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Brassicas / Squashes / Udder

Monday 2 May, 2022

by Rosemary at 8:28am in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 25th April

Dammit, the fox has taken four meat chicks. This is entirely our fault for not securing the run well enough. Done now

Finally, planted out the brassicas; a summer cabbage, a winter cabbage and three types of sprouts.

cabbagesBrassicas finally planted out.

The courgettes and squashes sprouting  and there are small signs of dahlias coming through.

Mastitis / Beans / Bye, Buster

Monday 25 April, 2022

by Rosemary at 9:29am in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 18th April

Glorious day – sunny, bit of a breeze. I hung a load of washing out and got it all dried – solar and wind powered dryer. Ploughed through the office jobs though, then got into the greenhouse to pot on most of the tomatoes. And I set the runner and French beans to germinate and planted out the sweet peas.

Dan managed to get away from his desk to get the harrow on the tractor.

Tuesday 19th April

Spot and Notspot barely feed off the bottle at some feeds, so we’ve put them on to three feeds of 300ml each -7am, 3pm and 11pm. If they start clearing up, we’ll increase the amount. They look well.

Scoot / Astrid / No2

Monday 18 April, 2022

by Rosemary at 10:32am in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 11th April

Kit and her lambs are now out in the wee paddock; I’ve put No3 in there with her single ewe. I’m not delirious about No3’s lamb – she looks a bit tucked, but her mother has plenty milk. Made sure she got a good feed this afternoon and will keep a close eye.

No1 is in the pen in the barn with her twins, because she has two doses of antibiotic to get before she goes out. If I let her out, my chances of catching her again are slim. She seems well and the lambs are quite content.

Spot / Notspot / No1

Monday 11 April, 2022

by Rosemary at 6:51pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 4th April


Still feeling rough; didn’t even get up for the morning chores, which I’ve done the last two days. Tested positive for Covid. Quelle surprise.

Tuesday 5th April

Woke at about 5.30am; raging sore throat. Could hear the ewes fussing. Out of bed, in the jammies, and round to the field. Kit had one lamb – she scanned with twins and wasn’t due until Saturday. It was cold and wet, so I got them into a pen and decided to leave her for half an hour to have the second. Went back in half an hour, still only one lamb. Looked around and here’s this wee, soaked, bedraggled lamb outside the field shelter – obviously the first lamb born. Whisked cold lamb into the kitchen and into a bowl of warm water until he warmed up, then towel dried and left wrapped up with a hot water bottle, on the floor (we have underfloor heating) until we moved his mammy and brother into a new pen in the barn, with a heat lamp. Two tup lambs, both a bit dim. Got them warmed up and latched on then gave them both some packet colostrum in a bottle to warm the up and give them some energy. By bedtime, they seemed to have found the milk bar and are quite content. Fingers crossed.

The lurgy has struck

Wednesday 6 April, 2022

by Rosemary at 9:53am in Smallholding 1 comment Comments closed

Sorry, no diary this week. I have Covid - how I got it I have no idea, but I have, so I'm having a week off. Hope you're all well!

Cheeps / Steers out / Tidy up

Sunday 27 March, 2022

by Rosemary at 8:04pm in Smallholding 1 comment Comments closed

Monday 21st March

The good weather continues. Finished setting up the box for the meat chicks and took myself off to Harbro for chick crumbs and a spare bulb for the heat lamps. I have two lamps on while they are tiny – just in case a bulb blows. It happened once and we lost a few because they crushed into the corner of the box to keep warm.

The steers at East Pitkerro needed hay and bedding so we turned them out. Boy, were they happy. Tomorrow we’ll have to move them to the right field but for today, they can just tear around and get the tickle out of their feet.
 

Dahlias / Peas / Ostara

Tuesday 22 March, 2022

by Rosemary at 4:57pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 14th March

My new dahlia tubers have arrived. One variety of leeks is sprouting, as is the cabbage. Bought some tomato seeds at the supermarket today  - the ones I bought previously had only two seeds in the packets. I should complain but I can’t be bothered.

seedsproutsLeeks, sprouts and cabbage.

Tuesday 15thMarch

Lovely day! Started Spring cleaning, such as it is – stripped our bed and will do the dogs’ beds tomorrow.

Seed sowing / Thief / Booms

Tuesday 15 March, 2022

by Rosemary at 5:20pm in Smallholding 1 comment Comments closed

Monday 7th March


Finally got round to sowing seeds – tomatoes, cucumber, leeks, sprouts and one variety of cabbage plus parsley and basil. And lots of sweet peas. Also set the peas on damp kitchen paper to germinate, before potting on. Planted out more shallots too.

Wednesday 9th March

A couple of mornings I’ve looked at Smokey’s breakfast hay net and thought it looked emptier than the night before. Now I know why.

Primroses / Crocus / Sunflowers

Monday 7 March, 2022

by Rosemary at 11:05am in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 28th February

Quite spring-like today – light showers, light cloud, some sunshine. We have snowdrops, crocus and primroses out now.

primrosePrimroses.

crocusA crocus. Which is weird, beacsue I only planted narcisii.

Toad / Smokey / Gate

Wednesday 2 March, 2022

by Rosemary at 11:51am in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 21st February

Dry, cold and windy – lightened by some sunshine.

The farrier was here to do Smokey’s feet. And Dan and I took hay to East Pitkerro, along with some Spot-on, so hopefully the itching will stop. Most of the bare bits now have hair on them so fingers crossed.

Regular readers will know that Monday is my office day, but it was so cold, I had to move back to the dining room table. We have a small electric heater in the office and Dan, rightly, decided to put it on the timer – except he turned it off instead. Hopefully, it will be better tomorrow – for him. I’ll be doing something else.

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