Difficult cows!

Bluebell came in to heat today. Like her mum last week, she annoyingly chose a Sunday for it! As she was standing for other cow to mount her in the afternoon this indicates that we need the AI guy to come first thing tomorrow. This is deeply unlikely as we won't manage to speak to him today - with it being a Sunday and all - and I don't suppose he will be able to rush out first thing tomorrow with now warning. Hopefully they will chose a more convenient day next time!

Horses hooves

We are still having problems with both horses feet. The lady who trims their feet almost refused to do Daisy's any more and suggested we should put shoes on her. But given the problems we had with the shoes falling off all the time we are not keen. 

We have done some reading on the internet and a lot of people have problems with their horses feet. There are so many causes and different people find different things to help - which makes it very hard to narrow down what to do.

Our latest theory is mostly related to their diet. Partly we think they got too much sugar in the spring. This can cause a condition called laminitis where the external wall of the hoof separates from the internals of the hoof. Horses can have this very mildly, in which case the white line (which is the bit holding the two together) expands creating a small gap, allowing infection in. It then seems that they need copper and zinc in the right proportions to allow them to repair this damage and just generally for healthy hooves and skin. So we have started (a few months ago) keeping them off the grass for some of the day, partially to dry out their feet and partially to limit the amount of grass that they eat. We have now also started suplimenting them with copper and zinc as well as treating their feet with a strong antifungal  (also made with copper and zinc - called derm paste and actually aimed at cows).

It will be quite a long time until we can tell whether this treatment is working, as it takes about a year for the top of the hoof to grow down to the bottom. Both horses have had absesses recently too which can be caused by lack of copper in the diet so we will hopefully see an improvement in that too. Otherwise back to the drawing board (internet).

Le camping sauvage

We did an overnight camping trip at the plaines de esquiou which is a flat area at the top of a pass where there is a hunting lodge. It is not too far from home which meant we had time to wizz up there after I finished work, and it is remote enough that the dog could run around reasonably safely - although ther is a surprising amount of traffic passing by for how remote it is. We had thought about walking up somwhere and camping beyond car access, but in the end we were both quite tired and it was much easier to lob a load of stuff in the car than it was to pack carefully enough to be able to carry it all.

First get the bbq going (we have failed to find good charcoal here and it always takes a lot of fire lighter to get it alight. The French seem to think that everything should be doused in petrol (or for bigger fires an old tire is a good starter), but I think British men think firelighters and the like are not manly and it should be possible with a bunch of twigs and some cardboard.

Nice view huh?

Next is beer (which would have been first if Doug had his way)

Then tent - this one you just throw up in the air and it lands pitched! Amazing. Bit trickyer to fold back up.

Sunset was pretty

Sunrise - the horses came and investigated us in the dark, before we went to bed, then we heard them galloping around in the night and they came for a more thorough investigation in the morning. They seemed to like eating the coal and had a bit of a nibble on the tent too.

Dinner at The Gun

Aidan and I had dinner at The Gun, which is a gastro pub by the river near Carnary Wharf. Was very nice, good beer.

Walking across the water to get there

Aidan's desert matched his jumper!

View out of the window

View of the city while walking back to the DLR

The Artificial Insemination guy has been

When I have read about AI for cows, there is a lot of feeling and assessing if the time is right and coming back a few hours later (or saying it is too late and you need to wait for another cycle)

Our guy came and rammed the straw up there (the semen is contained in a straw) and that was that, wait for a month and see what happens. Exciting! But we have no idea whether he arrived at the right time or not! Maybe French cows are different :)

Buttercup is in heat

We have been waiting and waiting, I think it is about 5 weeks since last time - despite the average time between heats being 3 weeks. Finally, when we milked her as I was leaving on Sunday, she suddenly leapt on Bluebell which is a good sign. However not 100% good as she had to chose a Sunday to do it on, so we have not managed to get in touch with the AI guy. From what I understand he would ideally come tomorrow morning, but there is a chance later in the day would be ok too. So fingers crossed he either calls back or Doug manages to get through to him first thing in the morning. Otherwise there is another 5 week wait. Which is ok, but at some point the calf would be being born to close to next winter.

She is looking all innocent in this picture, but had just tried to leap on Bluebell (who we think is still getting some milk despite the groovy nose thing, but is losing somw weight it looks like)

Sardinade

What is that you ask! It translates to something like 'festive meal with sardines'. 

The rugby club in Bagneres arranged one on Friday in one of the parks in town. We went along, partially because we fancied an evening out, partially because we had a sardine craving and partially because a friend of ours was part of the entertainment - a line dancing group. The other entertainment was an irish band. We cycled down so I could have a beer or two with my sardines. Unfortunately the dog couldn't come as we didn't trust her near sardines, she LOVES fish. The sardines were delicious (bbqed). Overall it was quite a strange mixture of things. Lots of reasonably drunk French people, sardines (although we live as far from the sea as possible at the Pyrenees) and eclectic entertainment. But fun, regardless of the incomprehensibility of it all...

View in the morning

Very different from the lovely view we have in France, but not too bad to wake up to

I did eventually make it to London on Sunday night although about 4 hours later than scheduled. The flight was 3 hours late and the trains were messed up. Still, such is the life of the international jet setter.

Fingers crossed for better next week!

In France one of the cows was mooing madly so we hope she might be coming in to heat - although it is the other cow than the one we actually would prefer to get pregnant first, but it might be a matter of doing whichever we can as it seems like it can take some time to actually get them pregnant and we are not very expert about when exactly to call the insemination guy.

Two out of two

This is the 2nd time I have flown from Toulouse to Gatwick on a Sunday evening, so I can work in London on Monday morning. Last week it was over an hour late. This week it is estimated to be two and a half hours late. Not a good trend. In addition, last week it landed at the far end of the North terminal rather than in the South terminal where it was meant to be. It took 45 mins of walking and transfer train to get to the South terminal where the trains to London go from... Looking forward to the same tonight!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

With only Doug here for much of the week, and it being the fruitful time of year, we are not eating vegetables as fast as they grow. Quite a lot of broccoli had gone a bit over.

So I made it in to soup.

I just fried an onion in a bit of butter, chopped up the broccoli and added some stock (chicken). Enough to about 1/3rd cover the broccoli. I then boiled it for about 30 mins and added a bit of milk before liquidising the mixture. I will stir in some cream when reheating it. I left it fairly bitty when liquidising. V green and healthy looking.

Power cut

While I was tackling this on Monday morning, Doug was without power for several hours.

V inconvenient as it means there is no water (the pump can't run). And worrying when you don't know what the problem is - particularly as EDF have told us that there is a problem with our line and they need to replace it. They have been several times to survey the site but then all goes quiet and nothing actually happens.

Buttercup's chin

The lump on Butttercup's chin seems to be going down and she is much less sensitive about having it touched. We didn't call the vet so not 100% sure it was caused by worms. But it seems likely as it is getting better after the worming.