down still...

sorry about being scarce, I was just back home from visiting my mum,
when she was taken to hospital due to a stroke, which turned out to be relatively mild, but you can imagine how frightened we all were. My mum is back home today - the hospital wasn't exactly top notch, things gone much worse than I remember, with very few nurses and no standard supplies for bathroom, etc.
anyway, mum's control of her mouth is the only function effected,
and even in these few days she's been improving. At first she could only say "no" clearly, everything else came out garbled. But today I could talk to her on the phone, the first few words now intelligible, then it goes off a bit. But she is not as frustrated and upset as everyone else was... She has her laugh, which is very comforting.

back at the farm there were major escapes, we had no dogs, none, for about 3 days. 3 girls from the village came to our gate telling us about the wherabouts of our deserters. It is not a nice feeling when all these years your dogs pretend to adore you, and then they can just not do anything else but escape as soon as they can.
when I went up with the girls to this last house of the village, they were in that yard with other loose dogs. At least they did come to me when I called them, and with the girls we managed to take them home. I was carrying Bonzo, and Gus was pulled on a leash.
Elderberry drinks and chocolates were the reward, and we had a nice chat about the school, so I managed to gain inside information - apparently there is a teacher hitting the kids which I am sure is illegal, and I am now on the schoolboard thing as the rep from the village.

We called out the vet as the dogs were in a bad shape full of tics, and Bonzo having bits of him missing. They had painful injections and been tied up ever since. Bonzo seems happy enough - he's got a new place next to the garage, and he is used to being tied up now. But Gus is miserable and was crying for days, stopped now.
we have no choice, if they climb through everything. They can be shot by the local hunters guarding the wild life, also the other dogs are quite aggressive, the girls said.
we'll try to buy the type of fencing that bends backwards, see if we manage to find out where to get these.
the sheep and the goats are happy however, the electric fence is working (touch wood - well that would be shorting!) and they are out eating good lucerne etc. Things started to grow, though Alan is always convinced this time of the year that things won't grow...
the strawberry is flowering, the tulips are doing well, and had to cut the grass...
getting ready for easter, expecting friends and there will be the usual easter egg search in our front lawn on Easter Sunday by the toddlers of the village.
weather is lovely - bit chilly in the morning and 20+ during the day.