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Hello All Well here are 2 of our girls demonstrating the best way to spend the Christmas Holidays, and I know how much all of you enjoy a "catsnap". I think it is probably because secretly most of us are quite jealous of our feline friends, and would welcome the opportunity to be able to sleep for about 14 hours a day, pop out to snack on the odd mouse or bird, safe in the knowledge that one can return to the warm shelter of the house and have food provided by ones house guests and then disappear back to the warm cosy bed for the rest of the night........Well at least that had been Bluey's plan the other evening until she vomitted all over Gavins bedside rug and found herself being ejected into the rainy night followed by several expletives and a warning that she was banished forever, or at least until the following morning, cos Gavin is a softie. January 2016 plunged us from a very mild December where it had been possible to wear a t-shirt whilst working outside, into heavy rain, hail, wind and thunderstorms with rainbows. A bit like March weather really quite odd, although Gavin takes great delight in reminding me that since we have lived in sunny Dordogne we have yet to have a "normal" weather year, and he has the evidence to prove it with our trusty, yet annoying, weatherbook. The up-side to the rain, which the sheep are not great fans of, is that the pond is full next to the house. I have nearly finished the accounts. That is, a years worth of inputting is done, so I am still left with all the annoying fiddling about to make everything look beautiful and then the transfering of information into a format that the accountant likes. Always good to have a happy accountant. Patrick is still at home applying for some jobs for the spring/summer period whilst lending us a hand with all the various jobs around the place. Emily is under pressure to make some decisions in the next few weeks as she has to complete her uni applications forms. This is her last year at school. Number 3 has no decisions to make yet. Although she would like to have an opinion, we are safe in the knowledge that she will be going to big school later in the year and there is only one choice. Funny the older they get the more they seem to resist growing up and making decisions.  This image made me laugh. Somes up beautifully some of the opinions I have listened to recently.
See you all soon Helen PS Just been told 2 lambs born today thankfully in the warm, dry shed.
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Ben left, Tom right taken one month ago. Hello All It has been a stressful,worrying and accepting beginning for 2016 and the household Franklin, caring for our aged and increasingly unwell companion and worker Tom, our 12 year old Border Collie. Sadly he drifted off in his sleep last night after having soldiered through Christmas and the New Year using his wheels to enable him to go to the toilet independently and have a breath of fresh air in between his very lengthy naps in front of the fire. His officially name was in fact Nap, but we changed it to Tom to try and avoid him living up to his name. We failed on this front though. He was an intelligent worker and extremely obedient, but he did drive you scatty sometimes when he disappeared off to have a snooze under a tree, or wandered off to visit the neighbours when he was supposed to be watching the sheep.  Thinking about it in the last few years since the butchery started, I think Gavin has probably spent more time with the dogs than with me and Tom had been with us since our first sheep in 2004.I tried to find some puppy pictures but it appears we have none and in fact I am not sure we had a working camera when we first arrived, and I don't think camera phones were quite what they are now. There is however this one photo above, when he was about 18 months I guess staring at the sheep behind the fence. He was bought for us by my Grandmother who, I like to think, is now looking after Tom as she died exactly 2 years before him. Unexplainable and comforting.
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February 2024
Helen FranklinI am farming sheep and goats on the Dordogne/Gironde border with my husband and our 3 children. We have an on farm butchery and sell our meat direct to the public via the markets and delivery points in our local area |
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