Smallholding
Bovine Love Island / Bricks / Roses
Monday 25 July, 2022
Monday 18th July
Hot. But not as hot as forecast. The media does love to create a crisis. Folk go on holiday to enjoy temperatures like this.
Alistair, our vet, was out just after lunchtime to jag the four female cattle with a hormone to bring them into season – sadly, this means they will slip any calf they are carrying, but we don’t have the facilities to calve indoors, so we just have to bite that particular bullet. I asked him to do an internal on Baby and on Blizzard. I’ve never seen Baby what I would call “properly” in season. She wasn’t in calf, not surprisingly, but ovaries, tubes etc were all present and correct, so hopefully she’ll come into season and get in calf now. Blizzard was about six weeks in calf, which is a bit sad but also good news – if she can do it once, she should be able to do it again. I wanted Alistair to check all was well after quite a difficult calving last year – and it was.
Flowers / Kirrie Show / Birthday
Monday 18 July, 2022
Monday 11th July
Pulled all the beetroot – a good crop from a metre or so of bed. The variety was Moneta on a seed tape. Got them all cooked and pickled and I’ve sown another three half rows – that was all the tape I had left. Would definitely do the tape again. Having said that NONE of the parsnips on the tape germinated.
Beetroot Moneta from seed tape .
Grey / Cabbage / Blueberries
Monday 11 July, 2022
Monday 4th July
Dry, some sun and a rather brisk breeze. I don’t know what happened to last week, but my To Do list is scarily long. Keeping too many plates spinning.
After tea, we gave the lambs their second Covexin vaccination, did all the sheep with Clik and tagged the lambs going away on Thursday. I put Spotinor on all the cattle this morning. The flies are awful. Smokey needs two good coverings with repellent every day.
Tuesday 5th July
You take your eyes of the garden and the weeds are rampant. The peas are especially bad because they cling to the weeds making harvesting difficult. Anyway, made a start.
Peas / Sweet peas / Last course
Monday 4 July, 2022
Monday 27th June
Wish we’d done the sheep yesterday. It didn’t rain but there’s rain forecast for much of the rest of the week. I need to get my head down and get through a pile of office stuff. No excuses. No diversions.
Wednesday 29th June
Today was all about peas – sweet and sweeter. Strawberries are coming well now and we have raspberries round in the wood. Not where we planned, but we’ll happily take them.
Strawberry / Royal Highland Show / New car
Monday 27 June, 2022
Monday 20th June
The day didn’t quite get off to the planned start – we both forgot to take the meat birds’ feed out last night, so rather than getting on with that job first thing, we had to wait a bit for them to “empty”.
Still, that gave me time to bake a couple of fruit tea loaves and some ginger nuts and get some of my paperwork done.
In the end, we had nine whole birds, totalling 29.52, average 3.28, range 2.61 – 3.92 and one portioned bird. Plus necks, feet, heads for dog feed.
Weaning / Buddha / Tubs
Monday 20 June, 2022
Monday 13th June
Cloudy, mild and still breezy, although not blowing the hoolie at was over the weekend.
Focussed on getting through the paperwork – I’ve got a couple of newsletters to do, including one for the Festival. And I do need to spend some time on the Festival this week. The trick is not to get distracted by social media.
Bronte and Baby, just because.
Bronte and Baby.
Wall / Pipes / Willow
Monday 13 June, 2022
Monday 6th June
It seems to be a time of “lasts”. This morning we took sheep to the abattoir for the last time; two cull ewes and two wethers from last year. I hope the rest can all be sold for breeding.
It’s cold today and I’m tired. I’ve got the ponies to do for the next three days; I can’t be bothered poo picking today. Will do double tomorrow.
Ploughed through paperwork and random tasks, accompanied by much sighing and yawning.
Blackcurrants / Sinks / Courses
Monday 6 June, 2022
Monday 30th May
Cool, showery.
I was awake at 5am; too many things on my mind. Prevarication is not conducive to a stress free life. Blizzard appears to be coming into season.
Prised Dan away from his desk (not THAT difficult) to go for lunch and to the garden centre. We bought plants for hanging baskets and pots and had a look at water features for the fernery, but nothing jumped out at me. I won’t buy anything until it’s cleared out and I can see the size and shape. My tentative plans include pots with ferns and hostas; a water feature; some sort of lighting; a Buddha head statue and some sort of seating. And maybe a mirror.
Clematis / Daisies / Brassicas
Monday 30 May, 2022
Monday 23rd May
Cool and overcast; Linda said it was 5C early this morning. Poor ewes, without their woolly coats. They love the beech hedge and keep it nicely trimmed along the sides. The lambs can get their wee noses through the netting and nibble there, while Bean and the BFLs get on their back legs and can reach quite high.
Snacking on the beech hedge.
Tatties / Caravan / Shearing
Monday 23 May, 2022
Monday 16th May
What a change from the weekend! Heavy rain most of the day – and much cooler as a result. But it’s to be nice the rest of the week, so hopefully that’ll make the grass grow.
Deskwork today; Festival stuff and other bits and pieces that have been hanging around.
I don’t think the cattle are planning to come in again. Ever. Oh, was that a bucket? Yes, they are.
Tuesday 17th May
Better day than yesterday, some rain, some sun. Grey is getting better at getting tied up – but I think he’s worried he’ll be left behind, because he’s last to get untied.
