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!