered frisbee.

The cats window. Now Eugies window.

We went on a trip to London to see Sonic Youth. We stayed with Andy's brother and fiance Suzie. Unfortunately it took about 10 minutes for Eugene to break their cat flap. Sorry guys!

As the weather gets wetter and colder, we are reminded on a daily basis why we call White Cat, 'White Cat' - to remind us that he is actually white under all that muck!

And today, in the wet and wind we ventured out to see the Atom. The new sculpture on the hill at Wycoller, about 4 miles from our house. Bert liked the view from inside best.

Good Bye Oscar

We are sad at the moment as Oscar had a stroke and we had to let him go. The vet said it was the only option and the right thing to do for him. It was really hard as we loved him very much, but after two weeks of medication, physio and even a sling to try and get him back on his feet it was clear he wasn't going to make it. I knew in my heart it was time for Oscar to go. He had his favourite treat, strawberries and some coca-cola before we said good bye.

He was only three, but at least those three years were good and he was happy here with us.

RIP Oscar

2004 - 2007

Our attentions have now had to move to taking care of Bosie. He is very sad and nervous to go out without Oscar. He has never been on his own before. I am desperately seeking a new companion for his, but this is proving harder than you would think and certainly not helped by the recent ban on animal movements due to the foot and mouth outbreak down south. In the mean time, Bert is helping to keep Bosie company.

Mum, dad and Brodie came to visit last weekend. The weather was lovely (for a change) and we had a really nice time. Dad re-glazed my greenhouse for me after is was broken in the storms this year. Brilliant, thanks dad. What would we all do without you?!

Fuzzy felt

This weekend was really warm, so I spent some time brushing the goats to get rid of some of the fluff that they start malting this time of year (see April last year).

It was so soft and fluffy, I decided to collect a bit and see what I could do with it. Oscar's fluff is white-grey and Bosie's is brown-black.

Since I don't have a spindle to make yarn, I though I'd give felting a go.

I gave it a good wash and then left it out in the sun tro dry. I don't have any carders, so I made do with a dog brush to sort it out after.

I kept the colours seperate and added a bit of pink silk fibre I already had.

Then I gave it a good long hot and cold bath. The finished result is a small but very soft piece of handmade goat felt. In retrospect, I think the pink was a mistake, but I'm still very pleased with it and plan to make more.

FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today, after three months of solid work I finally handed in my completed dissertation. It looked lovely in its black hardback cover, but to be honest I never want to see it again. I enjoyed reading all the books and I quite liked the field research parts (except when it was snowing), but writing it all up was a nightmare. Doing stuff like this is for 'real students', the ones who have time to write a dissertation in between watching day time tv and going to the pub. Getting home from work at 7.30pm and then working until the early hours before getting up and going back to work - for three months - is no fun. I am VERY tired but sleep tonight will be good, as for the first time in weeks I'll be dreaming about knitting, gardening and watching movies rather than whether I remembered to properly reference Natural England on page 107 or if I worked out my percentages right before I did the correlations. Phew, never again!

Winterama

Today I had the day off work to do some work on my dissertation. When I got up, the snow was twinkling and the sun shining, so I got as far as gathering all my books and putting them on the table. I then spent the rest of the day playing with the animals, making winter vegetable broth and after dark, watching movies. I guess I'll just have to catch up at the weekend.
















I moved all of my cacti out of the greenhouse after the wind broke most of the glass. To my amazement I discovered that one appears to be starting to flower. I have had this plant since I was at university (about 1992!!!!!!) and it has never done this before. A good sign I think.













Tonight we watched 'a series of unfortunate events'. It was on sale at the supermarket for 5.99 which seemed like a good deal, and so it was. I especially enjoyed all the costumes, I can see I'll be hunting down some black voile to create some nice puff sleeves.















I am unavoidably influenced by movies and have been wearing my hair in head plaits since seeing 'secretary' a few weeks ago.





















I suspect Dolly and J are unavoidably influenced by the photos on my blog.





















I saw white cat have a wash for the first time EVER today, so I let him sit with us on the sofa for a while. Hopefully this positive reinforcement may lead him to wash again at some point!





















Peahead has been grumpy as usual, phone glued to ear.

Our friend and Spike's dad Billy appears in the latest Badly Drawn Boy video for 'a journey from a to b'. He's the one on the sofa chatting up the ladies. Spike is very proud.

Out of hibernation

Been hibernating for a while, but the bad weather woke me with a bang. The new year was starting to look good, but 90 mph winds with a bit of frozen rain thrown in for free has devastated my beloved greenhouse.





















The fence took a bashing too.





















Next door lost their guttering, and the chimney looks dodgy too (what d'you think dad - is this gonna fall through my roof or what?).








































Shed lost a few slates, but our house is still all here.

This cheered me up though!






















As did this. Play people and goats. Two of my favourite things.