Saturday, 28 July 2012
What a week, Wednesday the hay was baled, and so was Mark and Sarahs. They cut and baled mine, which rather dissapointingly only made 29 bales and I needed rather more. So at 6.00pm after work, Holly, Tash, Michele, Simon, Adam, David Morton and Charlie and brother Nick and I all went over to Green Farm to help with getting in the hay – a proper country job!! The sun was out, the hay was heavy, we loaded trailors, unloaded trailers, stacked hay and got through. Being a sensible person I had got a bottle of Pims and the wherewithal to make it and we had two large thermos flasks full, which we shared with all – made the evening go rather better. About half way through Mark drove his trailer over to the Centre with the female team, I moved my old hay out of the store, and the others loaded the new hay and brought it round. Art thought the whole thing had been laid on for his amusement. We put the old hay temporarily in where the trailer lives and stacked the new hay. I needed more so we left it, let Art out and went back to Green farm, just in time to help unload the last two trailers!!! We left 40 bales on the last one to come to me later, then very very grubby and sweaty we went back to the Centre and Sally had organised a Chinese takeaway which went down very well. Finally at 10.00 pm after tidying up, I had a much needed shower and fell into bed.

The following day Shasta who has been very very quiet finally got me so worried that I took her to the vet, in the early evening, poor darling had a temperature of 105!!! So no wonder she felt poorly, it turned out to be growing pains – inflammation of the membrane over the long bones, so a hefty shot of carprieve and one of Norclav and by 11.00pm she was a different dog. The evening however was not over. The rest of the hay arrived, so very kindly everyone had stayed late and we unloaded and stacked it and put the old hay on the top, Art was pleased as he has been able to steal hay all day!!!

I tidied the yard and finished up and had a shower, fed Nick and we were just relaxing a bit when Adam can in – the baby Sparrowhawk who did not look as if he could even get off the ground – could!! He had gone into the hedge and Adam and Tash needed a hand. So out we went, finally Nick spotted him about twenty feet up in the Turkey Oak, so we got the ladder, by that time Simon had arrived, we held the ladder up in mid air and Adam climbed it, but the Sparrowhawk was having none of the net and then flew like a demon up and over the hedge and ended up about 40 feet up in the walnut tree!!

Adam was convinced he could reach it, I was less so, but he did, with ropes and tackle to keep him safe. He got the Spar, but then of course – how to get down. So I asked Simon for one of his socks (he as the only person wearing any!) he refused and said he would go and get a clean one!!!!!! My personal opinion by that time was that the Sparrowhawk did not deserve a clean one but Simon thought it might kill him to have the worn one!!

Up went the sock, in went the Sparrowhawk and down he was lowered in the sock on a creance. Tash now owes Simon a new pair of socks because he cut it open to get the bird out without upsetting it. Not, I might add that it seemed in the slightest bit concerned!!

So all ended well. The stable smells heavenly of new hay. There is a satisfying feeling knowing that you have enough hay safely in to last the winter. Art is well, the birds are well and I should have got riding this evening, but ran out of steam. We did watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics, which was wonderful, but we did not see the end as we gave up after Finland!!!

The weather has been glorious, hot, sunny, Karis has been doing stoops to die for, and all the birds have been managing well.  I will put in some pictures but my camera is in the weighing room and I am blowed if I am going down there to get it at this time of night!




1 comments:

Peter Sommer said...

Had a wonderful Hawk experience day on Saturday. The best birthday present experience I've ever had. Simply wonderful. Handled and flew so many wonderful birds - from kites to buzzards.

Extremely well organised and in such idyllic surroundings. My 11- year old daughter loved being there too.

Many thanks to Mark, the main trainer on the day, to Adam too and to Jemima for running such a fantastic place. Looking forward to coming back.

Best wishes,
Peter

Peter Sommer Travels

Hello

I have to say that keeping a weblog can at times become compulsive and at other times a chore. Sometimes I am berrated for not keeping it up and sometimes I get wonderful comments from people who follow the news of the Centre.

It is fun to share the daily goings on here, some good and some bad, some funny and some sad, but all a part of our daily lives.
And as I said before its a pretty cool to be here and it is a great place to visit, you should try coming and watching the birds and meeting the staff and of course the dogs.

Blog Archive

An interesting video on Lead

An interesting video on Lead

I find it staggering that people who want to hunt don't see the value in changing their ammunition from lead to a safer product. We have stopped using lead in petrol, in paint, in our water pipes, but they still want to use lead - ah well, apparently eating it not only kills birds but leads to reduced intelligence in humans......................

NO ONE is asking you to stop legal and genuine hunting, they are just asking you to change your ammunition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHZGQ8i8AwI

HC

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