the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

Two weeks to go!

Two weeks today until we get the keys for our new place - it's getting exciting!

We've bought a bath, to go with the wasbasin and toilet we bought in the January sales. We've ordered the new house sign but it won't be here for the 14th, unfortunately. I've also bought a bell for the yard, so we can be "called" from the fields - I think it's rather smart. And it's very loud!

The application for the building warrant is in and we have the SAP report for the potential suppliers of ground source heat pumps, and updated drawings for the builder and the kitchen supplier. We've decided on quarry tiles for the boot room, kitchen and dining room floors; the three rooms lead from each other, so it should look quite good, as well as being hardwearing and easy to clean.

Dan's mum and dad have been advised to demolish the existing outbuilding and build new, so they now have plans drawn up ready for submission to the local Council. With all the horror stories on our forum, I'm a bit apprehensive about that part. Maybe Angus planners buck the trend.

We hope to get our new trailer around 18th May, so we'll start moving stuff up then. One of the first jobs will be to prepare a storage area. If we don't do the preparation BEFORE we move stuff in, there's precious little chance of us doing it later. We've bought an Ivor Williams livestock trailer with 7ft headroom, so we can use it for the ponies. It's got a centre panel and breast bars and is 10ft long, so it should be fine. If we run out of money, we can do house removals!!

Bye, Harvey

After the recent cockfight, Harvey was clearly top cockerel and Hector was confined with a couple of hens, for his own safety.

Fortunately, a friend of ours agreed to rehome Harvey along with my two remaining Light Sussex hens. I took them down last weekend to join the new "scabbies", as Bob calls the ex-batts he's just got. Hopefully, they'll all settle in - Harvey certainly seemed very happy with his new flock.

I was shocked at the appearance of the ex battery hens. I've only seem photos before but some were almost featherless. They seemed very bright and active though, so once their feathers grow in, I'm sure they will be fine. Maybe there should be photos of them on the "value" egg boxes.

It's much quieter here without the two boys competing in the loudest crow contest. Hecctor's limp has gone and he seems none the worse for the fight. It's good to see him strutting his stuff around the field.

The Fabulous Bunny Boys

A week short of their first birthday, Harry and Bertie have discovered bunnies. They must be catching at least one, maybe two, baby bunnies daily. We found (well, Meg found) the rear third of one under the bed and there was another in the field; I've rescued two. I do praise the cats when I take their bunny away, but advise them to kill it away from the house.

I know it's soft and we got the cats to reduce bunny numbers, but when I see the wee bunnies cowering in terror, I have to intervene. If the deed's already been done, then hey, ho. I'm now shutting off as many rooms as possible so I don't have to check under all the furniture every day.

Cock fight

Hector's lame; Harvey has obviously seen his opportunity to usurp him and there has been the most awful fight. I came back on Wednesday from the stables to find both of them covered in blood - mostly Hector's, I think.

He's now in isolation, with a hen companion, and I've bathed his wounds in Dettol. His right eye keeps closing and has to be bathed so he can open it, poor boy. Fortunately, he's a canny big soul and, apart from pecking at Felix when he got too close, he's been very easy to handle.

He's eating fine, but is completely silent, while Harvey is proclaiming to the world that he's now King of the Dunghill. I'm going to have another go at rehoming Harvey, so that Hector can be rehabilitated.

My bee suit

It's our first apiary visit on Sunday and, fortunately, our bee suits have arrived. I think I look rather fetching in mine, even if the dogs were a bit freaked and Dan could barely suppress a grin.

We've bought khaki rather than white, so it looks a bit less like a police forensic team. The suits were also available in latte, aqua and day-glo orange!!

I hope the weather is good on Sunday - wet mesh doesn't appeal.

Maybe really Spring this time

It has been the most glorious day here today. I don't know what the temperature was but we were working outside in T shirts quite comfortably. The sheep were looking a little hot and the hens were dust and sun bathing.

Because we're not planting up the vegetable garden here this year, we have more time for the flower garden. Normally at this time of year, we're so busy sowing veggies, the weeds take over the flower beds and the paths and we never get caught up. Today we spent a couple of hours weeding and what a difference! It's kind of ironic that for the first time, the flower garden might be as I would want it and we won't be here to see it.

We were out sowing grass seed in the semi-dark, in the hope that we'll fool the hens. There are some real bare patches, but with the soil warming up, we're hoping that it will get a good start away. We've mixed the seed with white clover for the bees and other buzzy things. There have been a few bumble bees around and I saw my first butterfly today. Tonight, there were several bats in flight around the house.

When I fed the ewes this afternoon, the two lambs stayed outside the pen and, for the first time, played together. The wee tup lamb is much bolder and was bouncing around, while Milly watched him. Looks like Jura's going to be later, so her lamb won't have anyone to play with - its older half-siblings will probably either bully it or ignore it. Lyra was the same last year, at four weeks younger than Bud and Dickie. I checked Jura's udder tonight and she's no bag, so I'm going to treat myself to a full night's sleep. I hope I don't regret it.

Beekeeping - like Christmas in April!

Our beekeepers' association has a talk from an officer in the Bee Inspectorate on Tuesday. It was really interesting and he seemed very nice and helpful. The role of the Bee Inspectorate, which is part of SGRPID (Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspection Division), is to deal with notifiable diseases of bees - mainly American and European Foul Brood. All Association members are being asked to provide details of where they keep their bees so that if there is an outbreak of either disease, the Inspectors can notify local beekeepers to be on the lookout for infection. Both diseases can devastate colonies, so close inspection, good biosecurity, hive hygiene and varroa control are really important. I'm so glad we'll have an experienced mentor to help us.

The highlight of the evening was the distribution of our equipment - brood boxes, supers, frames, foundation, hive tools, smoker - the car was full! And the smell! The hives are made of red cedar and the scent of the wood was pretty marvellous, especially combined with the honey, waxy scent of the foundation. We're not going to build the boxes until we move - they will be easier to transport flat pack. We'll put a hive up when we get there and put some frames and foundation in - if we're lucky, we might get a swarm moving in.

Five weeks to go

Things are moving along here. We should have the first draft drawings of the house alterations this weekend, then we can sort out the insulation and get the SAP rating. Dan's been researching potential installers for the heat pump and the PV system.

I don't think the estate agent's particulars had very accurate room dimensions, from the mutterings of the architect. I know they always put a disclaimer on, and now I know why. We planned to move the bathroom into the smallest bedroom, but it looks like we might have to include part of the original bathroom as well, to give us enough room for a bath and large shower. For cost reasons, we had hoped to avoid this and just keep the former bathroom as a store cupboard but we need a decent sized bathroom.

I've given up thinking about floors and tiles - we'll have plenty of time once we get the keys, when we can get a proper "feel" for the house.

Normally, I'd be spring cleaning but I've decided to leave it until we clear the house. I quite enjoy it - and you can certainly see where you've been when you clean here! - but not enough to do it twice. If it stays nice, I'll get the curtains down, cleaned and stored away.

I'm doing little things - like clearing out the study, running down the freezer and tidying cupboards - but I can't wait for the 14th May.

"A salvage job"

It was heartbreaking to read in today's "Scottish Farmer" about the losses suffered by some Scottish sheep farmers due to the terrible weather. One farmer had lost between 150 and 200 lambs, all his Bluefaced Leicester tups and ten feeding sheep. Another experienced a snowfall of 21 inches in 24 hours, followed by flooding and three days without power. Many expressed concern about the condition of hill ewes, which will lamb in a couple of weeks.

It's sometimes easy, in the warmth of the supermarket, to forget how hard our farmers work, especially when the weather is so difficult and unpredictable. I, for one, take my hat off to them.

Hobbling Hector

Hector, our Copper Black Maran cockerel, has a limp. Actually, it's a real hobble. He was limping yesterday, so I caught him and bathed his foot in hot water and Milton fluid. I am guessing that it's his foot that's the problem although I can't see anything in it or any significant swelling.

Dan says he was fine this morning but he was pretty lame this afternoon, so I caught him again and did his foot in the same way. I'll keep up the bathing for a few days and see how he goes. I did shut him in the broody coop, but he looked so miserable and Dan said he wouldn't fit through the entrance to the nest area, that I let him out.

He's a fabulous bird and pretty good natured; he didn't struggle or peck. His spurs are really long though - and sharp. I wouldn't like to be on the wrong side of them, if he meant business.

Silly Milly again

Well, Milly's now got the hang of this suckling lark and she is now out in the field, in the sun, with the rest of the flock. However, Dan found her in the water bucket yesterday, bleating her head off, totally stuck. She's a canny wee thing, though, and is perfectly confident with people.

The tup lamb is pretty sturdy and Jinx is doing him well. I wish Jura would get on with the job though.

I'm planning to sell Buddy at the rare breed sale at Thainstone on the 1st May. This is a bit of a learning curve for me, as I've never sold anything through a market before. I can't decide whether I should put a reserve on him or not, and if so, how much. I don't really want to go all that way and NOT sell him, but on the other hand, I don't want him to go for a fiver. I'll hate to see him go, but I can't realistically keep him.

Silly Milly

Juno's lamb, named Milly, is possibly the dimmest animal I have encountered. She's quite small and yesterdy, she was a bit bleaty. It seems she's perfectly good at sucking but not very good at latching on. Her mother is not terribly helpful - Jinx, by comparison, organises her legs to make it easy for het lamb to suckle - whereas Juno's static.

Anyway, both ewes are in small pens - the weather's not very nice and they are quite content - I think, for Ryelands, having your food put under your nose is some kind of heaven. I've been helping the lamb to suckle every couple of hours yesterday and overnight, so she's quite chipper and less bleaty. Hopefully, as she gets bigger and stronger, she'll manage by herself.

Another positive is that she should grow into a quiet, easy to handle ewe, given the amount of human contact she's having at the moment.

Project planning

With less than six weeks to go, Dan and I decided we needed something resembling a plan, so last night we sat down with a glass of wine each, a pad, a pen and a laptop to put together our project plan.

I think it has worked quite well although the proof of the pudding etc etc. We now each have a list of things to be done this week. Mine does seem longer than Dan's, but hey ho!

I was getting a tad stressed about "all the things to be done" but when we wrote it down, there were things that can't be done yet anyway. Now they are on the list, I can stop worrying about forgetting them and just do them at the appropriate time.

That's the plan, anyway!

Groundhog day in the lambing shed

Juno and Jinx lambed last night. Jinx has been bagged up for days and, just yesterday, I noticed Jinx was too. Nothing doing at bedtime, I set the alarm for 3am.

Jinx had a single tup lamb, same as last year, but much smaller than Buddy was. Juno had twins - a tup and ewe - but the tup lamb died, despite my best efforts at ovine CPR. Last year, Juno had two tup lambs, but one was born dead. The other is Dickie, our companion wether.

Jinx's lamb seems bright, has a pretty full belly and is almost silent. Juno's lamb, Milly, doesn't seem to have got the hang of latching on and Juno isn't being awfully co-operative, although she has plenty milk. At least she's not knocking the lamb away.

So the lamb's a bit bleaty and I'm making sure she gets a feed every 2 hours - Juno's pretty relaxed about people, especially those with a bucket so she's happy enough for me to latch the lamb on. Hopefully, in a couple of days, Milly will be able to take care of things herself.

Both ewes are eating and drinking so hopefully they have survived the births. My aim this year, as last year, was to end the lambing with three ewes, each with a healthy lamb. As my experience grows, I'll up the ante, but for now I'm happy with a modest target.

Funny, I used to work on a farm lambing 600 ewes and it wasn't as stressful as this. I suppose I had nothing else to think about other than doing what my boss told me - I didn't have any decisions to make. And with 600 ewes, I didn't get attached to any of them.

Thank goodness for the field shelter though - last night and today, it was been wet and windy, although not desperately cold, but not great lambing weather. Being able to keep the ewes and lambs indoors for a couple of days is great - for ALL concerned.

I don't know what I'll do at the new place. I'm thinking to use part of the open barn, just for some pens and as a place to run them in at night for ease of observation.

Weightwatcher of the year?

My Highland pony, Smokey, has a tendency to put weight on - he's cheap to run and lives on fresh air. Two or three years ago, he had a (thankfully) mild bout of laminitis in February. At the ime he was out 24/7, but some of the other owners wanted hay in the field, so Smokey was spending a good part of the day feeding his face. After this, he was put on restricted grazing and brought in at night, so that I could control his feed intake a bit better.

It's been quite difficult - for both of us but in different ways, obviously. At his heaviest, he weighed almost 600kg on the weight tape. He's 15.1hh. Today, I put his harness on and the saddle kept slipping round, even though it was in the tightest holes. I got out the weight tape - 498kg! Now, I know the tape isn't 100% accurate but it does give a comparison. I couldn't believe it - I knew he was thinner as he now has "pointy bits" - but I was staggered at ho much he has lost. He was 470kg when I bought him as a 5 year old. I think he looks loads better and once his winter coat has fallen out, he should be quite sleek!

The secret of our success? A spring balance! He now gets 5kg hay overnight and 2kg in the morning along with 1kg of chaff with his garlic and a vitamin / mineral balancer. And I do weight his hay, or the amount creeps up.

I wish I could be as strict with myself.