Happy birthday Hobson

Today is Hobson's first birthday. We celebrated by going to the river with Twiggy to meet Twiggy's son and Hobson's brother Angus, and his owners Kate, Adie, and Theo. Adie decided this river game was good enough for him if it was good enough for the dogs! Twiggy didn't want to go in (apart from when I shoved her in to wash her feet after she trod in a cowpat) and stayed on the shore to guard keys and phones.

Hobson's first show

Hobson and Pasha went to the Chippenham and District Limit show. Hobson came 1st out of 3 in AV Utility Puppy and Pasha came 1st out of 3 in AV Utility Graduate!

Hobson did really well, particularly as this was her first show. She managed not to slaver all over herself and Pasha on the way there in the van (she didn't manage on the way home, but it didn't matter so much by then). Big thanks to Maureen Doran for stepping in to handle Pasha in the Best in Show class, when it turned out Hobson had to go in that too.

Rather unfortunately, it did end on a bit of a bad note, as I was taking Hobson into the Best in Show ring, a terrier lunged and bit me on the knee. The owner apologised, and I wasn't going to say anything until it occurred to me that the bite was likely aimed at the puppy on the other side of my knee, and if the terrier had bitten Hobson it would have ruined her for show, so in the end I did report it.

Pictures of Pasha and Hobson after the show:

Morning swim

Pasha likes to retrieve. Hobson likes to swim. Loki likes neither. ;-)

Birds 2014

This year's birds are shown in the video above. I currently have some surplus stock available. I have kept records of where they were sourced from and this information is available on request:

West of England ganders, £30 each, three different sources.

Pair of Silver Appleyards (a duck and a drake), hatched last year. Colouration not brilliant, but would make nice garden pets for someone, £30 the pair.

Poults about 6 weeks old, off heat and going outside during the day, a few Bourbon Red, Bronze, possibly some spare pied (Crollwitzer) once they are big enough to sex. £12 each. These are all traditional turkey varieties that will breed naturally, not the commercial strain that can't mate or fly. They do indeed FLY so their wings have been trimmed and they will need to be trimmed again when new feathers come in to stop them getting out and falling victim to predators, unless you have a covered enclosure.

All the spare pullets have been reserved.

The Weekend: A day in a quarry and a stormy night