A non-abundance of trains

The sweat wis lashing oafay Sick Boy; he wis trembling. And not just him.

Claire has food poisoning. She's been ill all night, but forces herself to school this morning. I'm worried it might be the water - there's been hardly any rain recently and the tanks are filling with water pumped from the stream. Definitely time to inspect our water supply.

I start by checking the spring. It's choked and dry - bad news. Worse, the forelegs of a lamb are lying at the inlet, remnants of a fox's meal. A probable source of contamination.

Next on my list, unrelated, is electrification of the chicken fence. It takes a while, cutting grass, resetting the netting, finding cables and installing the unit, but when it's done it's delivering regular pulses of 3000V to protect our 2 remaining hens.

As I'm finishing off the dentist calls, so now I have to squeeze that into my day. It's doable and will tie in nicely with a visit to Ferrier pumps to get replacement UV lamps.

I'm out pretty much all day, getting back in time to take Angus drumming. He's not feeling well, and is sick later in the evening. Not good with Highers starting on Friday. Claire gets home and goes straight to bed. Robbie and his mum have been ill too.

I spend my evening draining water tanks and servicing water treatment units. There's a bit of vomit mopping to do too. But I feel fine, as do the barn dwellers. Bottled water all round for the next week or so.