Doris

Storm Doris has upset Penny Pig today. I love to have my daily chat with her but today she was not happy! It's funny how you get accustomed to the sounds she makes and so can gauge her mood. She grunted her displeasure at me as soon as I arrived this evening. Her home probably wouldn't have been quite as damaged if a thirty stone pig hadn't tap danced inside! I've put her ark the right way round and fixed it the best I can for tonight. So for now Penny is a little happier.

Being Thankful

When I went to the fields this morning our neighbour had called and brought the broken pallets that can't be re- used. We were running low on wood so they were much needed. We were much better organised last year but this year not at all.

Once I'd fed and watered the animals I decided to get the axe to chop some kindling. I could only find the big axe so undeterred I threw that about instead. I'm paying the price for it now as my shoulders and upper arms are beginning to stiffen! The sun came out and as I paused I looked round to realise how lucky we are. Sometimes in the midst of throwing a large axe it's good to take stock and be grateful for what we have. 

I can sing a rainbow

When feeding the pigs a couple of weeks ago, the pigs became boisterous and one of them bit me.  Thankfully she didn't break the skin but I was left with a very large bruise which changed colour almost daily! It's been quite difficult to capture the bruise and well, it was never going to be a flattering snap.

It has pretty much gone now but I have been left with a hard lump under the skin.

New pigs

Once inside the trailer the new pigs quickly made themselves at home and settled down. Our new weaners are seven week old saddlebacks.

They had so far in their short lives lived on straw on hard standing but they loved their new home instantly! They knew just what to do and started rooting about the vegetation. They have a bit of a job on their trotters as it is quite overgrown in places.  It's lovely having more pigs again.

Fielding

We've had some more chicks hatch this week. Seven in total. Cute little balls of fluff.

Husband has adapted a clear plastic storage box so that I can take them to share with the students on Monday.  He is very proud of himself!

 Meanwhile one of the geese has become broody.  She has made herself a nest in the shed. I'm not sure if she will make a success of her brooding - time will tell.

The new fencing is up and we are ready for the new pigs that we are getting tomorrow.  Husband arranged for a friend to come and move the pig ark from one pen to the other.  We are much more organised with the new pen as it has a gate wide enough to reverse the trailer through.  The first pen only has a gate wide enough to walk through. Life is a learning curve and we'll not make that mistake again.  In theory the wide gateway should make it much easier to load and unload, we'll see if the pigs have other ideas! 

I'll be back tomorrow with photos of the new additions, all ten of them...

Unusually organised

The stormy weather came and went and the only visible damage was to the turkey house. This week a gentle breeze saw the largest bough on this old ash tree come crashing down.

 It damaged the fencing too. Luckily the cattle aren't out yet.

 So husband and Don set about cutting the branch into useful logs. Whilst most people who work with husband, the choice of ten year gift is often iPod, iPad or another technological gift.  His was a Stihl saw. Boy is it the best gift ever!

You can see the rot in this picture, which must have left this branch weakened and vulnerable.  Sadly for No 4 this was the tree that we had earmarked for a tree house.

WE managed (notice how I said 'we' - I was very much the supervisor) to collect over two and half tons of wood. This has now been logged and sorted ready for the winter. 

So there we have it being organised through no choice of our own. I am so grateful to Don who has kept husband motivated this weekend. I think next weekend is pig fencing again and we also need a wood store.

More fielding

I despair with the turkeys. I have five Bourbon Red turkeys, which is a heritage breed. Most of the heritage breeds are considered rare.  Commercial growers always want the breeds that grow quickly so that they provide more meat for the food that is provided for them.  Makes commercial sense, but not necessarily producing best flavour. 

It's no wonder that my turkeys are a rare breed.  They lay a handful of eggs and become broody. In spite of my best efforts they will not shift.  I hadn't wanted any turkey eggs in the incubator just yet but I've had no choice. I managed to whip six eggs away before she got too angry with me taking them.  So now she has called for re-enforcements as another two hens are sitting there. They are under the perch making it very hard to move them.  Last year despite sitting on and off for most of the summer no eggs hatched from them.

Meanwhile Don is helping husband to put up a new area for the pigs that are expected in about four weeks time. It's hard to believe that Don is 79, he is amazing. I did take more photos of the men digging the holes for the sleepers.  Not an easy jobs as this batch of sleepers are all hardwood and very heavy.  Once the sleepers are in, then we will be hiring a hole borer for the rest of the fence posts.

The pigs are become braver by the day...

 and they also like their bed! Despite shouting them, they were definitely not keen on getting up!

Chicks

Last night I didn't post because I went out to an Indian restaurant.  It was quite late and after our busy weekend I just needed my bed. I took a picture of my starter because it was really colourful.

As promised here are my new chick photos.  Twenty four hours old. They are Marans and eight of them have hatched. I've now set some Legbar eggs and some Khaki Campbells.  The chicks will take 21 days to hatch and the ducklings twenty eight days.  I had said that I wouldn't be hatching any this year but here we go again!

One of the turkeys has gone broody, although they sit tight none of the eggs hatched last year under them. However in the incubator I had 100% success and so did a friend of ours.  The other problems with the turkey sitting is that she collects all the eggs that the others lay.

Meet the new additions

This is Beryl who is a Welsh pig.  She is the Mum to the two weaners that we went to fetch yesterday.

She is a feisty old girl and the two offspring that she has produced in her last litter are very confident and are already showing similar traits to their Mum. Normally if a sow only produces two in her litter she is off to be made into sausages but her owner Tom has decided to give her one last try,

They are crossed with a Hampshire, the boar looks like dad and the gilt is similar to Mum. This is a picture of dad Gerald.

Once we had got the weaners into the trailer they quickly snuggled down into the straw and went to sleep.



A busy day

No 4 and I painted the bottom of the pig ark with Hammerite.

 If you look closely behind no 4's leg you can see a chicken who made sure that she didn't miss any bits.

 Then of course chocolate lab did a shift of supervising too!

 Then I cleaned out the chicken houses and I had 'help' there too!

 No 4 painted the big chicken house.

I didn't get any photos of husband and son but they were cutting back the hedge ready for fencing. All in all a very busy day, I'll sleep well tonight. Tomorrow we are being taken by Farmer Jack to see another small holding and what they do, so that should be interesting. If time permits we will also be collecting a couple of pigs.

Just a quick field update. All the poultry seem to have recovered, in fact we collected twenty four eggs this evening. We have a busy weekend ahead of us, lots of routine jobs and a few repairs to be done. I'm hoping  to paint the base of the pig arks too. We have two pigs on order although still hoping to get more.

Terrible wind and not a baked bean in sight

The very windy wather has lifted the goose house and tipped it on its side. It was torn cleanly from the base. It also flattened the turkey pen although the pen had been resurrected by the time this photo had been taken.  I'm obviously not a true blogger as taking a snapshot was not the first thing that crossed my mind. I'm not sure if the shock of the house and fence clattering about gave one of the turkeys a heart attack as one had died this morning. It's always sad to lose lifestock, but unfortunately where there's livestock there's deadstock.  It never gets any easier to find that one of them has died.

All housing and fencing is upright at the moment so I'm certainly hoping the worst of the stormy weather has passed now. The flooring has not been reattached as that is a job for the weekend.  Seeing the house on its side I didn't think that we would be able to use it again but thankfully we can.

Just an update from the other day, I have found my swap gift.  I must say the place that I put it really was very safe.  I put it inside of the attic room of a doll's house that I am building.  Who'd have thought it? Sometimes even I wonder what goes on in my head! Whilst searching I found some Easter chocolates that I'd bought to do a hunt.  I've put them back so that if I ever read this blog post, I'll go searching for them again!

I'd like to introduce you to my Great Grandmother, she is pictured here on her wedding day. I remember her teaching me how to crochet a chain. I also remember her giving me a bone crochet hook which has gotten lost over the years. I was five and it was in my Nan's (her daughter's) kitchen. It's only taken me forty years to finally produce something other than a chain! I can't show my creation at the moment because it is a swap gift, but I will show you very soon.

Easter eggs?

Yesterday morning we were up bright and early to go the market in Leicestershire.  We didn't quite know what to expect but everyone has told us how good Melton Market is. Well it is! We didn't buy any livestock today but I did make a purchase!

Our lovely chickens lay lots of different coloured eggs... 

 

but I couldn't resist buying these dark brown hatching eggs...

See what a difference the brown one makes - just what was needed!

 



So my incubator has been rewashed and is now ready for the Maran eggs to be set tomorrow. 

When I grow up I'd like to be a blanket!

I've just joined a Crochet-along over on Ravelry.  I've not done anything like this before because I am not really very confident with my crochet but I'm hoping that over the coming weeks both my confidence and skills increase. There are many very talented people on the internet who have crocheted some amazing things. They all had to start somewhere! This is my first block..

Using the same colours this is my second block...

 As you can see from the picture below the main colour that will run through these blocks is the red...

Now I await this week's block.

Groovy Chicken is at it again...

Groovy chicken picks her places to go broody...

A Sunny Sunday

I'm sure that you know about my love of snow, but after some heavy rain it's finally gone. This morning was glorious and showed that Spring is thinking about making an appearance. The fields were pretty waterlogged before the snow and rain arrived so it's no surprise that we have the makings of our very own lake at the moment.

The geese are thrilled with 'lake Cymraeg' and took full advantage by preening themselves. I really love the geese as they have such character. I'm still not quite sure what to expect come Spring time as some people say that they can be a little aggressive when the females start to lay. We have eight geese altogether, five that I bought as five year old adults from a goose producer in Norfolk (they were the breeding stock that were no longer commercially viable) and three that I bought as six week old goslings. Once the goslings became adults they were left to roam freely together with the adults. They all live together as one big family - sometimes happy, sometimes not so.  At the beginning the young male often challenged the older male and gets put back in his place immediately and then he sulks and sometimes limps for a couple of days! It was always supervised and never got really nasty, it was lots of noise and flapping.  I wanted to get geese as a deterrent as we have had a quite a few poultry thefts.  They do make an awful racket when strangers visit, and when they all run towards you with their wings outstretched and honking, well, it is not for the faint-hearted!