Hello from our Winter Wonderland… ❄️

… Just checking in from our very wintry corner of the world. Mornings at the moment in our house seem to be spent mainly crunching up and down the frosty leaf-covered path to de-ice the cars, warming hands round coffee mugs and adding an extra wee something to the rats’ morning feeds; with evenings having settled into a home-as-quickly-as-possible routine: hat and gloves pulled on at the farm, Charmer walked carefully over the glistening yard and tucked up in a deep-banked straw bed, before heading home to get settled in for the night.

This morning we woke to our thickest frost yet, some new challenges tossed in to the farm routine with frozen pipes and padlock on the gate, Charmer more grateful than ever for a big breakfast to get him warmed up for hitting the icy hill. There’s something I love so much about these really crisp winter days – they are so much brighter than the muddy trudges of a rainy winter, clean and clear, nights under the stars and the moon lingering in the morning.

Picked our way step by step out to the field and when finally mastered our way in the fluffy pony stood by patiently while I smashed the ice from the water bucket ready for a new day.

At home, all has settled well, and Harvey, Ty, Reuben and Perry are all doing fine. We have put the brakes on the bonding we were doing between the four of them at the moment as, although most of the time things were peaceful, we did have a bit of an issue with Ty being overly aggressive at times and Reuben also being overly nervous, which was proving to be a bit of a stressful mix for all of them. Decided we didn’t want to persist at the moment while Reuben and Perry were so new to us and didn’t have the same sense of security. We will likely try again a bit further down the line, and might consider having Ty neutered if that would help, as generally the older two did seem glad to have new friends and I do think it would be best for them to be in a bigger group as they get older, but the scuffles when they did break out were just a bit too intense at the moment and didn’t want any of them to be hurt.

So, for now we’re back to a two-tier system in our pet corner, with Ty and Harvey making themselves at home in the Savic Freddy they started their life in with Chae and Winnie, and Reuben and Perry, since Perry in particular is very active with boundless energy, in the slightly bigger Mamble. Looking forward to furnishing both more coming up to Christmas with more wheels and toys and optimising the height of both cages, but at the moment all are happy and settled in their new homes, and I’m enjoying having two lots of cuddles every night as they all come out to free range in stages!