Up at 7:30am, determined to get one of the boys done before Little Miss had her post-spay follow up vet check I decided to put Angie out in the pen behind the stables first, then off T and I went for our session, during which time I discovered that one way to get him to ignore the mares is to have a goat on her hind legs watching proceedings from the other side of the fence.
Afterwards when I put him out, he went to have a sniff at Angie and I decided to put out some haylage on either side of the fence. Shortly afterwards they were sharing the pile in what was possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen. I have high hopes that he'll be happy to share some space with a goat or two. He stayed there with her all morning!
Knickers and I took Little Miss to vitnery (all fine), dropped her back home then went shopping, which constituted a boot full of sacks of feed for the creatures and a bag full of veggies, some bread and local free range bacon for us, grabbing some unhealthy but yummy pastry thing from the bakery on the way through.
Raised the Kracken from his pit; he and Knickers went in search of a new chain for the chainsaw, only to find a complete dearth of them everywhere. Turns out Pheel has the facilities to make chains of any specification, so off they went to Pheel's to have one made. Is there no end to the man's talents? Sid now also has workshop envy :) and there is the small matter of the Springer x Lab puppies, just a week old ... Oh God.
Meanwhile I did some cleaning of the yard and a variety of jobs before getting Q in to ride. Hmm I thought, when we got to the yard, he seems uncommonly lively. In fact so unsettled and utterly "up" was he that I thought hmm, I know, I'll do some ground work. And as well I did, as the hunt was in the area (when I say in the area, I mean in the next property) and it set everyone off - the mares were charging around bucking, and Q ran and ran and ran. All I could really do was stand in the middle, watching. Not the most productive of sessions and all that could really be said of it was that it certainly dealt with any beans he might have had and, being unclipped, he was a complete sweaty mess by the end of it. Good job they're supposed to let people know when they're in the area isn't it, otherwise they'd be a bunch of red-coated tossers with an unfeasibly large number of dogs and a dearth of common decency.
Next on the agenda: the reason for the chainsaw - our latest building project - the goat shelter. Oh yes! So far we've made the base frame and the vertical poles, and tomorrow we'll start putting up the walls. Might move it first before it gets too heavy, or risk it being marooned in the centre of the yard, for ever.
Our reward for these endeavours: a well-stocked wood burner, Indian takeaway and a nice bottle of Kopparberg. Splendid.
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