Smallholding
Cushion / Crumpets / Wood
Monday 31 December, 2018
Monday 24th December
Hard frost with temperature -4C at dawn and didn’t go up much all day. Milked all three cows but planning to move to alternate days now, so won’t be milking tomorrow. Put hay in for the cows – a round bale is lasting five or six days.
In anticipation of Christmas, the ponies had a can of “Sweetheart Stout” on their feed. And carrots. Even though they aren’t reindeer.
Dan made bread and wholemeal sourdough crumpets. The bread was delicious; the crumpets were interesting.
Bread / Salmon / Weaning
Monday 24 December, 2018
Monday 17th December
Cleaned out the green henhouse – managed not to bash my head. It’s a good house but the roof is a really awkward height. The brown house is an adapted shed, so is high enough to stand upright in.
Sorted out the invoices for the beef – we’ve sold seventeen boxes and we’re determined to be well organized this year. Finished sorting out the freezers, ready for tomorrow.
Ross came down with Jenny and Nicki – Jenny goes away to start her formal training on 8th January.
Caravan / Beef / Leo
Monday 17 December, 2018
Monday 10th December
Took Tom to the vet for his dental assessment; he only needed a scale and polish but he’s well in the huff with me. I am persona non grata. Every time he sees me, he dives for cover. Hey ho. Still, he's come a long way in his relationship with the dogs.
Tom and the dogs - and no hissing.
Almost finished the backlog of diary entries – the process is now well consolidated.
Sheep / Howff / Bonfire
Monday 10 December, 2018
Monday 3rd December
Lovely day – frosty, sunny and still –perfect apart from the water being frozen.
Frosty morning.
Tuesday 4th December.
Hard frost again this morning changing to rain, grey and miserable.
We had a two and a half hour power cut so Dan spent the time tidying cupboards in the classroom, using the head torch. We’ve identified a pile of stuff that’s now surplus so he’s going to put it on eBay / Amazon / Gumtree.
Steers / Ponies / Lambs
Monday 3 December, 2018
Monday 26th November
So today was the day that Paulo and Pedro, our 2016 born steers, made their final journey. It was only their second journey – the first being from Dalmore to East Pitkerro, where they have grazed and wintered for two years. It’s always a bit of a wrench to see them go but they’ve had a good life and they’ll supply a good few locals with prime beef with minimum inputs. As usual, we loaded them on to our trailer to take them to the haulier’s wagon – they loaded quietly and calmly both times.
Leo / Calves / Veg garden
Monday 26 November, 2018
Monday 19th November
Grey and overcast – looks like winter might really be coming, although it’s not really cold.
Spent some long overdue time in the veg garden – manured bed 2 and covered it and weeded most of bed 1. Sowed sweet peas in the greenhouse and cleaned out one henhouse.
Finally baked the Christmas cake I started last week – the longer soaking won’t have done any harm – and started the Christmas puddings.
Dan was off to visit Andrew Whitley at “Scotland the Bread”.
Ruaridh / Rocky / Sheep
Monday 19 November, 2018
Monday 12th November
Back from holiday at 10.30pm. No disasters while we were away. No sign of Blizzard coming back into season, so hopefully she’s in calf, due 30th July. Nine yellow bums out of eleven.
Tuesday 13 November
Nice day to welcome us back – sunny and pretty warm. Mucked out the cows after milking and put down fresh bed. Not quite sure how the mats and bedding are going to work out. Put in a new bale of hay – looks like one is lasting six / seven days.
Cattle / Festival follow up / Holiday prep
Monday 5 November, 2018
Monday 29 October
Took our last three tups to the abattoir this morning; they’re a bit small, but I don’t have the grass to keep them longer.
Spent the rest of the morning tidying the house, which always suffers in the run up to the Festival, and catching up with washing, then the rest of the day sorting through the boxes that came back from the Festival – by the end, we’re all exhausted and stuff gets boxed any old how, so it all has to be emptied out, cleaned and repacked.
Festival
Monday 29 October, 2018
Monday 22 October
Sunny, warm but with a rising wind. Time taken with Festival work. It’ll be like this for most of the week.
Tuesday 23 October
Sunny, mild and windy. More Festival stuff.
Wednesday 24 October
Sunny and the wind has dropped a bit. Sadly we had to have Bug put to sleep today. He was awful sore this morning and was reluctant to walk. Lucy, our vet, was terrific. We had discussed this a couple of weeks ago and I guess she wasn’t surprised to get the call. It was very peaceful. We will miss him hugely – he was such a character. Lucy thought that perhaps his kidneys were failing as his blood pressure was very low, so I think we made a timely decision. She was saying how having limited or painful mobility is psychologically very stressful for horses, being flight animals. Anyway, he’s at peace now.
Sheep / Mats / Weaving
Monday 22 October, 2018
Monday 15 October
Lovely and sunny today but it’s paperwork day, so was inside looking out. Also had loads of Festival stuff to do.
Took Diesel to the vet for his annual check up – clean bill of health.
Had a RHET premeeting for a school visit next week. Gave a talk at Auchterhouse SWI – lovely evening.
Tuesday 16 October
Did more Festival stuff. Why don’t folk reply to emails, even to say “no”?
Seed order arrrived
