Cows,cars and Cameras

It's a funny thing but if you have ever wondered what your stableyard would look like if a herd of cows got into it just don't - I have seen it and it is not a pleasant sight. I could probably have won prizes yesterday for what must have been a great "stunned" reaction when I arrived at the yard. I apparently missed all the fun - I just got the aftermath, no-one around and all seemed calm and peaceful. The stableyard was wall to wall cow shit, the ladders, hose, buckets all scattered around and shat upon. Harvey's door had been left open and apparently there'd been some sort of bovine shitezenfest in there - it was up the walls to a height of around 3 feet and stank to high heaven.
Further inspection ( and the return of Andy) revealed that the cows had got in by breaking down the new barbed wire fence in the corner of the arena ( ! ) that had been put up last week to keep them out. They'd trampled through his garden, shat in his gravel and knocked fences down in several places. The shed, which we'd been thinking was liable to fall down at any time turned out to be stronger than we thought as there'd been a cow standing on top of it !
Despite all this adventuring around the property they'd apparently saved the pooing till they got to the stableyard.
Andy's girlfriend was out with the dogs when the invasion occurred and ended up trapped in the field and unable to get to the house.
There's a photo of Harv's stable that I'll add later if I get the chance - it's currently on Gemma's phone as mine has decided not to work.
Needless to say the cleaning up and fence fixing took a while - we had to drag Harv's mats out and apply liberal amounts of disinfectant, Farmer John has now installed electric fencing all around his perimeter and ours is back on for good measure.
Why is it that cows with 30 acres or so of wooded, lush fields should be so fascinated with our little acreage ?
Luckily they did not get into the fields - just the yard, garden and driveway so our grazing is still intact although a couple of Andy's trees got an unscheduled trimming.

And, by the way, the story about cows being unable to walk down steps is not true, they can, and did, negotiate Andy's tricky twisty stone steps.

On another note entirely the neighbours seem to be having fun throwing their shopping around again - but we now have some very nice video footage of them to pass along today - stupid prats stood right against the gate congratulating each other on their aim - methinks they think the cameras are either fake or of the daytime only persuasion - lol.
My car is off the road again - couple of minor jobs that instantly become bigger when started, isn't that always the case ? We failed the MOT on one balljoint, a petrol cap seal, 2 scratched discs and the horn. Attempts to sort the balljoint yesterday resulted in the suspension spring releasing so now we need to get hold of a spring compressor to put it back together again. So, for the time being it's up on 3 wheels and I'm driving the Renault again which is no great hardship unless I have a sudden urge to either use a trailer or lug large amounts of feed or shavings. Unfortunately that is going to be happening very soon so car repairs are something of a priority at the moment.

Summer has come and past........

Well I think we are just about officially into Autumn now, nights are drawing in at an alarming rate and there is a distinct chill in the air.
August was a washout - it hardly stopped raining for the entire month so very little got done with the ongoing projects such as the stone wall and the horses have had a pretty easy time of it. Lots of wet weather has meant little actual riding and locally I have heard of horses suffering from rain scald and mud rash ( luckily mine were not among them).
With the start of the new college term I'm back into a sort of routine again instead of randomly freewheeling, getting up late and staying online all night which suits me fine, things actually get done.
My youngest has just started college, the oldest is back at Uni and I'm left with the two engineering students who, in theory, now have a "year out" in which they are supposed to get 280 hours of work experience. That is turning into something of a problem as no-one seems to be taking anyone on ( unless they are way out of easy travelling distance) both are now looking for some type of employment to just get some cash as well as still hoping for the work experience to turn up. In the meantime I can find them useful and time-consuming things to do around the house and stables so they aren't sitting on their butts all day doing nothing.
The farriers are due today - that's good timing as Fally is right on the verge of losing a shoe - to the point where we didn't dare do anything with him yesterday.
The neighbours from hell had a quiet Summer - so much so that we actually thought the matter had been resolved, unfortunately I think they were just taking a break and they seem to have started up again - various neighbours are reporting problems with them and apparently they are being dealt with - why does it have to take so long ? Next door cleaned her car the other day and this morning she showed me that it's covered in eggs again. My windows were cleaned Monday and by Tuesday wanted doing again. What is wrong with these people ?

Freaky Friday ?
Well it's getting late now and it's been one hell of a day. If something could go wrong it did. For a start I had kind of volunteered to give Si a lift to work as his car was in for repairs - that was 9.30 this morning - just after I'd written the intro to this posting. I've driven him to work before but this was a different farm ( his bosses mum's ) and in totally the opposite direction. Got him there with no problem ( half an hour) but getting back was a different matter. I got lost and ended up going round in a sort of big loop and arriving back at the yard from the other direction. .The farriers were early ( only ever happens when I'm running late ) but luckily Gemma had got the horses in ready. Shoeing was fraught with problems - inflexible, un co-operative horses ( Fally), one who suddenly appeared to be lame ( Holly) and a dog who managed to poo in the garage ( not Neo).
Once they were done and gone ( which took about twice as long as usual) we lunged Holly who seemed to be stiff as opposed to lame and tacked up the boys. A few days without work and Fally seems to have siezed up and forgotten how to operate his legs -not lame but obviously stiff, we plodded about and got him loosened up and called it a day at that. Gemma took Harvey up for a run around the field and he came back bleeding from the frog - looks like he snagged a stone on the way down. Great - get the first aid kit out......
So finally we turned them out and cleaned up the mess and went to drink coffee.
Andy's away and the builders are doing a few jobs - shame is that they seem to think that I know what they're supposed to be doing !
By this time it was getting close to 4 o'clock so I'm thinking towards collecting Si so he can get his car back and I can then collect my daughter from the college bus.

And, after all that, I actually forgot to post this - d'oh - brain not engaged properly it seems........