Ida’s diary, entry #22

Coo eee

Long time no write.  Sorrrreeeee.

I really haven’t a lot to tell you.  We spend a lot of time at the moment dozing and chewing the cud in the very hot temperatures.  Apparently the smell of our wool and lanolin is drifting over into the front garden.  Our owner has quite a sense of smell mind you, so it’s probably not that bad.

I am nearly as big as mum now.  I don’t sound like mum though, I still have my lamb voice.  I wonder whether my voice will break as I enter adolescenthood 😀

Our owner has noticed that we’re not very polite or caring towards each other when there is food involved!  At chicken bothering time when we get a bit of maize, we climb all over each other and our owner to get our head stuck in the bucket first.  In fact, mum and Inca tend to jam both of their heads in at the same time, I keep secretly hoping they’ll get stuck that way.

Our owners abandoned us the other day.  They headed off to the Auvergne, you know that place I mentioned in an earlier entry with the extinct volcanoes.

AT THIS POINT YOU WERE GOING TO GET A PHOTO.  SOMETHING’S NOT WORKING.  

We were meant to be on our own for nearly 3 days but they were back before we really missed them. Apparently it was nice, and the scenery and architecture was interesting (whatever that is) but here in this house is where they prefer to be.

We have seen a lot of the dog recently but he stays the otherside of the door and doesn’t come and chase us.  Today was a dog free day, as is tomorrow apparently.  He is coming on Thursday though, it’s my owners birthday, he probably has a present for her.

So, sorry no photos.  Just imagine a green, spent volcano with a radio mast on top with a few white clouds in a blue sky.  Got it? There, no problem.

A la prochaine mes amies

IDA

 

Yes I know, I got the entry number wrong.  Just checking to see you’re all paying attention!

Ida’s diary, entry #21

Bonsoir,

Have been having rather a relaxing day today, wandering around the garden ruminating.  Laying around in the sun, and then the shade cos the sun got a little too hot.  The dog came this evening with it’s owner, made lots of noise when it arrived and I bravely ignored it.

Did you notice I used a grown up word up there ^^ ….ruminate.  Well, I have found out today I am a ruminant and, I have 4 parts to my stomach!

Ruminant digestive system

So, even when I am laying around resting after a long graze on the grass,  I am still chewing, ruminating  and digesting.  Apparently, this is rather annoying for my owner when Inca “chews the cud ” whilst he’s resting against the back door, as it’s rather noisy.  His horns make a knocking sound on the wood of the door as he chews away.  I think my owners are considering restricting our access to the back of the house.  That’ll put a stop to the dog getting all noisy the other side of the door.

I noticed that that Tottie Limejuice lady has mentioned me on her blog, Tottie’s Book Blog.  In fact, I am now mentioning her on my blog, we could go on backwards and forwards if we have a mind to 😀   I liked being mentioned, it made me feel very important.

What else, oh yes.  Apparently my human age is about 2, so I can feel some tantrums coming on.  I am surprised, I feel older and much more grown up than a 2 year old human, in fact I could probably fend for myself if something happened to my mum.  I hope nothing happens to her 😦  She’s still feeding me, but as I am so tall now I have to get on my knees, it’s not very easy.

Sorry there are no photos to show you, maybe there will be by the weekend.  My owner is not really paying me enough attention.

Hope you all sleep well.

Bon nuit a tous.

IDA

Ruminants

Ida’s diary, entry #20

Bonsoir,

Ca va?

The time has gone quickly since I last wrote to you.  We’ve had lots of rain and not a lot of sun.  I’m not sure I will ever get to know what proper summer is.  Apparently it was the longest day a couple of days ago,  so now the evenings are drawing in!  Scary thought.  I wonder what this garden looks like under snow, and how I will find grass to eat.

I was having a chat to a nice lady called Tottie Limejuice this morning who has written a book that my owner was just reading, it’s called Sell the Pig and my owner said she’d help me mention it on my blog, so here it is.  Apparently there is a sequel on the way, and I checked; it’s not called Eat the Lamb, so that’s okay then.  My owner enjoyed the short book and saw no pig in it all!

So the dog was here earlier, once more in disgrace 😀 haha.  Apparently, and I am wondering whether there was a motive to his action, he rolled in dead sheep this morning 😦   He was bathed  several times and still didn’t smell good.  When my owner asked what does dead sheep smell of, the dog’s owner said sheep.  Hmm, do you think the dog was planning on infiltrating the flock under cover?  So you see Simone, whilst I am trying to accept that the dog is another creature and that we are all equal, I think I need to keep my wits about me and not get too friendly.  The nicely bathed dog rolled in something here too whilst he was here, I wonder why they bother with the bath.

The 3 week old chicks were allowed out into the garden for the first time this morning.  My owner thought they’d be okay now out in the big wide prairie with their mum.

Apparently they’re cute and mum is pretty. (She doesn’t have a blog though, does she 😀 )

They stayed out for about 2 hours until Inca decided to go and bother them….then their mum took them back to the safety of the coop.

That’s all the news from here at the moment, not very exciting I know.  I hope you’re paying attention Maria.

a la prochaine

IDA

Ida’s diary, entry #19

Alors, c’est moi Ida.

I have been resting this morning in the warm weather and hoping that it doesn’t rain again.

The big owner is riding around here taking away my grass!  I hope he leaves us some.

Last night my owner noticed that we were playing races around the garden.  She wondered whether we had deliberately waited until dusk, so that she couldn’t video this event.  It’s something we do at the end of the day, and we enjoy racing and playing  for about 10 minutes before settling down to a bit more eating and sleeping.  She also wondered why we would use up all this energy we’d worked so hard to take on board over the day.

My owner was having another wander around internet land the other day and came across this,

Rectangular pupils

The reason these animals have rectangular pupils is because this is what helps them avoid predators. Rectangular pupils tend to get very narrow during day time, which gives animals a greater accuracy of depth perception in their peripheral vision. Traditionally seen as prey, thanks to their eyes these animals are able to avoid predators.

she thought you’d be interested.

She also came across this,

Wiki on Black Sheep

which she also thought you might like.  If not, please humour her, she tries hard.

She’s been searching on Ewe Tube for a good rendition of Baa Baa Black sheep, but so far has found nothing to her taste.  So, if you can find a good one, please let her know.  Meanwhile, my Facebook page has 32 like and I can now see Insights (allegedly) but as usual with Facebook they give you a carrot and then move the goal posts as you reach your goal.  So, having managed the 30 likes, I must now wait 7 days to see what Insights there are to be seen.  Being a lamb (probably sheep now), I will have no insight into the Insights whatsoever.

Finally, I’ve been having a bit of a conversation with Simone (or is it Wini).  She’s learning me to be less prejudiced so that I am more accepting of the dog who chased me! (yea right) and the chickens who try and peck me if I get too close.  I am hoping she’ll come and try this out for herself and see how she likes it!

That’s all for now.  There are very few exciting events to share with you and not even a photo for today’s blog.

A+++++

IDA

Ida’s diary, entry #18

Salut,

I thought I’d do a quick blog to tell you about yesterday.  Those of you who have liked my Facebook page Ida’s Facebook page will already know.

Yesterday afternoon, our owners and the dog’s mum came out into our garden with a long pole.  They stood underneath one of the trees poking it with the pole for about an hour.  The dog came out too on his leash.

So, we were resting in the shade in our favourite corner, mum wasn’t resting as much, she was keeping an eye on the dog.  Dog seemed to be relaxed on his leash, so my owner (I wonder about her sometimes) decided to take the lead off and let him roam.   So, he roamed for a bit and then he roamed a bit to close to us and we ran for it at the double.  Of course, that made him chase and chase us.  Not a very good idea in the heat, and it was pretty scary.  Whilst he was chasing us we did a different sort of run when he was close.  Thumping our back legs on the ground in a sort loud hopping style.  My owner thinks this was a warning to the dog (who didn’t seem warned).  After 2 minutes (which to me felt much longer) the biggest owner growled at the dog and the dog stopped and looked a bit sheepish ( well, that’s what I heard them say, I didn’t think he looked like us at all).

Sheep chaser.

So, after that we were secured in our shelter, out of the sun and away from the dog.  I was very scared and very relieved to be behind the gate.  I was only talking earlier in the morning, about how I taunt him from the other side of the glass door  He’s here again this morning, and I am hoping he stays at the front of the house.

I think we were in trouble again yesterday, we got into the hen house again and ate all the food.  Luckily there wasn’t a lot of food to eat. Our owners have made some more adjustments to security of doors now, so that won’t happen again.

That wool of mine is getting very thick, it’s ever so hot in this heat.  I have to keep this coat til next year now.  I am told I’ll be happy to have it come winter.  It’s been thundering and raining so far today.  Our owner says that there is thunder and rain for the next 2 days.  It doesn’t bother us, and if the rain is really heavy we can go in the shelter.

Alors, a la prochaine.

IDA

Ida’s diary, entry #14

Salut,

Summer has finally arrived and we’ve been spending quite a bit of time in the shade.  It’s been a lovely day and when we’ve not been snoozing in the shade we’ve been eating.

Me, resting in the shade.

I think Inca has fallen in love with our owner, he spends quite a bit of time letting her stroke and scratch his neck, and checks her to see if there is anything edible on her person.

That man with the noisy machine was round in our garden today, this time he did leave us some grass though.

I think we might be in trouble, there are not many leaves left on the fig tree ;-/

But there are a few figs on there….not sure we can reach them.

Each night, at around sunset, we come up to the house and let our owner know that it’s sunset.  She has a reminder on her computer to make sure she doesn’t forget to lock the chickens up.  She probably doesn’t need the reminder now we’re here.

She thought you might enjoy this video.

Hello to Maria, Jo and Debs.

Love,

IDA

Bonsoir peeps,

As I said yesterday, there are chicks in henquarters.  Overnight another hatched and now there are 6.

This is five of them with their mum this morning.  The one which hatched overnight is still under mum until it is old enough to come out.  My owner hopes that most of the chicks will turn out to be hens.  It’s usually difficult to tell until they are older whether they’re boys or girls, unlike us lambs.

I am growing fast at the moment and my owner can’t tell whether I am gaining weight, or whether it’s that my wool is expanding and compared to mum and Inca, I am looking rather plump.  My owner offered me some mint to eat the other day, I refused it…..possibly a good thing!

I have noticed that my half brother has found his inner lamb recently.  He hops and skips down the garden more than I do!  Do you think it is because he is castrated.  He certainly seems rather lambish compared to me who is feeling rather grown up.

We had a look in the kitchen last night….might check it out again sometime when no one is looking.  It’s got some interesting smells that need investigating.  I can smell the dog has been there.  I heard that my bigger owner is planning on driving around our grass with his noisy cutting machine tomorrow.  I hope he leaves us some grass to eat!

So, until the next time Bah

IDA

Ida’s diary, entry #13

Cou cou,

C’est moi.

Things have occurred at henquarters over night and we are glad to announce the arrival of 3 new chicks, not sure of their weights 😀

Apparently, there are three more eggs well on the way to hatching and not only that, there is a lonely chick at another house who will be coming later today to join these chicks.  It seems that by tomorrow there will be 7 new chicks.  I do hope they want to play with me, I have been able to persuade the others so far.

That’s all for now, tomorrow will add some more photos of all the chicks.

a plus

Ida’s diary entry #12

Salut mes amies,

Oops, it’s been several days since I last posted.  I blame my owner, she’s been busy.  She did that painting that I got involved in, and the found other things to paint, along with getting the house up to scratch for the first guests of the year.  The guests were here for a whirlwind visit and then they were gone.

I’ve been eating lots of grass, and when I can reach, lots of leaves.  My owner sometimes helps me reach the leaves by holding the branches down for us all to nibble on.  Having used the word nibble it’s actually rather more than that.  We eat fast and furiously given the chance.  We still don’t get into the chicken run in time to steal the food.  We get a handful of maize to share to distract us whilst the chicken bothering is going on.

The weather has not been brilliant, lots more rain again, and we’ve used the shelter when it rains heavily.

There is news from Henquarters.  Mrs Pekin has been sitting on some eggs and they’re due to hatch this weekend.  At the moment, a couple of the eggs have pipped.  So, we’ll see how many chicks arrive from the 6 eggs.

Photo of me with a weed jauntily placed on my wool.

The sun poked through for a moment, I couldn’t help smiling.

Got to go now, that dog is here with his mum, and my owner is cooking curry.

Hello Debs x

a la prochaine xxx

IDA

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