Ida’s Diary entry #11 Enfin le soliel.

Morning,

It’s been a lovely morning so far, the sun is out, the grass is dry and when our owner went down to let the chickens out where were we……in the shelter!  She finds us a little confusing I think.  Anyway we came out and as usual made our ram raid into henquarters.  It doesn’t work nowadays, as our owner has picked up the chicken pellets before we are through the door.  Just as well really, as she received and email from a friend this morning which goes like this;

Don’t let them do this, we had 3 full-size sheeps break into the hen- house during a thunderstorm,  they gorged on granules and were dead by morning! They died of enteric toxaemia, they couldn’t produce stomach acid to quick enough to cope with the bulk of food and they died of clostridium poisoning (the weak acid didn’t kill the bugs).

It’s good that she knows this now, and she has said she will be extra vigilant now she knows.

So, there has been some stuff going on on the terrace called Shabby Chic, so I thought I should investigate.

Apparently these tables are being “made over” whatever that means.

I think she means Shabby Sheep….

So, after investigating the painting, I decided that I was exhausted and laid down to eat, and promptly fell asleep.  It’s a hard life.

There’s a truly shabby sheep in that video….mum still looking rather scraggy.

Me sleeping, and next a closer look at my feet.

Nearby whilst I snoozed, this flutterby was enjoying the sun too.  My owner believes it’s a Fritillary, but has no idea which one.

So, that’s it for now, and it’s not even midday.

a la prochaine.

IDA

Ida’s Diary entry #10

Bonsoir,

No change in the weather, still feels like Autumn.  Poor mum and Inca who were sheared a few days ago 😦

Nothing to tell you really.  We’ve spent much of the day in the shelter, and it looks like tomorrow will be very similar.

My owner has been changing things a little on here, and wonders whether you like it.  Please let her know what you think.  She also came across these on Pinterest, you can see what else she likes (or doesn’t like) on there.

It’s that time of day when the chickens get put to bed and we make a run for the food.  So, have to dash.

a demain (peut-etre)

Ida’s Diary entry #9

Yes, you guessed, it’s me again.  Writing to you from a very wet central France.  Nous on s’ennui sous la pluie.

Wet and windy, cold and boring Outside The Asylum on a Sunday.

We’ve spent most of the day in the shelter and our owner found out when she called us to wish Izzy a Happy 9th Birthday!  We came eventually, covered in straw and dust, a sure sign that’s where we’d been.

I’ve noticed I have a new follower, so wanted to say hello to Claire, nice to meet you.

We thought we’d check to see if there was any food on offer when our owner came down to put the chickens away.  I tried to eat anorak….twice!  Mum just hung around by the food bins hoping they’d be opened again.

Okay, despite telling Maria this wasn’t a daily diary, I’ve managed to blog daily at least once. Must pay attention to my self and slow down.

Gros bisous

IDA

Ida’s Diary entry #8

Bonsoir mes amies,

As promised earlier there is some video footage to share with you.  My owner, despite her headache and her run in with Amazon this afternoon (more about that later) has managed to work out again how to upload to YouTube.

First video is us waiting for our owner to open up.

Next, we’re in the hen house whilst the food is still there (rarely now!)

Food glorious food.

and this is Inca after the food which is now gone.

On normal mornings we get persuaded to wait outside until the chickens are out.

It’s been very wet today, but our owners were out so didn’t see whether we used the shelter, and I am not saying 😀

The dog is here at the moment, he is being dogsat.  He would love to come and see us, but he has to stay the other side of the door.  I go to the window and taunt him, we stand nose to nose and he gets excited and can’t get me.

This is him earlier playing his favourite game with a water bottle.  It starts off half full of water, and eventually he pierces it and begins to chew it.  At that point, my owner retrieves it and he gets another one half full.   If he’s not going for a walk, this is a great way to wear him out.  He’s now sitting watching telly, as most dogs do.

So, this afternoon when my owner got home, she’d received and email from Amazon explaining why (she’d asked) her book review wasn’t published.   After reading the email she was pretty annoyed, and you can see all about it here.

Amazon and the false assumptions.

So I hope Maria that you’re happy with 2 installments today.  This isn’t a daily diary, so there will be days when you hear nothing.  In fact there may be many people who are already wishing Ida would be less prolific!

a la prochaine xx

IDA

Ida’s Diary entry #7

Salut tout le monde, c’est moi Ida.

It’s quite a cool morning here today, and my owner has been taking some video footage of us on our usual raid of henquarters.
Unfortunately,  for the moment at least, she’s not able to share the video footage with you as she’s having problems making it suitable for YouTube.  She’s been trying for about half an hour with various instructions and is becoming rather frustrated and getting nowhere.  So in order to maintain her sanity, she needs to go away and do other things, and come back later with a refreshed brain.

There was a short storm yesterday, I’m not sure I’ve heard thunder before.  It got very dark and windy and rained for a little while.  Being hardy sheep, we didn’t use the shelter.

This is a photo of me trying to get some milk.  I only get very brief chances as mum is less interested in feeding me nowadays.  Not sure how long I’ll be able to carry on 😦  Mind you, if you saw how hard I bash her udder, you’d be surprised she’s still up for it!

Anyhow, my owners are going out AGAIN today, so you won’t hear much from me until this evening (peut-etre).  If my owner can get her head around the video converters you’ll get to see them, if not tant pis ;-p

a plus mes amies

IDA

Ida’s Diary entry #6

Salut c’est moi,

Don’t get excited, I know I said I’d post if there was something exciting to say, but it’s a little quiet here today so I thought I’d share some stuff with you.

I hope you don’t mind when I lapse into a bit of French now and again, after I am a French breed, I do live in France and my owner is learning French.

So, mum and Inca are a little subdued today.  I’m not sure if it’s because they’re feeling a bit odd with the change in body size, or whether it was the medicine.

I think Inca is looking great, Lee certainly did a good job with him.  I heard them saying that Inca was ready to be sheared and that mum probably wasn’t as ready.

That’s here at the back, she’s looking rather scraggy.  I think she is thin too where she is still feeding me.  Hopefully as the Spring progresses she’ll improve.

You probably haven’t seen sheep teeth.  When we were down near hen-quarters earlier, and where mum and Inca were sheared, there was lots of stray bits of wool around and of course they smelled good.  So, in order to aid my smelling, I curled my lip up so the smell could be drawn across my tongue.  You’ve probably seen cats do it (and maybe dogs), but here is how it looks when I do it.

It worked really well, I could smell my mum even though she wasn’t there.  It’s a good look, don’t you think.  It reminds my owner of those Creature Comfort adverts from the 80’s.

Of course Nick Park and Aardman are the creators of Shaun the Sheep (not Shorn :D).

Whilst searching for the above, my owner came across this one.  Not as good, but topical.

There is so much on Google, I’ll leave you to search for yourself.

Anyway, I hope I’ve given you a little insight into my life and saved you from something boring like washing the nets curtains.

Before I go, I want to say hello to 2 new followers, Debs from Isle of Lewis, and Jo from New Zealand.  H E L L O  Debs and Jo and share this photo of the pretty flower down at hen-quarters.

Alors,  demain peut-etre

IDA

Shear Terror, Ida’s Diary entry #5

Oh my God!

I thought they’d put my mum in a bag!  I was in the shelter with my half brother Inca and I could hear mum calling and calling.  I kept calling back, I don’t think she could hear me though.   I couldn’t quite see what was going on, but when they let me out, I thought she was in a plastic bag 😦  It’s okay though, don’t worry….after I pulled it around a bit and smelled it I discovered it wasn’t all of mum.  I could hear her calling from somewhere else.  I spotted her over the other side of bonfire where I couldn’t see her.   I found her and she smelled good.  I can’t say she looks good though,  in fact she’s banned me from putting the humiliating photos on here for now.  After a bit a reassurance from her, I  went to investigate what was happening to Inca.

I could see him laying on the ground being held down by my owners and another man, it was very noisy and Inca was very unhappy.  I noticed that were bits of him all over the place and it was quite difficult to understand that not all the bits were him.  It was a bit quicker for him, they said his wool was already to come off.  He was pretty angry just the same.  He doesn’t look quite as bad as mum, a little less scruffy and a lot smaller than he used to look.

Hopefully they’ll both now be more comfortable and not so itchy.

Okay, don’t tell, but this is a sneaky shot showing how awful they look.  I am sure in a week or two they’ll look lovely.

I didn’t like being shut away from mum and luckily, that shouldn’t happen now for another year.

So, that’s it.  I think I’ll take a rest now from blogging until there is something exciting to tell.

à la prochaine

IDA

Ida’s Diary entry #4

Morning………..

I see the lights are on in the house, my owner obviously not slept in this morning.  I wonder why she’s awake, it’s still very early and only just daylight.

Whilst I’ve been chewing the cud, I’ve been thinking about some of the things I can do that make my owner smile.   I can bounce.   Sometimes I bounce all the way down the garden, and it makes Inca bounce too.  Here’s a video of one of the types of bouncing I am referring to.

I love climbing, and often jump up onto piles of things I am not meant to jump onto.  I can also walk backwards quite fast.  I learned it from my mum.  In fact we sheep walk backwards more or less as well as we walk forwards.

There’s something that mum does with her front legs that I am not sure about.  I expect I learn to do it too.  It’s a sort of waving action, and she does it when our owners are around.  If I was good at knowing,  and translating it into human words, I’d guess it was some sort of warning.  So far though, our owner has not found anything on the internet to explain it.  Here is some information about sheep that you might find interesting.  It doesn’t say anything though about the walking and waving.

Animal Corner

So, it’s a big day today.  Later this morning mum and Inca will hopefully feel less itchy, as they are going to be sheared (oops, I’ve given the game away).  It’s okay though, I know they won’t see what I’ve written, so have no idea.   I think our owner plans to tempt them into the shelter with corn and close the gate.  This will make them easier to catch.  Otherwise there will be that chasing game around the garden.  We love it, not sure our owners do though.  We’re going to be wormed too, whatever that means.  I think t means I am going to have some nasty medicine.  I wonder whether it will be mixed with jam to hide the bad taste?

So, this is how he looked yesterday afternoon.

Me with some of those chickens I’ve mentioned.  Not wanting to play as usual.

Last photo of mum before shearing.  Mrs Lavender Pekin and her babies.

Mrs Pekin wanting to have her own blog, and if you look closely you’ll see me at the back trying to persuade a black hen that she’s a black lamb.

That’s enough, you can’t have your own blog!

Okay, that’s it for now.  Of course I’ll be back later with news and views from the shearing shed.

à plus

IDA

PS.  Hi to Maria, my one and only follower and fellow diarist.  Thank you for your faith in me.

Ida’s Diary entry #3

Me again.

Don’t worry, I am playing catch up at the moment.  This post should bring us up to date with life here at our new home over the past 6 weeks.

My owner has been reading stuff on the internet, and is thinking that we may be a bit tall to be classed as pure Ouessant.  Maybe she’ll measure us one day to check.

Ouessants Blog Spot has loads of informative stuff, and it is here that you can see the true small stature of the breed.

Meanwhile, she is very happy with us as ideal pets for the garden,  so we’ll be okay.

Is this leg edible I wonder?

As I have said, I have grown rather a lot in the last few weeks, and I expect I have some more growing to do.

See how big I am.

I’ve been watching Inca getting in quite a tangle with the Honeysuckle.  If only he realised how silly he looks.

Our owner is a little worried about the beautiful clematis being destroyed.  Here is Inca caught on camera.

Climbing to get more of the Ivy, or is it the Clematis at risk?

Not only is the Clematis at risk, there is a Robin’s nest with 4 eggs in up there, hopefully mother Robin won’t get frightened off for good.

Mum and Inca have been very itchy in the last couple of weeks.  There are clumps of their black wool all over the garden where they’ve managed to scratch some off.  For 2 mornings this week, our owner has been woken at 06h30 to the sounds of copper pipes being moved around inside the cave (cellar).  The culprit was Inca, who was scratching himself along the cave wall and against the outside water tap on the patio.  There is now a temporary barrier which worked this morning.

That might not be needed after tomorrow, time will tell.

I’ve told you about the chickens.  There is someone else who turns up every so often.

He spends quite a long time staring at us from inside the house, get’s quite excited and barks and wants to play with us.  His idea of playing with sheep is CHASE.  That’s not our idea of playing, so he’s kept out of the back garden.

So, I think that’s me caught up.  Tomorrow will be a big day, and all I have to do is watch and wonder what is going on apparently.

a demain mes amies.

Ida’s diary entry #2

Hello, Ida here.

Where I lived before there were quite a few lambs, and I loved running and bouncing around with them.  I felt a bit lost when I got here, as there was only mum and Inca.  Mum was busy taking care of me and bleating to keep me near her and Inca hadn’t been with the rest of the flock for a while, so neither of them was ready to play.

Mum (Ivy) and daughter (Ida)

I told you yesterday about the chickens.  Well, they won’t play either, despite my attempts to run around with them.  Anyhow, I am pleased to report that Inca has become playful, and he and I play quite a lot.  I have to pay attention to his horns, and despite me not having any, he likes to attempt to get me in a playful horn lock.  I am pretty sure I am a girl lamb, but that doesn’t stop me climbing on Inca’s tail end and practicing that male technique!  I guess I am just a confused lamb….I hope I get it sorted out before I am fully grown.

I’ve grown a lot since arriving here in March, I am now about 2/3rds mums size.  Oh whilst talking about size I should explain.  The breed of sheep I am is Ouessant (Ushant in English I think) and we originate from a small island on the far west of France, just off the Brittany coast.  This island is out in the English channel and is subject to very rough weather.  We are a small, and very hardy breed which is why we rarely need shelter.  You can read more about us on various websites if you just Google Ouessant.  Here are a couple to be going on with.

Ouessant sheep dot co dot uk

Ouessant sheep dot net

The exceptionally small size of the Ouessant is attributed to the poor grazing on the island, which led to the selection of small sheep for breeding. The island is composed of the same ancient rock as the Land’s End and Lizard peninsulas. Readers might recognise the English name Ushant from the sea shanty Fair Spanish Ladies:

We’ll rant and we’ll roar like true British sailors,
We’ll rant and we’ll roar across the salt seas
Until we strike soundings in the Channel of Old England,
From Ushant to Scilly is 35 leagues.

In April this year, some of my relatives have been taken to Paris to help keep some of the grass clipped around some public buildings. Not sure how they got chosen, or whether I could have attended an audition!

Paris sheep

Video of arrival in Paris.

Don’t tell anyone, but we have used the shelter a few times when the owners aren’t looking.  We like to use it on very wet days and nights.  We’ll also use it in high summer for shade.  When we first got here, we sheltered from the rain under leafless tree!

Inca quite likes our owners, and is always wanting to know if they have anything edible in their hands.  This is him checking to see what camera’s smell like.  There will be more photos of him tomorrow hahaha, not looking quite so glam, in fact I think he’ll be looking a bit sheepish tomorrow.

Alors, c’est tout pour le moment.

A bientôt

IDA