The changing of the clocks...

I know, I know, it's a long time since I blogged, but as the days get shorter(I also know that each day still has 24 hours in it, but I meant the daylight part of the days getting shorter) there just seems to be so much to do, and in the evening I feel too exhausted to want to do much, other than send the odd tweet, or comment on someone else's Facebook status.

But now the clocks have changed, a recognition that the days are too short to get any real work done outside, certainly after a day in the office there isn't any daylight left, and that will just leave weekends, and that will depend on the weather, as to whether I can actually get anything done.

However there are chores that need to be done every day, most twice a day, and that is the interaction with the animals - llamas, goats, chickens as well as the cats and dogs!

They of course aren't bothered by the clocks changing, to them the days have gradually been getting shorter, and that means that meals come out later in the morning, and of course earlier in the evening.

The grass is not growing either, so the llamas turn to hay to eat during the day, and that is good, because they come up to the workshop more often, and that means we get to see them more often. They share the workshop area with the goats, who have munched hay most of the year, and out of all the animals have the same diet all year round. The goats however do not like the rain and tend to stay indoors on wet and damp days.

The chickens roost about an hour before dark, and like to have their corn an hour or so before they roost, so they are the ones that start the feeding session for all the animals.

During the summer, the animals get fed after I have finished the office work, but now I have to take a break around 4pm to sort the animals out, and go back to work after. 4pm gets closer to 3pm as the days continue to get shorter.

This does mean though that I now have time to think about blogging and doing a bit of my office work in the evenings after it has got dark.

It also means that I have to be careful about organising business meetings in the afternoons, because I have to be back by 3pm, or else the animals don't get fed. that isn't strictly true, as the animals have food and water on tap all day, it is just the treat food that they are in danger of missing out on - corn for the chickens (they have layers pellets to eat as and when they are hungry), and feed for the goats and llamas (but they'll happily keep munching hay).

So that's where we are now, and hopefully more to follow, now that I have time in the evenings!