This morning was a good old ground frost and as the sun rose the mist rose up off the River Taw and crawled up through the Taw Valley that lies beneath the front of our home, here in Pound Lane. Glourious bright day with a bit of cut to it, great dog walking weather.
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On Saturday Blottie will be 5 weeks since her last mating. She was mated over four days, so she is somewhere in the region of 5 weeks pregnant and each day now you can see she is blossoming.
Got given a couple of good sized pheasant cock birds the other day. Older birds that avoided the guns last year, but unfortunately made the mistake of deciding where I milk that the maize silage pit is a good place to eat and shit. So they got picked off by the farmer I work for with his rifle. They would not known much about it. One was a clean shot right thru the head. Pheasants can get a pain on farms around silage pits and feed troughs. A few years ago when my brother-in-law still kept a few sheep on his dairy farm. He had two ewes take ill and die. It turned out to be a strain of salmonella. which was traced by ministry inspectors to the pheasant shit being left around his sheep's feed troughs. I had some venison in the freezer needing to be used up. So found this recipe A Winter-Busting Game Stew on the internet that is a Venison and pheasant casserole to try. I must admit it was very nice and everyone was happy to tuck in, which is good, as I did enough up for two sittings. Casper has settled in really well since he arrived the end of September Just a new man in my life.
The expectant Blottie lies in front of her Mum Smudge (7 years old) and Grandmother Millie (nearly 10 years old)
Blottie is now just over 4 weeks pregnant and the photos were taken of her last night. She had a patch of hair clipped off her stomach to be scanned on Friday which enables you to see that she has now an obvious filling developing in her abdominal area (she is normally much more tucked, even when relaxed), which at this stage would indicate she is carrying a good size litter. Her nipples are also beginning to stand away from her tummy and look more pink. Blottie's Mum Smudge and Dad Henry asleep together in front of our woodburner. Our daughter Molly decided to take photos of me having breakfast this morning and then Blottie and Henry joining me to enjoy a good back rub, Just look at the bliss on their faces and also mine. Had a big bake up yesterday. Might last the week. We have had a lot of rain over night and it's nearly midday and it's still dank and damp. The video is of most of the pack in the utility after their morning run out with me and they had just all had a rub down with the towels on the floor, as they were very wet and muddy. Next thing on the agenda was to feed them after Henry telling how "Woof" the weather is here today. Notice at the end of the video Treacle tries to mount Blottie. I have noticed over the years that pregnant bitches can often have the other dogs try to mount them after smelling their back end. Must be something to do with the hormonal smells they are emitting during pregnancy. Then notice a rather naughty Reggie try mounting his daughter Treacle, but she soon tells him, "No" and he heeds her telling. Just got back from the vets and in between picking up the two youngest from school and going off milking this evening, a quick blog to say, "Blottie is most definitely in pups." The vet thinks at least five, but from manual palpation I would say, "There could be more than five. Maybe six or seven. Dare I say it, "maybe even eight."" Will be interesting to see which of the methods is closest. Modern scanning or old fashion manual palpation. She has a text book uterus easily felt due to her being a fit and slim dog. Her full uterus horns can be easily felt and it feels like at least three to four pups in each horn, but we will see. Four healthy pups, born easily would be just fine, anything else above that is always a bonus in my books. The photos are of the expectant Blottie and father to the litter she is carrying Ernest, taken this morning.
Last night I gave the dogs some raw hide chews and later found Smudge fast asleep on the living room floor with a chew, looking like she had fallen sleep mid-chew session. The Roast beef we had on Sunday, husband David made in to a stew on Tuesday night with enough left over for me to morph it in to a beef and potato curry concoction along with some Naan breads, using up some fresh coriander that needed to find a home. A couple mornings ago I received an email from Sue who with her husband Jim had, had Lucy from us.
"Hello Sue,
that is great news. Tizzy is a very lucky Cavalier. Love from us all Jane x" Booked Blottie in to the vets this Friday for her pregnancy scan. Pretty sure she is pregnant, so the scan will be more about checking out that all is okay in her uterus and give us an idea of how many pups she is carrying. The photos below are of her with Ernest (the father of the pups she is carrying), a first time Dad. They had been asleep together on the sofa and had just woke up. Our daughter Florrie watched Mary Berry making a Salmon and herb coulibiac on telly the other day and decided she would like to make one. So we made one for dinner last night with a Chocolate cake filled with whipped double cream for dessert. Although, I had my dessert for lunch today. Just republished this blog I published a couple days ago, because I found the full address that Tim Minchin did to the UWA and without background soppy music. Terrierman's Daily Dose published this video of Tim Minchin's Good Advice Is Free a couple days ago, but for some reason I could not view it until today and it's pretty good advice. Number 8 is one I teach my children regularly when out, as I do judge people by the way they treat waiting staff and especially how they leave a table when they get up. I don't care that the waiting staff are paid (not very well) to clear the tables, I expect things to be left in a manner that makes it easier for them to clear that table, not like a bomb has gone off in the middle of it. Serving up our six children's Sunday Roast with Henry watching attentively husband, David decided to capture me serving up his and my plates under the watchfulness of Henry. Henry then though decided he would rather lie on the floor, so I had to give a little encouragement to him and yes, he licks my hand and I then touch food without washing them (which may really gross some out), but you know I can count on one hand the times I've had upset stomachs in my lifetime, so I don't think it's doing me to much harm. If you are wondering where the rest of the pack are in this video. As I had already served up the children's dinners. They were mostly staking out the children around the dinner table by the time David started videoing. |
“The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you,but he will make a fool of himself, too.”
― Samuel Butler Me (Jane) with Puddin' and Teagol, waiting patiently to flush a patch of kale, December 2019
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March 2022
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