December 2019

Diary

Manure / Wreaths / Frost

Monday 2 December, 2019

by Rosemary at 2:59pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 25^th November

Another dreich day and the winter blues have struck. I was mucking out the cattle and working out how much it cost to keep them – and that caused me to reflect of whether we were making a surplus or not. Retiring to the office, I did some sums and we probably do very slightly better than break even on the cattle. The sheep make a surplus if we attribute al the income form sheepkeeping courses to them. But then we have grass rents, business insurance and accountancy costs to cover.

Ewes / Brash / Wreaths

Monday 16 December, 2019

by Rosemary at 6:06pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 2^nd December

Grey and drizzly, but the water’s unfrozen. No sign of Septic Tank Man. Picked up four bales of hay.

Kit has a green bum. If they are all in lamb, this will be the most drawn out lambing ever. Actually, that's not true. We always have one tail-end-Charlie.

Went for a hack on Smokey, with Rebecca on Ave.

Archie, the steer calf, has discovered the delights of the beet pulp pellet bucket.

Archie Archie and his bucket. Finally.

Escapees / Steers / Festive cleaning

Monday 23 December, 2019

by Rosemary at 4:57pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 9th December to Friday 13^th December

Lorna and I had a good break – lots of swimming and cake. All was fine here except on Thursday night, about midnight, Dan heard cattle and they had escaped out on to the track. Normally this wouldn’t have been a big problem but the fence between the track and John and Linda’s garden was down, for the septic tank repair, and the big hole, full of water, was accessible. And Blizz looked interested. So poor Dan was out in the cold and dark, on his own, getting three very excited calves and an equally excited bull (the cows are far more chilled) back in the barn. He was pretty tired when we got home on Friday afternoon.

Christmas / Beach / Ponies

Monday 30 December, 2019

by Rosemary at 4:15pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 23^rd December

Wet in the morning so planned ride out was cancelled. We’re not completely fair-weather riders, but it was chucking it down.

Did a triple hay run, including one to East PItkerro. Wee bit worried about Wee Charlie; our big guys are fine, but I think they get stirred up when we’re there so it’s hard to tell.

New wheel on my barra'

wheel New wheel