Farm doings

I've been clinging on by my fingernails all week, trying to fend off despicable levels of tiredness in anticipation of the long weekend to come. Had to come home early on Monday, being of no use to anyone, whereupon I slept for almost three hours in the afternoon and only woke up because I had to go and get the littlun from the garage.

Said littlun, our trusty little Civic, alas must go to the crap heap in the sky, for she is old and decrepit and needs almost £1K of remedial work (I know this feeling well). For a car whose gross worth stands at about £50, that maths don't stack up in her favour. I have found a charity which will collect cars for scrap and take them away free so that they get the proceeds, so I think I shall do that. And how auspicious that we got the ovlov when we did, or we would be royally stuffed about now.

I had Friday off to attend to a number of matters, which went something like this:

1) Go to local plant wholesalers to collect 20 leylandiis (why is it that everyone I mentions this says "leylandiis Rach, are you sure?" - so just for the record, yes, I'm sure, and yes, I do know how big they grow) and 100 hawthorns. Oh, and one very beautiful dogwood. I can't resist dogwood. Managed to fling myself away from the abulous array of Japanese maples though, so there was a modicum of restraint.

2) Return and unpack said 20 leylandiis and 100 hawthorns, and one dogwood.

3) Clean house for estate agent

4) Show estate agent around, discussig plans and probable worth, etc

5) Do a load of gardening, as has become the Friday evening tradition

6) Enjoy a candlelit barbecue a deux, principally because by the time we got around to eating, it was dark.

Young Phil (or Pheeeel as we like to call him) is here with his trusty Massey doing the fencing for the second day today, and is thus able to hang on to his gonads for a few more months yet. We have devised it such that the boys can come and go to their summer grazing unmolested by the need for me to physically accompany them. It's all geared towards them being able to get to and from their stables so that we don't have to build field shelters, plus I think with limited acreage it'll much easier to manage the grazing with smaller paddocks. We were going to make a corridor from Q's winter paddock to his summer one but instead have made a reasonable sized paddock.
So of all the things there are to worry about with horses, one thing that I no longer need to be concerned about is the thought of them standing out in the midday sun with no shelter, as they have had to in years past. It's never been an option to have them out over night before so this is a big step forward in terms of their lifestyle and comfort - 24/7 turnout AND access to shelter whenever they need it. Like the Mastercard ad: cost of setting it all up for them: £££; the value of having it installed: priceless.

Binky and her babies are going great guns and they now have access to the dining room. I am very much enjoying being used as a kitten climbing frame and from getting much love and fuss from Binky herself, who I swear is expressing her gratitude to have a safe haven for her babies to grow up in. It's all very very sweet.

Right. Off to do stuff.