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.