Spuds / Shallots / Peas - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 29 April, 2019

by Rosemary at 12:00pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 22^nd April

Good weather continues – it’s pretty dry. Brought the cows and Ace in but didn’t milk; still the routine is re-establishing. Some things we do the same all the time – hens, meat chicks, pigs; some seem to change every year, like the cattle’s routines.

The pet lambs diet is underway; having read the packet, we’re overfeeding them. Maybe should have read the packet first. So every second feed is now only 300ml; planning to stop the 2am feed soon.

Tuesday 23^rd April

Another dry, sunny day. Milked Rosie for the first time; she wasn’t overly co-operative but we got there in the end, with patience and perseverance.

The blackcurrants are fair comin’ on.

Blackcurrants.

Wednesday 24^th April

Better milking today; Rosie settled down right away. She’s not the most generous but I’m getting 2l a day, which is good enough. Ace was allowed to babysit.

Ace and Zephyr.

Our new steel rake arrived today. Love it. Easy pleased.

Had a farm visit today from a local care home.

Thursday 25^th April

It rained today! Quite a lot! The cattle were queued up at the gate to come in. They’re coming in at night and out during the day; I am milking at 7am then they go out for fresh air and exercise – there’s no grass, so I’m putting hay out – and come in about 7pm.

Sowed flower seeds where the sheep’s maternity ward was. They ate everything. Used my new rake.

Type your caption here.

Put a bale of straw out for the ponies with the new haynet. Not convinced – it was too small for the bale.

Moved the sheep to a fresh paddock; there are a few need dagged, badly.

Friday 26^th April

Last 2am feed has been given! Yay!

Showery today, but we managed to get the shallots (Red Sun and Golden Gourmet) planted and the potatoes (Maris Bard, Anya and Desiree) in.

Spuds.

Somebody (me) forgot to shut a gate so we had cows in the front garden. Thankfully, they were happy to be bribed by sugar beet to leave. No damage that was noticeable was done - infact, some improvements were probably made.

Oops, cows in the garden.

Saturday 27^th April

Showers and sunshine. Dagged about half the ewes and trimmed Teddy and Urquhart’s feet – now that they are soft enough to trim. We didn’t bother gathering them, just caught individuals in the field. You gotta love Ryelands. Six left to do.

Zephyr found Bryn really interesting, while he was “hunting” in the cow shed.

Zephyr and Bryn.

Sunday 28^th April

Lovely day – warm and sunny, so hopefully the grass will be growing.  Did a bit of weeding; Dan’s been taking off the black plastic and potting on the tomatoes.

Farm tour this afternoon with a lovely group.

Looks like all the peas I sowed have rotted. Don’t know if it was the peas or the compost. Certainly wasn't the gardener!