Year End

Umm, end of January sees Shep's financial year end, that means books need sorting and sending to the accountant, Umm....

Never have been fond of paperwork, in fact not at all fond of anything that might tax the brain and especially so if it involves being stuck in the house. Now I do believe some folks are tremendously well organised and do their books, weekly, monthly or some of the more lax do theirs quarterly. Umm.....

I do send bills out, try to do it monthly but then some folks I'm working for overlap the month so it runs on until another month, but they do get sent out eventually and when I get down into town they get paid into the bank.

I keep all my receipts in an unorganised fashion. There's a file of course, then there's the mantelpiece, kitchen bench, car foot well and a hundred and one other hiding places for these important little bits of paper.

Oh Lord! Guess I'm going to have to try and find them all and make some sort of sense of them coz the accountant will be in touch. I'm not quite as organised as those who do their books weekly, monthly or for that matter quarterly....... annually?!!!

Now Shep was fairly idle for the first couple of weeks in January, lean times. Inclement weather does not suit a self employed shepherd, services aren't required when the weather is lousy, only eight full days pay in three weeks. What an ideal opportunity to have sat down and sorted up my book work, except the weather was too nice. I say it was too nice, it was snowy, cold etc but it was not piss wet and horrible so there was absolutely no incentive to barr myself up in the office and knuckle down and if there had been any incentive it was soon lost coz it was so blinking cold in the house.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!

So now I'm in the position where I really ought to be getting the job sorted, except everyone has got so behind with their seasonal work that Shep's services are required and that old saying 'there's no peace for the wicked' comes into play.

Saturday saw me in a whirr, away from home in the dark to assist with a pregnancy scanning, then off to feed stock for someone on holiday before heading into the next valley to gather then feeding someone else's stock on the way home. By the time I returned at night I hardly knew which way I was heading!! Thrown in for good measure was a landrover to use which you have to hit with a stick to get the diesel pump to work........ I sure don't lead a 'normal' life!

Am I complaining? - No not really, the deficit of work had to be made up somehow. I do have a living to make, this is what happens when the weather holds the job up. Sheep needed coppering, fluke dosing and then the scanning season commences and we're still all chasing our tails. That's life - there's nowt like a challenge!

But then there's the challenge of doing my books........ Umm.....

I dare say we'll get some miserable wet days before lambing time, the accountant seems to be an understanding sort of guy, after all I'm far too busy!!! More scannings, still covering for someone on holiday, then have to cover for someone getting an operation, have vets appointments to keep (dog down), more sheep to dose, more sheep to gather, some stone walls to rebuild if the weather will ever co-operate, Oh! and some blood testing to do for the vets, then it'll be time to innoculate....... Ach, there'll be some wet days before long........