Merry Christmas

Well I hope you had a Merry Christmas.

Life in the center has been quiet. There hasn't been that many bookings but I suspect that has something to do with the weather. All last week it was below 0C so not the type of weather that makes people want to go outside. Also the roads have been icy or covered in slush. All in all the type of weather that makes people want to stay in doors.

The center still has a good covering of snow and ice even though the temperature has managed to get above freezing for the last couple of days and all the snow and ice has started to melt. It has been great not having to de-frost pad locks just to get in to the center and also lock up at the end of the day. The only thing is everything is so damp. The place has been covered in fog for the last 2 days and nothing is drying. Alot of the birds are looking a bit damp and I never feel they fly well when they are like this. You can see it  on the end of their tail feathers and wing feathers. Hopefully we can get some dry weather with a little bit of sun to try and dry things out or a breeze to to do it. We shall wait and see. The weather is 1 of those things I try not to stress about as there is nothing that can be done to stop it. All you can do is deal with it.

We did have 1 booking on Boxing Day. We were over at Cameron House to do a demonstration for the guests. We had a good number of people turn up even though it was snowing for a while and we were able to give everybody who wanted a shot of flying a bird a chance to do so. Alba (Barn Owl) was the stand out bird. I only started to fly her again the other week after 4 months off and with the weather and it being quiet she has only flown once in the last 2 weeks. When we were doing the demonstration there was a lady in a wheel chair who asked if she could fly her and Alba was perfect. Landing perfectly on the glove. Saying that the other 2 birds that we flew - Lobey (Turkmanian Eagle Owl) and Oran (Harris Hawk) were both great as well. We are back at Cameron House on New Years Day to do another demonstration for the guests who are staying for New Year.

I have brought Artemis's weight down again and rather than have her flying to the lure (which keeps getting lost in the snow) I have been asking her to fly to the T perches on the front field. She has been doing ok but some days she doesn't seem that keen so she may also have to come down a bit to make her that bit more keen. Hopefully in the next day or 2 I can start flying her back to the lure. This though will help her fitness.

At the the moment I just want the festive period to be over. Nothing really happens. The phone is quiet everybody is off. The good thing is the beginning of January is actually looking quite busy - well for January anyway. It is never the busiest of months for bookings. I do have 2 bits of ground to go and look at  after the New Year. The people who the ground have said that I may be able to hunt on them after we meet. All I need to do is get out there and see if the ground is ok. I always get quite excited about exploring new bits of ground for hunting. I am never quite sure what I am going to find. I will let you know how it goes and what they were like once I have seen them if the owners say yes. 

I did have some sad news on the 22nd December. I had to have Fatty (Ferret) put to sleep. She hadn't been the most steady on her feet over the last few weeks but she was getting about the hutch until recently where I had noticed that she couldn't walk on several occasions and seemed a lot more sleepy. I spoke to Jo who is vet and she had noticed the same. We decided that as she was struggling to get about the hutch the time had come for her to be put to sleep. It was no real surprise as her sister Patch had died 6 weeks ago. They were over 8 1/2 years old and for ferrets that is old but it was still sad though. It is kind of the end of an era. Patch and Fatty were with me from the start.

On the plus side the Winter Solstice has been and gone so the days should start to get longer now. Have a great New Year and spare a thought for those who will be working over the New Year period.