Update w/e 20th June - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Sunday 21 June, 2009

by Rosemary at 8:50pm in Anything goes Comments closed

We've had another good growing week and the weeds are coming on a treat. We've had our first strawberries, though, which is very nice indeed. The gooseberries are also coming on well and the biggest are now ready for picking. The peas and broad beans are podding but the beans are still very small. I must try and find a good recipe for broad beans to get Dan to eat them - he suggested wrapping them in bacon and / or deep frying.

The Hubbard chicks are now outdoors. They seem to like the grass under their feet and are happily pecking away. The soil tray is still favourite entertainment though. I've topped up their mencore bed with straw - I do worry if it's a bit chilly. A further five have gone to a friend, leaving us with eight, as we had a dead one this week. I think it may have been trampled by the others as they have all been very healthy.

The broody is still, well, broody. Our Cream Crested Legbar cockerel, Hugo, is going to a new home where he will be the only cockerel. Here, he's very much second fiddle to Hector, our Copper Black Maran (who's about twice the size of Hugo) and I feel a bit sorry for him. So he's off to pastures new with a nice wee flock of Black Rock virgins, where he can show off his prowess!

Last week, I was hoping that Lyra wouldn't have a relapse, after her joint-ill episode. Well, she did. On Monday morning, Dan came in and said she was really unwell. I had a look and had to agree – although her legs seemed fine, she was clearly sick. She wouldn't move unless forced to and seemed to be in pain around her abdomen. Off we went to the vet again, this time for intravenous painkiller and anti-inflammatory and more antibiotics. Again, the vet wasn't entirely sure what the problem was, but he was clearly worried. And one again, she's better – she's had five days of an eight day course of antibiotics and she seems recovered. She's grazing now and is hard to catch, which I'm viewing as positive. This time, I hope she really is out of the woods.

The pigs have been reintroduced to their snak-a-ball and love it. Apparently, the ball was invented for pigs at Easter Howgate (part of the University of Edinburgh) as a way of enriching the environment, was adopted for horses and now we've claimed it back for pigglies. It's a great way to keep them amused and active. The pigs are looking nice and trim this year. Actually, the ball is a great way to distract them when they squeal for food when it's not feeding time.

We took delivery of our calcified seaweed this week so I‘ll have to sort out the application. We put “new� horse poo on the garden last year and, in retrospect, I don't think it was a good idea, so we've established a muck heap, where it can rot down. The hardest bit is keeping the hens out of the beds. Our raised beds of 8 years ago are now level with the path, because the hens have scraped so much soil over the side. Next time, it will be a 6 foot fence round the vegetable garden!