Wednesday 20th October

Another busy time, also one fraught with the dreaded swine flu. Tabby our groom got it first and is still off sick, Adrian next and then myself though we had a lesser attack, only took us a week or so to recover. Sure makes you feel washed out though. There is a lot of it about, everybody we know has had some contact with someone who has had it. Mind you I am only assuming that the symptoms that we had and which matched those on the website meant that we indeed did have the illness, neither of us went to a doctor, don't think you are supposed to are you? Amazing what Lemsip and whiskey can alleviate.

Still enjoying wonderful autumn weather for the most part. Did rain like hell for most of yesterday and of course that coincided with a visit from a load of school children who came up for the day to "do things." We made sure there was some mucking out to do after which I was bombarded with questions about animals and the farm in general. Post lunch was pony rides for all the children before they had to go about 2pm. We can class the visit as a complete success and have hopes that the children will do some fund raising for us this year in their school. it was a first time for this sort of visit, we have had Brownies and home education groups but this was the first of it's type so we can now launch ourselves on an unsuspecting world.

Only blot on yesterday's landscape came when it was noticed that Digit, a pony here on livery was looking decidedly unwell. His eyes were swollen shut, his gums had lost all their colour and he had lumps all over his body. The vet was called and duly arrived, she expressed her concern and the only thing she could think wass that Digit had some sort of allergic reaction to something, we know not what. Had we not acted as quickly as we did, it could have been much worse. He was pumped with steroids, adrenalin and various other drugs and made a complete recovery even though it took several hours. His owner was here as it happened (she was helping with the school trip) and stayed on with someone else till nearly 11pm last night just to make sure all was well.

Keeping the motivation going for all the fund raising projects is difficult. We had to cancel one due to unforeseen circumstances and now really must get to grips with the rest. It is really easy for me to think there is plenty of time but big events take lots of planning to get right and time slips away so very quickly. The sponsored ride needs to be sorted but I can't do more on that till I have the go ahead from other people on various aspects and so it goes on. Now that the worst of the swine flu is gone and summer activities are finished I shall hopefully get my mind to it more easily.