A long, dry, summer

Well the plum season hasn't been as crazy as I thought it would be - two of the three trees are done. Loads of apples coming on though and the tomatoes are coming on steadily now too. Have frozen quite a few to make into sauces over the winter, and Ben has made a couple of batches of tomato chutney which is yum! Makes a great base on a pizza.

There's been no rain for weeks now - apart from a few sprinkles - and things are extremely dry around here. I have been spending ridiculous amounts of money on hard feed for the horses and using the winter hay supplies already. They are mostly doing ok except for Benhorse who is looking too light for my liking. Just moved all the horses around - poor Choc gets to go into the paddock that Oscar and Benhorse have already cleaned out - and hopefully Benhorse will pick up a bit from that. Not that there is much grass in his new paddock but it's a wee bit better than where he was.

Luckily we still have a reasonable amount of water in the tank - some people I know have had to get two tanker loads in already. Must be hard with a family, living on a tank of water that is the same capacity as ours. Plus we have a bore for the paddock tank so at least the animals are sorted for water.

The latest weather forecast is for some rain for a few days from this weekend on. Fingers, toes, eyes crossed!