Autumn arrives and Hedge Laying

Autumn arrived well and truly on Monday, it's been quite cool and wet for most of the week, but thankfully it cleared up for the weekend.

On Saturday we decided to have a day out and went to a Countryman Show at Sledmere House, near Driffield. It was a great day with plenty of demonstrations, from sheepdogs rounding up ducks and geese, horses used for deer stalking and logging, working ferrets and lurchers. Lots to see and do. Sitting down to watch the ferreting demonstration we sat next to an old neighbour of ours, so we had a good chat to catch up on our news. She likes the newsletter we send her at Christmas, which is great to hear.

Sunday the Hedge laying Marshall's arrived, they had to make that awful decision all pet owners hate, having them put to sleep. So Holly and Deefa got especially big hugs as they miss their dog so much.

At the start of the hedge laying we thought that all we were going to do was cut down willow trees, but after creating a gap of 15 foot, the next part of the hedge was in line and so with a lot of pulling and careful placing, the gap was filled. In some ways we were not hedge laying as such more tree laying, but it's worked. It's surprising how pliable a large willow tree is. There is still a lot of hedge to go at and another hedge laying day is arranged for the 3rd November. Hopefully by then Holly and Deefa will have caught up on their sleep. Deefa spent all day just walking back and forth checking up on everyone, Holly checked the fence to see if there were any gaps to get under. Much to her disappointment, there are non. So we know it's sheep proof.

It's been an up and down week with the Foot and Mouth outbreak with more cases again this week, but for us the more worrying outbreak is Blue Tongue, we know it is a very serious problem in Europe and everyone has been asked to be vigilant. But then today, reading the Defra website, we are now in a low risk area and between farm movements will be allowed from tomorrow, but with heightened bio security. What that means we are unsure, but no doubt we will find out over the coming days.

Finally - the experiment with the fleece in the washer. I ended up with a large piece of clean fleece that was in matted clumps. Speaking to other spinners, looks like my machine temp is too hot, a problem with older washing machines. So it's back to hand washing them in the bath!!!!

More next week unless something major happens in the week..........