Scouse in the South

Scouse in the South

Sunday 12 June 2011

officially duckless...

Today am feeling pretty shell shocked. Of course the moral is if something seems too good to be true it usually (no - ALWAYS) is. If you see a pair of this seasons Chanel sunglasses at £20 then they're more likely to be Shanelle than Chanel... Of course I should have realised this with the 2 ducks I bought from the local show a few weeks back. I am 99.9% sure this is where the DVE has come from. Needless to say, this morning, Betty was found dead in the house and the only kind, controlled thing left that we could do was cull the youngest Belle. She too was showing symptoms... So DH armed with spade and a very rough guide to 'twist and pull' did the deed. The only mildly humorous moment being when a stray deer decided to freak us all out appearing from the corner of the field to then bolt straight through us! So I have no ducks - I am determined to bleach everything within an inch of it's life (ironically!), relocate the house area and then get more feathered friends. It's hard explaining all this to a 3 year old though...You have to take responsibility in life and it's my fault. Any new stock bought simply MUST be quarantined for 4-6 weeks. Trust me. I have learned the hard way.


Down on the sheep fields however all lambs are now tagged. Feeling slightly American chasing sheep around a pen like the proverbial rodeo each were caught, tagged and released. All without too much fuss either, no damage to lambs, just minor grazing, cuts and nicks to my hands and arms from barbed wire (my gelished nails survived though!) It took 3 men, myself and a 3 year old (and lab) to catch the Mummies however! But they are all tagged and feeding lambs are now separated from their Mummies. Already the lambs are screaming (it's like being separated partway through a bottle of Verve Cliquot) but Mums milk has to go so they can recover for the Rams visit come November...  Of course, feeling smug we then stood around and chewed the cud for a while before realising we'd left the gate open at the other end of the field! Cue sprinting down the field, hurdling one gate (with dodgy knee) and then trying to tempt 2 astray lambs back into the field with an (empty) bowl of 'food' (a box of matches rattling!) Stupid is as stupid does and thankfully, amid pouring rain, they went back into the field and the gate got shut quicker than the tickets for women's beach volleyball next year got sold...!


Mx

Weather: Windy, cold 15 degrees, mostly raining.

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