Rainy day.

It has been raining since last night, a bit of a disaster in central Italy. Peps is sleeping on his bed and I am trying to figure out what to pack first. I have sorted out a few issues like the expiring driving licence and speaking with the boss, getting rid of an old motorbike I had and posting ads for things I don't really want to carry to Ireland...
Packing your stuff is a little bit like going through your life. You come across long forgotten items and it can be quite emotional at times. That is a picture of my first dog. Never forgotten. It was taken by a friend visiting me in Scotland with a film camera. He was my only constant point of reference for many years. He would have been an excellent sheep dog.

The last few touches

So there she is, all pretty and fenced off from the fierce cattle that will be there in a few days.
There is also a sad note today, just when I thought everything went alright with my supervision of the farm, I lost a chicken. It was actually pretty early when I put them in but the fox has been around this past week and I'm afraid she got me. The only hope is that she is roosting somewhere. I have been finding them up in the trees recently but I have little hope.
With all the people cutting hay in the past few days, the foxes have been pretty active, perhaps because they don't have their usual hunting grounds.

Delivery day!

The mobile home arrived on Thursday!! We did need the tractor in the end but it all went pretty smooth and apart from a bit of gutter, the light on top of the door and a piece of water pipe, it was all ok. I doubt I'll manage to sleep in it before I leave for Italy though, I'm leaving the day after tomorrow and I could sleep there tonight but I guess I'll just stick with Whizzie's cabin for the last 2 days :)
I have been on my own on the land for the past couple of weeks and I have been very lucky with the weather, the ducks have started laying and the new Mr. Rooster, who still has no name, has been behaving very well. I guess he just needed some time to settle down and he's not as nervous and mean as he was when he arrived. The bees are very happy too, for what I can gather with my limited knowledge, and are taking full advantage of this spectacular end of a very wet and cold summer.
I will leave with sadness and cannot wait to be back. I hope I will resume to a more constant flow of posts and pictures in october.
Ciao!