Hairy MacLairy gets some Piggy Kisses

Hairy MacLairy the ram makes some unusual friendships. 

But this must be the strangest of them so far.

Sheila were you over there kissing that ram? No Miss C is was not me. It was Charlotte. She’s smelly can I bite her?

I only want to kiss you Miss C.  Why don’t you come closer so I can nibble, I mean, kiss you. I don’t kiss sheep. I am a nice piggie. 

Charlotte is the one.

Queenie arrives at the fence on her tip toes. This heifer is getting so wide she sways as she walks. You want me to sort it out? I can you know, says Queenie. I can head butt her for you.

No, thank you Queenie honey. That is such a sweet offer but I think I can manage.

April asked how big The plonkers were getting. That big. They have a tunnel to the outside field where there is more shade in the afternoon. Half the time there is a Plonker  asleep in the tunnel!

The temperatures rose to 100F (38C) again yesterday with dreadful humidity. So once again I hosed down animals and refreshed water throughout the day. Mama’s lambs were so stonkered by the heat that they just lay about sleeping in the shade, with the occasional sortie out for food and water. Forgetting completely that they had been separated from their mother. Mama is more upset by her restricted diet than anything now. She ate her small serving of dry grass hay with very bad grace. Last night all was quiet.

Tomorrow I will have been blogging for a year. So I shall be constructing a special post for July 4th. If all goes well.. sometimes the farmy happenings do get in the way. There is a change coming you see.  I have a job for you.

One of my reasons for blogging was to train myself to write every day. I had intended to do this for a year then swap the blog writing time into book writing time, using the blog as a resource for a book of stories in chronological order describing a year on the farmy.  Taking it down and taking it apart. Operating on it as though it were a dry thing. In the beginning I saw the blog as a collection of words and pictures.  All that changed because of you.

This journal has become a resource in more ways than the obvious. I now have a pool of good friends with international  advice and incredible support in this often solitary venture. And I cannot bear to lose you.

To close the blog and scuttle back under my rock with all my loot now seems callous and unusually cruel, because I know you are there now.  You are my smiling baby and I cannot take my eyes off you. You have become part of the farmy. My companions. Your own personalities and knowledge have been woven into my work. And I love to form my words and create the images and make  notes throughout the days knowing I will share these with you upon the next dawn.  As Bill said, it is easier to write when you are writing for a person, for a reader. (If you have a moment check out Bill’s page, he put the sweetest childrens story up yesterday, for you to read to the littlees!)

And I have hundreds of you readers. So I am very lucky to be able to write to you. Some of you cannot comment or advise.  And there are a precious number of you who comment almost every day, or once a week, or once a month and sometimes only once and you are the most vocal of the Companions of the Farmy.  All of you have become part of the fabric of the Farmy. I could never have seen that coming.

Good Morning. Of course I will keep my Farmy Door Open for a long time yet. I don’t think there was ever a question. However to achieve the next objective AND to blog daily, I need your  help to compile the first book of Farm Chapters.   We will be needing a working title. There will be 12 chapters.

So from tomorrow, I shall give you the link to ‘What happened on the Farmy on this Date A Year Ago.’ (There must be a more concise way to say that.)  This takes both you and I back to look and choose.  (Though in the beginning I did not blog every day so it will not be too arduous). I believe there is even a WordPress programme with which we can turn the best of the blog into a book.  Though I also want to be able to print it. (I love books)  There is a lot for me to learn. Each page we choose will have to have work. Usually I get it all written in an hour in the morning. So the book version will be screeds better. And lately I am not writing so well. I will have to pull my socks up!

What a journey we are about to embark on. But first I need to get out there and milk my cow!

I will be back in a couple of hours to see what you think.  By then I will be armed with coffee and breakfast and ready to begin the writing work.

celi