Month: February 2012

I am an early bird this morning! I have had my medication upped for Thyroid and finally feel ‘normal’ again, consequently I have been very busy this week able to do jobs that should have already been done.

I made a huge list of jobs that I would normally look at and think ‘when am I going to get all this done’ but gradually through the week the jobs have been crossed off and that has given me a great sense of achievement. One of the first on the list was to cut back all the foliage at the front of the building, weed the bed and order a few tons of shingle to put down in the areas that were becoming muddy. Luckily the lorry driver did a good job of spreading most of it for me but there were still a few piles to rake out a fair distance. My hands and arms hurt for a day after but it was worth it as it is now all ready for Spring to blossom. The nut trees also needed a bit of a prune to get rid of any whips that had shot up in the last year, to me the condition of the front of the farm is important because not only is it first impressions for any new customers but it lifts my mood when I return home and it is all looking nice and tidy. Soon it will be time to decide what to plant in the boxes by the front gate, I am not a lover of bedding plants as they are not good pollinators for the insects so after watching the Sarah Raven programme it might be a mix of wild flowers and ‘ modern’ meadow planting. These are only small areas so I am in the middle of identifying larger areas that I can also broadcast a wildflower mix, it is difficult as the horses need the grass areas but I am sure I will find space somewhere.

The chickens, ducks and rabbits have all had a good Spring clean this weekend, I tend to deep litter them over the Winter, which means they don’t get a full clean, just partial, and more bedding added. Unfortunately the small chicken houses are infested with Red Mite this is a small blood sucking insect that comes out at night to feed on my chickens! They are very common and an infestation is difficult to get rid of completely, there are mite powders on the market and these houses and chickens will have to be regularly dusted to try to eradicate it. The problem lies with modern methods and thinking, in the old days, coops would have been soaked in old engine oil to protect them from the elements which was very good at deterring any mites, in fact our big sheds which are about 100 years old never get infested, unfortunately it’s not very environmentally friendly, so we are trying creosote on the new houses to see if that will deter them 🙂

The weather this weekend has been glorious and yesterday we decided to dig over the area that will have potato’s, last  year it was where we planted the swede, parsnip and carrots, there were a few parsnips left to dig up and plenty of weeds! Hubby kept complaining that he hates digging so eventually it was left to me while he rotavated a different area. We have already bought the seed potato’s and this year are trying Pentland Javelin and Rocket as our first earlies, these will go in next weekend and in about 7 weeks we will be eating new potato’s, providing we get a bit of rain!  As a gardener I find this is the best time of year, planning what to grow, where to grow it and getting started, it will only be a few weeks now before we are able to eat fresh veg again, although we still have a fair amount in the freezer to use up beforehand.

If, as the Met Office is suggesting, we go into drought conditions, the subject of watering will be  a major concern, although being a commercial property we wont be included in any hosepipe ban because of the animals, having said that I still feel a responsibility to conserve and reuse as much rainwater and grey water as possible, so we will do whatever is possible to do just that. We have a huge rainwater collection tank, and providing we have rain we should be ok during any dry periods, we generally use it to fill up the duck pond and last time Hubby forgot to turn the tap off again and so at the moment it is bone dry! I will have to put a big notice on it reminding him to turn it off after use 😉

Well having got an early start, I had a little Skype session with my brother in Australia halfway through and now am a bit behind letting out the animals and they will be wondering where breakfast has got too, so I had better go and sort them all out, ta ta for now 🙂

Yet again I can’t believe how quickly the week has gone, I have found the energy and inclination to do quite a few jobs this week so maybe that’s why it has shot past.

Firstly I replaced the roof on the greenhouse, the one that collapsed during the gales towards the end of last year, the roof was all glass but I have replaced it with polycarbonate, firstly because I didn’t want the roof coming down again on my head while I was in there and secondly because it was cheaper and easier to fit. I had to straighten out the roof bars as the force of the wind had twisted them slightly, tighten up all the bolts to make the frame  strong again, I just have a couple of little triangle pieces to put in the ends and it will be ready for planting up salad leaves at the end of the month.

The second big job of the week was to fit two new blinds to the kitchen and bathroom window, which to my surprise I did with little swearing! They were quite easy to fit and I was very chuffed that I had managed them all by myself 🙂 

On the animal front this week we have said an emotional goodbye to Atherton who was the thoroughbred that we have had on loan for the past 3 years, his owner came and picked him up on Saturday afternoon, we shall miss him very much as he was the first fulltime ‘farm’ animal that we ever looked after. The sheep is doing very well this week, she is back out in the paddock and back to her usual routine of pestering me for feed every time she sees me, although there is a slight possibility that she is in lamb, I am not convinced so we will just have to wait and see.

The fox has made an appearance again this week, as we still have not been able to trap this one, I went up the back one day last week, and caught sight of him running across the corner paddock. I crept to a spot where I was sure he couldn’t see me and luckily I was up wind of him, I stood watching him for about 20 minutes while he was sat in the hedgeline watching my chickens, eventually he moved out in the paddock but by the time I got round the other side he was gone, needless to say I was on high alert for the rest of the day!

The eggs numbers are increasing daily again now and this morning I had my very Blue egg which was very exciting, for me anyway ;), It is funny how last week I was considering decreasing my duck numbers because the ducks lay very well but the demand is not there, then suddenly I have an increase in people wanting duck eggs, the power of thought is amazing, if only I could do that with a lottery win 😀

Spring is definitely on its way, the birds have begun to check out the holes in the side of the building ready for choosing a suitable nest, I have told Hubby that we will not be able to replace the wooden cladding until all the fledglings have vacated so that will be near the end of the summer before that job can be done. I was trying to count up the number of different birds that I have spotted over the last couple of months, it is becoming quite a little haven for them especially the small birds, we have Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Long Tailed Tits, Robins, Wrens, Woodpecker, Dunnocks, Sparrows, Thrush, Blackbird, Magpie, Collared Doves, Wood Pigeon, Buzzard, Red Kite, Bullfinches Goldfinches and spotted for the first time Greenfinches and Yellow Hammer.

The Snowdrops are a lovely arrival and the green stems of the daffodils are pushing up all over the place, the buds are swelling on the trees and hopefully it wont be long before everything bursts into life again, the Met office forecasts some warmer weather for the week coming and not before time too, although we are also in line for some gusty winds, I better hope that I have secured that new greenhouse roof properly!

Hubby had a bit of an unfortunate accident yesterday, he walked into the door but he had a plate and a steak knife in his hand, the plate fell on the floor and the knife went an inch and a quarter straight into his stomach! Luckily after a trip to A & E they decided that it had mostly gone into his spare tyre and although he is feeling sorry for himself he has not done any damage, just has a couple of stitches and some bruising, so today he is resting and I have to provide the TLC, I have heaped the sympathy on him but not before telling him what a prat he was 😉

Goodbye Atherton,  we will miss you.

The type of week I have had this week, is the reason I began the blog in the first place, to make a permanent log of the things that are great and go according to plan and the things that go wrong. In my limited experience of this smallholding life I have found that things tend to go wrong all at the same time and this has been one of those weeks.

The weather has really been against us, the plummeting temperatures and unrelenting frozen ground has made life hard, not just for us but the animals too. The layer of snow, subsequent part thaw, then freezing again meant that the paddocks were just like huge ice rinks, the horses were all brought in on the night the snow first fell and have now been in for over a week, they are not happy. Hopefully after today they will be able to return to the fields again and be able to enjoy that freedom for the rest of the year.

In 48 hours during the week, I had enough little incidents to wonder ‘what the hell am I doing, I should just get an office job’.  Apart from battling against the elements, the animals all decided that they would wreak a bit of havoc too, our oldest dog, normally on his best behaviour decided I could do with some excercise and ran away through an accidentally left open gate, not once but two days running, he is not the sort to come back on command, so there I am chasing after him across the fields, trying to sound friendly while I call him, but he knows I am cross and keeps on running! During the part thaw I hear the unmistakable sound of water dripping onto my living room carpet and after catching a fox on Tuesday night and disposing of it, Wednesday morning at about 10.30 there was a cuffufle outside the back door and I ran out to see another fox about 4 ft away with one of my chickens in its mouth, it was in no hurry to leg it, so I stood shouting and screaming at it, in the end I tried to pick up a stone and hurl it but the ground was so frozen that it was stuck! So I spent all day on high alert, checking the chickens every hour or so. I had decided to leave them in on the Thursday, the fox population is so very hungry at the moment with temperatures well below freezing I was taking no chances.

On Thursday morning I went up to the paddocks as usual to find one of the sheep ‘down’ she was laying on her side and did not get up, so we bought her into the hay barn made a pen filled with straw and put up a heat lamp, I then spent about 6 hours sitting with her trying to get her to eat or drink, on top of this I still had to feed all the others and ferry water to them, plus see to what seemed like a unprecented amount of egg customers and remember to keep the Rayburn going with logs every now and then. I did not come in from outside until 2 o’clock in the afternoon, grabbed a sandwich and a cuppa and went back out to see the sheep. There was not much change so phoned the vet with the symptoms who was not very hopeful and didn’t have a clue what had caused it! I ask for  opinions from online forums,  gave it sugar water and tried to encourage it to stand up every now and then, then someone suggested a twin lamb drench which is a metabolic stimulant, it took two days but I am happy to report she is fine and cant wait to get back outside. During my ‘nursing shift’ I had to let the horses out for a bit of exercise because they are boxed all day, I had got two out of three outside when the other one decided I wasnt quick enough, busts the bolt on the stable door and lets himself out to charge round the yard.

Actually it does not sound too bad when I write it all down but some of these things were happening while I was trying to deal with the last incident, so I was at times running about like the proverbial headless chicken, all the while, the phone rings, the dogs need letting out, the dinner needs cooking, the tap needs defrosting (for the third time in the day), the fire needs stoking, etc etc etc, they were certainly 2 days that stretched my multitasking abilities to the limit! Of course my mood was not made any better by Hubby arriving home and informing me that I get ‘too stressed’ arrrrrrgggghhhh! Everything was restored to calm after a good nights sleep on Thursday once we were sure the sheep was out of danger, we have since had a burst pipe in the tack room, but I am taking it all in my stride, besides that is definatly Hubby’s dept  :p

What I learnt about myself during this time was that I like to be in control, my brother jokingly said to me ‘wait till you have kids’ (my youngest is 22), it was much easier with kids, they understood ‘time out’ or ‘no’ or they could speak to you and let you know what is wrong, with animals all of those rules are thrown out of the window and my ‘control’ goes with it!

As I look toward to the rest of the year I have begun making preparations for working out side in the Sun, you may remember that I was diagnosed with Discoid Lupus back in the Spring, for me this means not being able to expose my skin to strong sunlight, this is something that will be a challenge given my lifestyle, but I am determined to work around it the best I can. Very early mornings and late evenings on the veg garden will be the routine, spending the middle of the day indoors, I have heavily invested (£1 each) in some oversized, longsleeved mens cotton shirts, which will be washed in a UVA factor 50 liquid protection, I have also just ordered a portable UVA protective cover that covers about 8ft in diameter, a very delectable hat that makes me look like I am on safari, and I will  be plastered in factor 50 sun block, if you come up to the farm in the summer, you wont miss me, I will be the one looking like Worzel Gummidge on Holiday 🙂

Where has the last week gone, it seems to have flown past very quickly! We have had all kinds of weather, bright blue skies with frosty mornings, plunging freezing temperatures and now a blanket of Snow! I prefer the warmth the snow brings to the bone chilling cold that we had just before it, it makes life seriously difficult when every water holder has to be defrosted because the ice is about 4 inches thick and no amount of kicking it is going to smash it. Of course you always get one bright spark that puts his foot through the bottom of not one but two buckets :p 

The horses have been bought in and stabled whilst the snow is on the ground, partly because we weren’t sure how much we were really going to end up with and partly to save the total destruction of the fields when it begins to melt again.  They were given a chance to ‘play’ in the menage, they do like a good roll in the snow, it is funny how snow brings out the playfullness in people and animals, our oldest dog, who is 13, comes alive like a puppy in the snow.

The beastly fox has struck again, this time he has had a Goose, despite the traps both being set, he must have come early in the morning as we found the headless body in the small paddock still quite fresh, the Fox had tried to get it through the stock fencing, it was obviously too heavy for him to jump up and over the fence with it in his mouth. This one seems to pick off the birds just one at a time and he is about at all times of the day, I will be glad when we have finally caught him and hope it is before he does serious damage to the flock numbers. He is quite brazen, one of the liveries was filling hay nets in the barn turned around and there he was just looking at her, she said it was the biggest one she had ever seen.

Only a few more weeks until Spring, which will hopefully bring warmer weather and the start of the growing year again. We still have a freezer full of veg and fruit that were processed last year which gives me a great sense of achievement during the cold months, those long Summer days of picking, cutting, blanching and freezing were well worth it. The Snowdrops have appeared at the front of the house and next will come the Daffodils and Crocuses, at the end of this month it will be about the right time to begin planting the seeds that will take longest to produce anything, Tomatoes, Aubergine, Melons etc. I am planning on making a mini hotbed inside the greenhouse in order to raise the temperature, this is a Victorian method using manure in its fresh form, as it begins to break down it will release heat, normally you would put earth on top and plant into it, but I just need it for the heat source so I will use an old dustbin, I should also get a thick black liquid from the bottom of it that will provide me with a  free fertiliser too.  We have had a flock of Long Tailed Tits here this weekend, I had never seen them until we moved here, they are lovely little birds but they don’t stay around for very long, we also had a visit from a Red Kite which swooped very low over the hay barn, they are huge and extremely graceful in flight. I was told that there is an albino buzzard living in the area but I have yet to spot it, we have a small number of albino rabbits living about 2 miles up the road, they are very easy to spot in the middle of the field and I wonder how long they will last before they get eaten!

Alfie has arrived at the farm this morning, he is not one of the farm animals but he does spend quite a bit of time here, he is a brown and white collie puppy that belongs to my daughters boyfriend, he is a clever little fellow that is already learning his commands, he is learning all about life on the farm and at the minute is most scared of the sheep!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thats about it for this week as the dogs are barking because the puppy is here and I cant really concentrate, plus the puppy is about to start chewing the carpet!