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.