Raindrops Falling On My Head

After weeks of drought the weather has broken and we've had four days of rain plus it's turned chilly. Wet weather is also a great time to discover that your gumboots are leaking. Well I actually knew they would as a long split appeared near the base of the right one due to age (they're seven years old) so I've endured weeks of small stones making their way into the boot and lodging painfully under my foot. So next time I get some unexpected cash I'm off to Farmlands (the mecca super store of rural dwellers) to buy myself a new pair.

After weeks and weeks of sitting Cordelia the hen still has not managed to hatch any eggs. The Wyandotte ones should have hatched a week ago but nothing happened. Can't work out what's wrong but I think we're going to have to blame the hen because she's tried three batches of googies without success and you can't tell me that they were all infertile. My friend John says you can buy small incubators cheaply and he'll keep an eye out for one for me.

My autumn clean up has faltered because of the rain. I was trying to remove coats off the angora youngsters but even though we were under cover they still felt damp. I will get back onto this today once we get some clear weather otherwise their coats will web and then matt and I'll lose the lot. I still don't know if I have enough fibre for the Creative Fibre Festival in Taradale, Napier next month but if I have a run on it (unlikely as most spinners are frightened to use it) I will take orders. I need to buy in more breeding stock but have to wait for other breeders to have litters and obviously if they're reputable people they'll only have a couple a year unlike the bunny mill breeders who churn animals out for the pet market, not caring where they end up. Tossing up whether to breed Meadow to Frodo again before winter as their last litter was so good. Then perhaps by spring I'll have new stock to bring in new blood.

Angel cat has still not returned and it's over twelve weeks now. Piper has also been gone four days. I don't know what is calling them out across the fields but when they return they'll be locked in each night from now on. I can't take the worry!