Diary

Farewell to Winnie and Paddy / Scotland the Bread flourRSS feed

Posted: Monday 4 December, 2017

by Rosemary at 10:39am in Smallholding 2 comments Comments closed

Monday 27th November

Nice morning but cloudy at lunchtime and with a rising wind.

Did the usual bill paying and paperwork then made mincemeat. Christmas is coming!

Tuesday 28th November

Mild and sunny today. Put a halter on Paddy, our steer calf, today for the first time.

Paddy and Blizzard halteredPaddy and Blizzard.

He was remarkably good – maybe because he’s remarkably greedy.

Made mushroom soup.

Wednesday 29th November

Sunny again but colder than yesterday.

Walking the dogsWalked the dogs on the golf course.

Checked the sheep and found two more green bums.

Thursday 30th November

Cold and sunny with a few snow flurries but that’s all they were.

No new green bums today so fingers crossed that the tup’s fine.

Popped up to Harbro for a tonne of mixed corn, which Dan kindly unloaded for me.

Wooly AceWoolly Ace with his winter coat and curls.

Put a new bale of straw in for the cows; they hadn’t finished the old one but we used the remains for bedding.

Friday 1st December

Mild – 5C – and no wind.

Dan went down to East Pitkerro and gave the two steers a new bale of straw. The repaired feeder seems to be holding together fine now.

We tagged Paddy ready for tomorrow and sorted out the passports for him and Winnie.

I cleaned out the three hen houses and moved two of the flocks to fresh paddocks.

Fresh grass for hensFresh grass for the hens.

Saturday 2nd December

Another fine day. But a wee bit sad as we took Winnie and Paddy to their new home in Northumberland.

Both loaded really well – I haltered them and tied them up, topped and tailed, on a good straw bed. We stopped on the other side of the Tay Bridge just to check they were OK and they appeared pretty calm.

It took us about 4 hours to drive down; then they were unloaded into their new field and set off to explore. They’ve gone to friends of ours who are new cattle keepers but they are good folk and very sensible, so I’m sure the cattle are going to be well looked after.

Winnie and Paddy at their new homeWinnie and Paddy settling in to their new home.

With the cattle safely unloaded and give a pile of hay, we were able to retire to the kitchen for a good blether, a lovely meal and a few jars.

Dan’s new flour arrived before we left this morning. It’s Scottish grown wholemeal from three heritage varieties of wheat and came from Scotland the Bread.

Scotland the Bread flourScotland the Bread flours.

It was milled on 26th November, so very fresh. Looking forward to trying it.

Sunday 3rd December

Lovely morning in Northumberland – the snow has almost gone. Winnie and Paddy came for their sugar beet and Winnie was happy to get a scratch from her new owners and to let me put her halter on. Paddy, not so much – scratching was good, halter, no. Winnie has settled fine; as expected, Paddy’s bawling a bit. I’m pretty sure Blizzard will be too.

After breakfast, we headed own to Alnwick for a few hours – it’s one of my very favourite places – then headed back up the road.

We stopped to refuel at Wooler – it’s the first time I’ve seen a pump for red diesel in a filling station.

Red diesel pumpRed diesel pump at Wooler.

Flour

Comments

Anke

Monday 18 December, 2017 at 8:55pm

Have you tried to bake with the flour yet? I am intrigued and would like to try it. Went round Andrew's farm on a farm visit a couple of years back - was impressed by the set up.

Dan

Wednesday 20 December, 2017 at 10:35am

Yes Anke, I've tried all three of the flours with great results. There's some photos and a recipe on our Facebook page, I can email you if you want more. :-)

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