Frost / Bean / Wood - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 10 January, 2022

by Rosemary at 10:44am in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 3^rd January

Bit grey and overcast, but the strong overnight winds have dropped. Back in the office this morning – and discovered that most places are closed. Hey ho – items transferred to Wednesday’s to do list.

Did a bit more tidying in the barn and pulled some netting of the brassica beds. Gwenna thought it would make a nice bed. I think she was channeling her inner street dog!!!

Street dog Gwenna, roughing it.

Tuesday 4^th January

Lovely day. Andy came to split and stack wood, so Dan was out with the chainsaw early. We finished tidying up “the corner” outside the barn.

Tidy corner. For now.

I was going to go into the veg garden, but it was frozen solid so, since I had a couple of birthday cards to post, Smokey and I walked up to the post box then round by Barry, calling in on Kate and Astrid.

While I was out, Dan moved the bag of sand. It had been there for nearly two years – one of those jobs that bugs you when you see it but it’s never important or urgent. Ticked off the list now though.

The bag of sand, gone.

I’ve been thinking about the cattle and how I’m going to manage things this year. I want to calve in May next year, so the service period for that is 21^st July to 21^st August. I’ll be turning them all out on 1^st May, weather permitting so inevitably some or all of them will be served before 21^st July, so I’m going to isolate Grey on 1^st July, have the heifers jagged with Prosolvin about the 12^th, then turn Grey out on the 21^st. Then keep my fingers crossed. Not quite sure what I’m going to do with Blizzard and Buster yet. I think I’m going to put Blizzard in calf again. I’ll start trying to sell Buster in March.

They all need Bravoxin boosters about the middle of the month (Grey and Buster’s first dose) and wormed / fluked, so that’s in the diary, along with Grey’s TB test. Our health scheme testing will be in June, I think. I can only get a big pack of Bravoxin, so we'll do the sheep as well. Busy day week Monday.

Wednesday 5^th January

Glorious day – light wind, dry and sunny – and cold. No planting raspberries today.

Gorgeous morning.

The cow shed is a sea of raging hormones – Bronte is in season and telling the world. I started doing some desensitisation work with Grey, using the show stick I bought last year. He can kick out all he wants but the stick keeps me way out of the road while I give him a scratch. And I’ve built a pen to feed Buster in because he’s a fly wee bugger, and I want to get a halter on him soon. But the pen is where we caught him to tag him – weeks ago – and he wasn’t keen to go near it. But the sugar beet won in the end. We’ll just take it all slowly.

Since it’s too frozen to garden, I’ve worked a bit more on my planting plan. Hoping to do more seed saving this year.

So many seed packets.

Thursday 6^th January

Bronte’s still at it. The neighbours must love us. Still working away with Grey and Buster.

Friday 7^th January

Cold and crisp today. Braw! Dan and Andy picked up two loads of timber from the golf course this morning, split and stacked it. The wood store is looking much better.

Saturday 8^th January

Bit miserable today (the weather that is!) – at 7am, it was windy, cold and raining heavily; rain stopped about 10am, leaving heavy cloud. Still, it’s to be better tomorrow.

The bloke who did some landscaping a few years ago came down to have a look at a few jobs that need his skills and time. He did a terrific job last time. I want the sunken garden cleared but Dan’s reluctant – so I’ve asked for it for my 60thbirthday present. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I’m thinking I’d like to have it as a fernery with a nice water feature. Surrounded by ivy, it’s always going to be damp, so might as well make the most of it.

Sunday 9^th January

Another nice day – but the ground is still frozen, so desperate as I am to get into the veg garden, it was a no go.

Dan and Andy processed more wood. I hear plans are afoot for a new log splitter and an electric chainsaw.

Teabreak for the lumberjacks.

I’ve been giving Bean and his two wee buddies a scoop of ewe nuts in the morning, but thought it was probably not good for them, so I bought tup mix in the week. Their faces when I put it in the trough were a picture – “what’s this bird food, Mum?” but they managed to finish it anyway.