Smallholding
Sunken garden / Winter Palace / Yellow bums
Monday 22 September, 2025
W/e 21st September 2025
It’s been a reasonable week weatherwise. VERY windy on Thursday; we had to cancel our Bridges4Indy event, for fear of activists resembling Mary Poppins. Regularly 15C but much cooler overnight. We lit the stove one night, and then were roasting. Good forecast for the coming week too.
Pickles is now raddled and the CIDRs are being removed from the ewes. Three on Friday, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. There was one yellow bum on Saturday morning and three on Sunday, so he’s getting on with the job. God, he stinks though. I think Alistair will let the ewes have one return in 17 days, then take the tup out.
Rats / Pickles / Squashes
Monday 15 September, 2025
W/e 14th September 2025
I’m writing this Sunday night. It’s 8.50pm, pitch dark, bucketing rain and Mickey was an absolute ass about coming in tonight. Smokey is always happy to come in, but Mickey blocks him (being the boss) so I had to walk up the field and lead them down. Once in, Mickey wouldn’t come to be tied up. Grrrr. Most nights he’s fine but he picked a fine one to be an utter dick. I am quite wet.
Weather this week has been changeable, as you’d expect. Showers, some heavy; but warm sunny spells too. It’s cool in the mornings too. Fleece has been in use for the morning round.
Apples / Vegetables / A rat
Monday 8 September, 2025
Monday 1st September
I feel like I’ve been up all night. Diesel brought in a “snack” about 3am and crunched it under the bed. Then at about 5am, he and Bertie had a really, really loud fight, again under the bed. Shattered.
Rain this morning, but not cold. The sun came out at lunchtime and brought a brisk breeze.
First of the month, so “big shop” day, that includes tidying the cupboards, while I make a list. Checked the date of the spices – some are virtually antique, but I can’t throw them out without consultation, so a few were returned to the pantry.
Autumn / Leghorns / Heather
Monday 1 September, 2025
Monday 25th August
Lovely morning; cool but sunny. The sheep let themselves into Near Top yesterday, so that’s where they’ll be for the next week at least. The troughs are in the field shelter, so I don’t get trampled when I’m feeding them. And all the feed goes in the troughs.
There was a mouse in one of the bins in the feed store. Dan suggested I get Cooper to deal with it, but I felt that was unsporting, so I let it go into the rock pile, with a stern warning not to return. Had it been a rat, I would have got Cooper.
Tatties / Autumn / Henhouse extension
Monday 25 August, 2025
W/e 24th August
Jings, where did THAT week go?
Dan started lifting and drying the tatties, so the “tattie board” came into play.
The tattie board.
“Someone”, almost definitely feline, has inadvertently reduced my crop of wallflower.
Bloomin' cats.
Melons / Tatties / Bertie
Monday 18 August, 2025
Monday 11th August
Just as I turned off the sprinkler last night, the rain came on. Of course. Looks like there’s been a fair bit overnight, which is grand. Not windy, which is nice.
Moved the sheep into Home; the troughs are in the Spinney, so I Can get the feed in before letting them through. In the afternoon, we can just shut the gate to keep them in Home. Given the amount of herbage, I’ll leave them in there for two weeks.
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Sheep in Home.
Storm Floris / Phlox / Sweetcorn
Monday 11 August, 2025
Monday 4th August
So today we were hit by Storm Floris. It was a bit wet and very windy – it was weird having gales with the sun shining. And it was warm. Left the sheep in Sheepfold for another week.
Tuesday 5th August
Popped down to North Cotton for a wee catch up.
Wednesday 6th August
Still really windy so I did some Lego. The layout is starting to come together a bit. I had five wee sets come from China, so started to build the boat – not the best kit and work is suspended. Two of the kits were manly for parts. The wee greenhouse set was great and I started the Market Hall.
Cauliflower / Melon / Monarda
Monday 4 August, 2025
Monday 28th July
I moved sheep into Sheepfold this afternoon. They’ll be there for two weeks. Alistair jagged them with Regulin, which helps to ring them into season earlier. He wants an early February lambing.
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Sheep in Sheepfold.
Harebells.
Pears / Pony teeth / More pears
Monday 28 July, 2025
Monday 21st July
Wakened at 5am by torrential rain.
Thursday 24th July
The wallflower have sprouted. I must get a watering can with a rose.
Friday 25th July
I honestly cannot think of anything significant that happened in the last four days. The weather has been slightly cooler, with light cloud and the odd sunny interval.
Today, the vet was here to have a look at Mickey’s teeth. I noticed during the week that he was dropping food when he was eating. Half chewed carrots everywhere. We tried without sedation but he wasn’t having it. At first, Andrea couldn’t see anything other than a few slightly sharp edges, which she dealt with, along with the tartar on his front teeth. Then she thought he was a bit sensitive on his left side; she was doing an examination when a tooth fell out into her hard. Except it looked like it had been out for a while (no blood or anything) and jammed at an odd angle between the two adjacent teeth. Hopefully, he’ll be more comfortable now.
Clegs / Rain / Flowers
Monday 21 July, 2025
Monday 14th July
Sunny and warm this morning, although cooler than last week. It was raining a wee bit last night at bedtime but the proper rains started about 1pm.
My cleg bites have blistered – got a whopper on my right ankle and am struggling to get a shoe on.
Took Bryn and Gwenna to the vet for their Lepto booster; Bryn has lost 400g, Gwenna nothing. But the vet said both were absolutely fine condition wise. They both had their nails clipped, which was a bit of a trauma.
