Animal Communication

This morning I let out our animals, fed them way too many goodies and we had a short chat. They were a bit reluctant to head off for adventures and said so. Monty went in to the forest and came back in a hurry, deciding to have a good session of morning calls next to us. None of this is normal so I had a scan of the fields and to my amazement a saw a bear. What an absolutely magnificent animal... and more!

Credit: Dasha Dimitrova

It was not a huge bear but it cantered calmly past our house, on its way down to the beach, morning swim being so healthy for you and all that. It's funny when you see an animal like that, first you wake up everyone that matters and then you start to worry for the safety of the animal. Where can a bear find enough peace and quiet to live, around here? Not next door to Monty, that's never going to work. (At least our brave cockerel realised that this was not an animal to mess with...)

As I write this, our four lovely sheep are trying to graze on our doorstep, so nothing wrong with their sense of smell. The second thought that pops in to your head is that you have done something right to be blessed with such a sight as a bear.

It's been a standard joke in our childhood home, when out early in the mornings, horseback riding, walking the dog. The question if we saw anyone, any bears... Now I can happily answer, "Yes!" to the question. (You can tell I'm a bit exited... Sorry...)

The thing is if the animals had not told me about our visitor, I would have missed it. I would have meandered home, had more coffee and started the day as usual. Their reaction made me look a bit further afield. We have such clever animals and I am well trained. Better have Mr. Chip on a lead today, just in case he gets a whiff of wildlife. The bear is long gone but his wobbly leg cannot take a gallop through the forest.

Did I tell you I saw a bear this morning?

We talked about writing blogs with a good friend, the other day. She commented on the problem of finding stuff to write about. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that between our lovely animals and us living in the countryside, I'm never short of stuff to write about. I could write forever about my dear husband too but he would not like that... He is lovely, though...

Lina the hen went missing, the other evening. As I had to lock her out of the henhouse for obvious reasons, I gathered she had built a nest in the forest. Dear husband searched high and low and I went around calling but to no avail. In the end we had to give up and I went to say goodnight to everyone in the stable. When I arrived our long suffering sheep told that me they were hungry and quite frankly a bit fed up with it all. So I dug deep into their hay and found Lina in there. She had been building a nest when a lot of new hay had landed on her. She really does not like us at the moment. Whatever she does, there we are, spoiling it for her. Our lovely sheep could not eat their dinner as there was a sharp beak flying out at them from her new home but that she could not grasp. The next morning Lina stomped past me with angry, flat feet smattering, thinking what a horrid human being I was. We made up later with bilberries and a chat...

Now I have to get the ball rolling.  Mr. Chip has had his medicine and is asking for a walk in the forest. Now we want to see a giraffe or an elephant. How lovely and what a morning... Be well and as happy...

If you come across a bear out in the wild you are apparently to stand your ground, talk loudly and not run if it gets up on its hind legs. It may just want to have a sniff of your sent. Mine is Jour d' Hermes, Gardenia, just so you know, because if we did meet it again I would be too stunned to talk. And that does not happen often...

I was told if you meet a polar bear you are to remove your clothes slowly, leave them in a heap on the ground and back away. This is so the bear can smell your garments and you can pop off to safety. Not, as I first thought, to make the situation a bit embarrassing for the animal. The way global warming is escalating, it might be good to know this too.

This blog was written on the 12th of June so our friend the bear is long gone from the village, by now. All the best to the beautiful animal....

Text by Nina

Next blog on the 3rd July

Our hens

I know nothing about hen psychology and now it's official!

As I have told you numerous times, Lotta the hen is broody and staying put on her eggs. A few days ago I thought she had altered her position a bit, she looked a bit higher up, so to speak. We know she eats and drinks, occasionally, so I just assumed she was avoiding cramp.

Unfortunately Lotta decided to have her nest in the favourite egg laying space, this threw everyone else's system into orbit. Pippi and Henrika have left their eggs somewhere in with the sheep and Darya is currently using their summer house, a small playhouse in their outside pen. Lina's eggs went missing a week ago. We have been scanning the countryside for them as the same thing happened last year and then she went missing, and almost got killed. This morning I saw where her eggs are ending up....

While cleaning the stable, I saw first hand Lina's way of dealing with the occupied egg laying box. She just, bold as brass, climbed on top of Lotta, produced one of her beautiful eggs and left. Lotta quickly tucked the egg under her and carried on. No wonder she seems to be levitating!

Have you seen the sweet movies about the Minions? Small, clever yellow things milling around, saving the earth from bad guys.... That will be us soon, if we don't figure out a way to stop Lina -knee deep in chicks. As Lina is as cuddly as a polar bear, this lot will be small bundles with super powers but hopefully still working for the great and good in life.

I should have put two and two together but as I can't count to ten without falling over, it did not occur to me that Lina was taking over the world. How to stop this is still in the planning stage, but it has to be off the table and into action soon! The funny thing is that I have seen Lotta chase Henrika and Darya away on a daily basis. She has just pecked them hard and yelled loudly until they've left. Clearly this is not done to our little bundle of joy called Lina and I should have known...

Darya is riding around on Molly's the sheep's back, enjoying the cooler weather. Monty has a new spring in his step - he probably believes that he was the one chasing the elk away last week. Bears have been roaming the countryside of late so we can only hope Monty does not meet any of them, now that he feels brave. It's a short step from brave to foolhardy, where cockerels are concerned.

My dear husband flashed his slightly tired smile when told about Lina's latest and commented something about instant incubation boxes. He is not so worried about additional beaks to feed and believes they will be hens.

Our famous five have started their lives as nomads. They stroll around the stable yard and disappear into the long grass in ditches appearing to have lots of fun. Thankfully they are very loud so we can locate them just by listening to their constant beeping. In between their adventures they stay playing in their little house or they practice their flying.

Mr. Chip finds them entertaining although I don't think he can hear them. By being so nice to them, our dear dog is teaching the young hens not to be frightened of dogs. This means that the little bit of self preservation instinct they possessed has gone for good. Mr. Chip means well but the result is that all our hens come running, when a dog turns up. Dog, fox, raccoon dog... You name it, they are not shy to meet them. Four legs and big teeth must be a new family friend, they say. They are a bit weary of hares, though...

Summer months, happy hens and mellow sheep. It could be worse.

Yesterday the first little yellow chicks made an appearance. I called our long suffering neighbour about how to move Lotta to a better nest. I was told that you mark the eggs in the nest so that you can remove the additional eggs on a daily basis. So our "Let's not stress the mother to be" was not a good plan. Now we know...

Monty is a father and keeping a safe distance from the whole thing. We all knew when the first chick arrived. On Friday morning our sheep decided, all of a sudden, to come in to the stable. Then Monty and the older hens popped in, followed by some great tits and some sparrows. Lotta was making nattering noises and everything was quiet. It struck me that we were like a downcast version of a nativity play. I was the donkey....

Credit: Dasha Dimitrova

Hundreds of years ago people used to put spiders web on wounds to stop the bleeding. Later on scientists discovered that the silk contains the vitamin K that helps reduce bleeding. They say that most spiders found in homes have adapted to a life indoors and would not make it, living outside again. This means that we can't carry them outside anymore. Good to know...

Enjoy the summer, we certainly try to....

Text by Nina

Next blog post on the 26th June. 

Reflextions

June is officially a summer month. Last year was one of those summers where the cold and damp weather seemed to make plants grow in to their pots, not the other way around. Now we have high hopes for this year, the animals and I. A kitchen garden of splendor and tomatoes the size of footballs, thank you! We will see. At least this year we might have some time to play happy gardeners...

Last year was a time for sadness and reflections. We lost a loved one, my father, Mr. Chip’s best friend. Grief alters your look on life, it's a fact you just deal with. What you don't realise is, that it takes a year for the sadness to turn into something more bearable. Somehow you just get there and plod along. Memories stay, though....

I remember how fascinated my father was by the fact that four, fully grown sheep could become so tame and trustworthy animals. He never stopped smiling when our lovely sheep wandered past, on the lawns. "There's some fluffy creatures on the loose", he used to joke. He worried constantly about our hens roaming freely, looking for trouble. At the same time loved seeing them pop in for a biscuit, after a long day in the forest.

We had a little chat, the sheep and I, about life and loved ones. It started with their feet. I mentioned that I don't know if I should trim their hooves, as some are a bit longish. The problem is that if we trim them now they might get too short in the summer and get sore. That's how we started talking about my father. He was our information bank on all things animal. The good old-fashioned knowledge disappears with his generation, never to return. I now have to learn myself and sometimes my brain overheats.... Having said that, a lot has changed for the better, where animal keeping is concerned, but not all of it. Common sense seems to disappear and it's a balancing act to keep animals in the way they should be cared for and not to over do on the sentimentality bit.

Mr. Chip is a classic example of this conundrum. He is an old, much loved dog that needs a lot of care and sometimes attention from the vet. I dread the day they tell us his leg needs operating on. Do you put a 14-year-old dog through that ordeal or do you send him up to his best friend? I keep hoping we never have to make that decision. But it is a worry and we are aware of his wobbly leg, taking one day at a time. Then you look at life and the world in general from a broader perspective and stop obsessing. You get a grip, as Molly the sheep would say.

I don't know why this became such a gloomy text, reflective and for us, almost deep and profound. Our four sheep do not mess about with such thoughts and as I write, our famous five (the chicks) have started flying back and forth, back and forth, in the stable yard. They grow so quickly and soon they have to be called young hens, not chicks. I guess it dawns on me from time to time that keeping animals comes with a lot of responsibility and sometimes worries. As I'm a bit slow on the uptake, it only occurs to me occasionally, which is good. The joy you get from seeing happy animals does compensate things, thank goodness. Having the best husband to help you out with it all is quite nice too. As he says, "It's your hobby", but I know he cares as much as I do about our lot. And he has a special place in Mr. Chip’s heart, being a man and all...

Credit: Dasha Dimitrova

I just learned that squirrels are so clever that they put on a show for other animals, pretending to hide their food. By making decoy-hiding places they can secure their real larders from raids. How brilliant is that? We have a squirrel that always hides nuts between two huge rocks. I don't have to worry any more as this clearly is a hoax, to trick us. I do believe I needed this year of learning new, interesting facts about animals.

Take care. Next week’s blog will be full of jokes and merriment. We can only hope, at least....

Text by Nina

Next blog post on the 19th June. 

Monday

Some weeks just start off brilliantly...

A group of youngsters were due to arrive for a visit and a picnic, later in the morning. We got up bright and early, the animals and I, in order to have everything ship-shape and ready for action. By 6am I was on my second mega mug of coffee and almost able to focus on the day ahead, when I saw that our lovely sheep were in the paddock. This happens once in a blue moon so I went over to tell them about the day’s events and check on them. I stood mumbling about visitors and happy dispositions when all four sheep stood to attention, eyes rolling and generally looking a bit odd. I tried to calm them, telling them all about the fun factor of picnics, but to no avail. In the end it finally dawned on me that something was amiss so I turned to look behind me and there stood a huge elk. The elk stood stock still, big ears pointing forward, clearly wanting to hear all about our day, thinking it makes sense to be on top of things in the village. It must have been one of the elks that have been eating hay in the yard all winter because it did not seem to be afraid of me at all. Slowly the elk started munching on a nearby rowan bush and our sheep started blinking in a normal fashion again. That's when Monty and his ladies turned up.

Hens are a constant danger to themselves. They walk around grazing, looking for worms and sometimes just pottering about. What they seldom do is look up to see where they are heading. This little habit took Monty almost all the way up to the elk’s hoofs, before he noticed the stranger in our midst. Looking up to see such a huge animal must have thrown our sweet cockerel because he started making such a racket. Unfortunately he got mixed up and started with the series of yodelling sounds he makes when a hen has laid an egg. This did not only startle the elk but all the hens as well. They responded by yelling at poor Monty, telling him to get his facts straight. Not an egg in sight and there he was waking up the village with his nonsense, was the general opinion. In the middle of all this, four sheep backed away slowly to the safety of the stable and the magnificent elk bid us all farewell and calmly walked away. I just stood clutching my coffee mug, feeling blessed to be part of all this. I am contemplating earplugs, though....

The gang of youngsters arrived and they were lovely and thankfully loved our animals. Our pink dog was admired and food was made and shared with the hens. Yes, Mr. Chip has at the moment a slightly pink furry coat. On Monday his colour was more chocking pink but he took it well. As I had planned, we did the summer bathing shampoo flying everywhere and the result was a very clean, fluffy dog. In my eagerness to groom him, I grabbed the first brush I could find, forgetting I had borrowed it for the sheep. As they are always wearing red paint, scraped off the barn, the brush contained some of the paint. Red, dust like paint on a wet dog and hey presto! a pink terrier. I tried to convince our visitors that I always dye our animals in this bright fashion but they did not believe me. I clearly looked too boring to pull that one off...

Lotta the hen is still planning to become a mother. She is guarding three eggs and a nest egg - in this case an egg shaped stone from Scotland. With our luck she will present us with three baby cockerels and a lot of pebbles. We can only hope for hens, so we don't have to part with them. Time will tell. It's now two weeks since she started nesting. It will be interesting to see how the famous five chicks will react if we do get tiny babies to add to our lot. Time will tell...

Credit: Dasha Dimitrova

Dear husband has picked up a summer cold to add to his pollen allergy. We can hear him coming from miles away, bless his little cotton socks. There is nothing worse (yes there is, actually...) than a cold when it's hot but he struggles on and he never ever complains. At least our very hot and dry spell is over and they are forecasting cooler, nicer weather. Mindy, Mandy, Molly and My will be in heaven as this hot spell has taken all their energy. It's not easy being a sheep in a hot climate. It's not a bundle of laughs for a gardener either. So we all sit, eagerly awaiting cool air and rain.        Mr. Chip is happy either way as we alter walking timetables to fit in with the weather. These last weeks our morning walks have been happening very early in the mornings. There's not a crowd out there, apart from elks, deer, birds and one or two frogs. No cars, no noise, other than Monty's yodelling and it all feels rather special. Morning mist and a happy dog....

Elks are good swimmers and can dive. That's impressive when you think of how big the beautiful animal is.

Text by Nina

Next blog post on the 12th June.