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Chapters New

Category: Life & Stuff | Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:02 pm

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It's been an absolute age (6 months!) since I last did anything with this blog and during that time, we've endured one of the most sever winters for decades, here in the UK. It has to be said though, that the frosts and snow have been a really welcome relief from all the rain that's affected us whatever the season these last couple of years, so fingers crossed that we have an equally dry - or at least less wet - spring and summer.


At the beginning of autumn, we were greatly saddened to lose one of our two dogs, our Collie-cross, Bricky. He was a great character and an excellent hunter; we certainly didn't see any rodents around the place, despite the poultry being renowned rat-magnets and he also helped to keep the endemic rabbit population down, too. He was also good at helping to guard the hens when they were free-ranging on the field.



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Bricky's one 'vice' was to occasionally take hinself off for a walk around the local village and generally speaking, he had good road sense, keeping himself close to the verges.


On the particular day that he died though, in late October, he was crossing the road below our track and got caught between too cars. Despite appearing outwardly unscathed, he was killed outright and so didn't suffer, for which we were very grateful.


We had a call to say that a dog (possibly ours) had been hit and so were somewhat prepared; a lady had stopped in her car and wrapped him in a towel and 'Himself' brought him up as I was running down, fearing the worst.


Despite our sense of shock...we were too stunned to cry at this point, we buried him within the hour, in one of the veg plots where he is now at peace and hopefully will continue to do good in future years as he returns to the earth and comes up roses - well, veggies :) - in future years.


The strange thing was that despite the surprise summery weather that we had for the last weeks in October, the following day, after he was buried, the weather changed rapidly as we seemed to skip the end of autumn and rush straight into winter, as you can see from this picture of his grave.






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After that, the frosts set in and stayed and stayed and stayed; a good thing in a way as it killed off any remaining bugs from a wet and hunid growing season. It truly heralded a new start.


Our other dog, 'Flapsy' missed her friend as much as we did although we gave her lots of extra fuss and took her out with us everytime we went anywhere, as we were reluctant to leave her on her own. Maybe we were guilty of projecting our own feelings onto her but I don't think any harm canme from it.


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In the meantime, I was lucky enough to find a part-time job; not the easiest of tasks in such a rural area as this and especially not one so local to us but anyway, I joined the local Co-Operative store, sorting out all the daily, weekly and monthly newspapers and magazines and after a few weeks, progressed to working on the checkouts, something that I never thought I would have had the confidence to do.


After a shaky start, when I was trying to learn the ropes over one of the busiest periods, Christmas, I finally got to grips with all the different aspects and really begun to enjoy it, especially the daily interaction with members of the public, many of whom were already familiar as this is quite a small place, in some respects, with a strong sense of community.


It was a good move all round; truth to tell, I had begun to feel quite isolated here. It wasn't too bad during the spring and summer months, when we could be outside working on the flowers and veg, or pottering about generally but in thie winter months it was more difficult. Our static caravan, which is slowly being converted into a wooden-clad chalet can get claustraphobic when one is confined for days on end due to bad weather and that was sometimes difficult, causing both 'Himself'and I to feel extremely 'Cabin-Fevered'.

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A month ago, when we were at a bit of a loose end one day, we went down to the local monthly horse-mart, just for something to do. We stood watching the ponies and shetlands when I saw a pair of ears from a taller-looking beast, standing outside the gate, waiting to come into the ring.


When he did, he wasn't led in or anything, just turfed out in front of the crowd; a slightly tatty-looking specicmen, which the auctioneer announced as being a Welsh Cob, Section D, 3 years old and expected to make 15 hands. He was quite thin looking, with a dull coat and although the price started highish, it went down quite quickly, due to an apparent lack of interest.


At 360 guineas (a guinea being £1 and 5p, the old British shilling)he was literally "...going, going..." when I don't know what came over me but my hand just shot up in the air and my bid was accepted. None other was offered and suddenly he was ours for the equivalent of £399. I turned to 'Himself', slightly stunned at what had happened.

"My God" I said "What have I done"?

It wasn't that I regretted my actions; on the contrary, something about the horse had just seemed to reach out to me. Apart from the fact that I knew he had attained quite a low price, given what he had the potential to become.


It was simply that although we had the facilites, i.e. a field of 3 acres, we didn't have any type of organisation i.e. fencing and that was a majot cause for concern. Also, we knew nothing of the horse's background, history or nature; we hadn't bought a catalogue as there had been absolutely no intention of us buying anything, anyway.


We decided to leave him in a pen at the mart overnight and rushed home to try to arrange transportation for the following day. I was booked in for doing overtime at work and so couldn't get home before late afternoon but 'Himself' located a horsebox and met up with a friend of ours who keeps horses and after 20-odd minutes, they managed between them to attach a lead-rope onto the headcollar which I had bought in haste the previous afternoon.

Surprisingly enough, 'Marl Benbra Boy' as he was named on his Welsh Cob passport was very easy to lead and load, once the lead rein was in place and when I got home from work, he was situated in the only secure place we had: our (albeit oversized) fenced chicken run, where he stayed for the next two nights.


In the meantime, 'Himself' worked hard on clearing and partitioning a corner in his big workshed and with a 12' metal farm gate comprising the fourth side of this makeshift stable, we were able to bring 'Marley' in on the third day.

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In total, he stayed in there for nearly three weeks. I did lead him around a little outside on a rope but was nervous as it's quite open here and I still knew nothing about his character and any potential problems. I consider myself a competent rider, in fact it's one of the few things that I pride myself on doing well but managemet is something I have limited exoerience of..


I took riding lessons between the ages of nine to thirteen and I was lucky to have a really excellent teacher; these weekly lessons were a gift from my sadly missed Nan, who loved horses herself although her only contact with them had been watching the big old shires that used to pull the dust-carts in the twenties and thirties, being taken down to the sea for a good wash off after a hot day.


I wrote to the woman whose name appeared on Marl's equine passport and got a phone call almost straight away. She had bred him from their 30 year established stud and sold him as a foal but had got him back after he remained unpaid for. She kept him for about a year and had him gelded and then he was sold to a farmer, who presumably didn't do a lot with him, given that he never even bothered to get the passport ammended. Ceratinly, Marl(ey) was timid in the extreme and wouldn't even take nibbles from my hand until the third or fourth day.


When the snows and frost cleared 'Himself' and I began working as fast as possible on splitting the field here into two, buying posts and rails before a local farmer came up and bashed in all the posts in about 2 hours, where it would have taken us heaven knows how long. Then we worked liked Trojans to get the rails all fixed into place. From this:

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to this...

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Eventually, five days ago, we were able to turn Marl out for the first time and after checking out his boundries and borders, he went temporarily beserk, tearing round, bucking and kicking out all over...it was truly a delight to see!

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Examining Marl's passport in more detail, it appears he has pretty good 'lines' i.e. breeding. 'Nebo Black Magic' who was a welsh Supreme Champion three generations back appears against a couple of Marl's Great and Grand dams and there are also a couple of 'Derwen's' on the other side. The original Derwen, back in the late 60's and 70's was also a Welsh Supreme Champion whose fame reached further when he went down to England and won countless shows there.


To a large extent, this is irrelevant to how I feel about Marl(ey). I was reassured by his breeder that none of their lines harbour any nasty habits and learning this gave me a much greater confidence when I was in the stable with him, brushing him and mucking out around him.


It's undoubtly early days for all of us but so far, Marl appears pretty 'bomb-proof' presumably from his upbringing on farms. He has no concerns about the chickens free-ranging around his feet and allows Flapsy, our 'labby to lick his legs???? :) 'Himself' was using power tools to cut wood in his workshop, feet away from Marl's gate and (after checking, of course) the horse showed no interest whatsoever and that power-saw does generate many decibels!


We have a long road to travel, Marl is of course still a baby and although in the ring it was announced tat he was "ridden around the farm" I am disregarding this and starting entirely anew with him. I have some knowledge of management from doing a horse-share 2 years ago and certainly, he is keeping me fit, cleaning out his stable and fetching and carrying hay and feed.


I am lucky to have friends who keep horses, who are willing to advise on future courses of action and a local farmer sells and brings up big bales of hay for us at a very reasonanble price; I've also located allergen free wood-chippings which seem to make a really good bed in the makeshift stable, which Marl still goes into overnight.

'Himself' and I have started work on paddocking the second half of the field and in a few months, we will be closing down the makeshift stable for the summer, whilst 'Himself' builds a proper one on the yard, enabling him to reclaim his workshop! One day, I hope to have a shelter up on the field(s) too, for protection from flies and sun, as well as wind and wet.


The initial outlay for fencing materials is proving costly but as I said before, I am lucky enough to be working and I reason too, that the £15+ a week that I'm saving since giving up smoking 5 weeks ago will be better spent towards 'our boy'. I would sacrifice an awful lot in the pursuit of this project, which has been a dream of mine since I was a very small girl.




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And finally, a picture of my late Nan, who arranged with her firends to place me on thh back of their pony on the old Council 'Dump' when I was aged about eight and who, I am sure, would love to have seen our newest household member...I hope and trust that she is looking down on us.

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PS, she also instilled in me my love of gardening, for which I am truly grateful; a kind and gracious woman who didn't have a malicious bone in her body and one of the best role models I could have hoped for...thanks Nan...without you, I truly believe that none of his would be occuring now...and many thanks, of course, to 'Himself' who has worked so hard lately here and whom is equally enthusiastic about all our future prospects...God Bless


...and...apologies for the length of his blog entry![/img]

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Watch Out, Watch Out! There's a Rupert about!

Category: Life & Stuff | Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:08 pm

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It's now 10 weeks since our black labrador, Flapsy, had her first and possibly last, litter. This is her a few days before they arrived...

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There were 4 pups, three boys (choc) and one girl (black) and they were a really bright, lively bunch and I named them: Monty, Rupert, Tyrone and Lil Sis, for the duration of the time that they were here.

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All of them were weaned a couple of weeks ago and over the course of the last week, three of them have gone on to new family homes. Their new owners seem kind and all were delighted to take charge of their new Honourary Household Members (i.e. Pets)

It was a bit sad seeing each of them go but they were of the age where they needed to get out and about in the world and I'm confident that they will each do well with their new people. Tyrone went first; biggest roly-poly of them all, Monty went next and Lil Sis the following day.

They had all been living in a proper penned area in an outbuilding here but when we waved goodbye last night to Lil Sis, me and Himself were a bit concerned about the remaining pup, Rupert.

We weren't going to leave him in solitary confinement in the pen but a puppy in the house would require a bit of forethought.

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Well, we brought Rupert in and he had the run of the kitchen and the adjoining porch for the day and so far, he's been absolutely outstanding. He's had his mad minutes of careering about, spooking at shadows and amusing himself with everyday objects before collapsing into puppy-naps but it's his toilet-habits that have really been impressive.

In their pen, we had shredded paper towards the front and then wood-shavings at the back and shortly after being moved from the whelping box to their new home, they cottoned on to resticting their toilet activity mainly to the wood-shavings at the back.

With this is mind, today we put wood-shavings into a makeshift tray-type affair and left it just outside the porch door, where Rupert could see it. And honestly, within an hour of plucking up the courage to explore the porch step, he had realised the tray's significance and visited it for it's intended use. The next time, he didn't even bother with the tray, just strolled outside and relieved himself in a quiet corner!

Well, the relentless rain that we've been having here for longer than I can remember was absolutely torrential, so we had to shut the porch door and deny Rupert outside access, so a bit of a dilemma!

We needn't have worried though, I brought the original tray back in and Rupert once again used if for it's intended use,in a corner of the porch.

I think that this shows that Rupert is a very bright boy and whether he ends up staying with us, or goes on to pastures new, I think he'll have a very good future.

Certainly, he should begin getting trained quite soon because I think he's got the intelligence and speed to catch on quick. He's certainly taken very well to living as part of a household and he's a genuinely lovely little pup: gentle, outgoing and intelligent!

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This is him in his new home in the kitchen and that's where he'll be staying from now on; he certainly won't be left pining in a pen on his own.

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Last edited: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:09 pm

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