How does your garden grow?

A few days after the disease was found we received another page:

"All units return to base"

I got on the phone to our supervisor to find out what was going on:

"You need to get your team back here ASAP.  Keep it under your hat, but the disease is in Devon, and we can't take any risks.  Just get back here straight away."

That was it.  Foot and Mouth in Devon.

We drove back down to Cornwall, and waited in the Mess Room for the other units to return.  Shortly afterwards, a full unit meeting was convened and we were told that we were on 'gardening leave' with immediate effect.

A dozen hands went up to ask the inevitable question, "will we be paid?" and we were told that we had to phone into the office each morning to confirm that we were available for work if needed.  Someone else asked, "will we be used for Foot and Mouth?" and the answer was, "we don't think so at this stage, but keep your phone on at all times just in case".

The journey home was depressing.

A few days later, and I was panicking because the field we rented for our horse was being invaded by sheep from the neighbouring farm.  I set about blocking the sheep out with some temporary fencing and decided that the overgrown hedge needed some urgent attention.

Oh well, I've nothing else to do at the moment.........