Grey / Astrid / Apples

Diary

Posted: Tuesday 23 November, 2021

by Rosemary at 5:43pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 15^th November

Our neighbours won’t love us this morning – Grey has been exercising his lungs all night. I didn’t sleep well either, if that’s any comfort to them. Sun’s out mid-morning – looking lovely.

Grey Hartons Grey.

Blizz Blizzard and Buster enjoying the sunshine.

Bit of office stuff, then cleaning out the trailer, from yesterday, ready to go for hay in the morning. After lunch, Dan and I were off to Hampden to watch Scotland play Denmark in the final World Cup qualifier. We’ve never been to international football before and what a night to start! My feet hurt, my hands hurt, my throat hurts and my ears may be bleeding. Amazing night – hope we can get tickets for the play-off semi-final now.

Hampden Hampden Park, Scotland v Denmark.

Tuesday 16^th November

So tired this morning. Went for hay, did the morning round and went back to bed for an hour.

BFL No1 has been tupped.

Grey’s still making a helluva noise, wee man.

Wednesday 17^th November

Scoot has a yellow bum. Put the first hay out for teh sheep tonight.

hay First hay out for sheep.

Beautiful moon tonight.

Moon Glorious moon tonight.

Thursday 18^th November

Beef day tomorrow, so I got all the invoices ready; Dan’s going to lay out the boxes while I’m away to collect.

BFL No2 is being wooed. I intended to put more raddle on Murray but couldn't catch him. As I walked back through the orchard, I noticed there were windfalls to collect. Hmm, can't put them in the egg bucket and I don't have many pockets but I do have a plastic glove. Dan said if I'd left this out and he'd seen it in the headtorch, he'd have had aheart attack.

appleglove Novel apple collection.

I’ve renamed the wee bantam cock Napoleon. It suits him.

Beautiful sky tonight.

Sunset Glorious sky tonight.

Friday 19^th November

Well, that didn’t go as planned. Got to the butcher and the beef wasn’t ready – he’s delivering tomorrow at 8am. Phoned Dan to email the customers that were due to arrive from 4pm. Only two turned up and they were local; one customer from Kinross couldn’t come tomorrow, so we’ll deliver.

I decided to move Astrid, the Ryeland gimmer, in with Bean and to take Molly out from the tups. Worried that she’s so fat that if she did get in lamb, we’d have a problem with twin lamb disease. I’m going to leave the tups in until 12^th December, which is four weeks. It would be too much to hope for that all six hold to first service and we’re done in a week, but I’m hoping anyway.

Grey’s now only bawling when the cows go out, which is an improvement. The calves come in and keep him company, until their mammys shout them out again. Rosie and Annie are due to go to their new home around the 12^th too, so I’ll house the cattle then, unless the weather breaks earlier. I’ve been thinking about what to about flukicide and wormer. I usually use Closamectin, for ease of application but it’s almost certainly overmedicating – our cattle don’t have external parasites and the adult cattle don’t need wormed – but they do need to be fluked. And if the heifers are for milking, I need to be careful about flukicide. I’ll probably use Closamectin for the bull and the two big steers, simply for ease of application. Buster won’t need anything this year, because he’s not grazing yet. The heifers are more complicated, so it might be Albex at the fluke dose.

Did a bit more work on my festive display at the back door. I think it will be quite nice once the lights are on it.

Saturday 20^th November

Phew, beef delivered; twenty beef boxes made up and all bar two collected or delivered, so they’re in the freezer along with the spare mince, stew and sausages. There were only a couple of joints and a few steaks left, so we’re keeping them.

Astrid has a yellow bum.

Astrid Astrid.