Hi from Down Under…… that’s it, nothing more to see……

No not really … I do lie, a few things have happened in the past week of course, it’s me, nothing is ever straight forward or simple at the Deacon’s house.

Duchess is currently attending her first “personal space respect and education” class with Sahra (trainer) who has had to modify her yards and one or two methods to accommodate our big girl (17hh). Sahra, not deterred by Duchess’s size, has got her moving and complying beautifully even in her first week we can see a vast improvement. Rebel (now 11 months old) will be delivered for his first training session next Saturday, Duchess comes home same day, so we start changing our routines slightly to incorporate the repetitions needed to maintain her new good manners.

Unfortunately the dust and dry weather seems to have set in, we’ve had no rain here for 9 weeks or more now and nothing seemingly due any time soon. We are hand feeding everyone and have mineral blocks in all paddocks to keep up with the scorching heat and lack of paddock feed. Duchess and Rebel are hairy and moulting with this sudden heat, but Pearl (now 6 months pregnant) is a short hair and looks beautiful no matter how grotty and matted her coat may be – it actually astounds us how fab she looks when she is pregnant.
 

 
The minis are getting older and Raine is struggling with some arthritis in his hips these days, we have to keep up with the foaming washes with Passion and Greg and will need to get some special feed for Raine to keep his weight on now he’s an old man the ribs and back bone are showing – used to be the opposite keeping the weight off most of the time avoiding laminitis.

The dogs, cats and birds muddle along much as they have always done since joining our menagerie with the hotter times keeping them under the house most of the day. The geese are laying, much to the delight of our regular buyer who can’t wait for the season to start each year. Our sleepy Saturday turned nasty yesterday with the neighbours two dogs attacking Taybah in his own yard AGAIN (5th time in last 4 years), so once the vet had sorted him out ($90 this time) I finally reported the incident to the council to make the neighbour confine her dogs in their own yard so ours are free to run about their own property. Our visitors on the day were horrified to witness the attack and bundled their kids into the car, worried the marauding dogs would be targeting them next.

Today we’ve washed the two minis and Hully (Taybah is off the wash list with injuries) with work to be done tonight with all things related to the GHHFD committee – AGM is coming soon and forms need to be chased up and preparations made for the day. Reb’s sends his kisses