Snow.

Morning dog walk in the first real snow of the year. It's a shame it's not going to last as it is planned to warm up and start raining again. Anyway, the dogs both enjoyed themselves. 

Barefoot Ben

After only 8 weeks Ben's feet are looking pretty good. The Farrier has been up to check on them and was also impressed with the progress. Let's hope we can complete the transition from metal shoes to barefoot successfully, he does have a couple of slight toe cracks appearing which I'm hoping are just run off from nail holes and nothing more sinister. At least his feet have not crumbled (so far) my last Farrier said they would. 

No shoes.

I have a horse and for the two years I've owned him, and for 10yrs prior to that, he has been wearing steel shoes on his hooves. I have never been comfortable with this as I feel that a horse should not have steel shoes nailed onto his perfectly healthy hoof, but I have taken my farrier's advice and kept on with the 7 weekly cycle of shoes off, clean up the hoof and then re-apply a fresh set if steel shoes. I have on occasion read articles which have led me to question the sensibility of applying steel shoes to the hoof but each time I broach the subject I am told that my horses hooves would crumble if I take the shoes off. As anyone with a horse knows, no hoof no horse, and so I have backed down and re-applied the steel rings. Recently I re-visited the whole barefoot debate and did more research and on the strength of this research I have taken the shoes off of my lovely boy Ben, a 14 yr old American Standard Bred. Yes he is a little tentative walking over stony ground, but then so would I be for a few weeks without shoes on. Yes he has a little damage to the hoof wall, he has had NAILS driven through them at 7 weekly intervals. I intend to keep a good eye on his hooves and make sure they are trimmed when they need it to ensure a good transition from shoes to barefoot. I will post progress here for the world to see. Wish Ben and I luck, I'm sure we won't need it, after all we are going back to what comes naturally. It has to be better for the wellfare of the horse. These photos are taken on the day of shoe removal. 

Nearly there.

Well here we are, nearly finished. The exterior is complete we now need to work on the inside to create our Mediterranean oasis in the heart if south west Scotland. Painting is complete we now need to get the terracotta tiles down then oil and wax them before putting in some furniture and plants. We now get a great view down the Dalrymple valley to the viaduct and we can also look down into the pond and see the Koi and other fish. :-D All we need now is some sunshine. 

Slate on

Well there are still tradesmen out there who take a pride in their work and can add a little embellishment to their work also. The roofer who has just completed our extension roof has put a pattern into the roof by trimming some of the slates. It gives the impression of someone who is proud of their work and who wishes to leave his mark. I for one am glad he did, I think it looks great. 

It's a hat!

Well it will be a hat when it's finished :-) you can already see the sides starting to take shape. Unfortunately it's a slow process with me. Hopefully it will be of wearable proportions this time. I'm sure a few stitches have gone missing here and there but on the whole it is taking shape. What's a few stitches between friends, no one will ever know. Unless they read this blog of course :-D

Erection getting bigger.

First the roof angles go on then the roof itself starts to take shape with the arrival of the joiner. The weather yesterday was atrocious and so very little work was done. Today, however, is much better and I suspect a new roof may be waiting for me when I get home. Oh! And I managed to get another row done on my latest yarn engineering project, should have this hat finished in about another 6 months at this rate. 😄 

Tesco express?!

Our extension is coming along well, the builders are working well and are very tidy. I can't help thinking it looks a little like they are putting up a new Tesco in my back garden though. 😄 

Foundations dug.

The foundations are dug and concrete is starting to go in. We've got a bit closer go the pond than I had imagined hence the wooden bracing to avoid any risk of slippage. 😳 

Garden room begins

Ground work begins for our garden room extension. Murphy decides to check on progress. 

More Bread

Number two son is back from university this weekend and requested some homemade bread so I dutifully obliged with a lovely bloomer and a standard tin loaf. Number one son came in just after the bread was out of the oven. Four hours to make, sixty seconds to demolish :-) 

The Boys

Here we are again, all tacked up and waiting for the off :-) Ben and Beau our two lovely boys waiting patiently (which is unusual for Ben as he is normally such a fidget) to be taken out. It was another lovely autumn day today and we are starting to get some canter out of Ben bless him. You see he is a retired Pacer; which is to say a race horse who pulls a buggy with a jockey rather than the jockey being on his back. Pacers also run differently with both legs on one side moving at the same time as opposed to diagonally as is more common for most people to recognise. As a result of his past he finds trot and canter a little bit of a challenge, but after 18 months he is starting to get there as demonstrated beautifully today. We'll done Ben :D

Poppy time

Tis the season to remember and so out comes the hook and wool and time to make a couple of crochet poppies for the Memsahib and her friends. Below is an example, simple to make each one takes about an hour from scratch. Donations are made to the poppy appeal from each recipient. 😊

Tilly

You can take the dog out of Glasgow but you can't take Glasgow out of the dog. Tilly with her favourite tipple :-)

Disgruntled of Ayrshire

Here we have one disgruntled puppy. Upon arriving at our usual walkway through the woods we discovered that the farmer has been in and put up new fencing. Murphy is not impressed!

Slipper thief.

It looks like butter wouldn't melt in this little fella's mouth, but apparantly slippers do. It's been a few days now since I last saw mine. Murphy where are my slippers? Now he has started on the crocs! 

Late afternoon hack

Who would have thought that on the 4th October we would be out riding in shirt sleeves. The sun had just gone behind some cloud before this photo but up until then it had been a glorious day. 

Bumper crop

This year has been a very good year for blackberries up our way. The Memsahib has decided to have a go at blackberry infused Gin, (seeing as we can't find any Sloes in our hedgerows).  We have also been eating more than our fair share of blackberry  and apple crumble, pie and any other pus you can put blackberries in. There is (in my mind anyway) something strangly ironic about the fact that in the very year that Blackberry, the electronics company are having a bad one and laying of part of the workforce the humble blackberry (hedgerow fruit) is having a cracker of a year. Just an observation :-)

First nip

Today the air had the first nip of Autumn in it. You could just about see your breath and hands were kept firmly in jacket pockets, jacket remained done up for the entire walk. The dogs didn't seem to mind though. 

Bloomers a la Paul Hollywood

Man that's a well risen dough, and lots of it too :) better make me a couple of spanking bloomers.