Saturday 29 December 2012

Happy Holidays!

Christmas has been and gone, we had a huge lunch and a quiet afternoon opening pressies and digesting.

Our parents clubbed together and sent us money to get a dishwasher, so that should be with us in the new year.

All pretty quiet here.  We're enjoying the rest, Jo is playing on his computer, I'm knitting and taking care of odd jobs.

Bike's been up on bricks again.  We got a new inner tube due to the current back one having punctured twice (yes, I did swear at it the second time).  So I spent an hour this evening taking the back wheel off, changing tube, pumping tyre, refitting wheel, cleaning and re-lubing chain, blah blah.  Bike probably hates me by now.

Madam doglet is on antibiotics.  We gave her the turkey giblets on Christmas day, there was lots of crunching, then yesterday she was really lethargic.  Didn't even do her usual insane dance when I said "dinnertime!".  Andrew from next door kindly took Madam and myself to the vet, after lots of screaming(from the dog), restraining and the vet prodding and picking, turns out she'd cracked a bit more off a broken canine and it was infected.  Gave her the first of ten tablets last night, this afternoon she was back to her sweary self.  Dinner was far too slow at being served!  She's also had her yearly vaccinations done, so that's ticked off the to-do list.

Madam's now also on very limited exercise.  She *wants* to walk, but her joints don't, she'll settle for a few rounds of tug and a wrap in her blankie though.  We did get a good walk in on a calm day, how?  I made her PJ's.

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They still need a bit of work, some poppers we think, as one leg falls down and exposes her knee.  Yes, she looks silly, but she loves the freedom offered by them and that's what matters.  We even met some collies a few days ago, they were tag-teaming; one would sniff one end of Pippa while one sniffed the other.  They also weren't keen on going back when their boss called them.


Oh yes, Christmas eve, got up as usual, got dog on her leash to go out for morning relief, opened door, let dog out, looked up...

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Erm.  Hmmm.  No, those cows were not meant to be there.  The white one was the leader and had discovered a gap and led a group to, quite literally, greener pastures.  I did find how they'd gotten out of the common grazing: there's a gate from that patch of land to the common grazing land, it's knackered, rusted hinges, rotting wood, the works.  Between the strong winds and the cows, it had come open and the ladies had helped themselves.  A bit of rope from our coil and me very unladylikely hopping the fence saw that sorted before any more got out.

But what of the escacows?  Well, they paid a visit to Beachcomber, got chased off, paid a visit to postie/farmer across the road, wandered down a bit.  Got followed by me and two were returned to the grazing.  But 6 more were free. 

Thing is...cows run away from humans trotting along, especially guilty cows.  So, I could get to a gate and open it, but the cows weren't going to back track to go in the field and the ones in the field weren't going to stay there when the gate was open.  I rang Alan to ask him to herd from his end, alas, the remaining ones took that time to go wandering again.  Fortunately they went to what I'm told is an old camp ground, so they were off the road and out of harm's way.

Guess what we saw in the land behind us on Christmas day?  Yep, whitey and her pals.  Their owner or some other soul got them back to the common grazing before the day was over though.  Now the cows come to check the broken gate at least once a day and if I'm visible they like to moo at me in annoyance.

That's about it for now.  Happy holidays and I hope everyone who reads this had a lovely Christmas and will have a brilliant 2013!