A mixed bag - Floors, sheep, bees, weeds
Posted: Tuesday 9 August, 2016
Monday 1st August
Nice day today; mainly sunny but with a bit of a breeze. Monday is usually paperwork day so spent most of it catching up with emails and other bits and pieces. Tried to submit my application for the beef calf premium but there was a fault with the system. Also caught up with some phone calls. Swept out the loosebox, ready for Brian the joiner tomorrow.
Dan was in the orchard after dinner sorting out the windbreaks. I had a look at the trees in the vegetable garden – the Victoria plum is laden with fruit so I’ll have to thin that down. One of the gages has a bit of a crop but the other three are disappointing. One got broken and we tried to bind it together but I think it’s had it, and another had fire blight and Dan had to prune it really hard.
Milked the cows this afternoon; need to get the calves away from them tomorrow but not quite sure how I’m going to do that yet. Each of the three have sore bits on at least one teat – the calves are very hard on them. Next year, I may take the calves off and feed them separately. It’ll mean milking twice a day, though.
I am beset by worries about udder health. I need to find a local dairy farmer willing to give some advice – maybe I am worrying unnecessarily. Our vets are great but, frankly, I can’t afford to call them out for every wee thing.
Tuesday 2nd August
Woke to blue skies and sunshine but the clouds came in after lunchtime and there were a few spots of rain.
I found a tub of turmeric that I got for the ponies and didn’t use, so I’m giving some to Wallace. Can’t hurt and might do some good.
Been working on Festival stuff today so outside jobs have had a bit of a miss; but they don’t go away, so I’ll try and get as much done in the morning before I go to Lanark tomorrow.
Brian the joiner has been here and has the frame down for the new floor in the loosebox. Or should I call it the freezer room? The floor is currently sloped so to put freezers on it we need to have it levelled. He thinks he might get it finished tomorrow; Dan’s ordered some vinyl floor covering to finish it off.
MUST sort out these calves – hardly any milk tonight, but it’s very creamy.
Wednesday 3rd August
Phew, had a bit of rain overnight. Wallace seems to have suffered a bit of a relapse overnight. I am so wracked with guilt and indecision. Going to give him a few more days.
Bryn met the electric fence today. He’s traumatised, wee man.
Had to get the vet out to Smokey today – he has a hugely swollen eye. He was a total star for the vet and has eye drops for four days. If it’s not better, he’ll need to be sedated for a more in-depth examination.
Dan did some weeding and thinning in the veg garden and I started to thin the fruit on the Victoria plum. I also cleaned out the three hen houses, dusted them with Diatom, filled the grit hoppers and put in new fly traps. Not my favourite job but a very satisfying one.
Brian the joiner finished the floor today, ahead of schedule, so we let him pick some raspberries and gooseberries ☺
Freezer room floor.
I ordered a new gate for Sheepfold and some fencing materials – should be delivered tomorrow.
Thursday 4th August
Bryn went fox hunting at 3am. He’s bushed. So are we. Smokey’s eye is much improved this morning. Wallace was playing with Bryn this morning so maybe he’s feeling better. Fingers crossed.
Dug some ragwort and knocked down some nettles and finished thinning the fruit on the Victoria plum and the two gages. They’re not our best trees – too shaded by the beeches, I think.
I was down at Lanark visiting the Festival venue. It all gets a bit frantic now – busy with the Festival and so much to do here. We could really do with more than two and a half folk organizing the event.
Dan did some weeding in the veg garden, which the pigs appreciated. The vinyl for the loosebox and the fencing materials were delivered. Didn’t milk today.
Friday 5th August
Cloudy and overcast this morning. I’ve got Wallace on Devil’s Claw as well now; nothing to lose, I guess.
Over-seeded the bare patches in the paddock where the ponies have been then scooted into Dundee to pick up more antibiotics for Wallace.
Got the soil tests back for here; we could do with a bit of lime and the potassium levels are low in some paddocks. I’ll have a look at last year’s results for Astwood and try and put together a plan. I’m hoping if I get a contractor in to do both at the same time, it might be a bit cheaper.
Dan’s been mowing the grass in the veg garden – he left the patches of clover uncut last time for the bees, but it’s going back now so can be tidied up.
We put the cows and calves in different paddocks at lunchtime, hoping that we’d get a better yield but the cows were upset when we brought them in, so we actually got less. Hey ho ☺
Saturday 6th August
Cool this morning but the sun was out by 9am. Got the twenty lambs (14 ewes and 6 tups) separated and off to Astwood, along with Ted, Niamh and Juno. Wallace is breaking his heart for his sister but she needs to go and learn to be a sheep now. He’s in with the 15 ewes, including his mother (who couldn’t give a stuff by the way). Most of the ewes and gimmers are sold – only Lucy, Pix and Juno will be left after the 24th. Haven’t quite decided on their fate yet.
Enjoying fresh grazing at Astwood.
Dan checked the bees this morning – it was perfect timing being warm and sunny. He artificially swarmed a colony in May but the newly-hatched queen died, so he’s recombined the two parts of the original colony. Thankfully, all appears to be well.
I made mincemeat and peanut cookies. Shop bought biscuits just don’t do it for me any more. Even the expensive ones have palm oil and other stuff I’d prefer not to eat. Now I’ve got a basic cookie recipe, it’s easy to try variants. I get 16 cookies out of a batch, but I could get more smaller ones if I had an additional baking tray. I’ve put the fruit and sugar for two fruit loaves to soak in Chai tea.
These, or at least the best one is for the local flower show, which is next weekend. We won’t have much in the way of fruit and vegetables, but we like to support it, so I’m planning to do drop scones, fruit scones, chocolate brownies and maybe lemon curd. I’ve got some jam but the jars have screwtops and they’re supposed to have cellophane lids, so that’s out.
Dan spent the afternoon in the veg garden while I weeded the two front flower beds.
Shallots harvested.
We rarely use the front door, so the beds are a bit neglected. There are some lovely David Austin roses but geraniums are choking them out, so I’ve cut the geraniums back and I’ll move them under the trees shortly.
Neglected front garden beds.
If I cut the roses hard back this winter and give them a good top dressing of good manure, I’m hoping they’ll look better next year.
Dan made chicken nuggets for dinner; he defrosted and jointed one of our chickens. One breast was enough for four people. The recipe is 140g of cornflakes, ½ tsp garlic powder; ¼ tsp paprika, ½ tsp pepper and ½ tsp salt, whizzed up together; then dip chunks of chicken in flour, beaten egg and the cornflake mixture; bake in a 180C oven for 18 minutes. They were really nice – could have done with a bit more seasoning for my taste but we can play about with that for next time.
Sunday 7th August
Phew, windy! Sunny and warm but very, very windy. Dan’s been cutting wood for the fires, while Andy, a friend of ours, has split the cut wood into logs. He gets his wood from us in return fro hard labour ☺
Wallace and his mum have rediscovered each other and Wallace has discovered the electric fence; he wasn’t limping after he licked the rope!!!! He’s also finding the ewes fascinating, in a tuppy kind of a way.
I’ve made two fruit loaves, neither of which look “show quality”, and a “Mrs Acton’s rich rice pudding”, courtesy of Delia.
After some discussion, we’ve decided to stop milking. There are a number of reasons that I’ll cover in a separate blog post. As a good friend of mine says “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything”.
Dan lifted shallots yesterday so I’ll have to get them ready for pickling tomorrow. The beetroot needs lifting too. Going to be eyewatering ☺
