Annie & Malc are Back!

MJ (Fox 13 meteorologist) is excited….out in the pacific there is another big storm barrelling in, the double Doppler never lies and for the weather lady, bad news is WONDERFUL news !! Here on Gentle Giant Meadows Ranch, her enthusiasm has been met with gloom and doom, another soaker is about as welcome as a trip to the dentist ( and that’s not good, mentally or fiscally !). Last Sunday the heavens opened, big black clouds converged over the ranch, the wind blew and torrential rain fell until the creeks ran like white water and the barnyard began to resemble a muddy pond. As the water level grew ominously higher, drains in the barn began to back up….instead of the water going down, an ugly black muddy soup of everything nasty produced on the ranch ( yes….poop …etc !!) was coming up. My birthday evening will be remembered, not for us a  nice dinner out at a local restaurant, not even a cosy night in front of the television, my lasting memory will be of Greg, butt in the air, arm up to the elbow following a snaking hosepipe up a seemingly endless drain…..in the pouring, soaking rainstorm. I guess that’s farming !! The news of a weather replay this weekend is even more alarming as all attempts to locate the blockage has failed and I don’t need to be a fortune teller to predict that the next few days will be spent….digging a hole and filling it back in !!! FORTUNATELY…for us (smile) yesterday twin sister Annie and her wonderful husband Malc ( who is great at digging and filling in holes ) arrived from England for a two week “holiday” on the farm. Annie’s signature fashion statement accessory down at the barn is her rubber boots and this years bright shiny Union Jack design bounced into Lady’s stall early yesterday morning, attached to a happy smiling Annie who was clearly anxious to get  ready for work.  A steady flow of chatter accompanied the sweeping shuffling and shovelling as stall after stall passed the quality control test and continued as hay mangers were loaded and buckets rinsed and filled. We were still chattering as Annie and her Union Jack boots trundled with a wheel barrow out into my garden to make war on the weeds which have thrived in the warm wet weather and despite my sporadic weeding attacks in between rain storms are clearly working on a total take over. Chattering continued as the weeds flew and a patch of garden was recovered, Annie’s Union Jack boots got muddied and the grateful turkeys happily accepted our overflowing wheel barrow of weeds. It was a good day. (and we are still chattering !!)

While Annie and I were hard at work in the garden, Greg and Malcolm were digging a diversion ditch around the barn to try and stem the predicted flood that we are expecting this weekend. Typically poor Malcolm digs holes and fills them in on his holiday, unusually this time he just dug…and dug…and dug! Now we wait apprehensively for the rain to start. Thanks Annie and Malc…only another 13 holes Malc !

The bull came to Daisy yesterday….well not exactly the four legged head tail and horns type of bull…..more the syringe type but hopefully her three weekly “wanting” episodes will be over and she will spend the Winter cultivating her unborn Spring calf. If the syringe worked…..the valley will no longer resound with her bawls and bellows and a little black Daisy look alike will be born in April. We watch and wait.

Time to go, take care, keep safe M