all fun and games (until someone loses a...)

... and it was all going so well :-)

No disasters yet (touching wood), but we woke yesterday to a sick dog, a sick pig, a sick chicken and now sick kids. Good grief.

Whin has mastitis, and warranted a trip to the vet. She looks very sorry for herself, but a bit brighter this morning, though obviously sore. The puppies, thankfully, got the hang of solid food immediately and are generally a pretty happy bunch (shouldn't speak too soon). We're keeping one, though opinion as to which one is a little divided! The breeder was due one as stud fee and came to have a look at them. He has offered to buy all of them, which saves us a lot of effort and trauma, he's a well kent breeder and hopefully has the measure of which homes are likely to be best.

The pigs were doing really well, but when I went out with breakfast yesterday, noticed one was just not quite his usual self, and he then spent most of the day in the pig house. He's back on his feet this morning and fed with a degree of gusto, so hopefully on the mend.

A hen has a prolapsed oviduct, which isn't particularly unusual, but has to be acted upon as the other chickens, in that empathetic way of theirs, peck at it - yowsa.

Cam has incipient man flu and needed to take the day off school. Breagh is streaming with something either cold or hay fever, but trotted off to school regardless. Us men, we are so hard, shrugging off most of life's trials and tribulations, but when we do get cut down, we come down hard like... like, er... something hard. You know what I'm saying.

And then there were four; and then there were 10; and then there were sixty four...

Well spring is here again, with all the noises (see last years posts), the loons and peepers being joined this year by snipe drumming and owls hooting in the broad light of day. We also have a pair of Canada geese hanging around the field, making us feel like proper Canadians.

Now spring is a time of multiplying generally, and the farm is no exception. The field looked awfully big with just two iddy biddy horses in once the grass started to grow, so Mocha and Brook have been joined by Fred and Kamanchi, two more of Georgie's herd. Four looks so much nicer than two :-)

Big big news was that Whin, after a successful trip to a local Labrador breeder, gave birth to 9 (yes, nine!) beautiful puppies two weeks ago. Their eyes have just opened and they have just started tottering about. They are totally irresistable. Whin looks both very proud and generally exhausted, but other than that is doing really well.

Also in the nursery (the mudroom) we presently have thirty six chicks, our laying flock of the future, in a large box under a heat lamp, waiting to go out into the barn. Like I said, it's a noisy time around here...