Well, big fat hairy arses to it. The day began on a note of high irritation with a call from the supplier of the much anticipated 40' lorry load of wood chips to say that the clutch had gone on said lorry and he was therefore, for the second time, unable to deliver my woodchips today. I was resolutely without chuff, because this of course means no bleeding picadeiro for another weekend. Had a text last night from DQ next door to say he was teaching all day and was therefore unable to make our coffee date today, meaning that I was unable to make use of his arena this afternoon either as I thought it would be bad form to waltz onto his yard with one of the boys before we'd even met. By this point I gathered that today was not a day for me to be doing anything horsey.

Saying that, Phil the farmer came around early with the voltmeter so we could test the actual voltage going through the fencing. The answer is about 7000. Dawg help me if I ever touch it by accident. I rather suspect my heart will go into apoplexy and I will die.

On the plus side I felt much more energetic even though the glands can't make up their minds to be up or down, so was able to do a few useful things. I now know for instance how many bales of haylage it is possible to fit in a Toyota Land Cruiser with the seats down; the answer is 16.

The boards have arrived for the picadeiro, whose function will be to stop the much anticipated wood chip leaking out all over. In a moment of unfeasible optimism I thought I know, perhaps I'll put the boards up, you know, just in case we ever do get any woodchip. After all Mr Equidoodad has a nail gun; how hard can it be? What I hadn't taken into account was :

(a) the fact that the nail gun is not an industrial model;
(b) that in any event Mr Equidoodad wasn't about to let me use it unsupervised, industrial model or otherwise, on the basis that my track record in all things DIY is pretty poor;
(c) all the boards need to be cut to size and we don't have a chainsaw. And even if we did have a chainsaw, Mr Equidoodad would quite rightly never let me use it, supervised or otherwise.

So I did the only thing I could and rang Phil the farmer to ask if he could send the boys round tomorrow, during which time I intend to ply them with coffee and bacon butties.

Meanwhile the boys have been mooching pretty happily all day. They had a little moment over the fence first thing (or more correctly, under the fence) during which Q made a remarkable manoeuvre by striking with both forelegs at the same time :O and then they both wandered off. They've been in and out of their stables for a munch several times - I love that! It's why we have put ourselves through all this stress and hassle for just such moments, and they seem to be getting more settled with it. I love the fact that I can see Q wandering in and out from the kitchen window. I noticed that they are starting to coordinate their activities more now too - when Q comes in you can be sure T is in too.

I had to measure up the strip light in T's stable to replace the bulb (assuming the correct term for a light source almost 2m long is a bulb) so grabbed a ladder and the tape measure from the garage and went up the yard. While some horses were wide eyed and snorting at the grey metal monster, I had to close the stable door as T was threatening to come in. They are so nosey, the pair of them. As it was he followed me in once I'd finished, sniffing at the ladder, wanting to know what was occuring. Gotta love Lusos :)