TAS Diary Archives
February 10, 2009
Jura's pregnant! And their feet are fine!
Gillian came back at the weekend to scan Jura - and she's in lamb with a single. Mind you, she's going to lamb about the end of May. She must have been caught the day we brought them home, just about. I'm really pleased - I didn't want her to feel left out, with no lamb. Now all I have to do is get them safely through the lambing. Oh, the responsibility! I'll have to get my lambing kit ready.
Gillian also had a look at their feet and they're fine. No scald, no footrot and my trimming is OK.
And while she was here, she took our order for our Christmas turkey - her Mum raises free range Kelly bronze, so we put our name down for one. Nothing like being prepared, you know.
February 9, 2009
Meet Hugo!
Hugo is our new Cream Crested Legbar cockerel. I think he might be brother to the late, lamented Chip. I'm sure when I bought the eggs Chip came from, I gave the ones I couldn't get in the incubator to my chum, Carol, to put under her broody hen. Must think a bit more about that!
He's in an ark with two of the CCL hens - we'll move the others in with him over the next few days. In a few weeks, all being well, I might be able to set some eggs from them.
I've run off the breed standard, so I'll "score" my lot and see how they compare to the "perfect" CCL. Not that any of them are in any danger of being less than perfect in my eyes!
February 8, 2009
Lil' Hubbards
We took delivery of our ten Hubbards yesterday. They hatched last Wednesday so are a wee bit older than day-old. The cardboard box brooder was all prepared - lined with four sheets of newspaper, so I can simply remove one a day to give them a clean surface. Not tried thsi before but it worked fine today. They're messy little beggars.
All seem to be eating and drinking fine; when I went in tonight, they were sound asleep, all together under the light. I was worried last night - we've never had chicks at this time of year and outside ( i.e. not in the spare room!) but they seemed fine and it's not so cold tonight. It's actually snowing a bit.
We expect to be killing these between 10 and 14 weeks - hard to imagine, right now. Last time, I fed adlib pellets; I might restrict this time and grow them more slowly. The last lot were 5.5 - 7lb oven ready at 12 weeks. Hey ho, so much to learn!
February 4, 2009
Sheeps' feet
My sheeps' feet do stress me. I'm not very confident trimming them. So I've asked Gillian, who scanned the girls, to give me a lesson on Sunday. Jinx has had a problem with a back foot before and she's a wee bit lame again. I trimmed them at the weekend, but it's so wet and muddy that the antiseptic spray just washed off. We've made a pen on the patio and we'll clean her feet and spray them tomorrow and leave them shut in for a wee while. I hate to see her in pain, but hopefully Gillian will be able to put us on a firm footing (deliberate pun!) on Sunday.
Ice inside!
It took me longer to deice the inside of my car this morning than the outside. I don't think it has a leak - I think it's just carrying wet dogs, wet boots and jackets, buckets of horse poo (stables to garden) mean that the moisture content of the car has risen.
I was scraping the inside of the front windscreen and was covered in ice shavings, thinking (I must get a dehumidifier and dry this car out". Come summer, and the warm weather (?), I'll leave all the doors open to let it dry naturally but I can't wait until then.
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
You may recall the song from Mary Poppins, I think - well inflation's moved things along since then. We've always put out bird feeders and enjoy the wild birds that come to feed. A friend gave us a huge feeder as a wedding present - the idea that we could fill it every couple of days. Unfortunately, the birds didn't understand this and proceeded to empty it.
We don't get anything very exotic - starlings, spuggies (sparrows), wrens (one of my favourites), blackbirds, blue tits, a couple of goldfinches.
With the cold weather, I've been making fat cakes, with suet, seeds and peanut meal. They go real quick these days.
As I came home from work a few nights ago, two blackbirds were singing their hearts out. The sound was just beautiful -a wonderful reward for a few seeds over the winter.
Garlic, shallots and potatoes
I've finally received and planted the garlic; this is late for us - normally, we'd be looking to plant it before Christmas. However, I'm hoping that it will do fine. The variety is Wight Christo. I've planted three rows of 6 cloves, which will be enough for us. We don't use a huge amount of garlic, really.
I've also got our shallots - two varieties. These are round shallots this year. In previous years, the varieties we've chosen have been the long type. I hope to get them in early March as our soil is quite well drained.
Our seed potatoes are chitting - Anya, Mayan Gold, Desiree and Druid. I don't seem to have very many potatoes this year - although since we're usually struggling to find places to plant them, so maybe that's no bad thing! It's almost certain that I'll buy more sometime - there are so many varieties and I'm a bit of a salesman's dream.
It's nice to feel like the new season is now getting underway - despite the snow!
February 3, 2009
God's country
An American decided to write about about famous chuches around th world.
When he visited the first church, he noticed a golden telephone on the wall with a sign below, which read "$10,000 per call". Intrigued, he asked the priest what this was. "Ah", said the priest, "that's the hot line to heaven. For $10,000, you can talk to God".
The American visited churches all over the States, in Australia, New Zealand and many countries. In every one, there was a golden phone, with a sign below "$10,000 per call".
In due course, the Amercan arrived in Scotland. In the first church he visited, he saw the golden telephone with a sign underneath "40p per call". As the priest passed, the American called him over and explained that he had seen the golden telephone all over the world, and the call charge was always $10,000, so why was it only 40p here.
"Ah, son," said the priest, smiling, "you're in Scotland now - it's just a local call"
Oat cookies
We do like a biscuit with a cup of tea but we get awfully fed up with commercial biscuits. Good ones are so expensive. However, I found a recipe for oat cookies in a magazine and have been making them for weeks. It is so simple and so far I've made raisin; apricot and almond; hazelnut and sultana and (the best) ginger. I'm sure there's a date and walnut version and a chocolate chip version still to come.
I've put the recipe in the recipe section for you to try: Oat Cookies