Month: November 2011

I have just checked the outside thermometer and it is registering -5, that’s a whole 2 degrees warmer than when I first checked it at 6.30 this morning!! It’s a bit of a shock to the system to say the least, but I am well prepared this year and so I donned my salopettes, warm snow boots, thermal gloves and hat, thick coat and went outside. It is a little difficult to walk when you are trussed up like the Michelin man but at least I was warm 🙂

First job is to break all the ice in the water buckets about 15 in total and as yet I have not defrosted the rabbit water bottles, I need a plan of action for those this year, we have tried insulating them with various materials but they still freeze, I did have a thought about fixing them to the inside of the hutch hoping that the warmth of the rabbits might keep them thawed, something to work on today I think.

We have had confirmed reports of a fox seen leaving the premises last night, the dog has been yapping for a couple of nights in a row and we wondered what was out there and now we know for sure so the fox trap will be baited today. In fact both traps will be set one in the back paddocks and one in the front where the activity seems to be at the moment. The fact that he is in the front means he is after my new intake of pullets and although they are shut in at night we all know how determined a fox can be if he is hungry.

Of course I can’t mention the cold outside without saying how beautifully warm it is indoors this year 🙂 The Rayburn is doing a wonderful job of radiating warmth all through the rooms, with the added bonus of a constantly simmering kettle sitting on the top, ready whenever you are, for a cuppa 🙂 I think as it is so cold out, today’s jobs will all be indoors, some cleaning and a bit of baking, I need to use up some of the duck eggs that are multiplying by the day, if I make a batch of cakes for the freezer now, then when the birds stop laying in Midwinter I will not mind in the least. A few batches of homemade soup may be in order too, last week I made the first pot of Leek and Potato soup, our favourite, with a freshly made loaf of bread, it was lovely and at least we appreciate the Winter for that if nothing else! 

A flock of sheep have moved into the field next door, I love it when they move them down our lane, they stop the traffic from each end and then you hear a barely audible rumbling of hundreds of hooves as they come past the farm and go off down the road. The horses get very excited to see them,I have no idea why, and started charging round the paddock like yearlings. Of course those sheep are nothing like ours, they are out in the open ground with no shelter and graze on whatever is left in the field, ours by comparison are totally pampered with a field shelter and regular hay nets and feed, they spend their day bleating at us for more food and attention. I have not had a close look at the flock but they are usually ‘in lamb ewes’ who will spend a couple of weeks out there before being taken in ready for lambing in the New Year. Taking part in lambing is something I would love to do, even the thought of a cold, long night does not put me off, I would imagine it has to be the highlight of the farmers year to successfully bring all those new lambs into the world, just about the greatest job satisfaction I could imagine.

The horses will start coming into the stables overnight very soon, at the moment they are being rugged, the thoroughbred is heavily rugged. This is to stop them losing too much weight trying to keep themselves warm. If you ever wondered why they are dressed like that, then now you know, sometimes they will have a full head covering on too, this is to stop them getting too muddy if they are being ridden. It takes quite a while to groom a horse that has been out in a muddy field before putting on his tack so the less you have to do the better. The little Shetlands will stay outside all Winter, the only time they would come in is in a sustained wet period, they are more than able to cope with the cold temperatures but constantly standing in wet mud can cause foot problems and so there is a stable on standby for them to come in at any time.

The ducks have been giving me a bit of grief this week, I decided to let them free range while it was damp, that way I would have to feed them less as they were able to forage all day for worms and slugs, but as the week went on they got wanderlust. First they ventured out to the front under the apple tree to pick over any remnants of windfalls, but by yesterday afternoon they were making their way down the front drive and out onto the lane! Needless to say that today they are staying securely inside their pen. The chickens are getting just as bad, they have discovered that if they hop up into the muck heap at the back of the orchard, freedom is theirs for the taking! I quite like seeing them roaming around all over the place but it is not very practical if someone comes to buy some and I have to round them all up first, they are not as easy to herd as ducks and I swear they deliberately torment the dogs by getting as close to the dog run as possible without losing a feather or two :p

Unfortunately we have been put on our guard this week and become suspicious of every new vehicle and person that comes! During the night last Tuesday someone broke into a van which was parked about 1/2 mile up the road and stole £1000 worth of work tools, since then we have heard of two other similar incidents in the nearby villages. On that same  night the dog did actually growl which is unusual for him and I suspect that someone was wondering if they could get to John’s van. Luckily our guard dog who is out at night is excellent at what he does and I don’t think anyone would be stupid enough to risk it, if they are, well that will be an entertaining blog!

This has a knock on effect and every strange car that stops in the lane or comes up the drive becomes a suspect, especially during the dark hours, last night the dog was particularly vocal and we were up and down like yoyo’s checking the yard and the fields, not that you can see much in the pitch black but we let the dog go and woe betide anyone who is where they shouldn’t be!

Apart from that the farm has been very much the same as usual, the weather is still being kind to us although a little damp and claggy. I spent yesterday and this morning cleaning out all the chicken houses and the rabbits before we have a downpour. They have all had a good dose of mineral powder to keep them in tip-top condition through the Winter. We add cooking oil to the grain to coat it then add the powder so that it sticks to the grain otherwise you find a pile of powder in the bottom og the feed troughs which is not a lot of good. We still have the dreaded Red Mite in one of the houses, that will take quite a while to get it under control. The Red Mite feed from the chickens blood overnight which reduces the well-being of the chicken and so she will not lay, these are the old ladies and because of their age it is difficult to keep them in good condition and so they become a soft target for mites etc. If I was any good as a business woman they would have been culled the minute they went off production but I doubt if I will ever make it big in the industry as I prefer for them to live out their remaining days just being happy 🙂

Hubby has been busy on his never-ending task of keeping the muck heap under control, it is looking good, he has been rotavating it before moving it and I have to say it improves it no end. So much so that I think we will be bagging up and selling it next year instead of giving it away for free. All the hard work will be done so I am sure we could charge about a £1.00 a bag with no problems. We would still give people the option of bagging it themselves for free, so if you want any in the Spring just give me a shout.

The geese are giving us problems again, they have been fine living together all Summer long and two have now decided that they don’t want the other one anywhere near, I guess they are pairing ready for the breeding season but I do feel sorry for the odd one out who has no idea what its done wrong. I say it, as I thought it was a female but if they are casting it out it is possibly male. Geese are very difficult to sex just by looking at them even when they are fully grown but there is no way I am even going to attempt to have a look at the genitals! A flailing goose wing from a naffed off bird can easily break your arm, I think I will wait to see how many eggs get laid each day in the Spring, much safer 😉

There are a lot of trees and hedgerows here and they have all but lost their leaves now so everything is looking very stark and grey, but it does mean that you can see all the wildlife that is still around, the squirrel is still gathering nuts, he has not quite realised that its ok he can have whatever he likes now I have gathered my quota. The woodpecker is a daily visitor and the small garden birds are gathering in large numbers every now and then. When they come to roost in the large Buddleia’s out the front it usually means we are in for some cold weather, last year you could forecast the snowfall by their arrival, there must be over a hundred of them and they make quite a racket, then it all goes silent and lo and behold begins to snow, who needs a weatherman!

Good morning, we have had a mixed bag of weather over the last week but yesterday was glorious, lots of sunshine and great temperatures for the time of year. We have to embrace those days when they come as they will be fewer and further between from now until the end of February!! The rain that we had in the previous couple of days has very quickly turned the farm into a World Champion mud wrestling arena, especially in the duck pen! The is when the exercise routine begins, a lot of calories are used up trudging through mud on a daily basis, there are unexpected leg extensions and lunges to contend with, and who needs dumbbells when there are water buckets to transport to the remotest areas of the paddocks :s

The chickens are not as keen as the ducks when it comes to mud and I do feel sorry for the younger ones in the runs, so on alternate days they all get let out to roam around, at least they can walk around on dry firm ground for a while. The veg garden is all but done now and so having the chickens and ducks picking over the grubs and worms is beneficial, plus they leave a few presents around that help to enrich the soil 🙂 There is still quite a bit of tidying up to do on the veg patch but at the minute I am still trying to decorate the living room/office ready for Christmas, it’s nearly done just a bit more painting and then I can concentrate on fleecing up delicate shrubs ready for the bad weather. I lost so many last year that I don’t want to make the same mistake again, it’s mostly fruit and herbs such as Figs and Rosemary, I also need to cover over the Dahlia bed which was newly planted last year. In my last garden I   tried digging up the bulbs and storing them but they rotted away and I found I had better luck if I left them in the ground and covered them sufficiently with straw and fleece. The Herb garden has had a good mulch of well-rotted manure and I am hoping that next year it will really take off in terms of foliage. It is situated underneath a large crab apple tree which seemed like a good idea at the time but it takes too much moisture and gives too much shade! Putting the manure on will hopefully provide a slightly richer more moisture retentive ground that they can romp away in. If it does not work I will have to consider relocating the whole area to a sunnier corner 😦

I dug up the rest of the Sweet Potato plants, they were not a lot better that the few we had the week before, but not a total disaster, I have potted up some of the plants to see if they will make through the Winter if kept in the greenhouse and will try planting them in sacks as I don’t think the ground type is particularly suited to them. Not the great success that I hoped they would be but not too disastrous either more of a learning curve!

Talking of learning curves reminded me of an expression that we used when we first came here, I used to say that the whole experience was less of a learning curve and more of a sharp bend!! We take things more in our stride these days and are less anxious about failing if things don’t go according to plan, a well-known local farmer was spotted the other day chasing an escaped sow and her many piglets which were spilling all over the verge and road outside the entrance to the farm, I am comforted to know that these little episodes happen to even the most experienced farmers among us 😉

Tonight’s dinner is roast beef and all the trimmings plus an apple pie so I had better go and get on with peeling veg and stoking up the fire ready to cook everything. I should have done it yesterday but to be honest I had a bit of a headache :p it was caused by something I am going to name as ‘wine flu’ !! Its one curve I have never quite learnt from 😉

 

I feel full of beans this morning! Enough to have got all the animals fed and blog this early 🙂

It could be the fresh North Westerly wind out there, quite a change from the recent mild temperatures, someone commented on how windy it is up here and that is certainly true, we have an open aspect, especially once all the leaves have gone from the surrounding hedgerows and it is always 2 degrees colder here than in Carterton and with a wind chill factor on top, its cold this morning.

We had a busy weekend finishing the dispatch of the rest of the meat birds, that is 18 in all, half of them have been plucked as whole birds and the other half will be quartered. It was pretty cold standing there for hours doing the job so I had donned my salopettes and snow boots to keep me warm. Everyone else is far too squeamish to do the plucking and gutting so its down to me, but I make sure that they keep me supplied with plenty of warm drinks and give them at list of other jobs to do while I am busy. That means that the housework got done, the chicken shed got cleaned out and the dinner got cooked, so I really don’t mind 🙂

We had various visitors over the weekend all of them horrified at what I was doing, but that’s what we do here, we feed ourselves and so it has to be done, you get used to it after the first few times and it just becomes a process.

The visitors were family dropping off various fireworks ready for Bonfire night, it’s the first time we have let off fireworks here and I was worried about  a stray one making its way to the hay barn but luckily all went off without a hitch. We also celebrated All Hallows Eve here as we do every year, with a get together round the fire pit, a few games and plenty of food, it started off just for the children but the adults thoroughly enjoy themselves. Each year we have a competition around the pumpkin, we have had best carved, best recipe made from pumpkin and this year was best original use of a pumpkin which was won by my eldest brother who carved the whole world into his pumpkin globe!

The egg sales are off the scale at the minute, we are picking up 3 dozen a day and can’t keep up with demand, the one thing we do have surplus of though are duck eggs, the ducks are laying particularly well and we have an abundance of them, so if you know anyone that likes duck eggs send them up here! We are taking another delivery of POL hens tomorrow which is why the chicken house needed cleaning out, I thought that people would stop buying over the winter but I have already had two enquiries so it appears not! This time we are having Speckledy’s and ISA browns, if you are thinking about chickens the browns are the best to start off with, they are lovely little things, easy to catch and easy to look after.

I have been busy trying to decorate the living room before Christmas so the veg patch has been a bit neglected, I need to get on it soon and put it to bed for the Winter, there are a few remaining veg to dig up and store, we dug some Sweet Potato yesterday which I had almost forgot about. I left them in the capable hands of my youngest to prepare for dinner in the evening, when I got back they were all in the bowl ready for the compost bin! They are full of holes, I was told, however, I have spent half a year growing that crop and was not going to give in lightly so I peeled them and cut out as much of the useful parts as possible, they made a small boiling which was just enough, waste not want not I say, the youth of today have a throwaway attitude no matter how much I try to educate them 😉

The drop in temperature means an increase in feed for the animals, they need something to keep the body temperature up just the same as we eat hearty soups and stews to warm us up. We had 1 and a half tons of grain delivered from a local farmer, that will keep the chickens fed until about August next year, luckily the cats like to sleep on top of the sacks so that keeps the mice away 🙂 I have noticed an increase in wildlife, especially little birds, a Wren landed on my windowsill the other day and we just took a moment to regard each other before she flew off again. The woodpecker is a daily visitor now as is the squirrel, I don’t mind him here now I have gathered all my nuts, he can have as many acorns and hazelnuts as he can find to keep him and his family going through the Winter. I am keeping an eye on my Owl box to see if any have taken an interest, at the moment just the pigeons seem to be eyeing it up, typical :p

Well I think I have extended my coffee break a little too long, so its time to say goodbye and get on with dressing out the rest of the chickens which have been hanging up overnight in the back stable, have a great week 🙂