Diary

November 2015RSS feed

Where does the time go?

Monday 2 November, 2015

by Rosemary at 4:09pm in Cattle Comments closed

Heaven’s, where does time go?  Can’t believe the last entry was in JUNE. So quick catch up then I promise to do better.

The milking progressed quite well until the end of July, when we had a week’s holiday then a week later, the bull went in. By the end, we could just bring the calves in to the barn at night and the cows stayed out. That was much earlier and what we’ll be aiming for next year.

Mak went in with the cows from 19th August until the beginning of October. Although I never actually saw him working, he does “court” each cow in turn, grazing exclusively with her for two or three days. I think Rosie and Annie were served quite early on, but think Blizzard may have come back for a second service. We’ll have the vet out in a few weeks to PD them and jag Vicky to prevent any unwanted pregnancies – the main thing is that they are safely in calf.

Bryn

Tuesday 3 November, 2015

by Rosemary at 12:00pm in Dogs 4 comments Comments closed

One of the reasons that there hasn’t been many diary posts over the summer is that we’ve had a new addition to the family. His name is Bryn and he’s a Cardigan Welsh Corgi. And he is a wee cracker. Apart from the sock fetish.

After Tess and Fillan died last December, we discussed whether to get another dog or wait until Meg wasn’t around. She’s 15 but is in pretty good health so we decided to go for it. Meg’s sight and hearing has deteriorated so she’s not keen to go away from the doors and I was missing a wee companion.

Taylor goes to work

Thursday 5 November, 2015

by Rosemary Champion at 8:55pm in General livestock Comments closed

Bonfire Night and time for Taylor, our tup, to go to work. This is his second year and he has 18 ewes to cover – fifteen of ours and three that we sold last year as ewe lambs and that have come back for mating.

He’ll be in until 17th December, then he and Ted, his wether pal, will be off to their winter quarters. He has a second companion at the moment – Tiny Tim. Tim’s (currently) a tup lamb, but he was a triplet and was tiny when he was born and is still small. To be honest, it wouldn’t have been worth paying £50 to have him slaughtered and butchered, so I’m going to get the vet to castrate him when he’s here to PD the cows later in the month. Then we’ll either run him on as hogget or sell him as a tup companion, as a fleece sheep or lawnmower. He’s really wee and awfully cute J

Pigs 2015

Sunday 22 November, 2015

by Rosemary Champion at 8:57pm in Pigs 6 comments Comments closed

As many readers will know, we don’t breed pigs here at TAS. Like many smallholders, we buy in a couple of weaners in the spring and fatten them over the summer.

This year, we had two Oxford Sandy and Black castrates, a bred we haven’t had before. We’ve had Tamworths in the past and Kunekune for the last two years, but we do like to support the British rare breeds if we can.

The two pigs were born 15th March (Mothers’ Day) and w picked them up from the breeder on 15th May, along with two of their sisters, that a friend of ours has bought for breeding.

That was the week that was

Sunday 22 November, 2015

by Rosemary Champion at 9:30pm in Smallholding Comments closed

It’s been a mixed week weather-wise here. Last Sunday, it was dry enough for Dan to hitch up the harrow and give Sheepfold a going over. The ponies have been out there over summer – in the limited turnout they have, being fat, hairy natives – and I haven’t picked poo, so the harrow’s broken it all up nicely and the frost should do the rest.

Since then, it’s been mixed – some heavy rain but no snow and a few dry, windy days that have dried things up a bit. It’s pretty soggy underfoot though.

Beef on the hoof and off it

Monday 30 November, 2015

by Rosemary Champion at 11:58am in General livestock Comments closed

So what’s happened this week at TAS HQ? Weather has been changeable – which is what we’d expect for the time of year, I guess. We’ve had periods of heavy rain, but not sustained and in between times, things have dried up a bit. We had our first snow yesterday but it was wet and didn’t lie.

We’ve had a couple of frosts, but not heavy. But we’ve got the polytunnel door open, so hopefully bugs will be getting killed off. It’s almost cleared out – I’m hoping to get to that and the weeding in the fruit garden this week.

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