Now ducks have gone I can retrieve all my hosepipes

A cunning little bird, she had hidden her nest up in the haystack, but was revealed when a neighbour wanted to buy all our remaining bales to feed her horses.

She sits there with her wings outstretched to cover all her baby banties, clucking away and very pleased with herself.

We did lose two of the guinea fowl chicks. Their legs were splayed and for some reason the other chicks picked on them and their foster Mum, the other bantam, could not protect them.

Nature is cruel but clear minded as to survival of the fittest. These two chicks were definitely being bullied and although I took them away to see if I could rear them apart from the rest of the chicks, they died.

Elsewhere, the last of the wheat has gone from the 2009 harvest. A big articulated lorry was here this morning and cleared us out.

So now John can set to and disinfect the big grain shed to clean it for harvest. He has already got the silage yard ready but the persistent rain is preventing the silage being cut.

The contractors know we are waiting for them (us and many other farmers locally) but conditions are just not right. The other big shed is cleared out too as all the ducks have gone.

I can't say I miss them. By the time they were big enough to go out on the ponds they were generating a lot of mess which attracted little black flies.

They in turn were attracted into the house. Horrible. Holly and Nell, the spaniel and sheepdog, are pleased too as now their kennels can be moved back to the front of the shed and they can see what is going on in the farmyard.

The other bonus of the ducks going is that I shall retrieve all my hosepipes.

Currently I have to carry buckets of water down to the greenhouse as my watering system was confiscated to provide a constant supply of water for the ducks.

Never mind my aching arms. The ducks came first. And trying to carry water with three enthusiastic dogs running rings around you can be very awkward. Unerringly, they get under your feet and more than once have tripped me up.

Pip, our Labrador pup (although she is a year old now) is in my black books for other reasons however.

At night she sleeps in her cage in the porch. She has learnt however to wiggle and bat at the door until it loosens and then she can escape. To scratch the back door, or chew the back door, or howl at the back door.

Anything to get our attention. What is really annoying me currently though is the fact that I have just had all the exterior paintwork on the house repainted. Including the back door.