James & Clare, Coddiwomplers Inc: Surprises galore at the Small-holding in East Sussex July 2015

We arrived at the farm in Dallington to be met at the door by our two main charges - German Shepherds Zonda (7) and Merlot (4) - woofing rather loudly. This could have been quite intimidating had we not already Skyped with Helen and Neil and been assured they were friendly, albeit rather large companions. We spent a couple of nights with the family before they left on holiday, learning the ropes of feeding the pigs and chickens and daily checking of the two ponies, three horses and 100+ sheep in two different farm locations. It is always a good idea to arrive early to a sit if you can ..... in this case it was essential. We ended up doing a bit of stock movement, dosing (and injecting) of the sheep and generally helping out on the farm for a couple of days which we hope helped to assure Neil and Helen we were comfortable in the environment. We can only assume it may be quite unsettling to leave your property and precious animals - farm and pets - to people you have never met. We were their first experience of using a house sitting site having always used family and friends in the past.

As you can imagine we bonded almost immediately with the dogs! They had been well trained, which in our opinion is essential for ensuring your pets are easy for others to look after. Their daily exercise was out on the farm .... chasing rabbits and helping to herd the very naughty Houdini piglets ..... So it was kind of strange to not have to take them for a "walk" every day.

As already mentioned the four young pigs had taken to escaping from their pen. The first time this happened we were sure we had a wild pig problem as the little fellas were safely back in the pen having knocked over the feed barrel, unscrewed the lid and helped themselves to half of it's contents. This was all watched, rather frustratingly one can imagine, by the daddy boar in the next pen. Anyway, after a few nights of this behaviour and our only somewhat successful attempts to contain them, we came up with a more permanent solution of redesigning the bottom of their pen. Victory was ours ...... finally. It was quite a bit of fun though, as they were no bother to get back into their pen and never ventured any further than the immediate paddock.

Meanwhile, the two sows that we had previously moved into the barn in case they farrowed during our sit (rather sadly they didn't), were a bundle of fun also. We went down for feeding one day to discover they had unhinged the fence between them and were happily dancing around together in a communal pen. This was easily fixed and they didn't try that trick again for us. Although Helen sent photos of their next (successful) escape attempt after we had left.

Feeding the sows

The rest of our time was spent lounging by and swimming in the pool, unveiling the vegetable plot, hunting and gathering rabbits for the pot, cooking on the Aga with James using up some of the fresh eggs making cakes and meringues, and then soaking in the hot tub after a hard (?!?) day on the farm - the good life indeed! We were here for nearly three weeks and thoroughly enjoyed the tranquillity of the countryside along with the daily chores which gave structure to our otherwise seemingly unstructured lives!