After working hard all week to get the rest of the stuff and rubbish out of the other house we finally closed the door on Thursday evening for the last time and the sale went through on Friday. Woop, woop that means we now own our little piece of England, lock, stock and barrel, no more mortgage and no more commercial loan. Boy that feels good, as you would have realised if you had seen the Cheshire Cat grin on Hubby’s face for two whole days! On the Saturday we went straight down to the travel agents and booked our long overdue holiday, it is not until October but we will look forward to that every day from here on in đ
The general duties around the farm took a bit of a back seat and we more than made up for it over the holiday weekend, more about that a bit later. The animals of course still had to take priority and Betty gave us great cause for concern, she has not had a good run at all, apart from her traumatic first few hours she has had secondary infection from the Orf and then she did not wean well at all, she had scours and then fly strike. Each time something was wrong with her we treated the ailment, but sadly she took a turn for the worst and died on Saturday. It has been a huge learning curve and there are definitely things that I would do differently if there was ever a next time, as always when we have lambs, I say never again, but as always my heart overrules my head and so I am sure we will.
The escaping dog was indeed grounded for the whole week until we had time to secure the compound. We had discussions about where he was probably escaping and ordered some wood to put around the bottom of the fence, the wood arrived and Hubby nailed it all in place, so far so good. We let the offending dog out and within minutes discovered that he was not going under the fence at all but climbing on a pile of ballast and going over it! We did have to laugh that we had done all that and he still got out, the area has now been secured and rearranged and so far touch wood he has not got out again.
Bank holiday weekend, in the name somewhere suggests a rest, ha! We worked harder this weekend than ever before I think. There were a number of jobs high up on the list, the first was to finish the poly tunnel, luckily the weather was clam and dry on Sunday and we were able to get the polythene on and secured that just left the sliding door to finish and hang which we planned to do on the Monday after shearing the sheep which would only take an hour or so wouldn’t it????
The sheep had to be done when we had a few dry sunny days as it make the wool easier to handle, we started off well, gathering all the equipment together and making up a pen to hold them in while we did it. First task, catch the sheep, they were obviously not in the mood to be shorn and gave us the run around, we finally caught the first about as far away from the pen as possible and proceeded to push the ewe in the right direction, she, did not want to go that way, and we were exhausted before we even started buy the time we got her in. No problem, start up the shears and get on with it, the shears also decided they did not want to shear that day, so with a half shorn sheep we resorted to scissors, yes you read that correctly! Four and a half hours later and a quick trip to get some new scissors after the first pair blunted, we finally had sheep that were shorn, I use that term very very loosely. I have blisters, swollen hands and every joint from my waist down is seized this morning! It was funny while we were doing it but when the aches and pains kicked in, not so funny anymore. With the majority of the wool off, the sheep were all sprayed with a product designed to stop fly strike and it had better work or I want my money back, I often thought I would like a large flock of sheep but I am cured after this last week.
We finally seem to have got the rat problem eradicated, we found a couple of dead or dying bodies, one of which I hit over the head to make sure it was dead and broke the spade handle, new spade on the shopping list now! The weather has been mixed this week and we did managed to get some more veg plants in, I wrapped up the beans in fleece only for that to be blown away in the gale force winds we experienced, the rain today will be welcomed by veg plants and weeds alike, sadly it is only the weeds that seem to be exploding all over the garden, the veg plants are only limping along at the present time, I would really like to reach a place where I am not wondering, what is the point, it seems like a battle for the whole of this last year. I know however that when its good, it’s really good, and so hang on to that thought for the time being.
Hubby has had fantasies of semi retirement now that the weight of the mortgage is gone, I say had, because after this weekend I think he has had second thoughts, you know how it is, the two days at the weekend you can just about get along together but that last bank holiday is the straw that breaks the camels back and you are glad to get back to normal, it has been a mentally and physically tiring week and I for one would like to see some more settled weather to see us into the Summer months, it makes life easier all round.
The jobs are stacking up again already and today I need to get the tomatoes in the poly tunnel and planted up, I also need to shuffle a few chooks around and clean out some pens ready for a delivery this week! The egg demand has gone through the roof, which is fab, but we need to have enough layers in the first place, we have the return of a lurking fox so we need to be aware of his presence, having had a good run without any and can’t get too complacent. Even though its raining, I have a pile of work to do, and I still have aches and pains from the weekend, I feel surprisingly upbeat today, must be the fact that we now have 100% ownership of this place and all the trials and tribulations that come with it!
frieslandfarm (flowers) 