The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: CameronS on September 25, 2011, 05:02:58 pm
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Don't think we have had one of these posts for a while. I've had a busy weekend and just wondered what others have been up to.
woke up early on Saturday, took the dogs for a decent long walk, forgot i was working so in a flat spin panic rushed home and made it in just on time. i work till 12 so was home by 1, so i spend the afternoon tinkering with my moped trying to fix it's many ailments, failed miserably needless to say. so I'm stuck without my own transport ::)
and today spent my time pottering around at the hens fixing the shed roof, cleaning all the ducks water holes within an inch of their lives. just sat down now to get my daily dose of TAS, and have realised i haven't filled up the duck ponds after cleaning them out. better scoot and do it before the rain.
:)
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Ummmm painted a fence (more paint on me than fence), arranged to adopt 2 stable cats from Cats Protection, mucked out and poo picked the fields, watched X factor (shame on me) and cooked lots of things out of the veggie box/ veg garden produce.
Here are Sweep and Soo the new stable cats
(http://i342.photobucket.com/albums/o405/lachlanandmarcus/sweepandsuzie.jpg)
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Mmmm - can barely remember yesterday. Sorted out the tomatoes, innoculated my polytunnel soil with new lubricus and hortensia worms, shredded alot of paper, made a poo catcher thing for the chickens who roost in the tree (poo too valuable to be allowed to just rot on the ground and go all squidgy ;D ;D), did a bit more work on the weed suppressant plan (chippings over cardboard) in the polytunnel. Revived my pak choi seedlings that DH had neglected during the week :'( picked up the angled joist hangers I had ordered, went and had lunch in my favourite cafe and did the grocery shopping. Also picked up cake tin and made an apple cake when I got home. Made dinner and put chicken stock on, did the ironing, ate, watched crappy film on TV. Bed.
Today - Put wash on, finished ironing. DH went to car show whilst I went to the Llandovery sheep fair and sales. Bought a load of stuff (jackets and wellies for winter). Came home and put another wash on, did more in the polytunnel (my latest obsession), checked sheep. Started to make another apple cake but realised that I had run out of sugar >:(. Picked raspberries. Put dinner on. Now about to have bath.
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Decorating...see separate topic!! ;)
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Mainly keeping an eye on Meg and the babies, and editing the videos and trying to get them online for people to see.
Currently not getting much milk for the house, Hillie's current calf is taking most of it but is too young to speen yet. Plus a calf whose mum took the one-way trip last week has been put in with Hillie and Merry - and Hillie's taken it on, silly girl! So today I've put her out on her own (with other cattle but not these two calves) and I'm hoping I'll get some milk when I bring her in (soon), then I'll leave her in the shed with the calves overnight and do the same tomorrow. Still, it gave me a chance to have a go with the frozen milk, butter and cream. I'll tell you how the butter and milk were tomorrow, the cream was very seperated but since I only wanted to make butter with it, that was no bad thing. It churned fine.
Yesterday I spent a good long time with my wonderful collies, who had been terribly neglected on Friday (Piglet Day.) The ponies had also been neglected but didn't seem bothered.
Today we've sorted another batch of ewes and lambs; of 37 ewes there are 11 to cull and of 17 lambs there are 12 to supermarket spec so they'll go this week, 1 a bigger animal for our local butcher, 3 too small yet and 1 keeping ewe lamb. We'd planned to sort another batch of ewes that we speened a week ago, but we've had a lot of visitors today so that job has been rescheduled. (BTW, today's batch was always the 'oldest ewes' group, so the high cull rate was expected.)
We love to have visitors - but it's better when they don't all come at once and on a day when we're trying to sort sheep! Of course some had come wanting to see the piglets, but it's too soon so I wouldn't let them go in the paddock. Never mind, we love to see family and friends and neighbours - although I was very short with the neighbour who I found herding his escaped sheep through Meg's paddock - 2 people she didn't know, a dog and some sheep she didn't know, all around her ark! I was livid! But they hadn't known she'd farrowed, so I suppose I will forgive them... in time... ;)
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where to start?!
brief lie-in on Saturday, showered with the dog, shampooed us both, but only she ate a bone afterwards!
quick shuftie round town (charity shops, post office, dentists' car park to relive the burden on their grape vine! we have got permission ;) )
picked veg for dinners, cooked with the help of two small piglets - Lucky warmed herself on the oven despite my telling her there were sausages in there!
cleaned out their cage, did loads of washing, cleaned the kitchen, rounded up the stray mugs etc that escape to various odd places around the house!
all the usual animal-type chores, feeding, milking and so on.
husbands' friend brought some more roof tiles round - we are tiling the shed rooves with her old house tiles, we get 50 at a time in her dad's car. I say "we" - I don't do ladders unless I really have to :D
Watched "one foot in the grave" in bed - o/h gets more like Victor Meldrew every day!! mananged to reduce piglets' night feeds so got abit more sleep.
Saturday evening, moved some sleepy chickens - warrens into the "big shed" and the 3 boys into the ark.
today I've cleaned out their old house so mr light sussex can move back in with his laydees (they don't kmow this yet!)
the warreny boys have a different destiny... a more delicious than debauched one :o ;D
my friend has been round twice today, to see the hens she's having and to borrow antiseptic spray for her injured cat. and then later to return it! and to see the piglets of course.
my parents have also been to collect the plants I looked after while they were away (again)
made bread & did more washing & dish-washing. nothing dried properly on the line though.
we got rained off outside, so no building jobs, but did clean out the chicken runs while they were still dry.
chilling now, bad back :( think yoga on Wednesday might have made it worse!
back to work tomorrow... for a rest!
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Everyone in our house got up early Saturday morning, we sat and did my 7 year olds homework first thing with her - learnt what a Calligram was, she wrote some lovely poetry and did her times tables, just her reading to do! We then all had a quick lunch and then all went out and picked up sacks of feed for all of the animals, and called at the local library oh and got some more feed bins so we have each animal nicely organised ;)
We then got home and hubby and daughter disappeared outside, my daughter got a new tractor type electric wheelchair so went exploring with the ponies and sheep whilst hubby made a start on a sheep shelter, I made cottage pie, Yorkshire puddings etc for tea, felt great using my new ducks eggs to make them with ;D
This was all followed by some crappy tv and an early night!
Had a bit of a lie in today, even got a coffee in bed ;D then it was a day in the garden, cutting plants back, playing with all of the animals, picking tomatoes, cucumbers and peas and then we decided to see what duck eggs tasted like scrambled, fried, boiled etc so we had a big making and tasting session, everything was given a big thumbs up :thumbsup:
More time spent in the garden before a friend came around to ask some advice on engineering, advice from my hubby that is not me :D, then showers, food, and now a bit of ironing before watching more crappy tv in bed, which no doubt I will see 5mins of before falling fast asleep ;D
Another good weekend spent at home with my family!
Blueeyes xx
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I've been mostly battling with my broadband connection ::)
And up to my knees in mud AI'ing our Large Black sow - one more dose to go, fingers crossed ;)
Other than that I've just been doing the usual rounds outside and hiding from all the rain :P
But I'm waiting patiently for this 'indian summer' we're supposed to be getting 8) :thumbsup:
Karen :wave:
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Busy day yesterday, my mum left at 6:45 to go to Inverness for the Highland Goat Club AGM. So I did the rounds of the animals in the morning, stopped at 9, and made myself a roll with haggis! Then scaped a layer of mud off what is supposed to be the "yard" at the field entrance. Popped some more gravel down, and added some more paving slabs to make it all a solid piece of ground. Other half shifted some more gravel to make the paths round the chicken runs. Moved a solid sided hurdle in the goat shed so that the boys can't see the girls, to calm down the raging hormones they are all having.
OH's kid was in season, and gave the most incredible screams to tell everyone about it.
Got the goats out in the field all day, as it was such a nice day. Even put the boys out at 5pm for a couple of hours. Also had a small bonfire of a few trimmed branches and all the paper feed sacks.
Cleaned out the guinea pigs, decided the two new ones are definitely pregnant. Got loads of washing done and dried too, oh and an extra deep clean of the milking machine.
Today, got a bit of a lie in, and my mum took responsibility for the mornig rounds ;D Had a shower first thing to try and loosen up my back, which does not appreciate lifting large paving slabs! Came out of the shower to be greeted by my mother who was in a right grumpy mood! And she announced my goat was in season so she had put her to the billy.
I went up to shed, and discovered Alex's goat Sheni rampantly in season (and she's not getting to see her boyfriend), and my goat Sunbeam was in. So I assumed that was who mum had meant and put her to the billy again. Then I put all the females out in the field, and in the process, discovered my other goat Koffi was also in season! This then meant I didn't know which one mum had done. So I tried Koffi with the billy, and Carrick the other billy, went mental. He was too fed up of watching Magic getting his end away, and he wasn't getting any! So he jumped out of his pen, and landed beside us, I had to rush to grab hin and get him away from Koffi. Put him in his pen, and he jumped straight out again. This time I shoved him in another pen, and he couldn't get out. Rescued Koffi from orgies with Magic, put her in the field, put Magic back in his pen, and shut the shed door on both of the boys. Then I had to bring the goats back in within 2 hours as the rain came on! So I chucked the boys out in the field in the rain to cool their ardour.
Visited my sister, bro in law, niece and nephew in the afternoon, taking them some pork and lamb. Fetched a big bale of hay, and dosed all the adult female goats for fluke!
First stew of the winter for dinner tonight!
Beth
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What a marathon - I'm tired just reading it! ::) Was this an attempt to lose weight for your wedding? ;D ;D ;D ;D
I did some work on the computer yesterday morning, then went to see my pal Liz after lunch and went for a browse round the shops with her after a long sympathetic chat and a cuppa, then took the dogs up to Keltie woods before it got too dark. Today I finally got round to spraying the back yard - gravel with loads of weeds taking over because the guy before me was too bl--dy lazy to put weed suppressant fabric down first! Rain started to get heavy later on so dogs just got runs in the paddock instead. Hope the weed killer started to work before it came on.. ::)
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I'd spent most of the week picking, freezing, jam making and chutneymaking a huge amount of plums and I'm all plummed out now but the last batch of chutney was still in the pan cos I ran out of jars ::) so first job Saturday was do drive to Perth and collect some from outside a flat belonging to an acquaintance who'd already gone out to do her pony. Then went to post my massage course homework through the tutor's door having realised that posting it would make it late and get points deducted :o so I am now far more familiar with the streets of west Perth than I was on Friday! From there I couldn't resist going to the wool shop in Perth for a wee change, came out with £20 worth of fibre and having left a deposit for a dyeing day in October :) On the way home I wanted to stop in Newburgh but the apple/pear fair was on so couldn't get parked near the library and instead dropped in to meet someone that has a smallholding just a mile or so away and who I finally met about a month ago! Quick coffee as they were going out but I am invited this morning to look at a possible wee paddock for the 2 ponies that have to come home unexpectedly early on Saturday rather than end November, due to a change in circs of the person that has them :( Putting another 2 in on 6.5 acres with the current 11 would be less than desirable to say the least :o so fingers crossed ;)
Got home by lunchtime and spent the afternoon working out in the orchard, taking down the green-tent for winter and hedgecutting behind it, pulling weeds that grew around it, and clearing another area round behind a secondary compost heap - looks far better but still lots to do out there ::) Picked a few beans and a couple of carrots, came in for a hot shower and yes I watched X Factor too ::) Sore back is my excuse, couldn't be bothered to do anything else or focus on anything that required thinking!
Yesterday I did a bit more with that secondary compost heap, moved about half of it (still twiggy) onto the current one with the hedge clippings and picked a few shallots.. Went in to read Scottish Farmer and ended up phoning estate agencies leaving messages about properties in there, texting the hay suppliers for prices and speaking to a couple of them about minimum deliveries etc ::) Was meant to be at a meeting of the Scottish Independent Celebrants Association but couldn't face the drive in the car til it's fixed, so spent an hour reading and commenting on the papers and emailed them off which reminded me of my former work so was interesting to revisit briefly but not too long!!
All usual chicken/cat/pony stuff of course, but I'm looking forward to the promised warm week to keep the momentum going on that orchard clearing now I've made progress in 2-3 areas of it ;)
Then I have to admit I took the rest of the day off and watched X Factor again - compulsively annoying is the best I can describe it - Louis and that weird Chinese woman :o
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We were supposed to have a viewing on our house on Sat so spent the morning cleaning and tidying up only to get a phone call to say they wern't coming after all. :( Felt very fed up on Sat evening but had something to look forward to on Sunday.
We went to a pig keeping course. It was supposed to be a few weeks ago but Carron at Pig Paradise has been unwell so the date and location were changed. It was held at Fallowfields Country House Hotel in Bagpuize. I must say we had a great day.
I have included a pic of some OS&B's and one of me with a piglet. Hopefully you can tell which pic is which. ;D ;D
Sally
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Sally - that's a lovely pic of you with the little gilt. I couldn't see any OSBs though?
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Not sure where they OSB pic went so have reattached.
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It was the Meningitis Trust's 21 mile 'Five Valleys Walk' yesterday. A bit of an extreme ramble up and down the green and pleasant land. Good News - I wasn't walking it in the pouring rain, Bad News - I was manning a checkpoint for 10 hours in the pouring rain! Successful day - several thousand people & dogs out and about, hopefully £50k raised. Worth losing a day of the weekend once a year
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Timber treatment, timber treatment and more off - a whole dry weekend in Aberdeenshire - so had to be done with a wee break for people interested in pygmy goats coming for a look at the wee monsters so they can decide if they are for them or not
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A quiet weekend compared with others I think.
The usual morning round of feeding the animals followed by a big batch bake of cinnamon and apple cake. The OH's favourite so I make a big batch and freeze them and then just have to get one out the freezer every few days to keep him happy. The afternoon was spent playing with the calves, grooming them and handling them and trying to get them to lead on a halter, progress is being made but it is slow.The evening was spent being a guinea pig for my daughter who has started a holistic therapy course and wanted to practice her refexology foot massage on me. It was great to be pampered for the evening.
Sunday was apple picking morning followed by stewing of apples for the freezer which continued into the afternoon before making a batch of spelt bread. Sunday finished with a nice roast lamb and mint sauce dinner all helped down with a glass of favourite vino! :)
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Quiet and lazy for me. Went into town as OH had his haircut and did a shop in Lidl. Collected an item I bid on at the local auction then watched the F1 qualifying in the afternoon. Made a yummy tea with a shoulder of lamb from the freezer. Must write down the recipe before I forget as I made it up as I went along. Watched "The Lives of Others" (very good German film).
Sunday rounded up our few sheep to dag any dirty bums and trim feet. Went to lunch with some friends then came back and watched the F1 GP. Pottered about in the garden weeding and collecting various veggies. All in all a relaxing weekend for me. :)
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I dint eat the sunday dinner - but certainly had the vino.
- All weekend infront of F1 - including the forum after and the re-run for the 60th - 6 hours of my sunday was watching the motorsports in realtime - yes I felt guilty, and I may have had to use 'live' pause after 4 hours cos the chickens kept coming in the house looking for their food (which I didnt give them cos I was too lazy! oh and the F1 was on)
Had a great weekend - awesome race :) - needy farmyard.
Baz
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So glad in our crossed posts someone else was watching the F1!! :)
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Saturday I helped a friend to lose a tree (didn't want the neighbours to notice it being disposed of, so couldn't use the chainsaw). Not a huge tree but hard to cut though using a bowsaw.
Sunday spent chopping logs into firewood ready for winter. :) I wonder how yew burns...
m
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My weekend started on Friday night with an indian take away (very rare) for our wedding anniversary :yum: Saturday got up and sorted the animals, trying to dry the goat up but realised didn't have any milk for our early morning cup of tea so took a little off her, just to make her comfy!, seventeen year old son took us into town, he only passed his test last month :-\ to visit father in law in hospital, bought a new cupcake and muffin cookbook in the hospital shop while buying a newsaper so had to test it out and made cheese and ham muffins for lunch, then housework and hanging out washing blah blah, quick tea then back into town to visit father in law again (he's very poorly) home in the dark having realised that none of the animals had been fed, crashed in front of tv by 9pm.
Sunday, OH's birthday so did animals on own so he could have a well earned lie in and cup of tea in bed, made a birthday cake and some rocky road chocolate muffins,more washing, visit to elderly aunt while OH went to see father before lovely birthday lunch at my parents. Sat down for afternoon, more hospital visiting, animals, cooked a heap of beetroot, made pack ups for monday ready for when we all go back to work for a rest.
Hopefully a rare weekend involving so much time at the hospital, one we hope not to have to repeat too often. role on next weekend, sunshine and time to drive the ponies and pay all the animals slightly more attention :wave:
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The usual morning round of feeding the animals followed by a big batch bake of cinnamon and apple cake. The OH's favourite so I make a big batch and freeze them and then just have to get one out the freezer every few days to keep him happy.
Recipe please? ;D
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Made a yummy tea with a shoulder of lamb from the freezer. Must write down the recipe before I forget as I made it up as I went along.
Oh that sounds like me! If he was eating something lovely, my now ex-hubby used to look up and ask, "How much of this did you make? How many more times will I be able to eat it?" And if he was eating something less than wonderful, he'd look up and ask, "How much of this did you make? How many more times have I got to eat it?" ;D (Ex-hubbies aren't all bad - you fell in love with them once, remember. ;))
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I wonder how yew burns...
Absolutely beautifully. Not a wood one gets a chance to burn very often but it is supposed to be a prince amongst woods.
There's something about yew. I simply cannot walk past one without stroking its leaves and saying, "Hello yew." There are some 2000 year-old yews at Westonbirt Arboretum which have formed an atrium as they've spread - it's a magical place to me.
I love yew furniture too.
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I started Saturday early as OH for some reason decided to get up at 6.30am. I tried to stay in bed but didn't manage so got up and thought I would get on with washing out the stables ready for winter. 8.30am OH came out to tell me that Avie in Shetland had managed to get Buddy booked on the ferry but he had to be there for 2pm. Came in looked out his passport and filled in the transfer form then went to look out his rugs and put in the trailer. Made coffee and sat for about 20mins trying to calm down ( I get stressed when the ponies go away ) Went out again sorted out the chickens, fed the ponies on the hill. Just the back of 12 we loaded Buddy and set of for Aberdeen, arrived at the ferry 15 mins before he was due to be loaded no ferry there, instant panic had I got the day wrong!!1 turned out the ferry was out in the bay doing something for charity. Left after Buddy was loaded and came home to an untidy house, stables to finish and dogs to walk. Sunday I did all my outside chores then sat for a couple of hours reading a book, afternoon we went to Fraserburgh and had chip butties on the beach before making a quick trip to Tesco. Once home again I did think about doing the ironing but the thought was as far as I got. Watched a bit of TV in the evening with a very large glass of wine. ;D
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both days I spent tidying the garden and having a few fires with thistles, dock and other nasties. Some nice freecyclers came round to help with digging out some unwanted plants and roots (comfrey anyone, I still have loads!). Cooking, baking (the apple and pear custard tart out of the latest morrisons mag :yum:), watched Dr Who (have seen better), X-factor (not with the kids as you might imagine, OH is a fan ::) ) and X-men Wolverine (I don't really know why I like these, but I do ::) ::)), that was the weekend! Besides the uusual clearing out birds... :&>