Kiwi's Favourite Tractor

Peter : ' Mum, why is Welly staring at the tractor like that?'

Sinead : ' He's looking for the exhaust pipe.'

Peter : 'Why?'

Sinead : 'Because when it's going it gives out lots of lovely hot smelly smoke and he likes to sniff it.'

'See?'

Peter : 'Is it nice?'

Sinead : 'Jasper doesn't think so..........but your sister Kiwi ADORES it. She used to run out of the stable when she heard the engine and go round and round swishing her tail with excitement. Lucky for Welly that Bart is going backwards !'

Welly follows the tractor into the shed.

And here comes Kiwi, right on cue !

Smoke !!!!

It's January and our humans are up to odd work things again.
One day there was all this billowing smoke and lots of noise.

I asked Mum what it was but she said 'I don't know, ask Welly, he's going to see".I thought it was fascinating but I think Mum was not too keen on it.

Welly and Charlie went and stood on Isaac's throne and watched from close range.

It was..................

Bart making a channel in the concrete with his noisy stonecutter so that the groundwater that was coming out of the back wall didn't go into our new shed and flood the floor.

It worked - we havn't had a flood since!

Eeores, ~Peter~

Charlie and Wellington's Exeter Nativity Play

Hi, this is Charlie. I want to tell you all about our day trip to Exeter for a very special occasion - celebrating the birth of baby Jesus.
One afternoon Bart and Sue got out the horsebox and Welly and I were asked to go in.Now, Welly used to say he didn't do horseboxes but he seems to have changed his mind now and I had some competition for the hay. We went on rather a long journey and the humans fussed all the way in case we were late - but it wasn't OUR fault was it?
In fact we arrived on time but had trouble finding where to go until the humans spotted the choir in the shopping centre. Then we had to get out of the horsebox and stand around while we had our brush and foot-polishing and put on our posh bridles. Then off we went to the shopping centre where lots of people came over to pat us and ask what we were doing.

While we were standing the choir was singing carols and quite a crowd gathered.

The Mary and Joseph came and led us on our journey to Bethlehem through Exeter.

We were followed by a huge crowd of people and the television men with michrophones and cameras.We are used to crowds so we didn't mind .

When we got to the seats Joseph stopped to ask the innkeeper on a balcony for somewhere to stay for the night - but he said everywhere was full.

That meant we had to go on another walk to find the Cathedral where Mary and Joseph would be able to stay in a stable. We were allowed in too, I'm glad to say.

We had to walk down the steps and through the big doors.

I had a good look at the steps but Welly said they were OK so I didn't worry. I was a bit more scared of the big carved stone slabs inside the Cathedral because they were all different colours. However Sue said they were safe really so I did follow her all the way to the stable.

Mary and Joseph went up onto the stage and put Baby Jesus in the manger. There were some (rather strange but friendly) sheep too.Sometimes you can't take pictures in a church because it's not polite but when Sue asked the lady Minister she said it was a precious moment so we were allowed to. Here we are in front of the crib. There were some lovely decorated Christmas trees and Welly thought they were nice enough to eat but Sue did tell him he shouldn't so he only ate a tiny bit !

The crowd followed us into the stable and everyone sat down with all the children in the front row.The choir sang again and all the children joined in.

The shepherds and kings came during the singing and brought gifts to Baby Jesus. The organ played very loudly but we didn't mind because Jana our helper was really enjoying it and kept giving us lots of fuss.

After the singing all the children were given a candle and paraded past the manger with them. On the way they gave us lots of pats. Then the organisers came up and patted us too.

We watched everyone troop out of the cathedral before we went and Welly was very good about the tree.

Then we went out to look for our horsebox cos Bart had finally found where he should park it. The humans gave us some hay and told us what good boys we had been.

It was certainly an exciting day out and we reckonned we had earned the hay. Jana REALLY enjoyed it and said it had made her Christmas. Our humans also met an old friend and settled down to enjoy coffee and cake with her in the van while we ate our hay.

Perhaps we will be asked to go again next year?

Love to all,

~Charlie~

Welly on Christmas Eve

This year Wellington was asked to go to Clovelly's parish church for the midnight mass service on Christmas Eve. Bart and Sue were rushing around madly as usual trying to get everybody's adoption gifts and Christmas cards and presents all finished off as well as getting everything tidied up and ready for Sue's parents to visit over Christmas so.....Jana said she'd take Welly along.
Here are Welly and Jana on their way to the church.It was a VERY dark night and a bit wet so Jana put on one of our reflective jackets to walk along the road. The camera was not too happy about the HUGE reflection !

Jana had made Welly a bridle of tinsel.

Welly was very good , of course, and enjoyed eating in the churchyard outside the church. However it was a new vicar (our vicar has several parishes to do all by himself) and Welly was only invited into the door and then, straight away, out again ! Dear me, we'll have to get that vicar to whatch when we have 3 donkeys walking round the church on palm Sunday !

Sammy on the Pallet !

Hi fans, Sammy here. Look ! I've managed to stand on Pierre's pallet. Don't I look great? Pierre has been showing off far too much by standing on everything in sight when Sue is trying to do some training. Since he was getting all the attention I had to do something special - so HERE I AM !!!

Here is Pierre outside our humans' house.(I do love him really)

Here he is again...............

Can you spot one of our pets?  Look carefully at the picture..........

Can you see him?

Yes, that's right.......our.......

Wild Rabbit !

Lots of love,

Sammy

The Experiment from Sinead

Hi everyone, Donk has asked me to tell you about the strange human who came to see us in November. Ihad to ask our humans what she wanted because she wouldn't say. It seems she was a student doing something called 'research into equine behaviour'.
Bart and Sue shut everyone out of the yard then one by one we went out to meet the lady while Sue filmed. She did an awful lot of standing still in the middle of the yard and timed herself with her mobile phone for 5 minutes. We thought it was very odd. I thought it was very boring just standing and watching her.

Here I am. I thought it was so boring I went and looked at the buckets but they were boring too cos they were empty.

Then my son Peter had a go.

I had told him the lady would stand absolutely still and it was boring. He went over to say hallo but the lady didn't speak to him so he decided to come and look for me. He was a bit cross with Giffy because she was in the way.

Then it was Donk's turn. He had a really godd try to get her to notice him. He went right over and when she ignored him he went round the back and gave her a shove with his nose ! It didn't work though - and Donk gets lots of practice at bashing humans when he's begging for his dinner. Humans can be so strange.

At one point Baby Kiwi and Gif got so bored with being shut off the yard that Gif pushed the barrier over and Baby jumped it! Our humans all rushed out to shut us all in again so that the lady could go on being boring.

Ah well, the lady said she was very pleased with us in the end and sent Sue a copy of her report on the experiment.

Lots of love, ~Shinny~

Hobby riding and Jana by Jake

November was a lovely month with beautiful Autumn colours this year. There are not so many children in our village now and , very sadly, our local school has now been closed. However we still get some children coming to take us for walks in the Hobby Drive. Bart and Sue had been telling us our Aunty Jana from Canada was coming 'home' and yes, she arrived !!

Here she is coming for a lovely walk with us.That's Me and Noah.Giffy, Welly and Eli came too. Here's my rider checking the length of her stirrups before getting on.

Here we are in the Hobby with all the beautiful Autumn colours all around.

We always stop for a rest at the end of the ride. We eat grass while the humans run around. Then the kids get back on and we go off home again, eating whenever possible..

Here's Welly and Noah enjoying themselves.

Happy EEores, JakeyTed