March2007

Most of the month has been devoted to decorating and freshening up the house and gardens whilst making preparations for the growing season ahead. First job was to re fence the entire vegetable growing area as the poultry had managed to break in and decimate all the winter crops whilst I was concentrating on game keeping. I am starting to get tired of saying this year is the year but here I am saying the same thing yet again!
Things have gone quite well though and all the seeds have been planted for the first crops. I have decided to keep the carrots in the polytonal as it is clear to me from last years experience that it is possible for them to grow all year round with some planning. The first brassicas will be planted in the polytunnel as well to produce early crops and the rest of the outside area will be devoted to brassicas and leeks. Overall from the experiences we have had it should be possible to keep crops growing throughout the winter so this year is a very important one in that respect where I must concentrate on planting and planning ahead to ensure this. It is no good me complaining about paying for expensive veg over winter when I know I could have them growing in my own garden!

Brice with the new piglets

In the new arrivals stakes Bonnie won by a few days. On 22nd of March Debbie noticed her building a huge nest at about 10am. At around 1pm whilst passing between jobs the unmistakable squeal greeted my ears. I went around with Debbie expecting to find the first or perhaps second piglet born but no, Bonnie had delivered all her piglets in text book fashion, all 11 of them.

Amber with the new born piglets

I keep saying to people that we have such a special girl here. She performs so well and takes to motherhood so easily and has never really caused us any concern, indeed it was the way she handled her first litter that made us believe that keeping breeding pigs was something we could do after disastrous experiences with Tamworth’s. Her temperament is so good and she has never shown any aggression to us even when we check her piglets over. Obviously we can never trust any animal 100% but I don’t think we could trust any animal more than we trust Bonnie.
Sassy with her new born pups

Sassy had her litter a few days later and ended up with 12 pups competing for her 7 teats, unfortunately one of the pups died later. You can read more about the experience here. Both Bonnie and Sassy have settled down to their mothering duties and their young are all doing very well. In the coming months it will mean that we have a good few piglets and puppies to sell before I run out of money to feed them all!

Winter 2006-2007

Time has past so quickly and thankfully so as the winter really did seem to have a negative effect on my mood. How warm it was, yes the ever present wind seemed to be the same but temperature wise it was uncannily hot as far as winter goes. From a practical point of view it meant a great deal of mud around the place which tends to get even the most positive person down after a while. Trying to keep the animals in warm dry bedding was a nightmare and at one of the lowest points I was going to sell them all as I just didn't see that we could carry on like that for any longer.
Thankfully though just as the winter had been warm and so very wet, spring seemed to come early and the land dried out quickly much to our relief. It showed us that at winter time we really can only afford to keep the breeding stock and no others as the land just cannot cope. On the positive side the weather for game keeping was very nice indeed. For the first year in three I can't think of a time when I was standing thinking what on earth am I doing here in this weather. The only down fall was that with winter weather clothing on it was hard going in the heat.
Overall the shooting season went very well although it did take a lot of time up and didn't leave a great deal for spending time with the family once the holding work was done. Thankfully I have managed to rearrange the hours I work to make sure that I have a good amount of time to spend at home with the family whilst hopefully managing to keep the game birds on the estate.
The gilt weaners from Lady's litter late last year were sold as breeding stock and the others are now getting very near to going to the abattoir. I think I may have to wait until the beginning of May because of the limited space in the freezers after they were re-filled with the last of the boars from Bonnie's third litter earlier in the year.
Both Bonnie and Lady are again due litters but we have decided to try to have one litter from each per year now and that will be early in the spring and means we will have no fatteners to feed over winter. That will mean trying to keep Bonnie and Lady away from Malcolm for around 5 months. We will just have to see if it works out as I am not sure that it is going to work for them to be by themselves for that long? The girls I think will be fine as they will generally have some of their weaners with them for a good while but as for Malcolm I don't really know as he hasn't been by himself for any length of time.

Time for the pot

From a poultry point of view we need a good sort out as we have far too many of most breeds. The Norfolk Bronze turkeys worked very well and we enjoyed one of the stags for our christmas dinner having hung it for 10 days. It tasted fantastic although I must admit I thought initially that 10 days was a little long. Now I think I will take the view of why change the wheel if it isn't broken and do the same with future turkeys. Unfortunately the stag that we decided to keep for breeding was aggressive towards Debbie so he had to go which now leaves us with our pair of slate turkeys. The stag seems pretty laid back so we will see how he performs with his hen.
Eggs are starting to mass up now and are regularly being fed to the pigs. The main problem will be the feeding which is rapidly rising in cost even though we buy only wheat now. As they are all free range we haven't bought layers pellets for over a year as we found little difference except in our pockets. Over the next few weeks I will start sorting out the younger cockerels and drakes and see what we have but no doubt some of the hens will need to be either sold or put in the freezer.
The sheep and cows have settled together fine although at feed times the cows Hope and her daughter Glory have a distinct advantage with their horns which they use to nudge into the barley. Nothing serious just a little poke to get into a better position. We are pleased with the way the sheep have gained in condition and also the lambs from last year. We should have plenty of mutton and lamb for the coming year as we want to reduce the flock back to 4 for breeding this autumn which will mean 6 lambs and 4 ewes need to be sorted for the freezer at the back end of summer.

Mother Hope

and daughter Glory

The cows I am still undecided upon but am leaning towards processing them for their meat. For our set up and not having the time to be here full time because of work commitments I feel that breeding could potential cause a great deal of problems for us and that would not be fair on ourselves or the animals so again later this year I will make a final decision on what to do. There is the other option of them being grass cutters but realistically they would be very expensive to keep like that so I don't think that will be an option we will take.

Sassy full to bursting with pups!

Lastly we have had Sassy our Springer Spaniel mated with one of the local studs. The idea is that Debbie would like a bitch pup to train to retrieve birds on the shoots and help with rounding the pheasants up during the summer. Sassy has performed really well over the season and has such a keen sense of smell for the birds combined with her calm temperament it became obvious that she had good qualities to pass onto some pups. She is due next month and it remains to be seen as to whether she has her litter first or Bonnie!

October 2006 Winter is on it's way

October proved once again to be another busy month both on the holding and at work with the beginning of the new shooting season. I had thought I might be sitting here talking about how beautiful the leaves look on the trees, changing their colours to yellows and browns. However we have had our first taste of what winter holds with our first winter storms. Trees have been blown over around the area and there are only a few leaves left on the trees now but it is still hasn't diminished the beauty of the area. All the seasons seem to retain their beauty in their own way. Even during the bleakest winter weather the scenery is there to be appreciated.
We have managed to sell the gilt weaners that Bonnie farrowed back at the beginning of August and as hoped they have been bought as breeding stock rather than going to the freezer. The boars we shall keep for our freezer in the springtime. Bonnie has now joined Malcolm again after we deliberately allowed her to have her first season away from him, which should mean that her next litter will arrive in the springtime when they should grow well in the summer months.
The last of our freezer pigs have now been processed and we have plenty pork to see us over until the springtime which will take a lot of pressure off the shopping bill. Lady as well has farrowed her first litter and performed really well. She had 9 piglets but 2 died at birth cause unknown. However the 7 that survived have developed well under Lady's care.
We feel really pleased with the way our pigs have come on after the disappointment of the Tamworth's breeding experiences and we feel that we are now at the point where we can produce all our own pork products whilst also selling on some of the weaners and pork products.
We also bought our first cow at long last. She is a Dexter cow with a young Dexter heifer calf. We had seen some beautiful registered stock locally but felt that financially we just couldn't afford the prices so spent a lot less on Hope the cow and Glory her calf. We deliberately made sure we bought her having not been with a bull so that we can spend the next few years learning about keeping cows. Hope is only 3 so we have a few years to learn before we decide whether to go into the breeding of cows to produce our own beef. They have settle well although it is obvious that they have had little human contact and are still a little apprehensive to approach unless we take some barley down for her!
We have already had our first scary experience, which happened on the first afternoon they arrived. Our surrounding fields have young fattening steers and they all seemed to be socialising well. That is until the owner arrived with their feed and the steers ran off up the field. Hope didn't seem to like them all running away up the field and tried to jump the weakest part of my fencing. Thankfully she didn't manage to get across and I was able to re inforce the fencing, which has stopped any further attempts. The steers have now been taken away but it does leave me with a few anxieties for next spring when more will return. Hopefully by that time Hope will have settled more and see this as here home.
The sheep have arrived back after having been on a grass-cutting holiday, but what we have noticed is that the lambs are far from being in good condition. Some of this we think may be down to our lambing time which has happened in the middle of the grass growing season so that by the time they wean the grass is past its best whilst the other problem being that it has taken us until this year to actually bring the grass back to a good standard. Next year should be the first year when we have a large amount of good grass available, for the remainder of this year we have a source of hay, which should meet the requirements of the animals. With this in mind we have decided that this year we will not be inviting a ram to stay and will grow on the animals we have to provide us with lamb and mutton and take stock next year as to how to proceed. It may even be a case of us getting a smaller breed of sheep but I am loathed to do that as the Suffolk do provide a good carcass. I guess it all depends upon the grass next year.
The last of the broodies (fingers crossed) has hatched 7 chicks and poultry wise we are well and truly sorted for poultry meat over the winter. The game birds as well are just starting to get to the point where they are reaching their prime so no doubt I will be bringing all kinds of game meat home shortly.
The game keeping is going really well at the moment and I can't believe that is a quarter of the shooting season gone already. It has proved to be very frustrating as well as there are occasions when the birds are not where they are supposed to be, but on the whole I think I have done as well as I could for my first season. One thing is for sure I have learned a huge amount so hope that the next seasons give better and better results.
That is about it for October, time to really start making winter preparations as I have a feeling the bad weather is not too faraway.

Last of the summer time

September finally saw what I had been dreading in that the vegetables have suffered as a consequence of having so much to do over the month. The days have become very short compared to the long hot summer days when nighttime never seemed to want to come!
Unfortunately the tomatoes came down with what I think was blight so although we watered well for most of the season it probably lead to the nice humid atmosphere relished by the blighty bug. We have finished most of our bean and pea crops but neglected to save some for next year's crops so that is another lesson we have been shown.
Most of the winter crops have started to grow well outside and on a positive note I have managed to get the first of our winter carrot seeds to germinate before the cold weather comes. Over the next few days I shall plant the last lot so hopefully enabling us to have carrots over winter and up to spring.
The potatoe crops have produced a good 10 bags of potatoes, which should at least keep us going until Christmas but yet again it seems that for our needs I am not planting enough which is strange as we planted a great deal.
I get the feeling that because we eat so much veg instead of fast foods and tinned processed foods that we may never be able to produce enough unless we have whole acres set aside.
Perhaps looking at things now it is not so dreadful a situation as I first thought, as the crops we have lost have been quite minimal in the whole scheme of things. How I wish I could stop being such a perfectionist!
Bonnie's piglets have grown well and we separated her from then late in the month as she was starting to look thin. It does amaze me though how quickly she regains her condition without the piglets taking all the goodness from her. We decided this time to give her a good few months rest as the last thing we need is to have litters being born in the dead of winter, so for now she is in a paddock by herself and seems glad of her own company for now.
Lady our other Large Black is due piglets at some point in October, but we don't have an exact date due to this being her first litter. Based on our experiences with Bonnie it looks only a matter of weeks now and we shall keep a close eye on her for further signs of her nearing farrowing.
The sheep have been sent on their holidays before the ram comes in December. They have gone to a large paddock not far away to enjoy a few acres of virgin grass and it really has helped the ewes to regain their condition after looking after their lambs for the last few months. We are hoping it will also have a good affect on the lambs that have now joined their mums as we intend to start taking around half the lambs to the abattoir in December ready for the festive season. The smaller ones we shall leave until after the New Year so they have a little more time to grow. This year is also a little different as we shall be using a least 2 of the ewes to provide mutton as we kept 2 lambs from last year to become fresh breeding stock. We know that Lilly will be one of the mutton ewes after all her trials during the last two lambing seasons but haven't decided who the other one will be yet.
All the poultry are growing well and should be fit enough to get through the winter but it is starting to get to the point where they will need to be sorted out for who is being kept and who is going in the freezer. Obviously the cockerels will need to be done but we have a fair amount of hens now and perhaps their numbers will need reducing. The young ducks are the same as they are now approaching the point where the drakes are just about recognisable so they will need sorted probably next month.
Lastly the turkeys, it now seems we may have 3 of each or 4 stags and 2 hens. They are getting quite big now and with that quite defensive/ territorial, I don't know which. Especially with the dogs and cat. They just don't seem to like them at all and once one turkey starts to act aggressively the others all want to join in. By aggressive I don't mean anything major, however the opportunity to become something major is a possibility. It is a situation I will need to watch carefully as we did intend to have a breeding pair from them and the rest as Christmas turkeys but they may force a decision for me. Only time will tell.
At this time we are looking forward to the start of the new shooting season and the nearer it comes the more nervous I get. I know both myself and Debbie have put a great deal of work into the birds over the last few months but it will only be when they are driven on a shoot day that we will see for sure how they react. Maybe I shouldn't give up nursing just yet!

August 2006 More new arrivals

August has passed by so quickly, as usual a whirlwind of experiences good and bad. However before an update I think I should clarify some of the points I made about my work as an under keeper.
I have re read my entry for last month and I can see that it may read like that is it finished. However as with most jobs you have good times and bad times. Last month was one of those not bad times but just extremely busy. It had to be to make sure that in the future months the shooting season is successful. Both Debbie and myself have talked about this period over the last few weeks and feel that we can make some changes, which will mean that we are much more prepared for this time next year and the years after that.
This being my first year of game keeping, I had no idea how much it would affect our life but until we experienced it we never would. Now that we do we have come to the decision that we can accommodate all aspects of our life to include my game keeping as well. Saying that, as always it is a case of what will be will be. Things may happen over the next few months that mean the decision to work as an under keeper is taken away from us. For example I can see that the issue of Bird Flu rearing its head again with the migration of birds getting under way soon. So for now I can safely say that I hope to continue for quite a few years to come as an under keeper as the good times far out way the bad times.
1st of August was the date we had arrived at for Bonnie to farrow her third litter and she kept us waiting until the next morning. In all she produced 10 piglets, however 1 must have died when born which was discovered the next day hidden under the straw bedding and 1 died after getting stuck and having to be retrieved from Bonnie. So in total we have 4 gilts and 4 boars, all pedigree Large Black pigs. We are hoping to sell these as breeding pigs as to our knowledge we have the most Northerly herd in the UK based upon the information on the BPA site and Large black pig breeders site. You can read more about the experience here for now although when I have time I shall write an article about the experience.

Finally over!

Milk Bar's open!

It seems that our broody hens just don't realise that autumn is fast approaching and have continued to hatch chicks at a very efficient rate. Thankfully only 2 seem to be left who are on a total of around a dozen eggs between them. It doesn't seem that long ago that we had the fox visit and were worrying that we may be struggling for eggs and meat, but no more!
The bad news is that one of the Slate turkey chicks drowned in a bucket of water, probably overbalancing whilst having a drink, however the 3 remaining seem to be growing fast now. The Bronze turkeys continue to grow well and are part of the fixture and fittings of the place now. There seems to be at least 2 females amongst the 6 we have based on their displaying behaviours, which are a fantastic site.

Strutting his stuff!

Over the past 2 months we have hatched 20 ducklings in the incubator and they are now at the point of being kept in an outside run waiting to free range. They just need a few weeks to get used to the weather conditions and the other poultry before we will let them out of the run. Unfortunately our 2 new ducks decided to share a nest together when going broody which resulted in the eggs they were incubating being smashed probably as they were manoeuvring for position. Something to remember for next year after the same thing happened with the chickens. Nest sharing is a definite no-no!

Hello big wide world!

The veg plot has continued to be very productive and we are being treated to some wonderful produce. The winter crops have been transplanted outside and room is gradually being made available inside the polytunnel for further crops to be planted. Must admit though I get the feeling that producing veg all year round could be very difficult indeed. That is unless I make more land available or buy another polytunnel. Both options are not really viable from a time and finance point of view. We will have to see what happens over the winter and make decisions early next year.

July 2006 The great balancing act

July has turned out to be one big juggling act. As I thought last month it has been extremely busy with the pheasants arriving and looking after their needs whilst trying to keep everything going at home.
It has shown me very quickly that game keeping is something I could not think of doing long term, as the commitment to the birds is a fulltime job in itself and there are no short cuts to take. I will of course see this year out to the end of the shooting season, but will really have to think hard as to whether it is the right move to continue as the priorities at home have been moved down the priority ladder which is something I don't wish to happen for long periods. After all we have built up a smallholding lifestyle to have our needs and ourselves as the main priority.

(Feeding time at the pheasant pen)

That may sound quite gloomy but the reality is that I really do enjoy the work and get a great deal of satisfaction from it, just that the commitment seems too much for our preferred lifestyle. By the time all the work is done looking after the birds it leaves little time for anything else except to have a bite to eat, water the plants and grab a few hours sleep. Of course it won't be like this for long as the days grow shorter but this time of year is a special time where everything is flourishing and there is so much to see and do around the place. The kids are all off school and there is no time to spend on day trips or even just spending a few hours playing.
So for now I will carry on enjoying the experience and see what happens next year? At least I can say I have had the experience and given it a try something I may have regretted had I not taken the opportunity.
Around the holding more chicks have been born. It may sound bad but at the present time I have lost count of exactly what has been born although I can say that from 7 Peafowl eggs we now have 3 Peafowl following around their surrogate mother a New Hampshire Red. We did have 4 but I am thinking a buzzard ate one as I have seen one regularly perched near to our place. 4 Slate turkey poults were successfully hatched by one of our Light Sussex hens, whilst the 6 Bronze turkey poults are now free ranging around the holding. It seems that we may have quite a few stags amongst them but intend to swap some of the stags with friends who have other bloodlines.

(A STAGgering photo!)

Lambing season seems like a distant memory now as worming and trimming the ewes and lambs last week they seem to be growing very quickly especially the rams who this year we castrated to see if they grew quicker. It does seem to be the case as Whizzer the only entire ram who is going for breeding stock to one of our friends does appear smaller when compared to the other ram lambs. That would leave us with 8 lambs of which 2 will be added to our flock leaving 6 for the freezer. Sounds a lot but having 4 last years I notice we have nearly eaten all the lamb I processed in February so 6 lambs and 2 ewes for mutton wouldn't be a bad thing.
The 6 young weaners have now been separated between 2 pens now as they are rapidly coming up to breeding age, 3 gilts in one paddock and 3 boars in another. These should provide our pork over the winter and the boars I think will probably be going to the abattoir around October with the gilts late in the year. The last 3 of our adult gilts from Bonnie's first litter went to the abattoir last week and are now processed into the freezer.
Bonnie is still keeping us waiting at the moment in the field shelter and is due to farrow on the 1st August. She has found the heat had to cope with but the new paddock she is in provides a great deal of shade under willow trees and a wallow helps to cool her off.

(Bonnie cooling off)

Up until this year our gardening efforts have been unremarkable although we have had some successes. This year has been a great success up to now. I have employed some of the lessons learned previously such as watering regularly (yes I was that bad) and also used slug pellets for the first time and what a difference they have made.
I used the poly tunnel to start some crops off early and it worked a treat. We have been eating roast dinners for a while now using mostly our own veg, including sweet corn, carrots, and cabbage. I have a big crop of cauliflowers which are about a month away from providing more additions to meal times as well as mistakenly planting brussel sprouts in there too, at least we will have early sprouts!
The tomatoe plants are now providing us with all our tomatoes, as are the cucumbers and courgettes. Along with the other salad crops of rocket, spinach and lettuce we have white and red radish, spring onions, shallots and soon to be added sweet peppers.

(Success at last in the polytunnel)
I have planted a few pumpkins in the hope of having some fruit from them by Halloween but fear I have left it too late for this year time will tell.
Outside we planted a large amount of potatoes which all seem to be growing well along with those missed from last year. The peas and beans are also growing slowly but surely and our winter brassicas are growing well along with the leeks, so wintertime should see us with plenty of veg. I think that at the end of August/ beginning of September I will be planting more brassicas in the polytunnel to see what crop it will give over the winter and if successful will use the polytunnel to ensure we have veg all year round.
The fruit crops are also producing although need a few more years to be bountiful. The blackcurrants have provided a crop again although having netted them for protection after loosing large amounts in the past to birds I left them to ripen too much to the point that only enough fruit was left on the bushes to produce 2 large jars of jam. The liberated Rhubarb is thriving now and should grow well over the next few years. Having had an initial crop from them when planting I think we will have another crop before the summer has ended. The apple trees have a small crop on them, which is a bonus although they should start to produce well from next year. I will also be using runners from the strawberry plants to produce an outside bed as the crop in the polytunnel ripened early and finished a while back. An outside bed should mean strawberries for at least 4 months of the year instead of the glut we had in 2 months. The only thing missing is gooseberries, which hopefully will be sorted later in the year.
All in all a very productive time in the garden and with the animals. Slowly but surely we are adding to our list of own homegrown produce and I have to say it feels very satisfying indeed!

June 2006 The easy times are over

June will be the last of the easier months I fear! It seems to have gone in a flash and as usual so much has happened.
The sheep and their lambs are all on the summer field now and apart from the odd hobbler seem to be thriving well. At the beginning of June I decided to take a few weeks off to make sure jobs, which, needed done before the game keeping takes over my life were done.

Mum came for a 'working holiday'

As the sheep were doing so well and the weather was really treating us to some good sun burning temperatures I decided to shear the sheep sooner rather than later. All went well doing one each night until the penultimate ewe when I discovered small maggots on Rose.
We were really lucky; as I had thought her shearing was finished but saw a small area of fleece at the back of her udders. The kind of tuft generally I think nothing of. I clipped a small piece of fleece away not out of necessity but rather a cosmetic touch only to find what seemed like hundreds of small maggots bursting from where I had cut. Fearing the worst that they had eaten into her udder I cleared away the maggots I could see to find that they were infact living in between her skin and the matted piece of fleece. After a good clean and thorough shave the maggots were off and another big lesson learned. Luckily we have never had a serious case of fly strike but this experience showed us just how easy it can develop and how vigilance really is the most important protection as well as fly strike preventative spray.
We had 4 of the 7 porker gilts back from the abattoir during the month and filled the freezer to the brim. These are the first Tamworth Large Black cross pigs we have tasted and they taste superb. The bacon made from them is not as good as the pure Tamworth but is fine for us and after all Large Blacks are pork joint pig rather than reared for bacon.
Bonnie continues to grow well and is hopefully getting to her full-grown size or I hope she is as going in to stroke her recently she is some size now. Some of that will no doubt be due to the piglets growing but still she is some size now but as docile as ever. She is due to farrow at the end of July and shall shortly go into the field vacated by the sheep, hopefully farrowing in the field shelter and producing our first litter of pedigree Large Black pigs.
I think we have had a further three hatchings to our hens but admit I have lost count now as at times we seem to be over run with mother hens and their chicks. We had 2 hens sitting very close together and noticed that although one hen hatched out 3 chicks the other hen managed to steal them although she is rearing them well. No doubt she got tired of waiting as what seems to have happened is that other hens have been laying in the same area resulting in eggs having widely differing incubating times.
The remaining hen who was in no mood to move has had a fresh supply of Pekin duck eggs popped under her and all other eggs removed. We have also made sure that other hens cannot lay next to her to avoid differing incubation times. She is sitting on four eggs from 2 dozen we bought in after having no luck finding adult Pekin ducks to complement the two we already have. The other twenty eggs are being incubated in an incubator we recently bought. Up to now 18 of the 20 we have are growing but we shall have to wait until mid July to see how many are actually hatched.
During June we seem to have gone a little mad with our poultry plans as we also bought six Bronze turkey chicks some of which we hope to breed from after swapping stags and some who are destined for the table.
Also bought some peafowl eggs as Debbie has always wanted some and they are currently being incubated by one of our broody hens and lastly I bought some turkey eggs for another of our broody hens. The reason for the turkey eggs is that they are a different breed to the Bronze chicks we have and I found them very striking in their colour. They are sold under the name of Slate turkeys so we shall wait to see how they turn out.
The veg patch is really turning out fine up to now and we are regularly able to get small amounts of fresh veg in the form of salads for now but in the near future cauliflower and cabbage will be in good supply along with sweet corn, courgettes, cucumber, beetroot, peas and beans. Up to now watering has been maintained to the required standard, which proved to be the downfall last year and along with a change of heart should mean we have some bumper crops to come. The change of heart? Well quite simply I decided that after finding evidence of slug damage yet again this year despite our best efforts to use slug-killing pellets. I never have been a great lover of chemical use but as I said to Debbie what is the point of saying I use no chemicals and yet have no food for the table. Any gardener will tell you how much hard work is required and to see the effort wrecked almost overnight is soul destroying so slug pellets it has to be.
I remember during cold and wet days during early March planting potatoes with Debbie and thinking I really hope we have a crop off these after the time and effort of planting them and it is so pleasing to see that almost all of the potatoes planted are growing well in the paddocks. We should have enough potatoes for the rest of this year I hope and whatever we miss I am sure the pigs will find later on in the year.
Although we have had good crops from the strawberries fruit has been lacking a little. With this in mind I replanted some black currant bushes last year and most are nearly at the stage of their berries turning black so having learned from the previous two years I need to get them netted as the birds generally have a field day.
I also liberated a few rhubarb crowns and these are growing well although I think the first sticks cut when replanting them will be our only crop this year. Most pleasing from a fruity point of view is that we seem to be going to have a fair crop of apples later in the summer. I planted the 3-year-old standards late last year and although in the brochure it said to expect a small crop I didn't really think we would get much in the way of apples. We have in all about 5 different varieties specific to this areas climate and it looks as if they are happy with the weather up to now.
For now all seems well, hopefully next time we have a healthy Bonnie with her piglets and yet more new arrivals!

New Arrivals

As predicted May has turned out to be the season of new arrivals and there certainly were plenty of them. It has also been one of the wettest months for a long while, at times seeming more like winter weather than spring. When watching the weather forecast I guess we have been luckier than a lot of folk who despite having drought restrictions implemented have had a whole lot of rain for days on end. Hopefully that is the last of the April/ May showers now and we can get busy tending our suntans now!
During the winter months we seemed to have an egg drought for a long time as the birds decided to moult for an eternity, then come the start of the year we were engulfed with eggs. Too many to use up so the pigs enjoyed their fair share so as not to go to waste. 2 of the hens decided to go broody at this time, which didn't really affect the supply of eggs, however during May the majority of the remaining hens decided the time was right and now we are back to square one just when folk are asking for eggs. Seems to be either a feast or a famine at times! It means though that we have new chicks appearing at regular intervals so the ones we lost to the fox will be replaced.
We are quite relaxed in our poultry breeding trying not to get too complicated and letting the birds just get on with it. Up to now we have a total of 4 new chicks to 2 hens and should find that during June around 20 more should arrive. It is really nice to watch a mother hen and her chicks as at times they can be so comical trying to fight over one morsel and seem to thrive once taken out into the big wide world.

Some of the new arrivals

The geese as predicted last month all seem to be female as having sat on their eggs for over 35 days all the eggs have proven to be infertile. Just as well we bought some goslings from the rare breed auction and if the law of averages holds true we should have at least 1 gander from the 5. These are our first goslings and I have to admit they are the fastest growing birds I have ever seen. No sooner had they appeared to be comfortably residing in a dog crate in the kitchen than I had to build an outside run for them such was their rate of growth. That coupled with the amount of pooing they do meant it would have been impossible to keep them inside any longer. They are now off the light and seem to be thriving as well. Over the next day or two the run will come down and they can go free range around the place.

The goslings at around 2 weeks old

The lambing, which we had waited eagerly for was over with in 5 days which was quite considerate of them but really exhausting. You can read more about the experience here. Mums and lambs appear to be fine at the moment and the time has come to start thinking about shearing as the ewes are starting to look uncomfortable in the heat which is strange in that even though we have had so much rain the temperature hasn't really been effected. Either that or we are used to the weather conditions up here now!
With the rain came the weeds and boy have they shot away. Luckily the polytunnel has proved it's worth and together with strict watering is awash with fruit and veg. The only problem we have had is that the homemade propagator proved too efficient and cooked some of the seeds we put in there. Not a total disaster as I hope this can be used to our benefit over the winter months to come in providing some greens when if bought from a shop seem to be extortionate in price.
From a personal point of view we have had a good share of luck for many months now with not much going wrong, however last month we had our fair share again in that the main chimney started to play up big time with smoke gushing out of the roof making it look like the house was on fire, the 4th car in two years died and my internet connection has played havoc. One at a time I could deal with but all together meant a fair bit of strain on the family.
If it were not for friends offering help and advice then the pressure would have really been unbearable. The chimney acting up made life hard as the Rayburn uses this chimney and it is through the Rayburn that we cook, get heat and heat our water. However an email to an ACL member saved the day and meant that I had the confidence to sort the problem out myself. It also meant a huge saving financially as I was directed to links, which had everything I required, and at a very low price compared to what I could have found. The Rayburn is now working better than ever and a huge thank you goes to Jules and Martin Woodman for their help. Much appreciated!
The game keeping is going really well and pretty soon I am going to be really busy. I don't know if I could be any busier I guess it is just a case of organising things to fit around each other but no doubt it will get busier as this month we are getting all the pens ready for the birds arrival early in July. Up to now we have managed to balance things out pretty well and my main fear of the garden being neglected has so far proved not to be the case. As long as the outside garden is sorted with the first crops then everything should be fine. One slight problem may be that Bonnie is due another litter at the end of July but she has proven to be very good at mothering skills and nothing untoward is expected.

Bonnie taking it easy

That's it for now enjoy the sun and remember to try and take time out to sit and enjoy what you are achieving. One thing is for sure the work will always be there when you go back.

The Silly Season Begins

Firstly I would just like to say a big thank you to all the folk who nominated me for the virtual smallholder award, it really is something I am very proud to have been presented with although I must emphasis it is very much a team effort so well done to Debbie as well. Special thanks to Carolyn and David for hosting the virtual smallholder show and of course Tracey for producing the fantastic rosette's which have pride of place in our award-winning kitchen!

Ok last month the dreaded bird flu hit and panic was rife. Now a few weeks later I am sure I am not alone in thinking what was all the worry about? True any case of bird flu is serious and has some unthinkable implications to many, however I have to admit to thinking the response was incredibly calm from the authorities. Restrictions were put in place but lifted at the earliest opportunity meaning our first rare breeds show was brimming with all kinds of poultry.
I must admit to feeling rather apprehensive when returning to work after a few days off but everything was just business as usual. I think the turning point of feeling reassured came when the media were left concentrating on shots of the walkway where the swan was found, as there was no disaster to report. In fact after a week or so it was barely news worthy. A respite for now hopefully!
After over 2 years we have finally managed to arrange the pigs to our satisfaction. We had used 3 paddocks on and off over that time and this winter had proved that they were just not big enough to cope with the demands of the quantity and age of our pigs. During March we had moved Lady and Malcolm our pedigree Large blacks into yet another temporary paddock in readiness to introduce them to Bonnie our other pedigree Large Black sow. She finished weaning her latest litter at the beginning of April so off she went to meet up with Lady and Malcolm.
We knew there would be some friction when they met up but had presumed it would be between Bonnie and Lady, however Malcolm seemed to be the one not best pleased (3's a crowd and all that) Bonnie has always shown herself to be of fantastic temperament and despite Malcolm giving it the 'I'm the boss in here' behaviour she quite happily just explored the new paddock. It wasn't until he just wouldn't leave her alone pushing and nudging her that she must have thought 'enough is enough'. Being twice his size it didn't take much retaliation to have him squealing 'ok you're the boss'. It all looked rather dramatic but as predicted they settled with each other over the next few days to the extent that Malcolm and Bonnie decided to make love not war!

Bonnie and Malcolm make aquantance

Bonnie's litter of 6 were also rehoused into the trusty weaner shelter which for costing around £10 early last year has turned out to be a very good investment. It has now seen three lots of occupants and no complaints at all have been forthcoming. The latest occupants have found it to be a place to relax and chill from the stresses of modern day life.

It's a hard life!

At the end of April we finally finished fencing their acre field and let them loose expecting to see it turned into mud in no time, however they seem to enjoy rooting only in several certain areas leaving the rest as green as when they went in. It is so nice to see them roaming around the field and we hope that it can provide all they need for a few years to come.
Not much is happening with our 6 Suffolk ewes other than we are pretty sure they were all serviced. Udders are really starting to develop and by the size of them I wouldn't be surprised if 5 out of 6 were twins. I just hope that during May we have as successful a lambing time as we did last year both from our point of view and that of the ewe's welfare.
Last month I mentioned the geese, which we thought were a trio perhaps being 3 geese. It didn't really matter, as the eggs are just fantastic. Well surprise, surprise they have decided to go broody. A large nest has been built in the field shelter that we had hoped to lamb in and rather than 1 male sitting on them as we had heard happens all 3 of ours take turns and some times we find all 3 sitting at the same time. At least we will learn whether we have a trio or not for sure over the next month.
A few more of the hens have gone broody so hopefully the hens, which the fox enjoyed last month, will be replaced for free during May. Must admit I have a real soft spot for mother hens and their chicks. So attentive to those little bundles of fluff and the chicks seem to need only a chirp from mum to know what they should be doing, wish our kids were like that!
The polytunnel is bursting into life now and all in all things are pretty much on track with fruit and veg. Most of our first lot of seeds have been planted and are starting to rear their heads. The fruit trees are starting to burst their buds now and although they won't produce a crop this year at least this shows they have survived some atrocious weather conditions of late which all looks promising for the years to come.
Well next month should herald the arrival of quite a few new faces here so I think I had better get back to running around in circles trying to get things prepared!

Bird flu, life goes on

Although this is an entry of our life during March I guess I should start by mentioning that bird flu has eventually reared its head in the UK or more to the point in Scotland. I had imagined over the last few months that I would feel extremely scared and feared of what measures would be put in place but at the moment I feel no different. True the measures don't affect me but looking at the picture as a whole nothing has changed for us that I know of at this time. Life goes on very much the same, much as it always has and will continue to do until someone say's differently. I guess I should also say that any of these bring your birds inside rules would ultimately mean the death of all our poultry as I have no intention of keeping our birds in the manner beloved of the battery farms. To watch them rip themselves apart from boredom stuck in a confined area or suffer illnesses they have never had being free range and generally live a confined existence is something I refuse to do. This may seem like an extreme measure but everyone must make their own decision based on their own situation.
With regard my new career I have no idea what will happen maybe that is it finished before it actually starts or maybe after a few 'clear' weeks the restrictions will be lifted who knows what the future holds? What is clear is that once again Mother Nature has proved that it is she who is in control, not the human race. It often amazes me how as a race we like to appear so clever and yet it is the smallest of things which have us on our knees. I wonder if as a race we actually realise at some point in the future that we are not so superior after all and finally start to live alongside nature instead of £$%^&* about with her?
Ok rant over now, it's here so let's get on with living. March has proven to be one of the hardest so far for a long time. The beginning of the month heralded the white stuff and boy did it come down. We know each year it will come but the severity is something we can only guess at and prepare for the worse case scenario, which this year proved to be pretty severe for the first 2 weeks. Rather than recount the experience now you can read about it here.
The last 3 ram lambs are now processed and in the freezer and the skins of 2 have been successfully tanned. One failed to cure properly and criminally I just didn't have the time to sort the other. Honestly speaking the actual joints have tasted fantastic but for some reason the lamb chops failed to impress. It may sound stupid that they tasted of lamb but we have come to expect high quality tasting meat and this is the first time of any of our meat produce that we have said 'not as good as expected'. Strange being from the same animal perhaps it was my cooking!
Malcolm and Lady our pedigree Large Black pigs have now been moved into their own little paddock in readiness for the arrival of Bonnie to make our breeding trio complete. Once accustomed to each other we plan to let them have free range of an acre field next to their paddock. Bonnie should be ready to move in early April as the weaners are now eating and drinking independently. Thankfully Bonnie's physical condition remains good so all systems should be go soon. We have also decided against selling the weaners, as they are 'fat as butter' and should grow very quickly over the coming summer months, being ready for the freezer around August time.
The geese are finally free ranging around the smallholding now as I had kept them in an acre field more because of my inexperience in that I worried about them attacking myself, Debbie or the kids. Yes I know I am a softy but I am man enough to admit it! To be honest I need not have worried, as the geese are little gems really. They go about their daily business and seem fine with all the other animals and their eggs are delicious. Of course I have to have a full one to myself and they are probably the best eggs I have tasted, not having tasted goose eggs before now. One slight problem is that instead of a breeding trio we may actually have 3 geese. The egg count just seems to high, often 3 per day which to me says 3 girls but I guess we will have to wait and see for now I am just grateful for the addition of goose eggs to the menu.
And so we come to the only real down side of March. Trying to keep animals as free range as possible has meant that our poultry are totally free range and that means that the door to the hen houses are left open at night so that they can come and go as they please. It seems that a fox took advantage of the open door to our main hen house and killed 7 of our hens. Unfortunately on that night was a bad one for howling winds and rain, which meant we heard nothing. Even having been woken at 5am by the police looking for someone at a different address we never knew anything had happened.
I knew when feeding that not the usual procession of would be velocoraptors had made their way to the scattered corn but thought the wind had disguised my feeding round and being free range it wasn't totally unusual for some of them to be on egg laying missions in the barn. It wasn't until I left for work and drove up the track that I caught sight of one of the hens half way up a neighbours field and looking further up I could see there were more. On closer inspection heads were missing or throats were ripped open. A total waste. I can only imagine that the police coming down the track at 5am had put a stop to the carnage, as there were plenty of other hens to take from the roosting perches. Needless to say they are all locked up at night now except for the ducks who refuse to co-operate in any way.
Well that's it for March action packed again never a dull moment. I just hope that April doesn't turn into a nightmare but I guess that is just life good times and bad. One thing is for sure we will remain positive and meet the challenges head on. Best wishes poultry keepers!

Testing times

The unusually warm weather continued well into February but by the end of the month Mother Nature took her revenge with some really atrocious weather, but more on that next time.
The warm weather meant I was able to get a great deal of work done from the never-ending list. Pride of place was the construction of a homemade propagator using good old fashion pig crumb as a heat source! Although the polytunnel is quite warm it still doesn't achieve temperatures around the clock to ensure germination is successful and I would run the risk of perhaps having seeds germinate only to be cut down by the colder temperatures at night. I really do want to start off sowing seeds early to get a good start and hopefully carry on all throughout the year if possible.
Unlike most years I have sat down and planned how to do this and a large part of the plan being successful is to make sure that crops are sown and planted with the next crops being taken into account. I am planning to make good use of the polytunnel over the winter months and shall sow the winter crops to coincide with the summer crops being lifted, having hopefully provided good crops. Well that's the plan anyway!
I plan to start sowing seeds in the propagator mid March and further details of its construction can be found in the article pages here.
Bonnie and her piglets continue to do well and we are hoping to sell some on in March once weaned, as we really do need to let our paddocks rest for most of the summer in readiness for litters later in the year. Regarding litters these are probably the last of the crossbreed pigs we shall have as we will only have pedigree Large Black pigs from now on. I can however recommend Tamworth meat as a good all round meat product, just that the temperament in our experience has seen the pigs to be much more nervy and flighty than the Large Blacks. Just a case of personal choice I think.
On a more serious note I guess I should discuss AI or bird flu as is it's more popular media name. Mid February really did seem to me anyway to be a time when the issues surrounding bird flu hit fever pitch. On the little TV I watch the hysteria was at times very worrying and I would be lying if I didn't say I thought drastic rules would be implemented at that time. However at the present time things seem to have calmed down a little. Nothing like political scandals to push news items down the media pecking order! In reality I think I would be a fool to ignore what has happened and what could happen although that doesn't mean I agree with the scare stories and gossip mongering that has been regularly spouted.
At times I have been really angered by comments and reports by folk who appear so distant from the actual practicalities of living with the threat of bird flu on a day-to-day basis. The issues are something, which could have a dramatic affect on our lives to the point where it could affect our very way of life.
Like most country folk we have hens, ducks and geese and the main response to any outbreak appears to be to confine them in areas where they would have no contact with wild birds. Our birds being free range all their lives I think this action would be quite cruel on several counts. Yes the lack of freedom to go about their business would be bad enough, but what worries me is that the impression seems to be lock them up and everything will be fine. Well sorry I don't agree with this. I should say I have no problem at all with folk who make a choice to have their birds in enclosed runs if this is the way they wish to keep them, but I do feel that the likely hood of ailments occurring and with more regularity and spreading quickly cannot be denied.
Without a doubt pecking orders exist in most animal groups and having space to run away if needed is one of the plus points of free ranging. Having all the birds together with limited room well I think would prove very painful for some, as feather pecking or bullying is something I would think would be common.
Pigs as well have been linked to being susceptible and I have heard that unofficially people who have asked have been told that they would be better off indoors again segregated from the wild bird population. Better still a case has been reported of a cat that had died from eating an infected bird. It really does make me wonder where it will all end?
The threat of course could impact on my new career after all, no birds = no work= no money. I have had to be very realistic about the whole situation and have decided to work on a bank work basis for my old employers just incase the worst case scenario happens. Perhaps my nursing career hasn't finished after all.
So at the moment I find myself in a little nightmare scenario. Juggling two demanding jobs to make sure that whatever happens I should be financially secure, whilst at the same time trying to keep on top of the jobs around our place. Realistically if the threat remains with no restrictions imposed by the government then I shall have to continue like this until July/ August time when the pheasants and partridges should be free of the pens and classed as wild.
Any restrictions imposed before June and I am probably back to my nursing career which although not ideal would at least mean financial security. Bookings for shooting days are around half full for the forthcoming season which I am led to believe is normal and the work I am doing at the moment is all preparation work so my new employers are at least being positive about the situation I just hope that I can last the distance.

More risky business

I guess it could be said that we are well and truly into 2006. The festive season is but a distant memory and as usual work carries on.
Since writing mid January Bonnie did produce her second litter of Large Black Tamworth cross piglets. Three boars and three gilts. As seems usual with her it was textbook again although this time due to the time of farrowing around 6pm and the atrocious weather we shut the door and left her in peace. Checking in a few times to make sure everything was fine I discovered the placenta passed around 9pm. Although initially only seeing 5 we found that six had actually been born when we went to see the proud mum next morning.
Bonnie has again taken to motherhood well and all 6 are thriving to the point that at less than two weeks old they are trying to steal Bonnie's rolls at feeding time. We had hoped for a small litter as we have found that our paddock system really cannot support large numbers of pigs. Combined with my solution to boggy areas of throwing straw onto the affected areas this just added to the problem resulting in around 2 full weeks of work trying to remove all the wet straw from the living areas.
From springtime we will house Bonnie, Lady our new gilt and Malcolm our boar in an acre field and use the paddocks we have been using purely for the litters to grow in. This should give us plenty of room to rotate as and when required because the other important factor we have found is that the Large Black breed does grow what seems a great deal slower than the Tamworth breed. At times the two remaining Tamworth gilts look about twice the size of the Large Black gilts even though they were born within a week of each other, so even the negative affect of winter months on their growing rate can be put aside and more of a breed issue seems to be the case.
We don't mind this though as we have never been to strict on when the time is right to send them to the abattoir rather we judge by what the condition of the pigs are at the time and what is happening in our lives. We would much rather that they grow slowly and produce good quality pork rather than trying to force them to a weight quicker and eating joints of fat.
The ram has been returned after his holiday with our six ewes and hopefully we should have some new arrivals during May and June. We are planning to keep another two ewe lambs and probably use two of our ewes as mutton having recently been very impressed with the quality of meat from one of our older ewes. Ram lambs hopefully will be born and again be reared for the freezer along with any remaining ewe lambs.
I have thought about selling our lambs but to be honest I would rather that they were in the freezer for our own use as we as a family eat a very large proportion of meat products in our diet. To the point where even if we were lucky enough to have six excess lambs we would quite easily consume those over a year period as well as the pork, mutton and poultry. The thought of having to buy this kind of meat from elsewhere is just something I don't want to contemplate.
I think I should hang my head in shame for forgetting to mention Coco our new Jack Russell pup. We bought her from a gamekeeper before Christmas as a present for Amber our daughter. Amber has always asked for a small dog as she is on the petite side herself and can at times be overwhelmed by large dogs. I remember the first time she opened Dipsticks kitchen door to be confronted by Henry who is some size! Needless to say she closed the door pretty quickly.
Coco has settled into life here very quickly and from the first night has slept with Sassy and Flossy our other two dogs. To see them playing is a real treat and Coco gives as much back as she takes and has even taken to the taste of game birds I have finished breasting. If she would just stop piddling in the kitchen all would be bliss but being only 3 months at the moment there is still a lot of time to go and with the longer days coming more of her time will be spent outside anyway.
Work here has been just as busy as ever. Have nearly finished digging over the area in the polytunnel and I have also managed to move plenty of pig manure onto the out door beds. Our seeds have arrived and the seeds allocated in a plan. Must keep reminding myself sow small amounts and often. Watering or lack of was a problem last year and the year before so work has started on the water trickling system. I will leave this until later as I will write an article in the hope it is of use to others.
Finally to the new job. Beating season has finished now and what glorious weather we have had. Warm days up to a staggering 5 degrees and little wind to talk of. The keeper's days saw the departure of new and old friends for a few months anyway. Now it's time for the serious stuff!
I start my new game-keeping job next Monday and I would be lying if I said I was not apprehensive about this change. Nursing has meant I have really had a steady income and a secure job for many years but the challenges I found have gradually lessened to the point that I just don't feel any enthusiasm towards nursing anymore. My manager did however express a very good point in that by changing jobs now it may give me a good rest from the profession to evaluate how much it actually means to me.
For the new job I am going down the self-employed route, which is something I have no experience of and to be honest web site information leaves a lot to be desired. However I must admit that talking over the phone to people in the relevant Government departments has eased the financial worries I had. Never the less it remains to be seen whether this risk will work out in the long term.
Many rumours fly around the various countryside groups of shooting being banned, the current avian flu problems, which to many folk would make this career change, seem like lunacy. All I can say is that the opportunity to live and work in the countryside is just too much of a draw, just as smallholding meant we left a very good city lifestyle behind us over two years ago. We haven't looked back since moving and I hope I can say the same about game keeping in the future. I do though take a little reassurance from the fact that I could get a nursing job pretty quickly if the worst scenario did materialise.
Well I think that will do for January and I get the feeling that even though the last few months have been busy this is only the start. I just hope we can fit everything in!

Water on the brain

It is only the 16th day of 2006 and so much has happened already that I really should write an entry now otherwise leaving it later would probably mean writing a book. I left the last diary entry talking about my nursing career and how it had really started to get me down. Since that time I have been offered the post, as under keeper at our local estate and at this point in my life it is not a position I had to think about too much before accepting.
The job will include rearing the pheasants for the shooting season and looking after some of the duck ponds, which from June is really going to take up a lot of time. Very early starts and late finishes will be the norm, but having joined the beating team in 2004 I just feel that it is the kind of job that will only add to our quality of life. To have hundreds of acres of woodland and fields as the office is really something I could only dream of when I first came to live here. I am sure that I will have lots to say on this topic over the coming months but for now shall try not to bore folks with my excitement.
The ram arrived in December and is just about to be returning to his home, however we have had a few of the ewes suffering from what is locally known as pink eye. Cloudiness across the eye and weeping caused by a bacteria that apparently lives in hay bales are the main symptoms and once one has the condition the rest tend to follow suit very quickly. We have tried to contain the condition with eye ointment but to no avail. Although the treatment seems at times to make the symptoms better it just doesn't seem to want to clear up totally. So after taking advice from our vet we shall be having a visit whereby they will all have an injection into the lower eyelid, which should clear all cases and prevent the others from contracting the symptoms. Apparently it is a common ailment and hard to stop spreading as before the cloudiness is noted the bacteria has been passed on to the other sheep who all go head first into the bales.
The good news with the sheep is that all seem to have had a liaison with the ram so hopefully end of May early June should see some more lambs being born. Having spent a good deal of time with the sheep at this time I have been really impressed with the condition of their nails and having a good look yesterday expecting to be trimming a fair bit I was pleasantly surprised to find little needed to be taken off, and that should hopefully be them until after lambing.
At the start of the winter I made a big mistake, which has meant a lot of backbreaking work over the last few days. Our intention is that in the spring time we will move our adult pigs into a 1 acre field to live permanently unless farrowing when they will come to the paddocks nearer the house. However the paddocks became quite waterlogged and to remedy this I started to put straw in, which did seem to make a big difference for a week or so then the problem started to come back again so in went more straw. Thankfully the winter so far has not been that bad as far as rainfall so the straw has kept the paddocks in reasonable condition. The problem now is that all that straw needs to be lifted out as it creates a blanket which water finds hard to pass through and run off. Up to now I am about 2/3rds the way through removing the straw and moving the pigs around to better land but without any tractors or earthmovers this is being done by good old-fashioned wheelbarrow. A vehicle couldn't really do much due to the layout and the trees around the place and it does mean that the flowerbeds are getting a good dose of fertiliser and being mulched at the same time. Just hoping I have enough for the vegetable patch and poly tunnel.
We have taken delivery of our young apple trees along with a young plum tree, which are recommended for this area and the weather conditions and now they are planted we should hopefully get a crop in summer 2007. We have also just ordered our seeds for this year and hope that this year is the year when it all comes together on the vegetable front.
The main problem from the previous 2 years has been the time limitations to actually water as much as we should and consequently plants have withered and never returned to produce healthy crops but this year we have a sneaky plan to sort this. The idea of a large trickle watering system is something which has been gathering pace recently and this culminated in the purchase of 7 second hand cold water tanks which thanks to advice on ACL will be perched on a raised structure and feature 7 hose pipes leading onto the vegetable area which should mean that we can just turn a few taps to water the whole of the garden at once rather than spend hours trying to water them by hand. We are going to be building a collection system using our house roof and the barn roof to fill the 1500 litre capacity of the water reservoir with rainwater. The beauty of the system is that if we find we can collect more water then we can add to the reservoir of water. This will form the basis of another article, which should be set up before the end of February just in time for the snow!
We shall also be trying to use a smaller roof on the house to collect rainwater to provide the water for flushing the toilet again another project, which shall be used to write another article soon. Do I seem to have water on the brain at the moment?
Lastly we are awaiting the arrival of Bonnie's second litter, which is due on Thursday 19th January, but pigs being pigs they will come when they want to for now Bonnie appears to be in milk and is coping with pregnancy well. In some respects I am hoping that this will be a small litter as the breed does tend to grow very slowly and the last litter are not really at porker weight yet so space is pretty limited although by the time they are weaned and ready for the dreaded separation from mum the others should be ready to go. They are Large Black, Tamworth crosses so I am hoping that they will have the bacon qualities of Tamworth's and the roasting qualities of Large Blacks whatever the outcome I have no doubt that they will taste fantastic.

A glimpse to the future

In writing the last entry for 2005 I could retell of the highs and lows we experienced throughout the year but I think now is a time for looking ahead to the forthcoming year. True so much happened last year and the experiences were never dull and seemed to be non-stop after a mostly uneventful February. What I do know is that the experiences where a great deal more intense in that the good times were amazingly good and the bad times were just that.
Overall a mixture but the time seems to be well and truly gone now where days just seem to blend into one with the same routine happenings of a 9-5 existence with bills to be paid being the priorities in life. That's not to say that we have forgotten what happened and the enormous amount of lessons we learned along the way. Strange how you often learn more from the bad times but equally the good times re-enforce that what you are doing suits you.
9 days into 2006 and plans are already being drawn up for the year ahead. A lot of building work to carry out on projects that we have thought about for a while now. So many that I am beginning to think that they may not all be completed this year, but will mean that at no point will I ever be bored or looking for something to do.
Several small extensions on the house should provide us with a small area to use as a utility room rather than our main entrance being the place where wellie boots are just kicked off still covered in mud. They do however provide an exciting obstacle course when you need to reach the bathroom! This should also help with a little more draught proofing as each winter produces what seems like howling gales coming through the old wooden door, not to mention the rain seeping in if the wind blows it in the wrong direction.
Out back hopefully a small conservatory area to benefit from the hours of searing sunshine we have each summer time! Seriously it will give more room to enjoy the views across the countryside and help to heat those old stonewalls. I hope to incorporate a solar water heating system into the fabric of the extension to provide hot water instead of needing to light up the Rayburn as it seems to go non-stop over winter and deserves a little holiday of it's own.
More piglets may be arriving soon and we will most likely end 2006 with 3 litters in total, 2 of which should be pedigree Large Black pigs. Although we have found them to be of a temperament that suits us over the Tamworth's they do seem to grow at a slower pace, although the Tamworth and Tamworth large Black crosses we have at the moment are being reared over the winter months, which we know will extend the growing time by around 3 months to a good porker size.
What seems to be true though is that no matter how long they take to grow the resulting produce is much appreciated by those who have tried them. To the extent that I cannot keep up with demand. But we remain firm in the view that the main objective is for ourselves to have the best quality pork we can achieve.
At the present time the ram is with the ewes and has turned their bums red, which should hopefully convert to some beautiful Suffolk lambs in May and June. We are very fortunate in that again the priority is our own consumption and the creation of our own home born flock. We have kept 2 ewe lambs from last year and shall hopefully add to them this year maybe even achieving the six that would in two years time complete our own home born flock. The ewes we are using at the present time are now 3 year old so may either be sold on or used to produce good quality mutton.
Last year we enjoyed the mutton produced from one of the flock and in some respects I personally found it superior to that of lamb meat. It does seem a shame that it is not something widely available to folk to enjoy but I would imagine that financially it would be a non-starter in a commercial setting. The ram lambs we had from last year are just about ready to be finished and should produce a nice carcass again. I think some folk will be wondering why we have kept them until now but we have had a great deal of varied meat products and still do in the freezer so there really was no point in finishing them earlier, rather let them put a little more weight on. Apart from needing housed separately from the ewes they have not really caused any problems at all as the cost implications of hay are not something we care to worry about.
Our poultry stocks for this year are at a level were we should have a healthy supply of chicken meat from summer onwards whilst eggs will hopefully seem like a never-ending supply. I may even look at selling regularly as even living rurally there always seems to be a demand.
We currently have a pair of luvie duvie pekin ducks who will take a while to produce anywhere near the produce expected from the chickens but we are happy to give them time to see how they perform over the year. After all it's not like we are desperate of eggs! The Embden cross geese as well remain tight lipped about what sex they are. I did buy them on the pretext that it was a trio but again time will tell and they should at least be coming into lay sometime next month. Hopefully no 3 goose egg days or else!
After last years disasters with the polytunnel I can now say with a little more confidence that it is there to stay as we have had a few gales over the last couple of months and it still remains quite tightly wrapped around the frame. This is one area for 2006 that I really need to invest time as most of my merge efforts have resulted in pretty poor crops. So this year shall hopefully be known as our year for veggies! We have started scanning different books and articles to hopefully have an organised system producing vegetables all year round. Nothing fancy just vegetables that we know we like and use a lot of, and the last bit on veggie growing for now not to plant a whole crop at once rather a little and often. The amount of cabbage for example that has been left for the pigs or composting has been disappointing.
Lastly and in some ways maybe a little premature, but being as excited as I am I shall include it here. I am hopefully within the next few days going to undertake a major career change from the part time nursing job, which, has over the last near 20 years provided me well and without which I could not be where I am today. That said and without sounding too depressing about health care in this country I am in the position now where I just can't take any more of the situation where money comes above standards of care. Too much beaurocracy, and too many pen pushers are not new concepts to most folk, the difference for me which stems from a good few years is that I feel it affects actual hands on care in an ever increasing way. Rest assured that many, many caring folk work their hardest to do their best, but my shackles are just getting too heavy to make a difference anymore and so it's time to jump ship and move to pastures new.
I shall end by wishing you all a hopefully fruitful 2006, jam packed with those good times and remember you only get one shot so make the most of it.

November 2005 nearly there now

November as usual proved to be a very busy month but rather than issues to do with the animals the issues centred around the hub of the house the kitchen. After nearly two years of Debbie trying and trying to make the concrete floor look half decent action was finally taken. A concrete floor has always been practical for our family what with kids Wellingtons and dogs footprints an expensive carpet or laminate flooring would be a case of throwing good money after bad. I have seen a few examples of how to make the concrete look better but painting over I think would just leave the problem for another day. No we needed something more lasting done once and that is it for year's, decades, no forever, if that is possible.
During the summer I used black slate tiles to address the concrete floor in the bathroom and the result was better than I expected and even the splashing from the kids in the bath and little boys doing what little boys do at the toilet meant a quick mop sorted the floor back to a really nice finish. So after trying a few stores Debbie made a decision to have natural slate tiles laid down in our main entrance (The Boot Room) and straight through to the kitchen.
Some of you will have seen me mention I had a little tiling to do but you probably didn't pick up on the pure frustration and utter desperation at some points of getting the job done. Not so much the actual tiling but the fact that our kitchen really is the hub of the house, which is, occupied almost 24/7 with different activities which all had to be accommodated when tiling. Not least that the tiling adhesive needs to dry and the sealer solution (2 coats) and polish (2 coats) all needed to be left from 3 hours up over to produce the result that is now much better than I imagined it would be if I do say so myself.
The result should also mean that that is it sorted for decades I hope. I certainly have no intention of doing anything else to it and if anyone dares to ask for my help with tiling well I am sure you can imagine the response so resist the temptation!
The last two months although physically hard have given me a great deal of time to think about things and I think it is slowing dawning on me that after nearly two years the actual set up of our home and land may be very much sorted to provide us with what we yearned for when we first came to Aberdeenshire.
We have made few changes to the actual house except for cosmetic touches and it works well for us. The only thing I suppose could be made better is the heating system which to be honest is none existent. That may sound strange bearing in mind we live where the winters are supposed to be artic like but for our needs the Rayburn cooker means we don't suffer a great deal! It provides the warmth for the kitchen in which we generally spend around 90% of our time in during the daytime throughout the year. It is also set up to provide all our hot water needs which it does too efficiently at times. The kids bedrooms are directly above the kitchen which is basically beams and floorboards so heats them fine just our bedroom where we could do with better heating this just means I've got an excuse for a cuddle though!!
The animals are pretty much sorted now although we have a distinct lack of eggs at the moment. We started with 6 hens 2 years ago and still have those but they are either just passed the moult or are just finishing motherhood duties. During the summer we did however hatch quite a few eggs of our two breeds and enjoyed our first chicken a few weeks back. Very tasty which is good news for the Light Sussex, yet to try the New Hampshire cockerels as they were the second and third batch but should be ready soon. So we know we have good meat birds but it would be nice if the point of lay young birds would start producing a few eggs there are after all in total around 40 young hens for egg laying. To be honest it is partly my fault, as I know that if I could get a light on in the henhouse to extend their day this would probably result in a good supply of eggs. Although pretty easy to do it's still a case of time, which by the time I get an opportunity to do this it will be spring and we will have an egg mountain not unlike the food mountain excesses we hear of.
Game birds are plentiful and hopefully at the end of the season I should be able to arrange for a great deal of duck, pheasant, and partridge meat for the freezer to supply us over the summer to the start of the next shooting season.
We have what we believe is the right amount of sheep for our purposes. 6 ewes and 2 ewe lambs for breeding. We are hoping to keep a few ewe lambs each year to eventually have our own reared flock of Suffolk's which still have not lost their appeal that is except for the ram lambs who seem to be getting to the age that they feel they can take on all comers. The breeding ram is due to be coming for his holidays within the next few weeks so I think that out of the 4 ram lambs the 2 biggest are going to have to go to the freezer leaving 'Little Fella' with a playmate for a few extra months.
As our orphan lamb 'Little fella' really has struggled to put weight on and I can see why so many are advertised for sale in the early months of the year as from this experience our orphan lamb really has struggled to keep up with his cousins maybe he knows something they don't. It does give us the slight headache of having to keep him separated from the ewes passed the point at which we expected all the rams to be in the freezer. The future will take the form of keeping most of the ram lambs for our own use perhaps selling a few, keeping a few ewe lambs to bring in new breeding stock and finally for the older ewes to provide mutton as our recent addition of mutton to the menu was a pleasant surprise in how good it tastes.
Lastly the pigs. Having had a baptism of fire over the last two years we have decided to carry on breeding pedigree Large Black pigs. Primarily based on Bonnie our original Large Black whose temperament has been superb as has her rearing skills. She has taken to our other gilt Lady and new boar Malcolm who as well are pedigree Large Blacks well not too large at the moment but by next spring summer time will be part of a breeding trio. Lady is very much like Bonnie and seems to enjoy the contact from us, Malcolm as well seems quite at home and together they should mean pork is readily available all year round.
Fruit and veg production I think is something I am going to have to work at and probably score a 'could do better' for this year. One of the lessons I have learned thought is that you can over plant things, which I found to my cost. This meant a few crops all matured at once leaving the impossible task of trying to use them in a very short period of time. Staggered planting I think is a key word for next year as is no overstocking. Believe it or not I managed to use half of a 60ft polytunnel to grow only pumpkins, and squash the later didn't even produce one fruit! I have managed to have a good think about what to grow and how to organise the crops next year so we shall just have to wait and see if I've learned from my mistakes.

Revisiting an old friend

Don't know if you know but before we moved here its fair to say I was a bit of a workaholic. I spent most of my time at work when in many instances I didn't really need to be just that I was very proud of what I achieved even though this put my family and social life down at the bottom of the list which I know isn't anything to be proud of but I suppose anyone that knows me knows that if I do something I do it 100% and no less. Well it was bound to happen sooner or later and last month just happened to be it, for one reason or another I found myself during most of October working full-time hours when for the past 2 years I have worked 2 days a week.
So what! I am sure some folk will say but bearing in mind all the work that needs carried out routinely each day then the work that seems to need sorted desperately then I am sure you get the picture as to how I felt.
One thing I did confirm to myself is that I truly believe the powers that be put a whole list of obstacles in our way to make us live the 9-5 exsistence, the powers that be will label this a 'productive person's' way of life. Wonder what that makes me! I suppose philosophically I have revisited an old friend and didn't like what I found and if nothing else it did remind me how lucky we are to be here.
On the smallholding front we have had the good fortune to have been offered the use of our neighbours field next door, around 3 acres of what would be described as unsprayed, organic pastureland in a property's details. In reality it is a jungle of thistles, docks, and ragwort. A prime example of what happens to land that is not well cared for so beware when you see this kind of land advertised.
Over the last week I have spent a full two days cutting the whole area twice with a flail mower to get the jungle chopped back. On inspection there is a good base of pasture although I think over the next few years we have a lot of work ahead to get the weeds under control. Fencing still isn't complete a full day was spent pounding in 85 posts no easy way to do this other than just get on with it. Today I have finished stapling the 5 strands of barb along one side and hopefully tomorrow shall complete the other side. The other two sides are already fenced thank goodness!
For this year we shall just use the extra land for the ewes we have now and see how it goes when the lambs arrive in May time before making any decision about the amount of ewes we shall be keeping. We were quite lucky this year as those ewes that lambed all had twins equal numbers of rams and ewes. We have kept two ewe lambs to start our very own flock and should in around 4 years have our own home bred flock of ewes keeping a few each year to maintain a good mix of young and old ewes for breeding. This year we shall be keeping all the rams for the freezer even though we can get around £50 each for them at the abattoir. The lure of the lolly just doesn't have the same appeal once you have tasted your own meat products!

August 2005 (winters around the corner!)

Sunday miracle


After the scares of the previous month August proved to be quite an anti climax. Well tell a lie we did have one emergency situation when the kids brought in an egg that was hatching but mum was nowhere to be seen and Dr Riddell had to perform a poultry version of a caesarean under strict guidance from the kids. It all ended happily with the chick eventually being sneaked back into the nest when mum was out feeding on corn.
(More can be read here )
We had several groups of visitors staying with us which although great in that everyone loves to feed the animals leaving me to carry on with jobs. It does get to the point eventually when you think can't wait to have the place back to ourselves. Not in a nasty kind of way as it is always great to meet up with family, but values and principles are different and can create a lot of work in trying to keep everyone happy because of the different lifestyles we lead and what might be right for you isn't necessarily the case for others.
Strange as it may seem but although we are thinking about next year in a broad sense, we are at the time of year were we seriously have to think about winter and start to get prepared now. Having survived 2 winters now we get the idea of roughly what is in store and there is nothing worse than not having a nice cosy refuge from the worst that the winter weather no doubt will bring. Generally the house is ok yes it could do with a lick of paint but generally everything is fine except for the bathroom and the flooring.
We bought the house knowing it had a shower and no bath, fine we thought showers are refreshing and you use less water. We soon realised however that we had an endless supply of hot water that could ease our aching bones, produced from the stove where as the shower was expensive as it ran on electric. Also it was a big cumbersome affair making the bathroom dark and small. Not very inviting on a winters morning! So late in August after many requests out came the shower and in went the new bathroom suite complete with bath of course. The whole room is transformed now much lighter and bigger and the kids love the bath although I have kept the shower fitted as an option. Much more inviting and if all kids are like ours it can be a chore to get them to get washed whereas now they seem eager to get in the bath. Slate tiles have replaced the sticky tile things, which never worked well anyway so all in all everyone is happy. Kids have a large bath and Debbie has a grand looking bathroom. Me hopefully I will get over the nightmares I have had with the plumbing, tiling and painting!
The problem with the flooring is that our main door leads into what we call the boot room which in turn leads to the bathroom on one side and the kitchen at the other. Through the years the concrete flooring which goes throughout has had a channel worn out of it, which conveniently allows rain, which hits the main door to trickle through the boot room and into the kitchen meaning over winter we can wake up to what seems like a stream in the kitchen leading into the boot room and outside. Having persevered with this the last two years with constant mopping I am hoping that during September that I can carry on the slate tiling from the bathroom through the boot room and into the kitchen which should solve the problem with a few modifications to the main door way.
To be honest the concrete floor has been very practical with muddy boots and the effect of 3 messy kids but it looks really untidy and scruffy which I know gets Debbie down. Its not that we are posh or think we are above anyone just that we can make it look a heck of a lot better for our selves. Watching Debbie try to mop the floor and having little impact makes me realise that just because we live in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean that a women gives up her feminine ways, infact it is probably more important to make sure they are attended to as we all like to feel good about ourselves.
Back to August! One of the orphan boars went to the abattoir Jake I am reliably informed was his name. He came back a whole 50kgs which I don't mind admitting impressed me for a 6 month old lad. I had come to the conclusion that the commonly accepted ages for porkers and baconers 6 and 9 months needs to be extended by about 2 months for ourselves due to traditional breeds, not being intensively fed etc but maybe not, only time will tell! Mind you the noise that Bonnies 9 piglets make at feed times I don't think they will reach 6 month never mind any later. Boy do they squeal I often think that their squealing would make, no does make such an efficient method of torture guess they just take after their dad Baldrick.
Anyway Jake went and Elwood is staying to breed with Bonnie later in the year perhaps putting the two together in Novemeber for piglets maybe early spring. By that time they will be the only two we have left apart from a new Large Black gilt who will be bought early next year to keep Elwood happy!
The sheep are pretty much sorted also in that of the original 7 ewes we had three are going as mutton to our freezer perhaps next month along with 3 of the ram lambs leaving Little Fella our youngest to later in the year as being bottle fed he has a little catching up to do. That will sort all the ram lambs leaving 5 ewe lambs 2 of which I have been told are being sold to our friends or maybe that is 3 shall wait for the orders to deliver who and when! That should mean that we have our 4 proven ewes to breed from again with 2 ewe lambs for next years breeding. That should also ensure that we have enough pasture for them to feed with no problem over the winter along with hay of course.
As far as the veggies go swings and roundabouts are the order of the day! We have loads of brassicas to ensure that we can have Sunday dinners several times a week no problem and plenty more growing away. I do think that perhaps come January we will be struggling but it has given an idea of what quantities I should be planting. The polytunnel for everything that went into setting it up both financial and hard work was I suppose a disaster in the amount of produce but valuable in the lessons learned.
Those who growing pumpkins and squash and melons will realise just how much they grow and totally overtake everything well it ended up at least ¾ of the polytunnel was devoured by massive leaves and not much fruit. Of the ¼ left the bean crops failed to germinate to give a decent crop, the mice managed to eat most of the sweet corn whilst we played hosts and as per usual the tomatoes suffered from me not watering them enough. As they say there is always next year though and plenty of lessons to put into practice and there are at least brassicas in there using the space up until we start again in February?
Next month really is an important month in preparing for the winter none more so in making sure that the house is sorted and the animals arrive at their final destination for winter, then I may be able to put on my slippers and enjoy some R&R in front of the wood burner waiting for the new year to bring its new challenges

Top in July they will surely die!

Or so that's the plan for the thistles and nettles, which seem to have grown faster than ever these last few months. Like most people we don't have a lot of money so there is nothing else to do but to get the petrol lawn mower out and spend the day mowing an acre at a time. At least the sheep have done a fantastic job and have hoovered most of the grass down so it's a case of dot to dot on a grand scale except the dots are thistles and nettles and instead of a pencil I use a mower!
It seems ludicrous but as with many other folk I spend a lot of time thinking and hatching plans and this highly labour intensive but low mental input activity allows me to scheme a little more, and add to the future project list. Combine that with the sense of achievement and all in all not a bad days work!
July was a strange month. Originally I had planned to have two minor operations done at the end of the month which thankfully I managed to fit in as we had family staying who could help out whilst I was having a period of rest and recuperation, well apart from helping friends the day after returning home to take their hay bales from the fields to their barn as the rain was going to destroy there crop that night if it wasn't sorted. What a fantastic evening 3 families working the fields so to speak hard work but a highlight of the summer for sure.
For those with a curious mind one of the ops makes me much more empathetic to those young bulls who are just starting to present their owners with a few behavioural problems! The other I shall hang up in the cupboard marked skeletons!
The beginning of the month presented a rather more serious experience, which to be honest scared the heck out of me. Having been let down by a professional sheep shearer I took it upon myself to get the job done with our 7 ewes. No not with the kitchen scissors, but with proper hand shears. Didn't really make any difference, as shearing sheep must be one of the most unenviable jobs going around physically it really takes it out of you, and I really was knackered half way through them.
I had also given up smoking yet again a few weeks earlier knowing that having the ops later in the month would be much easier without congested lungs, plus its about time I stopped wasting money on fags and spend it wisely trying to offset our losses each month! Problem was my lungs had felt tight from the moment I stopped smoking I put it down to either asthma or my lungs clearing themselves. I went to the doctor and got an inhaler and some blood samples taken. That was midweek.
Now when your Doctor phones you at home on a Friday afternoon to tell you to go to the city hospital now for further tests it gets very serious. As a trained nurse I know that Friday is when the hospitals are looking to empty beds and try to have an easy time then back to full flow on Monday morning. Only emergencies or serious problems are seen to over a weekend. Anyway me being me I drove myself the 30 miles to the city hospital much to the surprise of the hospital staff who informed me that they were treating me as having a suspected heart attack!
Ever been in the situation where your trying to tell people something and they don't hear what your saying and in the end you just keep quiet and then doubts start creeping into your own mind? Well that was me for the next 24 hours. By the following morning I felt like a pincushion as around 6 separate samples of blood where taken from me and tests here performed.
Anyway all I can say is bravo to the Scottish Health Service as I felt like I really came away with a clean bill of health, as I don't think any other tests could have been perfomed. What seems to have happened is that in my original blood results a certain enzyme had shown that a lot of muscle damage had occurred and putting the fact that I am overweight, recently stopped smoking, and presenting with a tight chest the Doctors had naturally thought the worst. They had sent for me to have further blood tests which showed the muscle damage wasn't my heart and I presume it was the damage caused by the day to day tasks many of us do including shearing bloomin sheep! Just goes to show though that you really cant be too careful and that it does involve hard work this smallholding lifestyle!
Our pig plans have progressed further when I took Baby and her young boar to the abattoir, which meant that the freezer was and still is full of all kinds of pork products Including sausages, which at last are acceptable to the boss!
Bonnie was separated from her piglets as they really were taking all the goodness from her. To anyone who didn't know her they would have thought she had been starved so was the amount of condition the piglets had taken from her, although she is now regaining her normal physique rapidly.
At the end of this month I hope to have sent Ginger to the abattoir and in doing so close that particular chapter of our pig breeding experiences. Unfortunately producing only 2 piglets in each of the 3 farrowings meant that there was just no way we could keep trying with the sisters as the feed to maintain them is high so needs to have reasonable results in the amount of piglets produced.
We do make a loss living this way but offset this with my part time work and is something we are prepared to do to ensure the quality of our food! However we have to be practical as our income is pretty tight. We intend to keep Bonnie and breed from her again early next year with one of the unrelated orphan brothers from earlier this year and see if the resulting farrowing is as productive as her first so although our breeding programme had stalled a little we shall see how this way works out, and whether we can continue to produce our own home reared pork. Just have to organise the dates to fit around the lambing next year.

June is bursting out all over (with piglets)

'Butter wouldnt melt in their mouths!'

I am determined to get this written as it will be soon time to write July's Diary, it does however reflect on how busy these months are for everyone whether its in the garden or tending livestock.

Livestock
Barring an immaculate conception and the odd batch of hatching eggs we have witnessed the last of the births on the holding for this year. I think! Bonnie our Large Black gilt had purposefully been in with Baldrick our Tamworth boar prior to him going to the abattoir. Due to her increasing size and the telltale sign of a ridge appearing along the nipple line we knew that it wouldn't be long before she farrowed. We managed to move her into the bothy, which had proved ideal housing for Baby to farrow in a few months earlier.
The day eventually arrived and it became quite clear that she was imminent by the way she moved all the straw bedding into one massive nest in the corner of the bothy. No.1 came out before we knew things had progressed to the birthing part, we were looking in frequently though so were able to enjoy watching the rest born. Bonnie behaved impeccably allowing us very close with the kids to watch as the piglets were born.
Having had 2 farrowings from the other sows producing 2 live piglets each I was really pleased when she had had 3 live and would have been happy with that but they kept on coming and in all Bonnie gave birth to 9 piglets all very healthy and no sooner born than looking for the milk bar, some indeed hadn't even broken their cord before they were off looking for the good stuff.
This was the first farrowing that we had witnessed were things went very much according to plan following the implementation of things we had learned previously, a real pleasure to witness. A few days later Ginger who had had such a bad farrowing experience in February farrowed by herself in her paddock she had until recently shared with Bonnie. Debbie went to feed her one morning and noticed that she didn't come out to get her feed which when you have kept pigs tells you something isn't right. On closer inspection Debbie found that one piglet had been born alive and Ginger was lying down delivering another. In all Ginger produced 2 live gilts, which again is, a small litter but at least it was uneventful and they were all fine.
Over the past weeks the two mothers have performed their motherly duties well and all the piglets have grown despite me worrying about some of Bonnies 9 being crushed. Gingers 2 have grown that well that each day they now go under the fencing and spend more time exploring around the holding than in the paddock with their mum. They always return though especially when they want a drink!
The first of the batches of the hatching eggs we collected from the New Hampshire trio produced 12 out of 14 chicks which are under lamp at the moment although we shall have to wait and see how many of each sex there are, the second batch will be going in at the end of July once Debbie's friend has incubated some of the eggs for herself. So hopefully a good few hens will be produced for egg laying duties next year and the cockerels should be ready around Christmas time for Sunday roasts!

Gardening
In all honesty the gardening adventure has beaten me again not totally mind, as we will be having some fair crops from both the polytunnel and the veg patches outside. The problem I think is the amount of work you have to put in which ultimately will need redoing again or will require vigorous maintenance.
First lesson being I am never going to kill all the little pests like slugs and caterpillars, but neither do I want to throw chemicals all over the place, other interventions can and are so time consuming, so for next year my plan at the moment is to seek out those advertisements for greenhouses/ polytunnels in the local papers you know the ones free to uplift or buyer dismantles for a small charge. In this way I can get the majority of our veg under cover and control the soil and environment much more.
This should also mean that once dug and raked and hoed to a fine tilth that I shouldn't be bothered by the re-emergence of that tropical rainforest which has presented again down the bottom of the veg patch and in some places in between. I don't seem to have had any problem with slugs in the polytunnel except from my own errors so would hope that these beasties together with caterpillars should be a thing of the past or that's the plan anyway! Moles and mice are a different kettle of fish though and have and still do use the tunnel as a feed station at times.
Looking on the bright side Our pumpkins are doing well along with our squash. Too well infact and a lesson learned for next year they grow big very big! So you don't need to plant a dozen as they take over large areas.
The crop of sweet corn was poor last year but this year we have definitely hit on and are eagerly awaiting them ripening which shouldn't be too long.
The strawberries have responded well and are throwing off runners so much so that I have given up trying to train them to a certain area rather I just keep tucking them in, or popping some into pots to give to friends or sell.
Me and tomatoes I really must take more care next year, some days I get side tracked by other things going on and either forget or am just too tired to water them which they don't care for too much and wilt once this happens it takes ages for them to get that healthy look back and by that time I have missed another watering and so the cycle continues until it becomes obvious that the plants are only going to give in relation to what I have given them not a lot of fruit!
Carrots and parsnip I have planted inside again and boy do they grow no problems with carrot fly so they are flying, a definite plus point for veg over winter and further wine making. Beetroot as well has grown extremely well inside having been eaten by slugs last year whilst being grown outside, certainly a lesson for future years here.
Courgettes have been successful but we haven't taken advantage of this, as there always seems to be such a lot of waste due to the amount of fruit they produce. Again don't plant as many as they are really prolific.
Peas and beans were poor but have been advised to plant these outside next year as although I grew them inside due to mice problems last year this has resulted in a lack of pollination this year. Just cant win sometimes!
So all in all its swings and round abouts but such a lot of lessons learned for next year. Seems strange talking about next year but at least the enthusiasm is there to put plans into practice. Would imagine on a scale of 1-10 we are about 4ish towards our goal at the moment with the fruit and veg, although a lot of the brassica crops are only just coming in to their own so maybe we are not that far away from a set up that suits us.

Long May it continue

Hello everyone!

May was always destined to be our main lambing month. We had arranged for the unproven young ram 'Johnny Depp' to visit in December so that any lambs would be born when the weather was warm and the grass was growing.
Having seen Milly bring two new lambs into the big wide world we were full of excitement at the prospects of the other gimmers. Of course the main priority being for the freezer to be filled for over winter and beyond, but Debbie had also wanted to look at the possibility of keeping some of the ewe lambs for our own breeding stock.
It started on 9th May when we woke at 6.30am to looked out of bedroom window and see Daisy with her two lambs who had literally just been born, again a ram (Ramsey) and a ewe (Buttercup)
On 13th May 5am Cruella (she is the foot stamper of the group) found to have just lambed two ewe lambs (Bluebell and Lavender) again no problems, and thanks given for no assistance required!
Then on the 17th Rose who we were starting to worry about produced a ewe (petal) and a ram (patch) after we called the vet out. She had a condition called ring womb, which meant that she was not dilating fully, not helped by the first lamb pushing against her hip instead of her cervix. Although we had to call the vet we learned so much from this lambing and hope that the next time this condition presents we will be able to assist the ewe ourselves.
Finally on the 27th May early in the morning again Lilly produced twin rams (Little Fella and Ferny) initially things seemed fine and we were beginning to think we had unbelievably gotten away with no major problems but we found over the last few days that Lilly has paid less attention to one of her lambs Ferny which meant that we had to bring the three in and supervise the feeding hopefully only for a few days. She was butting him away from her yesterday but seems better today, strange how this has happened after a few days especially with no sign of any mastitis.
All in all couldn't have worked out much better 5 rams and 5 ewes. Although we have banded all their tails the boys are left intact as we feel they grow much better like this, and also leave no option for us to keep them. The ewes I think will be grown on as breeding stock although this year we will again rely on our current stock to produce the goods in 2006. Most will probably be sold on once they have weaned next year's lambs.
In the middle of May we also implemented a plan to produce pure breed New Hampshire Red hens and Light Sussex hens. They had all been living free range together with our two cockerels one of each breed, but this would be a case of very hit and miss where the purity of breed of the chicks were concerned. So to ensure we have pure stock I made a hen house and run then introduced the New Hampshire Red cockerel to it with two girls to keep him company. We will leave them for three weeks to make sure purity of the fertile eggs then incubate eggs from then on, unless they go broody themselves, which seems to have happened to another of the Light Sussex hens. Time will tell! The two rejected Piglets Jake and Elwood finally moved to their own big paddock next to the sow Baby and her piglets and promptly tried to get stuck into one and all thankfully the stock proof fencing held and their squabbles have become less and less, to the extent that any skirmishes appear to be nothing more than a token gesture now.
Doesn't time fly just seem like yesterday when Jake and Elwood were born and all the problems we experienced nearly 4 months ago! They are at that stage now where you can see them growing before your eyes and in another few months will be going on that final journey to the abattoir.
As you can see things have really turned around again and I could write an essay on the productivity in the polytunnel but shall leave that until next month just incase we have an uneventful month!

April 2005 A change of plan

Edna and Ramalambadingdong 1 day old

Well the end of April has also hopefully signalled the end of our run of bad luck. I know we all have our share but it doesn't make it any easier when things just keep going wrong. To be honest we have been lucky up to February in that most of our experiences have been very good and our plans and ventures have worked out generally well, so maybe we were due our share.
One of the important things that happened during this time was that it made us look at all aspects of our life as smallholders and re-evaluate what we were doing and what we wanted to achieve. Debbie's accident was a big shock to the system, and meant that for weeks I just went through the motions. No time to enjoy, no time to plan, just carry out the daily tasks of making sure the animals were fed and watered, and the kids, well apart from getting them to and from school were given exactly the same priorities.
One of our main aims in choosing this way of life was the time we could spend with the kids, although last year a great deal of ground work had to be done but this year spending much more time with the kids was a key priority, and yet here we were stuck in the same old ways of the kids needs coming way down in the list of priorities. It just wasn't meant to be like this.
We also lost Edna our ewe that had proven such a great teacher last year during lambing. Twin lamb syndrome was the diagnosis given, but I know in my heart that I should have seen something wrong earlier and done something then. Just have to take it as one of those lessons to learn from and get on with life.
With all that has happened recently I came to the decision to call time on our pig breeding. Step one was to take Baldrick our boar to the abattoir with the porkers we had already planned to take. Not a decision I took lightly as those of you who follow our story will know how I felt about him, but an indication as to whether I did right or wrong
was that I didn't feel any remorse whilst taking him, just a huge sense of relief. Its not a situation I feel where anyone is to blame just that we tried it for the right reasons, had mixed results but ultimately keeping
breeding pigs is high input, and financially draining unless you have a guaranteed market for the end product what ever that may be.
The plan now is that Baby is weaning her piglets at the moment once weaned I will get Baby back into condition then take her to the abattoir. I have to wait a few more weeks to make sure that Ginger is not pregnant, but again a trip to the abattoir. Later in the year the piglets 3 boars and a gilt will go as porkers to see us over the winter
time. So at least the aim to provide us with our own pork has shown some success. Then for next year at the moment I intend to buy in weaners and fatten them as our previous experience last year was extremely good and required low input apart from loads of scratching.
That only leaves the small matter of Bonnie our large Black gilt. To be honest we have not come to an agreement about her Debbie seems desperate to keep her and breed pedigree Large Blacks (the Tamworth females are not pedigree) as very few exist up here, but at the moment I just think that all the negative points would return whether we bred from a boar or artificial insemination. Things are really on the up at the moment and is it really fair as the work and money involved would still be the same. At the moment we have a few months to think
about it and make a decision with clear heads rather than from the heart, will just have to wait and see.
Our good luck finally started late in April when our first lambs were born to Milly who although a bottle-fed first timer has proven herself to be an excellent mother. It also gave me my first practical experience of delivering lambs, as both needed their front hooves adjusting to enable them to be born. It was such a different experience to last year when we had to tube feed Edna's triplets for a week. Milly's two were up and after the milk bar within a short space of time and our decision to tup late has paid off with lovely weather and the grass growing. We
have called the ewe Edna of course and the ram lamb seems to have picked up ramalambadingdong after a suggestion from one of Debbie's friends. Goodness knows what the other lambs to the other 6 ewes will be called.
Well that's April done and dusted and at last we have some good things happening now and long may that continue!

March 2005 It never rains!

A good many folk on the site seem to have had their fair share of bad luck and experiences during March and we were no different. Ours were three fold and started when the Land Rover decided it wanted another clutch. Then the washing machine died an agonising death with smoke coming from the rear painful!
By far the worst was when one morning Debbie took the kids to school and crashed the car. Both Debbie and the other driver walked no hobbled away from the two write offs. When I went over to survey the scene I saw that both were extremely lucky. Meeting Head on over a blind summit they didn't have anywhere to go except bumper to bumper.
Debbie went off to the doctors then the local hospital for precautionary x-rays with her friend whilst I waited at home with our youngest. A short time later I got a phone call to say that Debbie had broken a bone in her neck and was being taken to the main city hospital and so the nightmare began of running around trying to organise things to go with her. Eventually got the animals sorted and arranged for friends to look after the kids and off we went in the ambulance.
That journey was a nightmare with Debbie strapped on a board to restrict her movement and although the ambulance men were trying to keep us occupied talking my mind started to wander and think about how we would be able to cope for the next few months. Debbie would have to stay in hospital for weeks if not months with a broken neck, how would I be able to look after the kids the animals and travel to see Debbie. How would we cope when she eventually got home?
We got to the main hospital and I was left in the waiting room whilst
they examined Debbie. I expected to have a wait before being told anything but once the waiting had passed 2 hours I started to worry. Why hadn't they told me anything something must be seriously wrong otherwise they would have been to see me?
It was 7 o'clock at night the animals were due feeding, the kids were at friends, and I was miles away from home, no money, no transport, and no word about Debbie. I went to the reception and asked if they had any news. I was taken to the ward were Debbie was to find that they didn't think her neck was broken after all but that they were keeping her in overnight as a precaution. The sense of relief numbed the sense of anger at first being told she had broken her neck.
I eventually got home around 9 having seen Debbie for a short time, in time to feed the animals and get the kids back and into bed. Debbie came home the next day and spent the next week in bed recovering from aches, pains and bruises slowly not helped by a condition she has been suffering from for some months.
During the rest of March I spent most of the time thinking about our way of life. The pressure to keep everything ticking over was really stressful and my thoughts centred on the pigs. All the animals except the pigs are quite low input if needed like in an emergency, but the pigs are generally high input all the time.
Those that have pigs will know that when feeding time comes around the sound of their squeals can really get to you when the chips are down. Having come so close after Ginger's difficult farrow it felt to me that they would be better off gone. I was sick of seeing pools of water in the paddock, sick of them knocking over water buckets again and again meaning I had to take another bucket to them, at that time it just seemed that life was one huge battle just to keep things ticking over.
At the moment Debbie is back on her feet, and things did seem to be getting back to normal. The crash is becoming a distant memory, we have had our first visitors, and I seemed to have caught up well on the work that needed doing until today. With gales blowing, the polythene on the polytunnel has been blown from its trench on one side meaning a new one to be bought and dug in again. However after getting over the initial despair of seeing the wreckage I can laugh about it with Debbie and think yet again it is only money we haven't got but at the end of the day we have still got each other and that is something we are both thankful for.

February 2005 A nightmare unfolds

Not so long ago the month of February was one where by we would shut the door put the fire on and not much happened. Not so this February. As most of you will know we had a traumatic experience with our first gilt who had two piglets live but for a variety of possible reasons was unable or unwilling to care for them. You can find out more here.
It did however turn out fine all round. I always believe that life is about opportunities and rearing two piglets has to be one of the noisiest experiences we have had so far. Contrary to our first fears the piglets were quite easy to rear up to their near 4 weeks old. They were extremely capable of telling us when they needed fed and rarely left
any of the supplement milk in the bottles, which meant that we were able to figure out the quantities of the milk required easily.
The boys are currently in the coalhouse weaning onto their starter pellets, which they seem to have taken to very well. The water well lets just say they still prefer the milk any day of the week. Our second gilt managed fine by herself during the night to produce another 2 live piglets. I found that another had been born but must have died at birth and was hidden in the straw.
Practically speaking these were small litters however we are convinced this is due to the age of the boar Baldrick but time will tell as he is back with Ginger who is due in season any day, and Baby will go back to him once her piglets are weaned from her. This reminds me of a phrase we have lived by for the past few years if its meant to be it is meant to be. In this situation 2 piglets to rear by ourselves was preferable to the expected 10 up over, and with Baby we were just thankfully that after the first experience that this one went well.
All the time during this excitement one of our Light Sussex hens sat brooding over eggs, which as had to be really hatched the same day as Baby had her piglets. They are so strong and already eat corn and grub around just like mum shows them. I find this really funny as we went out and bought a 20kg bag of chick crumb as you do and seemingly within days they were onto other stuff may have something to do with the other hens taking a liking to the crumb and none being left by the time they got there!
Hopefully the last of the snow presented and seemed to hang around for weeks never melting totally which brought about my worst nightmare Debbie's D.I.Y list! 2weeks of D.I.Y morning to night oh was I sick of my life but no excuses quenched her need for job after job to be completed. I survived only just though.
I get the feeling that a lot of work is just around the corner as the last of the bad weather should hopefully dump its load this weekend then spring can move in or so the weathermen say. Can't wait to start the growing season off which if all goes to plan with the new polytunnel will produce veg all round although the choices will be limited over the winter months.
One other good thing about February was that we have really expanded the options when it comes to cooking. A new concoction of banana and date chutney has to be the very best I have ever tasted, the carrot wine had to be siphoned therefore had to be tasted 2 bottles later we and our 2 friends were quite merry I now can see us
having our meals outside a great deal accompanied by the wine. Not being a wine person I have to say it doesn't half hit the spot! And finally last night having got sick of making inadequate amounts of ice-cream in an ice-cream maker used an old Scottish recipe jigged it about and hey presto one and a half litres of gorgeous home made ice cream which unfortunately will be gone after tea today but to be able to produce in quantity is a real bonus not just for us but for the friends and family who no doubt will be coming to sample the delights!

January 2005 The winter of contentment

Well Richard has been sent to the back of the class on the ACL calender, and now we have a pooch looking in on our little abode. Seriously how scary is it to be in February already? One good thing winters nearly over, nearly time to start again. Come to think of it we've never really stopped.
After a couple of days rest, after seeing in the New Year with friends the ewes reminded me that it was pedicure time. No major problems now, the odd one will have a limpy day or two then run like a bat out of hell at the mearest of rustles from the food bucket. One of the most important lessons from last year 'Keep on top of the nail inspections'. The ram is a bonny boy just a young ram on loan to see whether he is up to the job. He certainly knows what he is here for and wasted no time in charming all the ladies except for Bandy. After 3 weeks all had
green bums apart from Bandy.
Those of you who have read about her previously will know she is a big girl, her first time at this breeding lark so goodness knows why he didn't work his magic the first time. I have to admit to having a few discussions with Bandy about the practicalities of keeping her only to roam about the fields and chew the cud, and low and behold a few days later her rear was glowing red as we had changed the raddle colour, one other gimmer changed from green to red also so it would appear that things were as should be.
All to soon the ram was called back as our friends who had the other young ram had found their ram had covered all their ewes twice, not good considering this was now mid January. Maybe he was just enjoying himself?
So the girls are left to dream about their knight in shining armour who may return later this year if all goes well! Lambs should arrive between 1st May and 11th June when the grass should be in peak condition and the weather warm.
12th January the night that for the first time I felt a house shake in the wind! Don't mind admitting I was really worried and was going to take the family downstairs out of their beds as I really did think the roof was
coming off. Thankfully we escaped any major damage a little felting off the field shelter, and rubbish blown around but yes very lucky and we know it.
The major project for this season was the polytunnel. I couldn't decide on what size to get being pretty hopeless at planning crops out to get the size we would need. So out I went and measured up a convenient part of the veg patch and ordered it. 60 foot long, by 14 foot wide. It is enormous, but we have absolutely no excuse not to have some large quantities and varieties of veg over the next year as we do intend to plant all year round. It cost a lot of money but if we save £15 each week in veg for one year then that is it paid for.
I shall leave the tale of its construction until a later 'How To' article but needless to say even with my friend helping it took 4 days and a lot of time and effort. Many Thanks David! We will wait until March arrives before planting anything as the risk of snow and frost lasts longer up here.
The shooting season has finally come to end marked by beaters day during which the rain reminded us of what awaited us later in the year when the new season starts. To be honest the weather has been better than could be expected especially during January when it seemed that every other day was devoted to beating as the season
end grew ever closer. Never mind have finished preparing 20 duck now in the freezer, but for how long?
January has seen us take up the craft of sewing and patchwork, something I would never have thought I would do but it is really satisfying to produce 'something' at the end of a few hours, and even better to know that the other members of the quilting bee are there for support and are mostly novices themselves.
Well February is here and will be as busy as ever looking forward to our two gilts Ginger and Baby having their first litters wonder how many they will have? Shall have to wait and see!

New Year 2005

The New Year is only a few hours away, and already preparations are underway for next year. This year has flown past so quickly. 2004, what a year. What an unbelievable year. Who would have believed that we were supposed to take our time, start with chickens maybe then some ducks.
No we bought pigs, fed and scratched them, took them to slaughter and ate them, talk about jumping in at the deep end. Looking back it was a positive experience because I don't mind admitting I had a fair few worries as to us being able to eat our own animals because we never had to look at our food that way. I think the pictures of sows being unable to move except to lie down in horrendous cages helped to change our attitudes, the difference in the taste of the meat certainly helps as well. Now we have 6 more and a breeding programme
planned with the first piglets due 13th February and a further litter on 20th February!
We bought sheep and had our first lambs born on the holding, probably my best moment of the year and one I will never forget, although we also learned that you don't always get to decide when an animal meets it's end as one of the lambs died after a week. We now have a small flock of 8 ewe's being romanced at the moment by
'Johnny Depp' the Suffolk ram.
We bought chickens and watched them bring up chicks during the summer, whilst the ducks brought the pond to life even if they did make a mess of the clear water! Unfortunately for the Cockeral Mr Aitkenhead there could be only one alpha male!
Flossy dog, what a friend we have in her. Yes as with most pups she was a little destructive in the early days, but once settled she most definitely is a big part of our family and has the unenviable task of keeping Sassy our new Springer Spaniel pup in check, although they really have taken to each other better than we could have imagined. Look out rabbits!
On our smallholding the kitchen has been the hub of a great deal of cooking and crafty adventures, and will probably mean we can rent out our lounge next year as we never seem to have enough time to go in there as there is always something to cook or make. Family and friends were treated to traditional Christmas presents of jams, chutneys, wines, sweets, jelly's and Christmas puddings all made in our kitchen many from our own produce, or that we found growing on walks.
I finally managed to buy a Land Rover. An old series 3 an absolute necessity as we found during the snow falls earlier in the year that 2 wheel drive is useless in such severe weather in rural parts. It took me a full week to dig out our track in APRIL! But I was determined to get the kids on the school bus and away to school! (Little angels)
Started the orchard with 6 young apple trees, and soft fruit crops of blackcurrant, gooseberry, and strawberry. This after being introduced to the delights of our own blackcurrant jams, and raspberry jam made with fruit foraged from the woods.
Spinning wool I think must be the surprise skill I learned this year, good enough for Debbie to knit a few presents, something for the long winter nights! Mind you the wine making may make it difficult to spin as the first batch of parsnip wine was mighty fine if I do say so myself, and with 20 demi johns of carrot wine fermenting for next winter well what a predicament I might (hope) to be in!
Polytunnel is arriving in mid January and should mean that an average year in the garden should next year be very productive, not just in quantity but in the variety of crops. Only problem is getting it erected 60ft by 14ft nothing is ever simple eh!

Our First Anniversary

During late summer I was told of a litter of kittens who were being given away as they were not planned and although I had always said no cats I new that little four legged creatures were beginning to make there presence more than known in the coal house where, coincidentally I keep all the animal food. So two little bundles of fur
called Tom and Tiger arrived and they settled in well. Too well in fact, they had to go outside as they began to see the boot room as the toilet. They now live happily in the barn and can be seen most days with their latest victim.
Our water pump had broken during March and one of the positive things to happen from this was that we met Rick. He installed a new pump and by chance we learned that he had six, young Suffolk ewe's (gimmer's) that he would be selling in late summer as breeding stock. This led to us buying our very own flock of Suffolk ewe's.
Unfortunately for Donkey our lamb ram this temptation was too much for him and we could see plainly that he was now sexually mature. Being related to some of our flock and not being true Suffolk we always new he was destined for the freezer, but it all seemed to happen so soon which left the kids and ourselves upset as he had to
go quickly, however later in the year his sister April went in a planned fashion which proved to be equally as difficult so I guess however it happens it is still going to be an initial gut wrenching experience. Strangely once the meat arrives back that's the finish of the guilty feelings for Debbie and myself and the kids seem to adapt so quickly, at the moment we tell the two youngest that the animals go elsewhere, our oldest boy, Cain who is 11 knows what happens and seems to accept this enjoying the produce as much as ourselves.
With our intention being to breed the ewe's we also managed to acquire the services of a young ram from a local farmer in early winter with the intention being to have lambs in May to early June when the grass is lush and the weather is warm. He is currently in with the girls treating them like a gentleman should, although I don't think they appreciate the green rumps he has given them!
Late Summer into Autumn is the season for jams and preserves and to be honest we had a fantastic first year. We started by making a dozen bottles of our own blackcurrant jam from our own bushes, which was necessitated by the birds trying to nick them we managed to save half the crop! Then gaining in confidence found a plentiful supply of raspberries along one of our local walks making more jams. Finally we made Rowan berry jelly from the berries on local trees an absolute treat with any game, especially when made using Jessie's tight technique instead of muslin! We also experimented with pickling. Cucumber as we had tons, beetroot which was plentiful, and finally eggs which to my amazement tasted really nice after a few months. Later we made chutney many jars of green tomato chutney again necessitated because of our late start to the growing season. We also managed to experiment with home made parsnip wine, which was so successful we now have many demi johns of carrot wine fermenting.
All of the above went to make Christmas hampers for our friends and family together with several woolen scarves which we made from our own wool, gathered from my shearing exploits and spun on the spinning wheel we bought with using our wool in mind. It has made us feel like we have put a little 'traditional' back into Christmas and our ideas are flowing for next year already
The last of our major events was our decision to use our two Tamworth gilts Ginger and Baby to start our breeding programme to produce as much of our own pork as we wanted whilst making it financially viable
to do so. The first step was to find a boar, which took us to a farm not to far away where we were introduced to a dozen porker sized boars. Baldrick stood out because of his tail, it looked like he was a victim of tail biting but as well as his 'bent' tail he was probably the biggest, longest, and with the biggest pair of, you know what's.
I also went to buy a Large Black weaner gilt with the intention of breeding from her next year probably through artificial insemination, as the nearest herd I know of is over 150 miles away, but that's only one of the possible projects for next year. We called her Bonnie as she certainly is. Large droopy, Dumbo like ears that cover her face, a little darling.
I started off by separating them all but soon found that they accepted each other quickly, and the fencing actually seemed to cause problems so one morning I opened up the fencing and after a few little skirmishes they live happily together. Ginger and Baby are expecting in February, and I am leaving Bonnie in with Baldrick for her first litter, just to check she is fertile before commencing with the plan to start a herd of Large Black pigs next year.
We have recently had our first anniversary of moving here and fittingly I spent most of the day on a local beat getting absolutely frozen and soaked to the skin, standing for ages in driving sleet before walking straight into it to flush the birds. What a difference a year makes, and I can honestly say there is no going back.

Spring Time 'where there is live stock there is dead stock'

Another of the major lessons of the spring centered around Mr
Aitkenhead the cockerel. What I learned was that sometimes you have
to do things you do not want to do, but must be done! I had always had
a good relationship with him, we hand feed our poultry and he fed from
me first.
My mother had had problems earlier in the year were he had gone for
her leg, on another occasion I stepped in when he appeared to be
going for her again, two isolated incidents, or so I thought!
Problems started when he went for my legs when I had fed them on
morning and was walking away. A lot of wing flapping and leg clawing,
luckily I had my cut off waders on.
This happened every time I fed them so Debbie took to feeding the
chickens so hopefully the attacks would stop. They didn't in fact he
actually came looking for me.
I took advice from breeders and did what people recommended even
picking him up and cuddling him! Needless to say this didn't work and
he wasn't backing down each time I had to.
I started to worry about the kids, my youngest is only four and he was
attacking about her face height and wasn't backing down he just kept
on coming. I know he was probably only feeling threatened by me but I
couldn't take the chance and could not just stop in the house.
It all ended when we had been to seek our weekly shopping and
returned to find him actually waiting by the front door. Something he
had never done. Anyway I got out he went at me twice so we ended up
having chicken later that night.
I know it sounds matter of fact but I really hated doing it as he was a
beautiful cockerel and I had hoped to have used him for many a year in breeding.
As is generally the case with missed opportunities one of the Light
Sussex hens went broody a few weeks later then another. We ended
up bringing in fertile eggs to hatch our own chicks, whilst also rearing
some New Hampshire Red day old chicks to provide us with a
cockerel.
It seems strange now worrying about getting an incubator when all of
our hens went broody over the spring and summer, especially when it
is such hard work rearing chicks once the novelty wears off! A good
lesson for the future 'leave it to mother nature'.
One last thing we learned during the spring was that grass cuttings
can be fatal! I took delivery of about 10 black plastic bags full of grass
cuttings intending to throw them on the compost heap as a favour to
someone!
I found that the hens enjoyed scratching about in the grass so dropped
a bag near to the chicken house. Unfortunately the two youngest found
three chicks playing in the grass and thought they were trying to get
warm by making a nest so covered them up to keep them warm.
By the time they had innocently told us what they had done two of the
chicks were dead, although unbelievably one was just about alive so
that went straight back under the mother hen, and grew to be a very
nice hen herself.

Spring time 'The miracle of new life'

We were told of Edna and Bandy when we picked up Jake and
Elwood. Edna was a worn mouthed Suffolk ewe. Bandy was her ewe
lamb from the previous year. They had been running with a Ryeland
tup and were due mid March or so we thought.

Over the next few weeks we waited patiently Edna's udders bagged
up and she got larger and larger. Bandy was a big ewe anyway which
was why she was left in with the tup the previous year, she was actually
larger than her mother, although unlike her mother thought she was a
horse!

I lost count of the times we found Bandy out of the field having jumped
over the stock proof fencing, or stone walls. Unless I had seen her
jump the heights she did I would have said it was impossible for a ewe
to do that! Mid-March came and nothing.

Edna seemed enormous by now I had converted a coal shed into a
makeshift maternity unit plenty of straw and protection form the
elements. We actually spent a lot of hours late at night thinking it must
be going to happen tonight but still nothing.
About 3 weeks after we had been told Edna would deliver I noticed
her up at the top of the field whilst working on a greenhouse, and what
looked like two white plastic bags lying near her. Like any good
smallholder I went to get them to put in the bin so the animals didn't eat
them.

We have all been there when you are walking towards something
thinking this isn't right. The bags were two lambs! I shouted on Debbie
but she was in the house which was a fair distance away, so I quickly
checked they were breathing and ran back to the house to let Debbie
know they had arrived we both ran back to were Edna had delivered
her lambs with the kids not far behind.

I was sure that there were two lambs but another form was lying on the
ground must be the placenta I thought very yellow though! Yes another
lamb but this one wasn't breathing!

I tried to clear the mucus away then grabbed the back legs and threw
the lamb forward a few times it gurgled at first then when Debbie
started to rub it the lamb let out a bleat. Another one of those moments
I will never forget and what makes this such a wonderful way of life.

We left the proud mum with her lambs soon after and returned to the
house to find that Debbie had been running the water to wash the
dishes when I had told her about the lambs!

We returned to see if every thing was fine after the mopping up
operation. Unfortunately it wasn't the lambs hadn't started to suckle
even though we cleared the wax plugs, Edna was baaing pitifully and
the lambs looked freezing.

We decided to take the lambs back to the coal shed and after a little
coaxing Edna followed. Over the next week we learned very quickly
how to look after sickly lambs, this involved tube feeding them for the
first four days day and night! Edna was a fantastic mum she would
stand for Debbie to milk her then we used the milk to tube feed the
lambs two rams, Donkey (he was the biggest) Lucky (never name
any animal Lucky) and a ewe April (she was the lifeless one).

We also learned an important lesson in that you can put so much into
caring for animals and this still will not be enough, as for some reason
we found Lucky dead a week after he was born. He didn't look right
the previous night but they all three had looked much worse and had
improved so much.

After a week or two the normal guilty feelings fade and you realise that
you do what you can but sometimes it is not enough no matter what
you do. The phrase 'were there is livestock there is dead stock' comes
to mind.

It amazed me how once they had lived through that first week the two
remaining lambs just seemed to thrive, we had taught them to suckle themselves now and boy did they. One day they were defenceless little
lambs needing to be fed the next they were massive jumping around
the field playing together.

The Beginning PT2

Most people start of with chickens and we were no different we visited a breeder just after Christmas, a late present I guess. Debbie feel in love with a trio of Light Sussex, made up to four with a spare hen. The cockerel was a beauty, and looked very much the part, and although I didn't realise it then he would provide the first bad experience later in the year! Debbie also picked two New Hampshire Red hens as they look like the stereotypical farmhouse chicken.
For those who have not kept chickens it is amazing what pleasure they give you, and how self-sufficient they seem to be. As instructed I locked them in the chicken house for three days giving them food and water each day. Let them into the run constructed of chicken wire and posts (It took nearly a day to do this) only for them to start escaping over the top within hours. Down came the fencing and we brought the plan of allowing them total free-range forward. They learn very quickly when the treats are on the way and it has got to be one of the funniest sights watching a chicken running for tit bits still makes me laugh! What I found quite amazing was how you go out to lock them up at night thinking how will I get them in and you find them already in roosting, and looking at you as if to say shut the door its cold! Of course you expect eggs immediately but being young birds we were told not to expect any for a few more weeks. Now I don't know if it was the mentioning the 'pot' each day but as promised nearly two weeks later the first egg. The look on all our faces said it all.
My oldest son Cain had always wanted a dog and Debbie for that matter but having lived in towns and cities I didn't think it was right for us in our position. Now we were in the middle of nowhere there was no excuse and I found myself being forced into driving to a farmhouse to look at collie pups. Flossy was the only bitch left and was very friendly. We paid the money and took Flossy home, she deposited her dinner over Debbie on the way back and to this day she doesn't like the car.
I can't remember thinking about buying pigs because it was never in our plans, but I can remember coming face to face with a breeding pair of fully grown Tamworth's. I tried hard not to look scared as I had no idea they grew this big, like many people had seen them on TV but my god they were never that size. Needless to say we didn't get them, and to be honest never thought we would ever have pigs.
Two days later we answered an advert and bought Jake and Elwood the blues brothers. They must have been crossed with Vietnamese pot bellies and probably saddleback's but certainly were much smaller and of a size we could cope with. Jake and Elwood settled very quickly in their paddock turning it over quickly, playing 'piggy backs' as boys do, and generally providing us with a great deal of pleasure from their willingness to have scratches. The kids loved them and enjoyed throwing them scraps and giving them scratches.
January certainly was a very busy month and to be honest we never planned to get all the animals so quickly it more or less just seemed to happen that way. With each one we felt it was the right decision and the right time we had people who advised us, which gave us the confidence, and the animals themselves were a delight, even the cockerel at this time! Looking back I am a firm believer in if you treat your animals right they will be very accommodating to you however inexperienced you are, and they will give you advice like making a hell of a lot of noise to tell you it is tea time!
January also saw us start working at the local nursing home, but only part-time, which was a complete change from what I was used to. With Debbie working as well it gave me the chance to spend more time at home and be more responsible for organizing the kids ect, and gave Debbie the chance to meet up with other adults after many years of being a 'homemaker' this also gave her the opportunity to talk to other adults, something she finds hard to achieve looking after me and the 3 kids!