Today On The Hill

Sammi trying on her new "Thunder Coat," though due to the weather being much less severe than forecast, we didn't have to use it. The face on her, you have to laugh don't you!!!

It's going well with Sammi in the bedroom at night, I see no reason to change the routine, apart from the night before a dog show, and there's only one of those left this year! Sammi loves shows, and I think she's likely to have a total paddy if she knows I'm going and she's not. 

Yesterday I noticed our battered little oak was covered in what I know as "Marblis Coed." These are something that I've been aware of from being a child, but I had no idea what the English name was for them, so asked on Facebook. Some interesting information. "Oak apples are not real apples but a type of oak gall, which is a plant growth on an oak tree caused by an insect like the oak apple gall wasp. Galls form when the wasp lays an egg in an oak bud, and the larva's presence triggers the plant's cells to grow into a protective, spongy sphere that looks like a small apple. These galls contain the wasp's larva and later turn brown, eventually falling from the tree after the adult wasp emerges."  Every day is a school day then!

This morning I walked around the sheep free top field with pride at our work. Nothing moved or bent, happy days. I looked down into the bottom field and could see nothing, so I opened the gate for Orin and Siska to go down there. Orin had it on him and was dive-bombing me and Siska so initially she hid behind me. I told him to piss off and he eventually charged off onto the boncan. Oh shit, a woolly arse on the wall right at the bottom of the field. I called them back, thankfully these two are so good and even though they were full of enthusiasm for their walk, they both came back. I reported in to Steve and went down the field on my own. 

Woolly arse was still on the wall, but as I got closer I could see she was stuck. In her panic to get away from me, she tried to get off the wall, taking half of it down with her! She was then literally hanging off the other side of the wall and wrapped in wire. There was no way I could get to her without doing myself a mischief or knocking the wall down on top of her. I rang DJ the farmer. He was not at home, but he'd get someone up to me. To be fair it didn't take him long to appear at the gate and I sent him round to DJ's field as it was impossible to get her from our field. Luckily, we have wire cutters and with some cursing and swearing he got her loose. I'm not sure if she was one of the "usual suspects" but two others were waiting for her. One had horns ... hmm I'm not sure if it was them, but I did gather they would now be looking for new ways in. Anyway I asked this farmer for help to get some of the stones back up on the wall, and yeah, he did a little, but as I've learned they do the bare minimum. I went back down with Ross and Beti, taking a post and some wire with me, I did the best I can, for now! Interestingly, as I chatter to this farmer, he told me the roaming black cattle were his, but he hadn't seen them in a while!!!!!!