Friday August 21st

It has been a long time since last I posted.

In m own case it could be said that I am suffering from a bit of a melt down. Maybe it is lack of sunshine, maybe we are both just burnt out. It has been a tough 3 years or nearly so as we will have been here 3 years on the 17th October. In that time we have both worked ourselves silly, putting in so many hours I couldn't begin to even count, certainly Adrian has and it is beginning to tell on us.

In the year since August '08 year alone we have had flood and tempest, frost, snow, frozen pipes that meant no water on site for 11 days, strangles, conjunctivitis, ring worm, being told by 2 major charities that we should close, we have done open days, events, trips here and there to deliver ponies, collect ponies, collect hay and feed, been to welfare meetings to raise awareness of equine welfare. We have struggled to get more money into the Trust all the time, relentless in our quest to keep afloat here, to push the place into the 21st century and wake up the Sleeping Beauty that we know is the Lluest Horse and PonyTrust.

We have learned to live on less money because there simply is none. All the things I came here to do, my writing, make butter, bread, my garden, my goats; everything has had to take a back seat to bringing money into the Trust. Adrian is still working 80 hours a week, few rest days, he has never taken all his holiday allocation and we are still running 1 groom short.

Where this is all going to lead to I really don't know. We are due to go to the Falkland Islands for a visit there (Adrian is a Falklands veteran and he is being sponsored to work with some of their horses) but that isn't until November and between now and then we have to carry on, we can't give in, we can't say no we won't do it because the animals still must be fed and mucked out and tended and the fund raising must go on and on and on.

Next year is the 25th anniversay of the founding of the Trust. I hope that it will prove to be a better year for us, that we can slow down just a bit and enjoy being here again. At the moment I have to say that I'm not enjoying it much at all.