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.