the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

New for 2008

We don't currently run our smallholding as a business. However, in 2008, I want to put it on a more business-like footing, at least keeping a better track of income and expenditure.

Last night, I decided to work out what the financial picture was for the pigs last year. We sold two half pigs and kept a whole pig for ourselves; I had a record of the purchase price of the weaners, the slaughterhouse and butchery charges; although I hadn't recorded all feed bought, I was able to make a fairly accurate calculation of the cost of feed. All in all, our whole pig cost us £120. We have to decide if that is OK - if not, then we need to have a think about making changes to the way we manage this "enterprise", especially with rising feed prices.

When Dan set up his business, we transferred certain assets to the business, so I also started to list the equipment or "assets" that we have purchased over the years for the smallholding. Because we are comparatively "cash rich, time poor", we have bought equipment rather than building our own. I haven't finished the list yet, but I was surprised at how much there is.

When the hens come back into lay and I'm selling eggs again, I'm going to keep the income seperate. I'm pretty sure we're subsidising egg production but we'll see.

At the moment, it's fine to be subsidising the smallholding - it's only a hobby, but if our circumstances were to change, then it might become more important to break even, if not generate cash from the smallholding, so I'd better start getting a handle on this now.

Best laid plans...

Well, Christmas hasn't QUITE turned out as expected. Lorna, our daughter, went down with a heavy cold on Sunday, I succumbed on Christmas Day and now Dan has the lurgy. Fortunately, Lorna's now fine apart from a bit of a runny nose and I feel loads better tonight.

I had planned to start preparing for the new year today and I had hoped to get Smokey out for a walk, but the weather has been miserable and we felt rough, so it was do the bare minimum and huddle round the fire to watch the horseracing.

I always fancy odd things to eat if I'm not well - today I've had three bowls of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes and a bottle of flat, warm Coke. I never drink Coke normally (anything that can shine up your sink shouldn't really be consumed) but that's what I really wanted today. Sometimes, it's semolina or tomato soup (Heinz) or cold baked beans. Having not eaten much either Christmas Day or Boxing Day, the munchies are now upon me so I'm off now to see what other leftovers are in the fridge and to find out where Dan's hidden the chocolates.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all TAS readers and contributers form everyone here at Longcarse Farm Cottage!

We hope you have a happy, safe and prosperous 2008, full of joy and love!

Forum registration fixed

There was a temporary problem with the forum registration which has now been fixed. So if you tried to register and couldn't see the verification letters, please try again.

I did a little bit of a server clean-up yesterday because we were running short of space. Now I know what those font files I deleted were for...

TAS video tour part 1

This morning I shot a little video tour of part the smallholding. As you'll see it was unscripted and I look like I've just woken up - too many early mornings!

The Accidental Smallholder tour from asmallholder on Vimeo.

Homebrew on the horizon

A long time ago we tried making our own wine. It wasn't a total disaster, but while the resultant blackcurrant and pea-pod wines were alcoholic and just about palatable, they didn't seem to be worth the effort - a 3 quid bottle from Tesco was infinitely better than anything we could produce ourselves.

Our wine kit was duly sold on eBay, and we've been happily drinking supermarket wine ever since.

One thing we're talked about many times since then has been brewing our own beer. Never ones to be put off by previous failure we're now embarking on that particular journey - today I ordered a Premium Real Ale Starter Kit from Brew it Yourself.

Rosemary's now talking about growing some hops this year, and making beer from first principles... will we ever learn?

Felix and the swede

No, not a native of Sweden! But the root vegetable.

I've posted before about how Felix only eats cat food. Cassius loves any kind of meat, prawns, fish, cheese, cream - Felix has been offered all these things, has sniffed tem, occasionally licked them but has never actually eaten them.

Tonight, Dan and I had haggis, tatties and neeps. There was a very small amount left on the plate - we were astonished to see Felix eating the swede!

Dan's real glad Felix sleeps on my side of the bed!

The killing of cockerel #2

Back in September we killed a cockerel for the table for the first time. It wasn't exactly textbook (at least not according to Seymour) but we got there in the end.

This morning we were up early again to despatch another. We had been planning to kill all three of the surplus cockerels we had, but with the loss of Hobbes a few weeks ago and a friend wanting a cockerel to give as a Christmas present we were left with only one to spare.

Things went more smoothly this time and lots of new lessons were learned. I used an air rifle to kill the bird - we weren't totally comfortable with using the despatcher last time and had read that used properly the rifle guarantees an instant death: it certainly did this morning. Our knives still weren't sharp enough although we found good kitchen scissors to be a better option for most of the jobs.

The plucking was made much easier by dunking the dead bird in very hot water, but made much more uncomfortable by the sub-zero temperature outside!

We roasted the chicken for our dinner tonight, and he was a little on the tough side: unlike the cockerel back in September, which lived its life in an enclosed run, this boy had been free range for almost all his life - he had huge legs and little breasts, and almost no fat. Very tasty though, and what's left will go into a cream of chicken soup tomorrow made with stock from the carcass. The pets had a good feed too, and not a scrap was wasted.

We're never going to get this killing, plucking, cleaning and dressing lark down to a fine art doing it once every 3 months, but in the spring we'll be hatching a lot more chicks and inevitably having a lot more cockerels to spare. If we get competent enough we might even video the process...

Welcome "Country Living" readers!

Welcome to any readers of "Country Living" magazine!

We get a mention in the January 2008 edition of the magazine, in "the good life" section. I subscribe, so when the magazine came in last week, I was browsing through it and noticed, to my great surprise, that the website features in it.

So if you've found us from there, hello and welcome and we hope you'll stick around.

Lazy Sunday?

It has been the most lovely day here - cold, light wind and sunny. Perfect for pottering in the garden. Or for killing chickens.

Yesterday, Dan and I had our annual trip to Glasgow. Before we had pets and livestock, we used to go to Glasgow regularly - bit of shopping, cinema, dinner, stay over, leisurely breakfast. Friday was our wedding anniversary, so we decided to have a day shoppping, lunch, cinema - by 3pm, I just wanted to come home. Anyway, the consequence of that (apart from my sore feet), is that we had lots to do today - but it was a perfect day for doing it!

You may recall that our cockerel, Hobbes, fell prey to the fox recently. Fortunately, we had three young cockerels, who were destined for the oven. One was therefore reprieved, since he was to replace Hobbes. We planned to kill the other two today. However, yesterday, a friend of ours called to ask if we still had the cockerels as he wanted one as a Christmas gift (Live!). A deal was struck so that left us with one to kill today. So this morning, our new cockerel (now called Horatio) was moved into the hens' ark; the second boy was penned for collection and No. 3 bit the dust. Dan will post seperately on this.

Horatio had risen to his new role admirably; he is certainly doing his duty with gusto and doesn't seem to be missing his brothers at all.

I then spent some time cleaning out the garage - I always want to clean at Christmas. I swept out the hay and other stuff on to the yard, where some of the hens had a rare time sorting through it.

Smokey demonstrated his "cut and shut" look - the "two horses in one" look! He and his mates had a great time racing around and munching the grass on the track. One of the Black Rocks joined them in the field and set about clearing the muck heap!

Now that the "batchelor pad" that housed the cockerels was no longer required, I cleaned it, and the hen ark, out. My cleaning kit includes a trug, dustpan and brush, paint scraper (for those interesting stuck on bits) and a scoop for cat litter, which is useful if I'm just "skipping out". I don't always sprinkle louse powder and red mite powder, but I did the "batchelor pad", since it won't be used for a few months.

Finally, I scraped the vegetation off the patio. When we had the patio laid, I asked Eddie to leave gaps between the slabs so that I could grow stuff in them. Oh, boy, did I grow stuff - mostly accidentally. Last summer, we MOWED the patio! I had lots of help - Meg sat with me, the hens investigated the weeds and the sheep joined me too. We let them on to the lawn if we're around - small poo, very tidy munching.

Oh, I also made a Christmas cake! Now, I'm going to make a cup of tea and watch "Cranford". Dan and Felix are computing - so I'll leave them to it.

Nest box maintenance

One of my jobs over the weekend was to check and clean our three bird nest boxes. We've had one of them up a few years now, and the others only a year or two. Although there's plenty of hedgerow and woodland in the area it's nice to provide a place for them to nest, and gives us a great opportunity to observe them every day.

Two of the three had been occupied this year. The third isn't well-sited facing as it does into the prevailing wind. There's a hedge just a few yards in front of it, which I hoped would prove to be enough of a windbreak, but it doesn't seem so. I'll move it now to a more suitable location.

Nest boxes should be between 10-20 feet from the ground, facing away from the prevailing weather and out of reach of any curious or malicious cats. They should be well-cleaned every year, in early winter, to get rid of any lingering parasites and to remove any unhatched eggs and old nest material. A dowse with boiling water does the trick and makes sure that any drain holes aren't blocked. As can be seen from this photograph our hens support the wild bird population too, by supplying top quality nest-making material!

I'll put our boxes back out next weekend once they've dried thoroughly - they provide a good roosting spot for birds in winter when the weather can be wild. This also gives them a good opportunity to recognise the box as a possible site for a nest in the spring. The golden rule is to never disturb your nest boxes between late January and October - just watch and enjoy.

If you're looking to buy a nest box Garden Birds have an excellent selection.

The King (of the dunghill) is dead.

When I went out to let the hens down this morning, there was a pile of feathers under the ark. All the hens were present but no Hobbes. I assume a fox must have got him as he went to bed last night. Reynard must have fancied a change to rabbit.

The three young cockerels are fine, so one of them will get a reprieve from the roasting tin either as our stock cockerel or as a swap for an unrelated one. It's an ill wind...