About TAS : 2003
In March 2003, we bought a further three hens to join the three "Originals". This time the trio consisted of a Rhode Island Red, a Light Sussex and a Brown Leghorn. I picked the Leghorn for two reasons - her lovely plumage and her white eggs.
In spring we attended a one day course on pig-keeping at Pig Paradise in preparation for the arrival of our first two Tamworth weaners. A new pen was constructed adjacent to the vegetable garden and a Pig Paradise pig ark installed. In mid-May, we took delivery of our first two weaner pigs, both gilts. What terrible timewasters they were - we spent hours watching them and exclaiming over how big / smart / cute they were. We kept them until October, when they became prime rare breed pork (but not until after some soul searching).
Work in the fruit garden and the vegetable garden continued. We bought a small 8' by 6' greenhouse which allowed us to grow things that we either hadn't tried before (sweetcorn) or that we hadn't had much success with outdoors (tomatoes). We probably don't exploit the greenhouse as much as we could i.e. we never get round to growing winter salad and things like that.
In December we got our second cat, Homer. He was also a rescue cat. Homer's odyssey is included in the diary.