Dorset lifestyle
Ivy has been separated from her lamb for a few days and looked to have a lot of milk so she was reunited with Digby, he practically upended her in his enthusiasm to suckle but he was happy to return to the adjacent paddock and keep Jago company later in the day. May have to repeat the process later in the week. Picked tomatoes and runner beans. A day of heavy showers and blustery winds.
Toby getting his teeth into William’s back, just to show he cares, or maybe to floss his teeth, William is doing the same to him and it’s become a daily occurrence, like rollovers. Jago is settling into the flock, Walter and Digby have spent time with him today, there’s a lot of bleating when they think there are treats available. Picked tomatoes and cucumbers and cut off the numerous runners on the strawberry plants, the ones in pots are rooting. A cool day with heavy showers and a brisk wind.
The plants are all finished in the greenhouse so need moving to the compost heap, William is interested to watch what’s going on, especially as the red wheel barrow is being used. The last of the tomatoes went in a salad today. Two deer locked antlers in the field this morning and pushed and shoved until one of them pulled away and made a run for it, they were bored in the end and took to grazing instead. A colder day with a strong wind that made wearing a hat and gloves preferable, the sun broke through occasionally and raised the temperature.
These must be the last of the Gardeners Delight, the leaves have lost their green and are almost yellow, some have blight but luckily it hasn’t spread to all the plants. Picked up the windfall Bramleys and stewed them the on top of the woodburner. Lunch at the Baker Arms. Managed to give the donkeys their vitamins and settle them with a little more straw in the fading light, went out to see them at 5.15 and it was dark by 5.45. A cool day with weak sunshine, strong winds and rain at dusk.
All the straw has been taken out and put in the gateways to help with the mud in the winter, it gets trodden in and disappears over the course of a year so no straw goes on the compost heap. The floor has been washed with a few buckets of disinfectant solution and the top of the kickboards get very dusty so have been cleaned, the cobwebs appear overnight and then gather dust as well. Donkeys are particular about the water they drink so William and Toby often prefer to drink from a bucket outside rather than from the water trough in the stable. A hot day, a few gusts of wind would have helped dry the floor. Picked runner beans and tomatoes.
It’s eight weeks since William and Toby had their feet checked by the farrier; Donkeys should be walking on hard surfaces all the time to wear down the front of their hooves and keep them flat, ours spend a third of their time on straw or grass so a bit of trimming and rasping was required. They each had a ginger biscuit to start off with and the farrier put two more on top of a post for when he’d finished. At some point Toby knocked these off the post so he snaffled both of them while our attention was focused on William – lucky Toby! A warm sunny day, watered the hedge, picked tomatoes, basil, nasturtium leaves, apples and pears. Nearly forgot to mention that it’s National Chocolate Day – hooray!
