Smallholding
Officially Spring
Monday 21 March, 2016
So, weather-wise, it’s been a pretty good week. Yesterday (Sunday) was officially the first day of Spring or the Festival of Ostara or the vernal equinox – and that means the days are now longer than the nights.
I vaccinated the four cows with Bravoxin 10 last week and the two big cows, Blizz and Annie, went up to our rented grazing on Saturday, to run with the bull and steers until mid May, when we bring them home to calve in early June. Two of the steers are Blizzard’s sons – Hamish and Robbie. Robbie thought he might try a wee feed but Blizz wasn’t impressed. We moved them all to three fresh paddocks. There’s not much grass so they also have a bale of straw and their licky bucket.
Planting and planning
Tuesday 15 March, 2016
Well, it’s starting to feel like spring might be on the way. It’s been pretty dry and we’ve had a couple of really nice sunny days. However, we’ve also had a wee outbreak of Norovirus, so that interrupted things for a bit but we’re all fine now.
Bryn’s chum, Angus the Springer Spaniel, is with us for three weeks while his humans are on holiday. Poor Angus has been well tormented but is quite able to sort out Bryn when he oversteps the mark. Bentley, Bryn’s Labrador chum, get’s on fine with Angus, once he accepted that humping Angus was really not acceptable behavior. A friend of ours compared Bryn to the Duracell bunny – and I can see it. I honestly can. The batteries are currently flat though.
Longer days
Monday 7 March, 2016
Pleased to say that our 13 fleeces are on their way to The Natural Fibre Company – in fact, I’d guess they are already there. I managed to squeeze seven into the first sack, so thought getting six in the second would be easy but the last fleece was Taylor’s and it was mahoosive. So it was another tight squeeze but with Dan’s superior weight, we managed it.
So that cleared a space in the workshop but there’s still quite a lot of “stuff”. The car boot sale will take care of quite a lot of it though. The joiner was here to measure up this week. We had proper drawings done years ago to convert it to a multi-use space, with a wet room and small kitchen area but we couldn’t afford it and applying for SRDP was just too daunting (plus we were told we wouldn’t get it anyway), so we’ve been getting bits and pieces done as we can afford it.
Catching up and stumbling on
Monday 29 February, 2016
It’s been a short week for me – because it included two days travelling to and from the nano-dairying course and two days at the course itself. And since I came back on Saturday evening, I’ve been catching up with a few chores that didn’t get done while I was away.
The bags have arrived for the fleeces, so I’m off to pack them up just as soon as I’ve finished this. I’m quite excited and a bit apprehensive as it’s a big financial investment. I just hope we’ll be able to recoup it.
Short and sweet
Monday 22 February, 2016
Well, in the run up to the Smallholding Scotland conference last Friday (19th) not a lot was done outside. The event went really well so we’ve got the venue and catering booked for next year and now we start working on the Festival for September.
Felix, our elderly cat, was at the vet for his regular checkup, because he’s on longterm medication. He also got a long acting antibiotic injection, which seems to have helped his snuffles.
My chum Janet and I went to see the film “Rams”. If you go, take tissues.
Pruning weeding and fedging
Sunday 14 February, 2016
Well, not surprisingly for February, the weather’s been a bit changeable. We haven’t had any snow but we did have heavy rain Thursday into Friday and the fields are very wet again. We’ve had a few really nice days though, that make you just want to get out and about. Like today – it was 10C in the sun, but where the sun didn’t hit, the ice never melted. Forecast isn’t bad for the next few days, thank fully.
Finally vaccinated, dosed and split the sheep on Wednesday. The ewe hoggs, Jinx and Juno are at Barry Mill; the four expecting singles are at Astwood with Taylor and Ted, while the twins and triplets are in two groups here. There’s plenty grass at Astwood and BM, so it’s saving a bit on hay. I’ll start feeding the triplets a bit of bagged feed tomorrow and the twins from next Monday. The vaccinating was fine except I scratched my finger with the needle – before injecting anyone – but it still swelled up and was pretty tender for a couple of days. Given the wet summer and winter, fluke is likely to be an issue so I was glad to get them all dosed.
Lucy arrives
Monday 8 February, 2016
Well, I don’t seem to have got any of the things on “The List”, or at least from last week’s diary entry, done but I’ve been busy.
We planned to vaccinate, dose and split the sheep yesterday but I wrenched my shoulder, so we’re doing them tomorrow.
Dan was at the Scotland v England rugby match on Saturday, which he really enjoyed even if Scotland didn’t win. I produced 32 rolls on Lorne sausage for the “Big Dig” at Carnoustie’s Community Garden. Dan took round a trailer load of manure before he got ready for the match. It’s a big plot and there’s a lot of work to do but there were 40 volunteers there on Saturday, making a start.
The beginning of Spring
Monday 1 February, 2016
So today, 1st February, is the pagan festival of Imbolc, give or take twenty four hours. According to Wikipedia, Imbolc falls equidistant between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox and is traditionally hailed as the beginning of Spring; it is associated with St Bride or St Brigid in her role as fertility goddess. The holiday was a festival of the hearth and home, and a celebration of the lengthening days and the early signs of spring. The lighting of candles and fires represented the return of warmth and the increasing power of the Sun over the coming months.[4] A spring cleaning was also customary. Well, all that’s as maybe, but Storm Henry is blowing a hoolie and we have intermittent sunshine and seriously heavy showers, so spring cleaning might have to wait but lighting the fire might be on the agenda.
So no bonspiel this year
Saturday 23 January, 2016
The recent dry, cold weather froze everything solid. We could have held a bonspiel on the front paddock. In some places the water was too deep for really thick ice to form but I had to leave the gates on the hen paddocks open at night so that I could be sure of getting in, in the morning. However, it rained on Friday and all the ice has gone – and now we can see that the levels really are dropping. The ditches are down and flowing so if we get a few dry days, things should look a bit better.
Panic levels have dropped with the water levels
Monday 18 January, 2016
We’ve had some nice days over the last week – dry and cold and water levels have dropped. And with them, my panic levels. I’m such a control freak that extremes (for us) of weather really get me going. Sometimes I think I don't have the right temperament to be a smallholder :-)
Anyway, we have the start of a plan to winterize one paddock for each hen house, so that’s made me feel better.
We haven’t got a date from the scanner yet, but it should be soon. If I sell all the ewe hoggs, I can keep my tup for another year, but it will really depend on how the ewes and gimmers scan.
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