Puppies, Autumn Arriving

The puppies are now three and a half weeks old so the they are being introduced to solid food. Some are keener than others and have picked up the skill of lapping quite quickly. However,they all paddle through it and then spend the next ten minutes cleaning the food off each others coats. They are beginning to find their feet and lurch around their nest in a drunken fashion trying to locate each other to snuggle up in a warm huddle once again.

Autumn is arriving rapidly, the trees are changing colour and the wind is blowing tides of golden leaves into swathes around the yard. The swallows have not yet left us but no doubt will do so in a couple of weeks and just in time as the temperatures are beginning to drop and the wind has an edge to it. The time for getting out our warm winter coats and gloves is fast approaching.

We are in the middle of calving now and with four or five calves being born some nights the feeding of them takes a lot of the Farmer's time especially as the calves are distibuted through four different sheds. We have just invested in a new calf feeder which has ten compartments each with a teat so each calf gets the right of amount of milk. It is working very well.

After a long and busy summer with the holiday cottage we waved off our last visitors this morning. The cottage is empty for a while now and though I miss having the guests around it is nice to have a break from it. We have had lovely people staying from all walks of life and from all over the country. They discover west Wales with great enthusiasm as it little known...everyone has been to north Wales and Snowdonia or Pembrokeshire & the Gower but few know that the Teifi Valley exists so finding it is always a revelation.
Once the puppies are all off to their new homes in a month or so the Farmer & I are promising ourselves a few days away in someone else's holiday cottage. We have not had a proper break for nearly three years (the three day dash across England in August for a wedding does not really count as a restful break!) and so it will be something to look forward to.