Sold Bluebell

It is quite sad really. But we decided it was the best thing to do. She has a bit of a tendency to drink milk from Buttercup which isn't fair on Buttercup, also we are cutting down the number of cows so the cows and horses have more to eat in the winter.

Her new owners are working on becoming self sufficient and look like they should provide a lovely new home. They are getting a beautiful sweet cow, so win win!

Bluebell's new home

They gave us a few bales of hay for delivering her which is very useful as they are a good size to move around (smaller than normal round bales)

Hooves hooves hooves and Sabots Libres

As I am sure you remember, we have struggled with keeping the horses feet in good condition for the whole time we have had them.
Initially we tried having shoes on them, but this didn't work because Daisy kept stepping on the back of hers and pulling them off. We then went barefoot with them, but this made it more obvious that they had a lot of white line disease (which is an anaerobic infection between the hoof and the foot itself) - this may actually have been part of the problem with shoes. Owen then keeps getting an abscess in Spring, and problems in his heel where it is being eaten away by thrush.
We have been trimming the hooves ourselves now for sometime and this has improved things somewhat, but there were still issues and we were never sure if we were doing it right or not - and potentially causing other issues in their joints or whatever.
I thought about doing a course, but then while looking for one I found Sabots Libres who are not that far from us. We arranged a day where they came and showed us their technique on our horses and talked us through all the reasons for doing what they do.

It was very interesting and a great relief as their theory involves more drastic trimming than we have ever dared to do. They recommended four major changes to what we are doing.
1.) Instead of trimming to the level of the sole as I have been doing up until now, cut the hoof away from the foot just enough to have the white line showing all round. This cut is done at 45 degrees rather than straight at the back and vertical at the front as I was doing before. This means that where the white line is healthy you are cutting about level with the sole, but where it has the black fungus/bacteria thing going on you have to cut higher.

2.) Trim the heels to the level where the frog joins the heel. I have been trimming the heels less. The theory is that too high a heel causes navicular pain - this then means the horse tries to land toe first which means the heels aren't getting worked as they should potentially causing issues in the heel such as we see with Owen.

3.) Trimming the frog. Some people think this is bad, some think it is good. The aim here is just to cut away black thrush infected bits as well as any bits that are stopping air get in to the grooves down the side of the frog. I was previously not trimming it so much.

4.) Cutting the bars. Like the frog some people think you should cut them and some people think you shouldn't. I have not been, but now will be. We want to avoid double soles and again remove any places where the thrush can be hiding.

In addition it might be good if we can ride them on the road more to toughen their feet off - we tend not to much because we like to take Poppy and she is suicidal on the roads...

All this results in a rather unfortunate and uneven looking foot - mainly due to the white line cutting

This is Owens as done by me under Tim's supervision

Owen had an abscess two years ago which has just not been fully growing out. Tim cut it so that all the black is gone, we need to maintain it like this and it should now grow out as it will not be being eaten away by the thrush as fast as it grows.

This is Daisy's front foot that I have hacked to pieces today, the day after the course.

This is before (bit hard to see what is going on...)

Daisy is a bit of a monster about having her feet cut. It took Tim about 10 mins to do her two back feet yesterday (after I had failed to get her to hold still for one of them). It took me TWO HOURS today to do her two front feet - which are EASIER!!

This is Tim doing one of Owen's front feet

We also got useful advice on tools that would be better than the ones we have
File...

... and a wire brush (and new hoof snips)

I was so excited after all this I have also cut the cows feet and Poppies claws.

One 'toe' has been cut here and not the other. Hopefully Buttercup will be more comfortable after this. Normally their toes break off in a neat way but for some reason they have not recently. I think perhaps the wet weather has made them more flexible.

We haven't seen the results yet of our new trimming technique, but overall I would thoroughly recommend Sabot Libres. The level of information about the mechanics of the whole horse and how that relates to the health of their feet was AWESOME and the tips for easier handling of the tools and feet where very good too.

Beautiful weather and a horse ride

The horses both have sore feet from rotting away in all the recent wet weather. This is the first horse ride we have had this year which is UNBELIEVABLE! First there was skiing, then we got busy with the cows, then the weather has been awful.
We took it gently to be careful with their feet and went for a short ride with no trot or canter, but a nice paddle in the lake.

A couple of friends cycled up to say hi

Daisy rolling her giant horse belly in the air (which shows she must be nice and relaxed)

Paddling

Rhoda on Daisy

Doug on Owen

Getting ready to go home

Happy home again!

Potager finally almost under control

I thought that as I am not working the potager (vegetable garden) would be immaculate this year and we would have time to plant loads more things than normal
However this is not the case. Where does all the time go!
It would have been done a bit sooner if we hadn't been having such awful weather - or so I claim anyway.

Today I planted a butternut squash, a pumpkin, a melon, 6 beetroot, 15 lettuces, 6 kale, two chillis and a vervene bush.

The sage is doing really well. Probably our best plant! It is a shame I only use about 4 leaves a year!

The garden looking quite neat

I planted a new fruit bush a few weeks ago. I thought it was a gooseberry, but the fruit seem very small, I think it is a red current!

Preparing wool for spinning

Before I start preparing it, usually straight after shearing I remove bits from round the neck and legs and bottom which are dirty and matted as well removing any particualrly short bits.

Then comes the preparation for spinning.

First I wash it.
I do this in a giant pan, one fleece at a time. One day I will have a second sink in the kitchen to help with things like this. At the moment it is a faff doing it in the shower - the water doesn’t come out hot enough so lots of kettlefuls of water needed.
I fill the pan with water that is 55 °C as lanolin melts around 45°C. I add either fabric washing liquid or dish soap depending how I feel.
I put the wool in and plunge it up and down very slowly a few times to make sure the water has got through the wool. If you swish it around too much, it felts.
I then leave it for quite a few hours, perhaps over night.
I then empty the pan and refill with warm water at about 30°C and again swish gently then leave.
I repeat this with 30° water one more time. By this time the water is clearish. If it is not I rinse again.
Then I drain it well on a cake tray and then dry it on the clothes drying rack somewhere warm but out of the sun.

Next I pick it
This is basically going through the whole giant mess of wool that you have and pulling it all apart in to fluffy lumps. You can get tools to do it (one day!) which are basically two sheets of nails which are repeatedly pulled through the wool. By hand you just pull out bits and put them in a bag. It should be really fluffy when you finish this with no obvious lumps. You remove bits of grass and stuff as you go. Best to do somewhere you can easily hoover as all kinds of grott comes out if the fleece.

Poppy likes to help with picking

Carding
I then card it. You can do this with hand carders, but at the moment I always use the drum carder as it is auucjer. The hand carders look interesting when you want different preparations, but my spinning isn’t ready for that yet.

Now it is beautiful fluffy fleece ready to spin!

Spring (again) chicks and shearing

We have had rain and rain and wind and more rain for AGES (a month?) and everyone started to despair of summer ever arriving. It finally has - but with spring like thunder storms because of all the wet in the ground. It feels even more like spring because the 2nd batch of chicks has hatched and we have been shearing the sheep (we normally do that in early June but it has been too wet to face doing it - it is important we do it quickly now before fly strike season)

Shearing Dagmar who is our most obliging sheep

Raasay looking natty

Dagmar finished. The pink is an anti insect treatment that we put on every 6 weeks in the summer - mostly to stop flystrike, but it deals with ticks too.

Yakamein soup

Doug read about this on the bbc and suggested that we try it. It is fusion cajun/italian/chinese I cannot say whether it was authentic or not, but it came out delicious. Perfect quick dinner if you have suitable meat left overs.

I broadly followed this recipe though it had way too many ingredients and I just made enough for two.

500ml beef stock (from concentrate is fine)
1/2 tsp slap ya mama cajun spice (or suitable amount of something similar - needs a bit of chilli in it ideally)
Spaghetti for 2 people (I did 100g)
Toppings (I slow cooked some beef and put carrots in to the stock to cook)
2 soft boiled eggs

Cook the spaghetti and the eggs
While they are cooking heat the stock with the spice in it and heat the meat and toppings
Put the spaghetti in a bowl then pour over the spicy stock and add the toppings

Bibimbap

It seems these are often made on the cooker, however stone bowls will not heat up on an induction hob, so I made it in the oven.
There are traditions about what goes on top and the different colours of food are good for different things. I am afraid to say I ignored this and used it as a great way to use up left over pork char siu.

Cook the rice and toppings that need it.
Heated the bowl by putting it in the oven which is at about 100°C, then slowly increase the temperature of the oven to 200°C over about 15 mins.
Put a tablespoon of sesame oil in to each bowl and swirled around, then put the rice in to the bowl and press it in to the bottom.
Return to the oven and heat for 10 mins - or until the rice starts to crisp up a bit.
Add any topping that need heating, for example cooked meat, bamboo shoots, spinach and return to the oven for a further 10 mins.
Serve with a raw egg (whole or just the yolk) and chilli paste on top.

Stir to cook the egg on the hot bowl before eating.

Trip to Saint Jean de Luz to see Rory

Rory my cousin was cycling down the Atlantic coast of France on a recumbent bike, so we went out to the coast and met up with him. We went to Saint Jean de Luz as we have never been there - we weren't sure if it would be as good as San Sebastien, so never took the risk!

To make sure the dog was tired before we got there we actually met Rory at Erromardie plage which is about 10 mins drive from Saint Jean de Luz. It is a nice sheltered beach good for swimming - and stick fetching.

Doug had a swim - I wasn't convinced

But did eventually brave it... It was pretty warm!

After a couple of hours the dog was knackered

Rory arrives

We made Rory go for a swim too as he had come down the whole Atlantic coast without swimming once (except apparently in a large puddle when he fell off trying to get through it...)

Aargh rocky!

Phew less rocky

We then pushed on to Saint Jean de Luz which is a very pretty little town (unfortunately no dogs allowed on the beach, so just as well we had tired Poppy out).

Nice local cider...

...in a bar overlooking the beach...

...with an amazing view (and some very tasty tapas)

We had sea food for dinner. It was HUGE, and very very yummy.

Rory had a seafood selection

Doug and I had Paella

Nice market

The harbour (not so sunny on the second day)

Hard working harbour landing all that seafood for people to eat

Cuddles!

We walked on to a headland at the edge of the bay where Poppy could run off the lead - our lives are ruled by her needs! Lovely view of the surf.

Good luck with the rest of the trip Rory!