Gwenna / Health tests / Bannockyarn - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 8 August, 2022

by Rosemary at 11:39am in Smallholding 2 comments Comments closed

Monday 1^st August Lammas

Dan collected Gwenna this afternoon. She’s bright in herself, and her back legs move but she can’t take any weight on them. Between feeding, medication and physio (5 times daily), Dan’s made a spreadsheet to keep us right. The drugs should be finished in two weeks, fingers crossed but the physio will be six weeks at least. I was a bit upset at the vet report – her prognosis is given as fair to good but we’ll give her the best chance we can.

Thomas tried out the vet bed for her pen and found it satisfactory.

Thomas, user testing Gwenna's bed.

Her new pen arrived so her accommodation is pretty good now, I think.  She’s got a Kong – but trying to find ways of amusing her without calories is challenging. Mostly, we just chat to her and give her a cuddle.

The wee soldier is home.

Two weeks since the cows were jagged, so we’ll be looking (hopefully in vain) for signs of them coming back into season.

Dan finished pickling shallots.

Shallots.

Tuesday 2^nd August

Quite a bit of rain overnight; very close this morning but the sun peeked through at lunchtime.

Gwenna is fine; did her business this morning and had scrambled egg and a wee bit chicken for breakfast along with a fistful of drugs. Fell asleep during her physio.  Dan and I are a bit spaced, to be honest. I’ve got so many jobs piling up. I need to focus and try and clear my feet.

We've built her a pen outside, with sunshade, of course - because she loves beingouside and we can talk toher through the office French doors. Dan did her physion outside this afternoon.

The outside pen.

Seems not breeding the cows this year messes with our herd BVD status, which is bloody annoying. I didn’t know this, but even if I had, I think I’d still have taken the same decisions about selling the two older cows and keeping their daughters.

Wednesday 3^rd August

Gwenna’s OK. She seems to be enjoying the physio. It’s actually quite tiring for both her and us, I think. She did a sploot today and tried to roll on her back, so she must be feeling better.

She was eating a lot of grass this evening.

Me and the dugs.

I cleaned out the hens, took Lorna for a walk and an icecream and dealt with a pile of emails, so feeling better. Oh, and baked biscuits and made marmalade. Amazing what a bit of focus does.

We got the results of the cattle’s health tests back – all negative, which is very pleasing. We’re now BVD negative, accredited for IBR and Lepto and have moved from L5 to L2 for Johnes and Neospora.

Thursday 4^th August

Rain late evening and overnight. Gwenna got Dan up at 2pm to go to the toilet. I never heard a thing.

Friday 5^th August

Today was all about preparation for Bannockyarn this weekend. I was going to go down tomorrow morning but at the last minute decided to do down this evening, to avoid any delays and hassle tomorrow.

Saturday 6^th August

It’s now 19 days since the cows were jagged. Seeing no sexual tension in the herd at all, so fingers, toes and eyes crossed.

So today was the first day of Bannockyarn, at the wonderful Bannockburn House. Lovely to see some folk I haven’t seen in a while and my mate, Aileen, came to keep me company on the stall. We didn’t sell a huge amount of yarn but we did sell the six raw fleeces I took on the off chance and because there was room in the car.

Our stall at Bannockyarn

Had dinner at “Friend of Mine” in Bridge of Allan, with Aileen and Karen. Very good, would recommend.

Gwenna and Diesel.

Sunday 7^th August

Back to Bannockyarn today, solo. Had a couple of good sales but it was noticeably quieter today. It was good to get home thought, about 7pm. Didn’t unload the car, apart from essentials. All well here. Dan cleared a bit more of the sunken garden. And Andy’s been cutting and stacking wood.

Woodstore.

Sunken garden.