We are now into March and the first two months of this year have been busy and a hard slog for me. The end of 2014 I was headhunted, now bide your laughing. I have certain qualities that I bring to the table that are of value to some. I tell you for some I'm an acquired taste and for others I may be a little to bitter. I'm not for everyones palate that's for sure and it can only be a fool who thinks they can please all the people all the time. I certainly have put some time into my blog in cutting the wood from the trees over the last few years and if you are still onside, then I guess you must have a very discernible palate. Lol Now back to the headhunting, (You should of stopped laughing by now with the idea of me being headhunted). I relief milk for two farms. One I milk three times in the week for and two milkings every other week end and the other I just milk the whole weekend every other weekend. The one I just milk for every other weekend is the closest, being around five miles away and the other farm is more of a trek being fifteen miles away. The closest farm I milk for is a smaller herd milking after block calving this year 102 cows. This herd is an exceptionally well run herd of cows, being predominantly Holstein Friesian, but in recent years they have been crossing with the British Friesian. This also is a tb free herd and in this area that is pretty amazing. The only time they have had tb, was after the tragic foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 and their herd was culled due to being within the cull area of a neighbouring farm being confirmed with foot and mouth. As they started to restore the herd on farm, buying in cows, they had a couple with tb, but have now been tb free for several years , after restoring the herd fully. Lovely parlour and lovely cows, and with being that much closer to me, when at Christmas they asked if I could milk for them more, I would of been a fool not to accept. Although I enjoy the other farm I milk on, the distance coupled with milking more cows through a parlour that is not the easiest to work in for my height. I decided to give notice to them, so I could do more milking on the other farm. Never easy to give in your notice especially if you like the people. I let Christmas pass and the first week in January gave Adrian my notice and he visibly and verbally conveyed his disappointent in losing me, but understood my reasons. So I handed in two months notice which I have just finished and to keep all parties happy, the last two months I have been milking all weekend every weekend and a couple extra milkings in the week. Also their has been a bit of emotional pressure with Adrian offering to pay me more, which I felt very uncomfortable with and I told him, "If it was about money, you know I would of said something." As I had just asked for a pay rise a few months before, which they had agreed to. He also just before the end of the last month out of the blue said, "You are not really leaving us, are you Jane ?" You see the two farmers I work for, other than me milking the cows, they do the rest of the milking and finding a good relief milker is like gold dust. You can find tractor drivers two a penny, but a reliable relief milker who knows their way about cows and enjoys the job, well they are sparse upon the ground. So when you get a good one, you will try your hardest to keep them. Someone I used to milk for until they retired from farming said to me, "Whenever I come in the parlour and you are milking. However bad it's going, I always know I'm going to get a smile from you. Do you ever do being miserable ?" I suppose that's one of the things I bring to the table, optimism. I sort of finished milking for Adrian this Sunday, because of the time of year I'm going to carry on doing every other weekend for him, until the cows go out, to lessen my feelings of guilt. It's a sort of weaning off process from me. Lol So it's been a hard slog for the first part of this year and with the children and dogs needing their attention to, it was no wonder I got struck down with a nasty old cold the start of February, which my husband and me have still got irritable throats from. Things will get easier now though as the days stretch out and the weather starts to warm up which always makes life a bit more tolerable. Let's get on with an update now for Lola. Lola is from Millie's last litter back some three years ago the Spring of 2011. "Dear Jane, I hope that you and yours are well. I thought that I would email an update of how our lovely Lola (Millie's litter 2011) is doing. She is an absolute dream and we totally love her, and couldn't imagine being without her. She has such a wonderful personality and character and I am certain this is due to the love and care you provide your dogs. Not to mention, she is beautiful! Here is a photo of Lola this weekend showing off her new haircut. She has just woken up and is slightly grumpy with me! She will be three on March 13th and time certainly flies! We have been following the progress of Poundlane and there are some exciting times ahead this year. It will be really interesting to see the union of smudge and Henry and how this progresses. We are also particularly interested in the union of Primrose and Toby. Since we have been following your blog in 2011, this will be the first litter of cavaliers you have bred. I have a couple of questions, firstly, is your waiting list full for this litter, and secondly, do you plan to breed any more litters of pure cavaliers in the future? Will and I both love cavaliers and really respect the love and devotion you have to improving the health of the breed. We're certainly interested in learning more. Best wishes, James, Will and Lola xx" Thanks James for updating us on how Lola is and your email neatly brings me to "what's occurring at Poundlane." The two litters we hope to breed in 2015, we have decided to hold off waiting lists until the litters are born and up on their feet. These two litters if both go ahead as hoped, we want to retain puppies from both litters, so to avoid disappointment to people and pressure from a waiting list. The two litters in 2015, we will not offer to the public until we know the pups, we wish to retain. We are waiting on Toby's MRI scan result and if this is poor, we may mate Primrose with Reggie instead producing a Cavapoo litter. If this happens, details will be published on here and the "Future Litters" page. Information about 2015 litters can be found on the website page "Future Litters" Smudge had her last mating with Henry on the 24th February and we will look to scan her around the 24th March to confirm if in pups. Fingers crossed that although we know Henry can walk the walk, that his sperm also know how walk the walk and in the right direction. Lol A couple photos to end on. I made a cheesecake at the weekend. So, we had a cheesecake Sunday and a cheesecake Monday and Tuesday to finally eat that mother of all cheesecakes. The dogs did get a few licks of our cheesecake plates as they got put in the dishwasher, but could you imagine the backside carnage if they eat all that. The back house (utility) where the dogs sleep at night, in the morning would of been rough scat from top to bottom literally. Lol Comments are closed.
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“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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