Smallholding
Plums / Grazing / Milking cracked / Wood store started
Tuesday 22 August, 2017
Monday 7th August
Dry, sunny and windy today. Got news that we won’t have the grazing at Ravensby any more. That’s a real blow, especially with losing the grazing at Astwood as well. To be honest, my head has been right up my bum today. Didn’t even milk the cows.
We don’t have enough grass at home for the small herd of cattle and small flock of sheep in the numbers we have at the moment so I need to think hard about what we keep and what we sell. It was tears and snotters at the prospect of selling Rosie and Winnie.
Read more on Plums / Grazing / Milking cracked / Wood store started
Lammas / Apiary Renovation / Bees to Heather / Pickles
Wednesday 16 August, 2017
Monday 31stJuly
Nice day here. Gemma’s been strimming in the orchard, preparing the next paddocks for the poultry.
Poor milking but milked Rosie with the calf suckling – cows are holding up milk, as we were told by Tim Tyne so I have a cunning plan.
Dan took Bryn for a walk to the golf course and got some lovely photos.
Bryn x
Read more on Lammas / Apiary Renovation / Bees to Heather / Pickles
Flies / Kitchen purge / Ace home / Barn planning
Monday 14 August, 2017
Monday 24th July
Full sun today – feels like summer.
Annie has a couple of really sore teats and the flies are horrendous. That led to contaminated milk today, so the pigs will have a good tea tonight. Really annoying though.
Vaccinated the three calves with Bravoxin 10 and put Spot-On on the three cows, Winnie and the three calves.
Need to find a way of eliminating the fly problem at milking.
Tuesday 25th July
Indulged in some retail therapy and bought an Eazyzap fly killer.
Read more on Flies / Kitchen purge / Ace home / Barn planning
A wedding / Record-keeping / Cattle / Bread and cheese
Thursday 27 July, 2017
Monday 17th July
While doing the routine weekly paperwork, I’ve been pulling out the costs for this year’s pigs and meat birds. Because they are short-term discrete enterprises, it’s pretty simple.
Today we cleaned the eight birds we killed yesterday – they weighed 2.3kg to 3.4kg, totaled 22.3kg, average 2.79kg. I’ll do the same when we do the nine hens next week and see how much they cost us to produce.
As things stand with the pigs, if they have an average deadweight of 60kg, they’ll have cost us £3.73/kg to get them to the butcher.
Read more on A wedding / Record-keeping / Cattle / Bread and cheese
Milking / Harvest / Bread / Short course / Birthday
Monday 24 July, 2017
Monday 10th July
Overcast but dry. The cows were exceedingly unco-operative today – Blizz just refused to come in – and I ran out of time and patience, so no milk today.
Bug had his feet trimmed – they grow at a huge rate.
Sent off the registrations to the Shetland Cattle Herd Book Society – Annie’s calf, Panda is registered as Rosedean Xena and Rosie’s as Rosedean Xanthe (she doesn’t have a pet name yet). Blizzard’s steer calf isn’t registered, of course.
Read more on Milking / Harvest / Bread / Short course / Birthday
Rosie's calf / Crovect / Great Tapestry / 1st spuds / Pie
Friday 14 July, 2017
Monday 3rd July
Beautiful morning. Up at 4am, wondering if Rosie was calving. She wasn’t. Consequently felt a bit zombie-like.
Lots of strawberries – best crop ever. And a good crop of gooseberries too. Raspberries are poorer – but they were supposed to be replanted this year and that didn’t quite happen.
The freezer is getting full, even though we’re eating lightly cooked strawberries with yogurt every day for breakfast. Delicious.
Read more on Rosie's calf / Crovect / Great Tapestry / 1st spuds / Pie
Harvest / Cheddar / Butter / Smallholding Scotland
Thursday 6 July, 2017
Monday 26th June
The fox woke us at 4am this morning. Bryn was going daft and had to be released to do whatever he does – runs around barking, I guess.
Couldn’t get back to sleep, so baked some almond biscuits and coconut cookies to fill the tins.
Milking machine still broken, but Dan is working on it :-(
Milking machine repair, looks complicated.
Read more on Harvest / Cheddar / Butter / Smallholding Scotland
Cattle moves / RHS & RBST / Cordial / Strawbs
Wednesday 28 June, 2017
Monday 19th June
Hot again, and windy until teatime. Dan’s off to London until tomorrow night, doing proper grown-up work.
Good milking this morning; Blizzard much more settled but with Paul and Gemma on holiday, we have a milk lake.
Pigs are happy about that though.
Tuesday 20th June
Bit cooler this morning but hot again this afternoon. Rain forecast for tomorrow.
John topped another two paddocks this morning – only one to do once the cows come out of it.
Farewell Felix / Paddy / Beer / Beach rugby
Friday 23 June, 2017
Monday 12th June
Dry, sunny and windy today.
Got a message today from Bryn’s breeder confirming that Bryn’s mum is in pup to his dad, with the puppies due around 26th June. Fingers crossed that all goes well and we get a wee sister for Bryn.
Bryn himself was at the vet today with Bertie and Felix for their annual check up and boosters.
Milking was “cowboy style” this morning as Blizzard’s hormones are clearly driving Ace to distraction and he’s continually trying to jump her. Hope it all calms down soon.
Meet Paddy / Courses / New queen bee
Wednesday 14 June, 2017
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Monday 5th June
It’s been wet today. Did I really complain about the lack of rain last month?
Ace has been “babysitting” Panda.
Tuesday 6th June
Just more rain, and more rain. And wind.
I replaced Annie’s missing ear tag this morning – easy, as there was already a hole.
Wednesday 7th June
Looks like autumn here. So many leaves and branches blown off the trees. It’s still windy but the weather is improving. Not quite flaming June though.
