Perhaps I spoke to soon about it being so dry. I woke up to hear rain pelting down, and then a whopping crack of thunder rattled the house. I got all geared up in my wet weather gear and went up to see the family. Hoby came with my too in his raincoat, side stepping all the puddles. There was no noise coming from the pig pen so I peered around the corner and found the sweetest sight...Sheamus and Tallulah spooning in Sheamus' big bed. Tallulah was snuggled right up to Sheamus with her back against his warm belly. I tiptoed around but their hearing is so good that my gumboot-ed shuffle was not going to go unheard. There were a few grunts but no squeals of being squished from Tallulah which was a relief.
All the chooks came out to see me except Slick's babies. I looked everywhere for them, I listened for them but they were nowhere to be found. Poor Slick she looked very lost and kept peering over at the other babies, perhaps wondering where hers were. I suspect the neighbour's revolting cat was the culprit as I found a mangled bird body up the driveway later in the day but it was wet from all the rain and I couldn't tell if it was one of Slick's. The cat had beheaded one of my young chooks before and left it up the driveway in about the same place. I not a huge fan of cats, for a start I'm quite allergic to them but they also seem rather sadistic.
The goats sounded very unimpressed and called out to me as if to say "mum, its raining, do something!" I let them out and fed everyone undercover. Tarka called out to me too, I saw him standing in the paddock trembling with no sign of Ella. I walked through the paddock calling her and found that she'd jumped out of the taped area and was right at the top of the gorse paddock waiting to be struck by lightening. I called her but she was more interested in being up in the wind and rain. Tarka was freezing cold, his knees were knocking together, literally. I chucked a halter on him, put him in a stall, made him a warm bran mash and rubbed him down with a towel. Then I draped an old dressing gown of mine over him and tied the arms around his neck, it fit him perfectly. I left him in the pen with the goats and chooks and Tallulah who'd gone in there to escape the rain and nibble at the dropped mouthfuls of bran mash. I called Ella down, she finally listened and carefully made her way down. Sheamus was happily grazing out in the open paddock, obviously not worried about the rain, with that thick covering of fat who could blame him.
I took some sugar syrup up to the bees, worried that they'd be hungry as I wasn't sure if they'd have any honey stores to keep them going for the day or week if the weather continued. They were all tucked up in bed with only a couple of guard bees at the entrance. The buzz coming from the hive was encouraging. I just hope there is a queen in there somewhere.
When Hoby and I got back to the house Tallulah was there to meet us at the front door, grizzling. I found that she too was trembling with cold. I stripped off my wet outer clothes and Hoby's and wrapped Tallulah in a towel and took her inside, I lay down on my bed (yes, with a piglet wrapped in a blanket) and hugged her. She sighed and snuggled in. We got comfy, Hoby jumped up on the bed too and rested his head on my leg and we all fell asleep for about half an hour. When I woke up Tallulah was heavy breathing and no longer shaking, Hoby was out like a light and looked very happy, the rain still steadily beat down on the roof. I sent Tallulah back outside gave in to the copious domestic tasks that I'd been putting off for a rainy day....well here was that dreaded day!
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