Happily Ever After

Well, have alot to cover in today's blog...keeping the mystery until the end so you have to keep reading...

Firstly, thanks to all your good luck vibes the lambing course went amazingly well!! I am so impressed with myself...

I manged to "give birth" to a dead lamb out of the sheep simulator...ok, so maybe I was a bit hasty getting my electrical cable around the head, breaking the First Golden Rule of Lambing "DO NOT GET OVER EXCITED". And maybe I should have remembered to get the little feet out first instead of breaking the Second Golden Rule of Lambing, "DO NOT PULL ON THE FIRST THING YOU CAN TOUCH". But hey, I wasn't fainting, crying or being sick in the corner - hurray for me!!

Secondly, there is the small matter of the prize that was promised to TWS for the naming of our new doggie Cubair. As there is no update on Squidgy's book I have decided to award a surprise prize so please TWS can you email Carol at IBHQ with your address, get her to email it to me, and I will send you an appropriate reward!!

And now on to The Mystery of the Itchy Scratchy Tweed Bits....
Soaplady from Lewis ( I have some of your rhubarb soap in my bathroom it's gorgeous!) told us in my last blog that:

Soaplady: "I'll never forget how amused I was on first coming to the island to see the lady sheep walking around the place with large squares of brown tweed sewn over their relevant bits ... !! "

This revelation has caused no end of puzzling until our puzzlers are sore...

Modest sheep???
Flying Cat from whatever next!

Pardon my ignorance, but why do lady sheep have tweed sewn over their relevant bits? Is this modesty or some form of island birth control? Or maybe the gentleman sheep are turned on by the tweed patches?
Jill from EK

I have to admit, I'm also baffled about the tweed-on-relevant-bits. Is anyone brave enough to explain this mystery??
Michelle Therese from Things Go Moo in the Night...

So please can anyone out there shed a little light on this matter???

I have just booked myself on a lambing course - on Thursday!!!

It is a basic course, apparently suitable for a complete beginner like me!! I had been looking for a course along the lines of "Sheep for the Terrified" or "Dummies Guide to Lambing" but this will do.

My wellies will get a bit of action at last...they've been for a few muddy walks...now they will get to do some real work. My friends are horrified...especially when I mentioned that there are dead lambs and ropes and stuff involved. "Are you sure you won't cry??"

Well, no I'm not...but I'm sure I'll be fine. I'm actually really excited...I will be learning something useful, practical and hands-on. And with our lambs due practically as soon as we arrive in Lewis (We are inheriting a herd of 21 Hebridean Sheep ;-)) I need a bit more knowledge than my Practical Sheep Keeping book can provide.

All of a sudden I feel like my new life is starting to happen...

Wish me luck for Thursday...I have a feeling that I'm going to need it!

Baaaa-Byeeee for now!

.....and the winner is....well, I'll tell you in a minute first I have to apologise for being absent for so long.

I have a sordid confession to make. For some time now I have been using my precious internet time not to find out how FredBlog's house is doing or see what witty banter is going on between TWS and FC or keep you all updated on the impending move to Lewis. (Yes, it is still happening...I will be turning up with two Luton vans before April Fools Day, how appropriate!)

I have been lavishing my attentions on another, faster, better website with instant replies and thousands of threads updated immediately. It sooked me in...I didn't mean it. I realise the error of my ways...please forgive me and welcome me back into the comfy, but slow world of IB???

I suppose you want to know what site could lure me away, no not Facebook...

www.labrador-forums.co.uk

Aww the shame of it...sniff sniff.

Anyway, back in October I set a competiton to name our new puppy and I had lots of lovely replies and suggestions, and would like to say a big thank you to all who took the time to enter, but I am pleased to announce that the winner is:

da-da-da-da-da-da- daaaaaaaa - TWS!!!!

TWS came up with a lovely Gaelic name...so here he is....Cubair! (pronounced Coober)




(Ehhh, there was a promise of a prize...how is the book coming along Squidgy??)

We are getting a puppy!!!!

This announcement is both fortunate and timely; the emergence of the disturbingly named C.R.A.P. (Cat Revolution Against Puppies) is most unsettling.



The new addition to our family means that there will be plenty of Puppy Pictures coming your way to address the issue of balance within IB; which is currently overpopulated with cats.

Anyway, the wee cuties are only 2 weeks old today, so I have no pics yet. However, I am seriously need of help to find a suitable name for our new arrival.

He is a Yellow Labrador Retriever born on 16th October 2007.

Here is our Top Ten so far (in no particular order):

1. Jeffrey
2. Dougal
3. Forrest
4. Ramsay
5. Finley
6. Murphy
7. Cooper
8. Travis
9. Munro
10. Corrie
11. George
12. Toby

Ok..so that's 12...you can see why I'm having trouble...just can't decide...nothing feels "right" and family can't agree on any of these!

If anybody out there can come up with something better I'd be very grateful...

Answers on a postcard please....the winner will receive a signed hardback copy of Squidy the Otters new release "A Lost Soul from England".

Clsoing Date for entries: asap before my brain bursts please...

Well, got back from our little holiday in Harris at the weekend and thought I would share a couple of the stunning views with you!

The purpose of our holiday was to show Lauren (Darling Daughter: age 10), Harris (Darling Son: nearly 2) and Granny (Darling Mum: age withheld) our new home, in Lewis.

Lauren can be hard to please so we were overjoyed when her reaction to the new house and it's sea view was "ohhh coool!"

Granny was less overjoyed, but hid it well, heard her mumbling something later about "rose-tinted specs". But, she loved Harris and Lewis and the fabulous views from our new home.

Little Harris didn't comment on the house but expertly pointed out the view of the "water" and "sheep".....!

And as for us? Well, the views just keep getting better and better...

Well, thank you to everyone for the lovely warm welcome, good luck wishes and words of advice! I'm being flung in at the deep end and need all the help and support I can get!

It is great to hear how so many of you have made similar decisions in life...and they worked out! To be honest, all the support is a breath of fresh air, the last few weeks have been tricky to say the least when breaking the news to everyone.
Reactions range from, "Why do you want to go away UP THERE??" to "What are you going to DO??", luckily, in between there a few individuals who can understand the attraction of the isles and a better way of life.

I realise it's not for everyone; but I am becoming weary of laying out the delicate fabric of my future master plan for others to trample on it and poke it at the seams.

Anyway, back to the topic....peafowl....or should that be be peafoul? I didn't realise peacocks were so unpopular or noisy! I was more worried about the sheep!!! The house comes with a barn full of chickens, including cockerels, two free-range guinea pigs and one peacock and one peahen! From my limited research I understand that peafowl don't breed successfully until into their third year...if Flying Cat doesn't have them as a snack before then...

Time for a photo....this is where the attraction to the Western isles started...in Scarista, Harris on our honeymoon almost 3 years to the day...we even have a 2 year old son Harris named after the event!

Once upon a time there was a little family in Ayrshire who decided to go on their biggest adventure yet by leaving behind everything they know to go and live on a remote croft house by the sea.

Inspired by too many episodes of "Build a New Life in the Country" and amazing tales of success and happiness on Island Blogging (FredBlog) the family waste no time in making several hasty trips to the islands armed with estate agents schedules and romantic ideas.

Within a matter of months, and to the horror of almost all friends and family members, the family announce that they have found their dream home complete with 26 Hebridean sheep, chickens, ducks, two peacocks and a black and white barn cat.

Will it all end happily ever after?