Time flies

Feeding the family

Getting ready to go

Adventures completed, Andromeda's piglets run home for tea

Victoria's "Famous Five" back 'home'

Summer has been happening for several months. It's been a little strange because we'd all got used to the horrendous cold wet conditions which prevailed for months & months and I don't think we really believed good weather existed... so we kept expecting it to turn cold & wet again - but it didn't. So summer crept up on us and stayed. As I write, the farmers are completing their harvest in ideal conditions..... combining mostly done, bales carted in, hedges largely flailed and ploughs already hard at work.
Similarly the swallows; they suddenly arrived at the end of April and quickly started breeding and feeding madly. Their chittering cries and swooping antics as they taught the fledgelings to fly have provoked many of summer's smiles.....but now they're lining up to leave. Soon there'll be silence in the skies.... they'll all have flown...
It's always the youngsters who remind us how time fies. Andromeda's stripey brood have been faster off on their adventures than any other - within less than a week they were merrily out and about: "They're going to be trouble" announced Linda one evening - and she's probably right! They're 2 weeks old on Monday but are well ahead of themselves - boosted by the sunshine they've enjoyed since birth. They've been nibbling at Mum's feed more than a week ahead of time so at this rate we'll be weaning them at 6 weeks!
Speaking of weanlings, Victoria's have been indoors for two weeks and were getting itchy trotters so we put them back out again on Friday - and, lucky for them, they went back to the pen they'd been born in...... 'deja vu' they all said - 'weren't we here just a few hours ago?' Anyway, whether they thought like that or not, they loaded into and out of the trailer pretty quickly..... but when darkness came they were crying out pitifully - either were hungry or they wanted to come back in for the night. Whichever, they were ignored and this morning they'd settled down and were fast asleep at breakfast time...... they'd probably been awake reminiscing all night...... Well?

You never know....  
Meahwhile,  other young things growing fast are making us aware how time flies..... Gunner's son Bugler is now 17 weeks old and, at first glance, is almost as big as Jaunty......

That boy Bugler - he grow so fast

He's been here two months and firmly established his place in the pecking order - which is not at the bottom. There's no allowance for age when the two play together - it gets very raucous in the kitchen from time to time...... and it's definitely the older of the two who is the more gentle..... in fact, Jaunty is an out and out nice chap...... the  little one can learn a lot from him.....  As he can from his dad who, unbekownst to him, will soon be starting work in his 6th shooting season.............. and what will the little one learn from him then.......
Where does the time go?
Probably in little dogs' dreams......

Gunner dreaming of being hard at work.....

Happy Birthday Jaunty

We'd planned since he first entered the field  to breed a pup from The Bestest Gundog in all the World but for three years, and for various reasons, all his "wives" fell by the wayside. When Meg, his wife of last year, had a phantom pregnancy and no pups appeared, the decision was taken. An Understudy to The Bestest Gundog was needed. So one needed to be found. It's a huge world of gundog breeding out there. Where to start? So I decided we could do worse than go back to the place where Meg was bred - after all, I reasoned, if we liked a bitch chosen to be the mother, we might like another dog from the same home. The question was asked; As fortune would have it, a very well bred litter was due in August. I reserved a male pup. He was born a year ago today. Such excitement when the call came. Two weeks later I visited.

And there they all were ...... 4 liver and white and 4 black and white. After a further two visits and much umming and ahhing we chose one of the black & whites ... and the prettiest (I thought) of them. And brought him home. And he was an absolute joy from the start ... straight into his box... never fussed or whinged and house-trained really quickly too.
A year on, he's still a joy in the house - exuberant when happy and calm when asked to be..... content in his own company but really, really loves to be out and about and  running...... running

And that's been a bit of the problem. The Bestest Gundog at the same age was steady and moving forward in his schooling. However, to be fair, the BG started proper school at age 11 months whereas his Understudy started proper school at 6 months. In hindsight - too early. He's just beginning to understand the purpose of schooling..... finally  comprehending the point of listening to the whistle..... He's such an exuberant character when he's out ... all that space out there just needs to be invaded he thinks and his human's too slow..... well you can't blame a spaniel for wanting to run.... But he's coming to hand and, with help from Rory the trainer, he may - by this time next year - be shaping up to be a dog a chap can take to work for the season.

I certainly hope so.... he's such a lovely dog and really wants to please - if he can be persuaded there's a good reason...
"Gunner was easy to train" said Rory-the-trainer early on in our training-the-Understudy experience this spring.... "But if you can train this one then you'll have learned a lot". Thanks Rory. Well we've gone through the past five months of lessons and he's learned - a bit. He's very quick to learn and I think that's half the problem. He can easily do what I ask and the rest of the world out there looks so much more interesting. So, 'heel' and 'hunt' and 'fetch' and stuff - OK; but then, whooppee and he's off to explore. But finally, I think, he's beginning to understand...... and, after numerous telling-offs, he's gradually coming to learn that life is a lot more interesting if he listens to the whistle...... the more he listens the greater freedom he can enjoy.......

And freedom is his greatest pleasure.... so, hopefully by this time next year The Bestest Gundog in all the World will be looking forward to having the Understudy, aka Jaunty - aka Gaberlunzie Master at Arma - join him in the field for the 2014 season.........
Meanwhile, Many Happy Returns to a Happy spaniel........

Hot off the press

"I've told her to wait till Tuesday" said Linda as she went off for a couple of days....
"Sorry" said Andromeda.. "Really couldn't wait any longer... was about to burst". Thereby continuing the trend of sows farrowing on Linda's day off...
So ... Congratulations to Andromeda &The Black Banana - born this morning, after breakfast, 6 glorious swallowbelly piglets.
It was an experiment in a way to put Andromeda to Black Banana... really just to see if two swallowbellies would produce one or more swallowbellies..... and Andromeda has produced 6 - in 6 years this if the first completely swallowbelly litter we  have had....  it may not be exciting in the overall scheme of things but it IS exciting here....... what a clever girl...... what a clever chap
We've told the rest of the herd...
They'll all be round to check.....
Well done Annie.......  Well done Banana.....
Oh - and I almost forgot to mention that the Bestest Gundog in All the World was first to spot them again... when we were doing 'other things' he stopped dead in front of Andromeda's pen and 'looked' in that certain way that made me stop and have a look..... Such a clever dog..... And as if that

were not curious enough...... the hens, who have been sharing Andromeda's pen for weeks, moved into the ark to sort things out ... I suppose they are really just clearing up flies - nature's way of keeping stuff sorted ... or maybe they were bringing gifts?   Whatever: Annie didn't mind and they were there for the duration..... "Cluck, cluck, cluck.... wierd chicks... wierd chicks ..cluck, cluck,......" they were probably saying.....  

Moving Mrs Merkel

 It's summer and it's holiday time and, unusually for here, it's been the 'right weather'... so not a lot's been goin' on ....we've been relaxing and taking stock....and then out of the blue, we hear that Moses, whom we sold as a young stud a couple of years back (and a very handsome young chap he was too) needs a new wife and do we have a "suitable candidate". Well, I don't believe in arranged marriages but, on the other hand, we don't want to think of a young boar going without......
So Mrs Merkel is to be his new young wife. She's got a little bit of experience. She and Banana had a lovely litter of 6 earlier this year and now, with luck, she is in pig to him again.
Her new boss is a bit busy with harvest so will collect her when he has a gap in the combine calendar - depending on the weather that could be at very short notice.. We decided it would be easiest if she were in the barn then he could collect her any time of day.
We were going to pop her in the trailer to move her. "I think we could run her down" said Linda as I arrived at the pen with the trailer..... "She's so keen on her food I think she'd just follow the bowl down....."
"OK" I said "If you feel confident"... and I turned off  the car engine and waited for Linda to open the gate and let Mrs Merkel out.

It all went well to start with. Linda, with a bowl filled with food, tempted Mrs Merkel to follow. Which she did. But the sow was the quicker of the two...and soon overtook.
"Uh Oh - maybe this wasn't such a good idea" laughed Linda with a slight hint of panic in her voice.....
Mrs Merkel was clearly determined to make the most of her little run-around.... no point having freedom if you don't use it.. so she ran round the side of the house (with Linda and feedbowl following), along the front of the garages, over to Ginger's domain, down to the chickens and................ eventually into the barn... co-erced by the sight of The Big Boss blocking off the track down to the fields and maybe another hurdle or two placed at strategic points......  at least twice the distance she needed to have covered......
Banana in the meantime didn't even lift his head from his feedbowl to say 'goodbye'............ probably thinks "Oh - she's gone..... peace and quiet before the next one turns up......". Hard life being a boar......

The boys are out...

It was Heckington Show last weekend. We were there again (our 6th year) with Ginger & Mangal's last lot of weaners  === the three girls, together with Linda, entertained the enormous crowds throughout the two days. I am not sure who was the more tired by the end of Sunday - certainly Linda was a little bit hoarse and the girls loaded and unloaded without a moment's hesitation! I'd guess it was level pegging......  It was also our 2nd year in the food court; we elected to be outside as it was so very hot and stuffy in the deli marquee last year. It may not have been the best decision as we were surrounded by hot food vendors (we had originally planned to cook as well but things changed!) and come 11.00 am the queues for those were so long they totally obscured our stall........  As it turned out, we didn't do too badly but it'll be an interesting decision to make next year.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the male weaners were left in the old stalls so they could get used to being without their litter sisters. This afternoon though we decided it was time to put them out (the girls have to stay inside for another two weeks of 'quarantine' time). It didn't take long to move them; they went straight on the trailer, straight off the trailer, straight down to their pen, tucked into some food (apart from one chap who went off to meet Samson & Delila next door) ..... and then straight into the muddy corner.
"Awwwwww" said Linda when she came in later "Big Red's not red anymore!". He'd gone and covered himself in glorious mud - shame. Good job we'd had a few minutes to appreciate the colour of his curls in the afternoon sunshine.......