Eeyore

Angie at home today as she wanted to attend the funeral of a friend, Walter, who had accidentally shot himself on Thursday last week. 

Any stranger reading yesterday's death & funeral announcement in the newspaper, even knowing the words were his own wish, would refuse to believe he was sane. Walter was always one to enjoy life to the full, doing what he wanted to do and carrying it through regardless. Not in a selfish way, he was always there to help out, but his carefree outlook on life, was difficult for most to accept. He was a committed environmentalist, founding a herd of almost extinct local cattle to graze land important to wildlife which would have been lost without his work, combining this marketing the organic meat (in association with Slow Food) . He was a passionate hunter and falconer and from childhood a horse lover.
I wrote a bit about him on a Blip in 2013 and his wonderful horse stables.

He probably would have wanted it to happen the way it did - out alone hunting wild boar, it appears he slipped when climbing down from a "high chair", the rifle loaded with high calibre bullets strapped over his shoulder and the safety switch off.

He will rest in peace knowing his wife and two (20+) daughters are financially secured but would typically not agree, that they and his friends would rather he was still around.
As was sung at the service -  "I did it my way"

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Early morning sunshine and so Angie set off with the dogs and Rosie. I was looking forward to getting a Blip of Rosie under saddle at long last. Camera at the ready and waited for the call to come and pick up Flash. It never came. They had a leisurely ride and amongst others had a long chat with our forester who as expected said he was still waiting for the right weather to get on to our patch. He did at least ask if she thought we were in immediate danger!

Back home, Angie then pulled out Sultan for some exercise on the sand school. He was soon looking tired and sweating in the warm air so Angie didn't work him too hard and as compensation, let the horses on to the fields for the first time in a few days. Strangely he found the energy to gallop out (try to find the poor chicken frozen to the spot) and with his two colleagues took a "Piglet" bath. We now have an Eeyore!

Before the next bout of rain, snow and wind arrives, took the opportunity to bring in a haylage bale. The last round bale of 2013 has been looking very oval the last few weeks and as soon as I tried to lift it, realised it was not going to be useable. Took off the plastic wrapping and sure enough it was soaking wet. I think a small hole which had been patched when it was harvested had opened up when the bale it was lying next to a month ago was removed and thus exposed it to air and moisture. It may just be useable for deer, so sent MrB a photo asking if he wanted it.

So took the first bale from 2014 and on opening it, looks much better than the 2013 bales. Until 2012, we had rented a field and organised the haylage ourselves. In 2013, the field had been sold so our friendly farmer Franz offered to provide us with bales. He really did do everything he could to fulfill our wishes but after over 50 years of successfully producing quality feed for high production milking cows, it is difficult to break with tradition. The 2013 haylage was OK but Franz saw that there was room to improve. Last summer he trusted himself to let the grass dry a bit longer before pressing and wrapping it. Will probably start feeding it tomorrow and see what the horses think. Our initial nose test was positive - it doesn't smell of sileage.

Haylage is a complicated, costly and chancy feed, We have used it for over 10 years now, due to problems with storing hay. I think though that we ought to "revisit" the issue again. Average haylage beats poor hay every day but good hay beats everything else hands down and I am sure much better for Rosie with her health problems.