Cheese thief; Wallace's health; birthday; tidying & making - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 18 July, 2016

by Rosemary at 9:04am in Smallholding 1 comment Comments closed

Monday 11^th July

Today’s cheese making lesson is don’t leave the drying cheese where a dog can get to it. The first cheddar is gone. Not a crumb left. Bentley is No1 suspect by virtue of being a Labrador and having previous food stealing form. Hey ho. A second cheddar is through the press and drying – where the dogs can’t reach.

We have a new-to-us lawnmower – it’s a John Deere and it’s fab. Almost looking forward to cutting the grass.

Had a lamb with a dirty bum this morning so brought him in, wormed and dagged him. Planning to worm all the lambs and apply Crovect to all the sheep this weekend.

Did a bit of comparison between Clik, Clikzin and Crovect and decided to stick with Crovect as our fly strike prevention method. Wallace is lame again – but at least it’s only one back leg :-(

Vaccinated the three calves with Bravoxin 10 at milking today. They’ll get a second dose in 4-6 weeks then the heifer will get an annual booster along with the other cows. We don’t do the steers again. Thinking about building better handling / loading facilities at Astwood.

Tuesday 12^th July

Popped to the vet today to pick up a fourteen-day course of Noroclav for Wallace. He’s not going to like this because the injection hurts. If he survives this infection, I’m going to have him castrated and we’ll keep him as a pet. Sorry, fleece sheep.

Also popped into SAC at Forfar to borrow the soil augur for taking soil samples. Dalmore hasn’t been tested since 2013, although Astwood was done last year. I want to get a plan together for the next three years for liming and fertilizing at both properties.

Dan’s started banging posts in Sheepfold to reinstate the ponies’ track system. I wish we hadn’t taken it down in the first place but V2 will be better.

Paddock Paradise rebuilding started.

Picked some blackcurrants – they weren’t as ripe as they first looked but the bushes should be ready to strip in a few days.

Wednesday 13^th July

Had an hour off to get my hair cut. Made four litres of blackcurrant cordial and put them in the freezer.

Thursday 14^th July

Took my soil samples in to the SAC office and returned the augur. Should get the results towards the end of next week.

I think Rosie’s bulling – quite unsettled at milking and our neighbours saw her jumping Annie. It’s another four weeks until the bull goes out with them so hopefully, they will all be cycling by then.

Finally unpacked Bug’s harness – bought it 18 months ago –and tried on him. Just need to find time to do some work with him now.

Bugsy in harness.

Dan’s got nearly all the posts in for the pony track. I’ll try and get the insulators screwed in at the weekend. 

Friday 15^th July

It’s my birthday so Dan did the animals this morning and I had a lie in until 7.30am. We’ve been to The Newport in Newport-on-Tay for lunch. Very nice indeed. There should have been lovely view to Dundee across the Tay but the rain obscured it.

Smokey has started on his antihistamine. Wallace still lame :-(

Waved Bentley off home today. We’ll miss him but will see him tomorrow again.

Saturday 16^th July

Intended to finish making the strawberry jam I started yesterday but ended up burning the sugar. Never done that before – that’s what happens if you try to do too many things at once.

Brought the four gimmers and the wether home from our temporary grazing, so the whole flock is reunited. Bit of head-banging going on this afternoon.

Dan put a new stretch of fence in the veg garden, thus removing Bryn’s last escape route.

We started to empty one of the loose boxes that we use for storage (they’re really dark and the ponies hate them) so that we can relocate the freezers in there. Two of our four freezers are currently empty, so it’s a good time. There will be a serious trip to the skip next week.

Emailed the vet about Wallace, since he’s not showing any apparent improvement – vet says wait until he’s had the whole 14 days of Abs before rushing into anything irreversible.

Sunday 17^th July

Dan’s making Caerphilly cheese today. I’ve made raisin and peanut cookies and blackcurrant cordial.

Caerphilly cheese fresh out of the press.

Saw Wallace walking and putting some weight on his bad leg. Please, please let him get better.

Dan’s dad has been tidying in the loosebox we use as a workshop, so we can move stuff from the other one into it. We found three empty toolboxes yesterday!! It’s been a pretty poor day weatherwise – close but drizzling for most of the day. It’s to be a heatwave later in the week though.