HOW much time can you waste just looking for things that seem to have mysteriously disappeared into thin air, and then just as mysteriously reappear.
And in the exact place you have looked at least three or four times in. Hours, days even.
Today I have successfully relocated a mobile phone, cheque book, accountants bill, television remote control and car insurance document.
All had vanis
hed from the face of the earth yesterday. I have still not found my new laptop but fortunately have been able to utilise an old one for the jobs i need to do. But where is my new one?
In searching through documents, old handbags and carrier bags, I have come across long lost bank statements and bills which I shall be delighted to have discovered when I come to sort out my accounts for this tax year.
Mind you by then the safe place I have put them in will once more have vanished, Atlantis style, under a mound of assorted household ephemera and rubbish.
John meanwhile runs a very tight ship for all his documentation.
He has to. But it does mean that all the rubbish piles up in my office whilst his is pristine and uncluttered.
He has to be organised though. So much paper work. With all the new calves arriving each one requires their very own passport, herd number and tags.
Let just one day slip in recording the birth and chaos would soon ensue. Not that the cows make it easy.
Once more we have had a set of twins. And once more one of them has died. It is so sad. And all to be recorded as well.
These twins were born to another of the oldest cows. She had looked uncomfortable for a day or so and started bagging up. 'Just help me walk her into the crush', John said.
So we did and with a little help from him John, she delivered her calf.
The cow was mad keen on the calf but still not settled.
However she would not be separated from her calf and John was worried about her trampling on her baby, or us, if he tried to get her back to the crush.
Eventually the cow was persuaded and after a brief investigation, John realised that there was another calf inside but that it was facing the wrong way.
A breech birth and needing to come in a hurry before it drowned inside Mum during the delivery.
With some deft, and arm crushing manipulation, a cow's contractions can be very powerful, the calf was safely delivered.
By now the other calf was up on its feet and staggering off round the yard. John penned up Mum and her babies and came in for lunch and to complete his records for the delivery.
Everything looked good. A brief relaxation over Bargain Hunt well deserved.
But tragedy awaited on his return to the yard. The second calf lay peacefully curled up. Dead. Life, tragically short, can be very cruel.
Tragedy waited in the yard for John's return
