There has been no let up from the howling winds & rain except for today which funnily enough has turned out to be okay. Dowlais Top & Gelligaer Common have no shortage of animals grazing the common land, here you'll see plenty of horses and of course Wales' favourite woolly companions....ahem...sheep. You'll also see cows up there and serve as a reminder of sunnier days spent in India...as our own cows here also believe they have the right to wander the roads unhindered. The downside of all these animals wandering & feeding on the common, is that they can sometimes look the worse for wear, especially in these recent vile conditions. Mrs. Gibbs is an animal lover and so sprung into action and launched a "Feed the Animals Fund" in order to get money to buy hay for the animals up on the mountain. Very quickly, a fund of over £15.00 was collected and Operation " Food Aid for Animals" was in action. All well and good except it's me who then has to do the groundwork and buy the hay and lug the bales about. We headed up to the local Farm to see Steve and Jane and got a couple of bales on board. Steve told us that quite a few good Samaritans do the same thing and feed the animals during the winter.

We then head up to the common, it's nice to see some sun for a change but it's also blustery up there. We open the wagon and spill the hay out. It's not long before you get the thumping of hooves and the charge of the hairy brigade in full gallop, heading to the scran. The horses get a bit scrappy over the hay and there's a good bit of kicking and biting to liven up the show. Brave sheep get in on the action and Mrs. Gibbs is happy that she's now done her bit. Later in the afternoon, after we go for a walk and drive over the common we see other people doing the same thing dishing out hay & food. The animals up there wont starve by any means.

Back at the ranch and it's homebrew time. Grant wants to learn a bit more about brewing, so he gets to do the hard work. Actually brewing is the easy bit, it's the bottling thats the hassle, but that wont be for a couple of weeks. So in the meantime it's always satisfying to take a look into the brew barrels and watch the yeast do it's work. A good bubbling frothy mess means it's working properly. This week's brews are Real Ale and Jim's Lager. Well, you've got to keep busy havent you?