Longer days
Posted: 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.
The foot trimmer was here to do the cows’ feet today in preparation for turnout. We were chatting to him about extending the barn to make an open yard for the cows. We’re thinking that we might feed them using a ring feeder next year. We also discussed whether it might be worth putting in cubicles for the cows, either temporary or permanent. It would keep them cleaner – even well bedded, they always find a pat to lie in. I need to do their Bravoxin vaccine this week.
When I mucked out the feed area today I lifted the rubber mats. They were just too slippy. I think the cows are better on concrete; it’s grippier and it wears the feet down
I’ve decided not to muck out the byre until after lambing as the extra space can be useful in the event of bad weather.
The ewes seem fine – the twins and trips are being fed now and boy, do they love it. And so does Bryn. He’s first in the trough at feeding time. We moved the six ewe hogs, Jinx and Juno to some rented grazing yesterday so they are very happy. After lambing, I’ll decide how many of the six I’ll keep as replacements and how many I’ll sell.
We celebrated Diesel’s first Gotcha Day anniversary on 3rd March. Can’t believe the cat with the stick legs has matured into the lovely cat he is now, in just a year. He’s lovely and if he would learn that the worktops aren’t for cats, he’s be nearly perfect. Bertie and Pen joined Diesel in a celebratory tin of tuna, while the dogs has sardines. Happy boys and Meg J
The weather has been pretty good and Dan’s been busy in the orchard. He’s finished pruning all the trees, now he’s top dressing and mulching them. I did the pear, plum and gage trees with wood ash and leaf mould today, after weeding round the trunks and I almost finished weeding the fruit garden, while Dan was pruning the gooseberries and lifting three overcrowded bushes to transplant to the orchard.
The timber for the new perches for the green hen house has been delivered, so that’s another job to be done this month.
Just as well the days are getting longer J
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