Holidays & Adventures on a Little French farm

16/07/2025

Despite the sadness that still persists and the huge Eddie shaped hole in our lives, the wheels keep turning and more animals need help so here we are....it's time to meet some new residents! Well, they are not so new to us now as they arrived at the end of May but we wanted to get them settled in and a bit more used to us before I set about stalking them with my phone for pics! Admittedly there is also the fact that it takes me forever to get around to doing posts...😂They are really difficult to photograph I have to say and I will endeavour to get better ones over the coming weeks but in the meantime welcome to Violet, Abigail, Jo, Lily and Tilly. Violet is Tilly's mum and Abigail is mum of Lily...not sure where Jo fits in but she arrived with the others and we are very happy to have her! They are getting bolder every day, especially the two lambs...it's lovely watching them come out of their shells and show their individual personalities.❤ They were part of a neglect case rescued by the wonderful Mudita Sanctuary and we were more than happy to help by taking these 5 tiny ouessants...Eddie and Sid made us fall in love with this diminutive breed so it wasn't a hard decision to say yes! They will be meeting, what we fondly call, the geriatric flock, very soon and I'm sure they will all get along famously!

20/06/2025

Well I think you all know what’s coming after the last post and it's not good…Eddie the mighty little Ram was put gently to sleep on Thursday morning and we are heartbroken. 💔After 5 days and nights of 24/7 care we are exhausted and devastated. He fought so hard to stay despite being at least 13 years old and we fought our hardest alongside him too but it wasn't to be. 😭
We had felt some cautious optimism on Tuesday, he was eating if we hand fed and he was able to sit upright a little better but his legs remained useless. They were strong when he kicked, I am a walking bruise from his little hoofs and huge horns catching me but when we tried to help him stand they would just hang lifeless. We borrowed a sling so he could hang and relieve some pressure on his legs but it didn't help.
Wednesday rolled around and brought a more settled day laid in the shade watching the other animals and quietly snoozing in between being fed delicious snacks. Later it was my turn for a nightshift as Ian had done 2 on the trot and was fit to drop. I bedded down next to him outside in the balmy evening air and we laid peacefully together watching the sun go down and the stars come out…he was calm and content for most of the night , I didn't know it was to be our last night so I’ll be forever grateful to have made this memory with him.
Thursday morning came and he tragically went into bloat which is always a risk when they are down for so long, it's extremely painful as well. The vet was called whilst we syringed in olive oil and jiggled and massaged his tummy hoping to release some gas. After more exams and much discussion we all agreed that it was too much for him and we had to stop. It's never an easy decision and we never make it lightly but whatever had caused this, head trauma, stroke...we'll never be sure..had taken too much of a toll…
We’d only had him for 7 months, along with his pal Sid and the 3 girls, but we fell instantly in love with his little frosty face and feisty ways…which were not very feisty to be fair but we used to let him think he was fearsome if he waved his horns at us....he’d swagger off feeling magnificent but be back 5 minutes later for a little head scratch. A true character.❤
We’ll miss you Eddie with all our hearts and will always wish we'd had more time to spend with you.. it’s been an honour and a pleasure to be your people. Rest easy Little Black Bull...🐃🐏

17/06/2025

So this is my view for the day…it’s not great here I’m afraid…Eddie, the tiny elderly ouessant ram, fell ill on Saturday….he cannot stand and is hardly eating. Somebody has to be with him 24/7 as he tries to get up often and then rolls onto his side which is extremely bad for sheep. So we sit, lay, try and sleep alongside the little man and hope for a miracle. Ian has now done two full nights on the trot so I could sleep but he’s exhausted so it’s my turn tonight. We try and get all our other animal jobs done in between shifts of Eddie sitting…tired and extremely emotional about covers it!! 🥺The vet is here on repeat and we think he may have had a stroke. We are trying all meds we can to boost brain function and he’s had vitamin injections galore. He’s drinking but only picking at food. So please keep the wee man in your thoughts…we have agreed on Friday as decision day so we wait to see if he can coordinate his legs enough to stand…he’s fighting and wants to stand so badly… we adore this little woolly being and desperately don’t want him in to leave us yet…❤️
Big shout of thanks to the wonderful folks at The Big V Sanctuary for hauling all the way down here to help with much needed meds, help, hugs and advice…we couldn’t have got this far without them…true heroes ❤️

29/05/2025

For the past few days we have been locked in a tense battle of wits with Annabelle and Teddy goat who have teamed up to make our lives that bit more exciting…So I present to you…Battle of the Hen Pen, Us versus the Goats….it’s day 3, they appear to be winning…🤪

It all began when the leggy blond Annabelle arrived and embarked on a mission to shake things up in the sleepy world of our little goat herd. After trimming all our trees as high as she could go without using a ladder, she proceeded to zero in on our hen pen area with its’ plentiful, all day supply of tasty pelleted food. I mean, I can’t lay all the blame at Annabelle’s door, Teddy has previous for this crime but we had constructed a sturdy fence around the hen house and run so this had stopped his daily raids. However, the fence proved useless when faced with Annabelle’s long legged jumping prowess and she was bounding in and out at will, hoovering up hen feed with gleeful abandon much to the hen’s disgust. They registered a formal complaint to their landlords, ie me and Ian, so we hatched a cunning plan…or so we thought....
Day one saw us attaching super long posts to the current fence so we could raise the height of the wire netting to 6 feet. It took us half a day and was a bit fiddly but we were satisfied that no way could Annabelle jump that sucker. Two small, hen sized hatches were cut into the bottom of the wire netting at ground level so the hens could get in an out and we spent the rest of the day smugly watching the hens come and go to their all day buffet completely un-molested. Oh the satisfaction of out smarting two goats...Teddy and Annabelle fumed silently whilst Arthur goat was running bets with Maisie and Lola on the outcome…100-1 against the humans…the nerve of him!! 😂
Day 2 and an emergency goaty strategy meeting must have taken place overnight as, by mid morning, loud panicked bleating could be heard and there was Ted, trapped inside the hen pen!! WTF?! 😱We let out the slightly frantic and, obviously, full bellied Ted and huddled up for our own strategy meeting…during which we watched Annabelle stroll over to the pen, flick the latch of the gate up with her nose and bundle in once again…to be disappointed obviously as Teddy had already pigged down the food!! The gate was duly swapped around so it closed against the post and couldn’t be pushed inwards. Ok, problem solved. In the meantime we had concluded that Ted must have climbed up the tree next to the pen and hurled himself recklessly over the wire netting, which did seem extreme but then those hen pellets appear to be like crack co***ne so that had to be it. We spent another hour weaving wire netting into the tree to try and cover every possible means of entry....take that Teddy we yelled triumphantly as we finished the day on a high…go team human! 💪
Day 3 dawned and our cobbled together and slightly rickety defences were still holding but Ian thought he saw a potential weakness along a tree branch and decided it would be prudent to shore things up even more with some spare greenhouse shading fabric which we duly started pinning onto the tree trunk and branches. Teddy watched on from his nearby position in the back of the tractor trailer, casually chewing his cud and soaking up the sun as we congratulated our genius and took the p**s out of him for being out smarted by mere humans. Annabelle strolled by, mouth stuffed full of more tree leaves and glanced disdainfully at our efforts…
We’d almost finished up and I was just passing Ian the last few nails when we saw Ted leap down from the trailer and saunter nonchalantly over to one of the little ground level entrances we had made for the hens. Down he went on his knees and proceeded to wiggle, shimmy and contort his way through the tiny gap and into the pen! We just stood there, open mouthed, whilst he plundered the hen food once again…we hung our heads in defeat…Ted munched on smugly…Ian pottered off resignedly to find a piece of wood to make the opening smaller still…🙈
So far it seems to be working, the hens are happy again and we have relaxed…slightly…
However, Arthur seems to have been enlisted into the gang of criminal masterminds and they have been seen huddled together, staring at the pen, furiously cud chewing and plotting their next move…they don't taking losing well…the battle continues...😂

27/05/2025

Happy 18th Birthday to the lovely woolly Charlie!! 🥰🥰 His birthday was actually the 25th so don’t tell him I forgot to do this post…he’s been asking how many birthday wishes he got on Facebook…he’s needy like that…😂😂 He’s doing great despite his arthritic neck and loving the warmer weather spending most of his days hanging with Lola and Arthur goat. ❤️

20/05/2025

Anybody fancy helping out my favourite little sanctuary?? A like or a follow is brilliant but even better is to become a teamer for 89p/1 euro a month. It’s a fantastic way to help without it costing you much at all. It’s really easy to set up and very safe. 😊 It’d make my year if I could help add a few more supporters for them as they work so hard rescuing and caring for all their animals. This is where the lovely Annabelle came from so she would be very grateful if anyone could help. Without Big V she would still be a breeding machine on the end of a tether…😳 Now she spends her days eating our trees and hanging with her new friends…😂😂

The creaky crumbles are at it again. Shouting loud like all the birds during lake wars.

All we want for our birthday is peace of mind, a loving community, and a safe haven for our animals.

We have a few human treats in our shop, but what we would really like from our 14k supporters is to reach 500 teamers. It's a huge ask, as we have had the teaming site for several years and are yet to crack 320 Ark teamers.

Would you consider making two old farts very happy? and gifting 89p/1.14$/1€ a month. I suppose that's like going out and buying us a beer and some chips. By using 2 emails you could even double it!

It's a trusted site, very safe and there's no fee taken, so we get the whole 89p/1€
Please share if you care 🌷

https://www.teaming.net/bigvsanctuaryandhospice?lang=en_GB

19/05/2025

Welcome to the very beautiful Annabelle and 5 new hen friends for Belle, Daphne and Delilah..who, I am sure, will be thrilled…eventually…😂
Settle yourselves in as their arrival here is a bit of a tale…🙃

So you’ve all probably seen me share the odd post from the wonderful Big V Sanctuary which is an hour and 20 minutes north of us and a magical place that cares for animals of all shapes and sizes. They have over 200 residents at the moment and it’s all managed by Miranda, her husband Jerome and their two children, Wynnie and Louis, which is an absolutely staggering feat and I am in awe of their commitment and care to the souls that find their way there. It is truly a paradise and the care for these often broken animals restores your faith in humanity.❤
Miranda had contacted me about a goat she had who was struggling to make friends with the rest of her goats, the boys were being mean and she was worried that Annabelle was becoming isolated and, although she was getting lots of human company, was in need of some goat friends ideally. It’s a huge compliment to be entrusted with her as they don't normally adopt out, they provide a lifelong home, but very occasionally, like with Lola, another option is necessary. Of course we said yes….our goat gang are very laid back on the whole and exist peacefully with one another so we thought Annabelle would fit in no problem. We also agreed to take 5 of the ex-commercial hens that they’d rescued too, I mean the more the merrier right?!
So a date was set for collection but we don't have a van and the Peugeot 208 is not man enough for a goat of Annabelle’s stature…she’s a leggy girl like Lola! My friend Jo put her mind to it and suggested the very lovely Sarah who also supports the sanctuary and whose husband has a suitably goat sized van, brilliant! They only live a few miles away from us but we’d never met before so it was really kind of them to agree to help us. 🥰They had various items to donate to the sanctuary anyway so it worked out well! We set forth last Saturday morning, Mick driving and me and Sarah riding shotgun and had a nice uneventful run up with lots of chat as we all got to know each other. On arrival at Big V we were greeted by a variety of lovely dogs, rabbits pottering around the lounge along with the trip trappy hooves of Arwen and Niamh the lambs who skipped in and out of the lounge as we sat and drank tea. It was like being in a fairytale and both me and Sarah got to give Niamh a bottle and, of course, wanted to take her home!🥰 But it was soon time to load up Annabelle and the hens, which all went very smoothly, and off we headed home. Everything was going well until 40 minutes from home we heard a strange noise…and then saw smoke…the van started slowing and we all looked in horror at each other, the van was breaking down…with a goat and 5 hens in the back!! 😱Mick managed to limp the van into a disused factory car park whilst we low level panicked about what to do next. It was 3pm and very warm…we opened up the back of the van to cool things down and Annabelle was remarkably chilled but the hens were kicking off a bit and one hen wasn’t looking great. 😳We removed her and popped her in a canvas shopping bag for safe keeping. The day kept getting more bizarre…I texted Ian that he would have to come and rescue me and the animals whilst Mick got in touch with a friend with a car trailer to come and rescue them! 40 minutes later and Ian had arrived with the seats down in the little Peugeot…he eyed the large cage with hens and the very large goat and squared his shoulders…ok, let’s do this! 🤨We slid the hens in first and then kind of folded the, luckily very compliant but slightly bemused, Annabelle into the car, shut the boot and then in I got with the poorly hen in the shopping bag on my knee head poking out looking around. We were an unlikely car full but thankfully traffic was light and Annabelle remained calm, curiously looking around and occasionally poking her head through to the front for a scratch. We all arrived home safely, the poorly hen was popped straight in the utility room sick bay that Daphne hen had just vacated and the others were popped in the big hen house run. We had gated off an area next to the front field for Annabelle so she could unwind before meeting her new friends but she promptly bounded over the fence into the front field and said hello to Sid and Eddie sheep who were a bit bemused by this leggy blond interloper but shrugged it off and went back to eating. 😂So that was plan A gone t**s up and by this time it was 6pm so plan B was to pop her in the goat barn and shut the doors so we knew she was safe and secure for the night. Success and we could now sleep without wondering where Annabelle might be wandering. Our hens had raced around to meet the newcomers but were most put out that they had been kicked out of their house and run to be relegated to the smaller hen house for the night and point blank refused to go in it. More chasing around for me and Ian but we caught the reluctant 3 and finally, by 10pm, everyone was safe and bedded down for the night. This is an extremely late night for me and Ian, rock and roll we are not...😂
So Annabelle and the 5 hens certainly had quite the adventure getting to their new home but they are going to be fantastic additions to the ever growing animal family…we’ve tipped past the Ian set 30 maximum to 34 residents now….turns out Ian is no better at putting his foot down than me…😜

15/05/2025

Update number 2! I’ve impressed myself with actually managing to get this done…I’m on a roll…mainly because I’m still trapped in the gite with Woody to be fair…😂

So the week before last we had our friends, Rich and Fiona, over for a week to help us with our mammoth to do list which was amazingly generous of them and they were great fun to have around which is a win win!😍
It was mainly a week of flat pack bunny huts…exciting it was not but they got stuck in with enthusiasm and it was helped along nicely by the glorious hot and sunny weather. Rich has excellent carpentry skills so he set to work insulating and lining Rosie and Stevie’s hut so they will be snug and cosy next winter. A sun shade was also fashioned as I didn’t think the position of the hut through properly and it doesn’t get a lot of shade mid afternoon which will be a problem in July and August…🙈the rest of the pen has lots of shade so I really outdid myself in bad planning!! 😂Next on Rich’s job list was to build hut number 2 for Ella and Marvin who currently live in the now very ramshackle old bunny hut that we brought with us from the UK…9 years ago! I don't think he’ll ever want to see another flatpack kiddy shed again especially as they are obviously not built for full sized adults and he was bent double when inside whilst his back shouted WTF at him but he was ably assisted by Fiona and they whizzed through it…they are much less sweary than me and Ian flat packing I have to say! 😂This hut has perfect shade so at least I got one right!! Fiona decided that we should attempt building the mini bunny huts ourselves (has she met me?!😂)and being small but mighty, she is not to be refused so we got to it! It went surprisingly well and bar putting two sides on upside down at first, we rattled through them in quick time! We were deeply impressed with ourselves and handled that drill screwdriver thing like a boss!! 💪🏻Fiona also sanded down and re-varnished the outdoor table for the gite which has been looking very sad for the last two seasons and also so rough it takes the skin off your forearms…it was on my to do list but a long way down so I am so chuffed it got done and it looks great! 😊
I have already started another list for their next visit as apparently they enjoyed working like trojans on their week off work…🤣

It’s also that time of year again for Charlie to be sheared and Clyde and Lewis to have their leg feathers shaved off to help with mite control..itchy legs are the very devil for them. 😳The lovely Eve turned up and off she went with Charlie first up and, of course, he behaved like the perfect boy he is standing bravely whilst she worked away…and then went and rolled in the leftover ash pile where Ian had last had a fire and is now a fetching dirty grey sort of colour. He keeps topping up as well so I guess that will be his summer look this year! 😂Our animals never seem to be instagram ready…🙄Clyde was next and he stood like a stone, as he always does no matter what we are doing to him, I swear he is the nicest most gentle being you could ever meet. 🥰Lewis, to be fair to him, is also a very well behaved boy but the clippers got a little stuck in his feathers and he lifted his leg in protest just as Eve was bent over near his knee….ouch, his leg smacked Eve in the eye causing her glasses to cut her face!! 😱Poor girl looked like she’d been in a fight but she shook it off like it was nothing despite blood pouring and on she went. Nails. Hopefully she will come back again next year…Lewis did text her an apology…

And finally we have excellent news on the Daphne hen front as she is now fully recovered and back outside with Belle and Delilah. She was feeling that good that she laid an egg in her indoor overnight pen so that sealed her fate for heading back outside to sleep! Delilah is being a bit of a bitchy mean girl and did chase her around for a couple of days but things have calmed down now. They’ll get back to being besties I’m sure. Girls eh?! 😂Belle is very much the peacekeeper in all this and doesn’t get involved, sensible.

So that’s another round of good news reeled off…one more to go and then I think I’ll be caught up…be warned, it’s another epic..🙈😂

12/05/2025

It’s Monday and we have yet another manic week ahead and I have lots to tell of the previous manic 2 weeks! 😂
This week we are having a new bath fitted in our house and various plumbing bits and pieces shuffled and re-jigged so we blocked bookings for the gite for the next 3 days and I am now installed in there with the big blond devil dog Woody as he still has issues with men in the house. 🙈 I can see his point sometimes…😂He turns into a barking, whining super stressed monster so best to take him away from the trigger. I am going to do a bit of trigger training through the week though as Carl the plumber is so chilled and laid back which I think could be helpful. 🤞🏻
So here I am, basically being forced to lie around watching netflix, snoozing and drinking tea whilst babysitting the blond hurricane dog so I thought, at the very least, I should do something useful and bang out some updates finally! 😃

First up is a new residents introduction…meet Jess and Billie!! 🥰 They are around a year old, absolutely beautiful and starting to come out of their shells finally. We’ve had them almost a month now during which they have been in quarantine in pens in the big gite porch…not ideal but they came with ear mites and also had only just been vaccinated the week before they arrived so they needed at least another week to become effective. They had been living together but they were frequently quite aggressive with each other and by day 3 it had escalated to growling and also growling at me so I had to put a divider down between them and hope they hadn’t reached the stage that they hated each other. 😳Two un-neutered females living together is always dodgy once hormones kick in around the 6-8 month mark…they form a false bond as babies so it’s easy to mistake that for genuine bonding. All was well though once the divider went in, calm was restored and they lay side by side and groom each other through the bars so I’m confident they will go back together. Trying to say that like I believe it!! 😂They went in for spaying on Tuesday evening as our vet likes them in the night before so they are not so stressed. All went well with the operations but they had an overnight stay just to make sure they were pooping again properly, which they were, so we picked them up on Thursday and they are now completely recovered. 😊We have bought some temporary houses and made an outdoor area for each of them as they need to stay separate for 6-8 weeks to let all messy hormones disappear. It’s not ideal, i certainly wouldn’t recommend these little huts as permanent but for a few weeks they will be fine and then we are going to try and renovate the soon to be disused old bunny house so they can have more space when back together. It’s been a lot of unexpected expense, taking them in happened fast, so we are doing the best we can but hopefully we can buy them a shiny new house next year. 🤞🏻🤞🏻
In the meantime, I am loving spending time with these big beautiful girls. Jess looks very similar to Sienna so that kind of makes me sad and happy all at the same time..they, like Sienna, were destined to be either eaten or used for breeding babies for meat but had a lucky reprieve as they were sold to their previous owner as pets. I’m very happy they’ve found their way here…I wonder what the tiny bunny gang are going to make of their new large neighbours!! 🤔😂