Smallholding
Dave / Wayne / Tim
Monday 8 April, 2019
Monday 1st April
Where’s the rain? And the grass? A wee bit drizzle today – not good enough. And it’s cold.
First open farm tour today; Niamh lambed a few minutes before everyone arrived so first stop was the lambing shed to see her and her lambs. Both the kids and the adults loved it; Niamh wasn’t in the slightest bit bothered. She’s got a black boy and a black girl. The wee boy has quite bad entropion. If I can’t sort it by tomorrow, I’ll need to get the vet to put a stitch in it.
Lambs / Rainbows / Lambs
Tuesday 2 April, 2019
Monday 1st April
Sunny, and with the wind dropped, much warmer feeling. No6 doing well with her two ewe lambs – weighed at 4.3kg and 4.5kg at 24 hours. At 1pm, No14 lambed a black tup and a white tup; white one came head only, black one with a leg back. They’re all fine though; she has plenty milk and loves them both.
Yin and Yang.
Sheep / Leo / Lambs
Tuesday 26 March, 2019
Monday 18th March
Braw day! Fields are drying up nicely and the water levels in the ditch have dropped significantly. Bit of warmth now should see the grass come away nicely. Up early and had the hen houses cleaned out before breakfast.
Water levels dropping nicely.
Vaccinated the cows with Bravoxin 10; perfect timing for Rosie’s calf but a bit early for Blizzard’s, but better than nothing. They were OK - Rosie jumped but at least she didn’t take the huff, unlike after the foot trimmer / flukicide, when she wouldn’t eat her sugar beet for two days.
Steers out / Fence / Ark
Tuesday 19 March, 2019
Monday 11th March
Sunny, with a cold wind. Despite putting rugs on the ponies last night, Ave was rugless this morning. How do they do that? Smokey and Leo had their feet trimmed.
Ave, rugless.
Rug, all buckles and straps intact.
Honey / Urquhart/ Pig fence
Wednesday 13 March, 2019
Monday 4th March
Heavy rain overnight but sun and wind today drying it up.
Got a reminder that Smokey’s vaccinations were due; checked Leo’s passport to see when his are due – and apparently, he’s never had any. According to his passport anyway. What a joke equine passports are – a useless piece of legislation that isn’t enforced and of which no-one takes any notice. Anyway, Smokey isn’t due a tetanus until next year, so I’ll get Leo done the next time the vet’s out for something else. With lambing coming up, it’s more than likely they’ll be here for something.
Rubbish / Piglets / Roo
Monday 4 March, 2019
Monday 25th February
Cool and misty this morning but the sun was out by 9am, with a lovely day to follow.
Dan harrowed the last of the seven paddocks for the first time. I spent the day in the office.
Here's Roo.
Roo and her sister.
Tuesday 26th February
Up at 4am with pesky dogs – very frosty then, but the sun was out by breakfast time. Lovely weather but it won’t last. False Spring.
Bambi and Kit / Harrowing / Urquhart
Monday 25 February, 2019
Monday 18th February
Office day – finally finished the quarterly VAT return. My least favourite job, so it always feels good when it’s done.
Dan cut and packed a dozen orders for comfrey root cuttings.
Met with Kit Martin, who will be running some workshops here later in the year. All good! Very pleased.
Tuesday 19th February
Light ground frost this morning, then sun then rain this evening.
Dan and I had a business meeting. The plan is to meet weekly to decide what needs to be done and by whom – we’re using Trello now but I really prefer a paper list.
Ave / spuds / snowdrops
Monday 18 February, 2019
Monday 11th February
Back from holiday today – no disasters, except for Gwenna’s escapology, which is an annoyance rather than a disaster. Emptied the car, opened the mail then off to East PItkerro to put hay in for the steers. Their bedding is standing up much better now that there's a deep layer. We might not muck it out this summer for that reason.
Tara took delivery of her new on-loan horse. She’s called Ave and is a teenaged grey Irish Draft. The boys seem to like her.
Scanner / Trimmer / Snow
Sunday 3 February, 2019
Monday 28th January
Frosty but plenty snow on the way to Inverness to meet with folk form Scottish Crofting Federation. Planned to work on the train but my reserved seat didn’t have a table so just had to read and admire the scenery.
We had a visit form the local rates Assessor to discuss the impact of any diversifications on our rates liability. Very helpful.
Tuesday 29th January
Cold and raw; icy early but thawing later. Spent the day catching up from yesterday.
Boots / Bees / Flukicide
Tuesday 29 January, 2019
Monday 21st January
Frozen water this morning, thawing later and light rain this evening.
Office day today.
Tuesday 22nd January
Mild at 6am but frosty by 8am, then lovely sunshine.
Baked biscuits and popped down to East Pitkerro to see if the steers needed hay. They did – and straw. Last year they were very clean but they’re mucky this year. I guess many years of old bedding, dried for years too, acts like a big sponge.
