This week

It was  lovely to have Master C and Miss F back for a long weekend, they stayed till Monday so were put to work cleaning out the hanger, our Monday morning ritual during the winter weeks. With short breaks in between waiting to refill the tractor with cow poo brother and sisterly loved ended with fighting as usual, M C couldn't resist breaking the ice he found on a water bucket and of course what do you have to do with that ice - wind your sister up.

Once the cows were cleaned the pigs were replenished with straw in their arks and cabins, easier said than done as the pigs love new straw which proves a tad difficult to get in their beds as you need to get in the cabins too a bit scary when you have four or five pigs trying to get in to help sort out the straw your putting in, they get very excited and in your face as their not small piglets any more plus the mud adds to making the whole manoeuvre that bit harder.

Farmer J started to chop the wood we brought down from the woods. I was chief stacker - if only he chopped the logs into easily stake able straight ones so you get a neat log pile which will stay put for a year before being re stacked under cover for the following year. Farmer J also found more trees fallen down in the bottom field. - If only he would stop finding wood I would have more time to knit my new project, which I have unpicked quiet a few times so far.

Franklin is no longer wearing the collar of shame, he didn't get the spatial awareness thing driving everyone up the wall with his crashing around into things. He did managed to master eating with it on and it came in very handy for shelving leaves and snow up in, the snow stayed in it which then left puddles on the kitchen floor as it melted. We got the results back form a second look at his biopsy. Sadly he has a tumour, cancer of the blood. He can have his back leg amputated but the tumour may come back somewhere else so we have decided not to put him through such a major operation for an old boy and let him enjoy the rest of his life. His enjoying his walks and managing to gulp down his food in time to hover over Milo while he eats his, has best position in front of the fire and his bark has returned along with his grumpiness. When the time comes we will know, it may be weeks or months but wont let him suffer in pain.

The weather has been a mixed bag, the small amount of snow we had stayed around in parts where the sun doesn't reach for ages. Frosty mornings with sun made it warm working in but chilly once in the shade. Then it turned wet with dark skies and foggy patches.

Farmer J took me out for a Valentine meal at Cote Sauveur's in Villefranche de Rouergue. Dessert was half a chocolate mousse heart. Farmer J gave me his, so romantic - no he doesn't like chocolate I gave him my 3 raspberries (eaten the 4th myself) good swap me thinks!