Quite cool this morning, even some condensation on the windows. It's supposed to crank right back up on Wednesday, but this is the tail end of summer by the calendar, we'll see if it is by the climate too.
It seems that part of the take on Annie's milk was indeed Gizmo. Will have to confirm tomorrow, but today both back quarters were relatively plump. I milked about 4 litres, and timed the process door to door (ie leaving the house and entering the house) and it was 45 minutes. That included some cow wrangling because the routine is upset by the new paddock and therefor entry and exit routine.
All the nests that I have been checking for eggs were empty today and I found a new nest in the second dairy manger. I'll put a fake egg in that and see if they keep using it. I wish they'd just use the nest boxes, but I guess the price of top quality free range eggs is the egg hunt.
I put the waterer on the olives today. Being dryland trees I'd left them out of the rotation, but I think they are showing signs of water stress so I will give them a long drink.
When I was putting the water on for the silver birch I was surprised by a snake in the mostly empty trough by that tap. He (or she) popped their head out to look at me, and then went back to lolling around in the puddle. I can't imaging they were getting cool, as it really was a green puddle in the sun, perhaps it was frog hunting. I don't particularly want it hanging around a stock trough, but water is getting harder to find perhaps. I'll have to think about what to do.
I think it might have been a copperhead, it was about two feet, or two and a half feet long. It's interesting that it didn't see me as a threat in any way, it left it's body hanging out in the trough while it's head was in under the water outlet so it couldn't see me at all. I talked to it the whole time so that it knew where I was, like talking to a horse or cow you are approaching.
The vet came and did an "old dog checkup" on Poppy today, looking at her stiffness and lack of limb control. We're going to try a medication and see if that helps, reviewing the situation when winter sets in.
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