[Jackie]

Yeh everyones fine at NK except 1 chicken was badly bullied so Smiley our worker killed it. The chicken had a very bloody back end and as she was walking past other chickens they would take a peck at her. It would have been cruel to keep her as she was in such a state.

Now it seems they have started on another chicken and I have asked the lads to see which chickens are the bullies. I wonder if the chickens need more space now?

Just tell me when those bales will come George and Ill make room, even if I have to have it in the living room. lol

I think I have got a person to cut the trees down but Im having to wait untill hes finished his chain saw/tree felling course.

[Wizard]

That sounds good Jackie.Hope it is as good as mine was Tree felling let me know.

[Jackie]

Of course Ill let you know George 

Hehehehe I had a phone call from a very embarrassed hubby last night, he was laughing and giggling even before he started talking so I knew he had done something silly.

At NK they had decided to start a bonfire of all the woodwormed wood (good so far) it was approx 30 yards from anything else, no tree or building.
Remember here that hubby had been topping the grass and left it to dry on the floor. Yes you got it, the hay set fire and the fire ran across the field to a half dead tree without anyone seeing intially.
Eventually when the tree was well alight my son finally noticed it was on fire, you will note here that it wasn't my hubby who saw it!!!!

After 2 hours with a hose (we ARE on a water meter) trying to put the tree 'out' they called the fire brigade and it arrived with the blue lights flashing and sirens roaring!!!

So now I'm short of hay and Alfie's (grandson) proposed tree swing is a no no.

[Wizard]

Oh dear would you like me to have a look round.I will see what is about and the asking price, but don't forget 1 source will be in Ton bales if he has some to spare.Can you fell the tree and make firewood Failing that get rid of Les for an hour or two  and make a bonfire .You can then use the ash on the veggie patch.In the 1940's the bonfire ash was shared out and spread on the gardens and dug in.Many take Uncle Bill he collected Human Pee over summer and mixed wood ash into it in a bucket and then applied it to the tomato's at ground level he all ways said don't get any on the plant stems it'll bon em.I did some trials years back and it is definitely advantageous for tomato growing.Did you find some pallats to make compost bins?

[Jackie]

If you would please ask around as to the price etc for me George Id be very grateful. I cant collect the 1 ton bale It would have to be dropped off maybe?

Les chopped the tree down this morning and Ive told him to stack the logs from it for the house fires. I never thought about collecting the ash but you are right, I did use ash on my allotments and so Ill collect the ash for the veg.

 As for human pee so far I have asked the lads to pee round the chicken houses (keep foxes away) and on the compost heap as pee contains lots of nitrogen which is great for growing and its a compost starter.

No we didnt manage to get some pallets as we did ask somewhere and the guy said £1.50 each and as the going price is usually £1 or free so he was taking the mick! 

There is a pub round here that usually has some free for the collecting I just havent been that way when I have room in the van. The compost heap is just that, a heap on the floor under the apple tree so I should get some good apples this year. Us and the pigs (and chickens) will love home grown apples. 

[Wizard]

Oh they will and you can pinch a couple of hours and make some cider and a gallon of apple wine.I will have a word wi a chap and see if I cannot scrounge you some pallats.We want 10 Euro Pallats really so you can have 3 bays start in bay 1 turn it over into bay 2.When its nearly done turn it into bay 3.When you emptied bay 1 into bay 2 you start again in bay 1.You need not turn bay 3 Just keep filling it from bay 2.It will go lovely and black so long as you don't put to many lawn cuttings in it.

[Jackie]

Ill start looking out for a fruit crusher/apple press then if you fancy some cider and apple wine George

Yup 3 bays are the best Thanks for trying for the pallets.

[Wizard]

Thanks Jackie Have sit down and look in Vigo Presses.co.uk I did warn you to sit down.It's the pictures that are interesting. I have the steam juice extractor Its ace for soft fruit juice extraction Boys got it for Xmas for me 5 year ago.It is to slow for doing many apples

[Jackie]

I looked at those Vigo ones and WOW!! The price of 'em!!!

So as its time versus money this is what Im gonna try;

1 Grate all the apples using a cheese grater, plus people to help. I can get 5 litre food grade buckets for free.  and if you make a hole in the lid (use a hot poker/metal rod/large drill bit to melt the plastic for the hole) and pop a bubbler in then seal around the bubbler with pastry or blue tack etc they are great for fermentation. 

For wine I use 1 litre water containers from Tesco as they are cheaper than glass demi johns and easier to store as they are square shaped. Same hole making applies to the lid.

2 Use the tight holders for holding wood that you tighten as needed to hold pieces of wood together for screwing or glueing. Dunno what they are called but we have some. This will be used over 2 pieces of wood with the apple pulp inside and tightened using the ratchet.

I can but try eh?

Ive been a wine maker for years now but not made any cider ( I am a cider drinker, ooh ah, ooh ah  ) so that will be fun. 

[Wizard]

Hello lass I am having a chortle at your expense and Kath has just said What are you giggling at.So I have said come and read this. And I have the lyrics on screen for I am a cider drinker Google Lyrics for I am a cider drinker on the page that comes up choose I am a cider drinker  and when the page comes on the is a video as well as the words see if it makes you chortle  G & K xxx

[Wizard]

An alternative method to grating.In a new clean washed out builders bucket place some apples.Now with a piece of planed up nice and clean piece of wood ponch the apples to pulp keep adding a few until the juice splashes out then pour all the contents into a pail and do some more until you have sufficient for you needs.Still chortling

[Jackie]

lol George I did remember that song hence I wrote the 'ooh ah, ooh ah' bit so Im glad you recognised it and had a giggle. 

Ohh your way sounds better than mine I shall certainly give that a shot. 

[Jackie]

Ive just spent 3 more days at NK but I'm shattered cos we took my mum with us this time.

I sleep in the same double bed with mum as she tends to get lost cos she doesn't know NK very much and as I smoke I snore, not very loud but mum punches me ALL NIGHT and says "Stop snoring!" I get very little sleep. Plus she said she needed 'dark things' for her eyes as the light was keeping her awake, I had a conversation explaining it was dark cos it was night time and she cant wear sunglasses in bed as they would break and hurt her eyes. That conversation took place at 3am!

I was really looking forward to some time with just my hubby and me as we don't seem to have that anymore with him at NK most of the time and me at Melton. Stacy suggested mum to mum that she come with us to NK so I owe Stacy one!

The lambs have been put into a much larger area and are as fat as puddings now and I giving them only 3 bottles per day cos they get creep as well as the grass.
It amazes me how much they actually bite the teats of the bottles and it does make me cringe when I think of the poor ewes feeding the lambs and they bite so hard. Thank dog my babies didn't. 
I still haven't wormed the lambs cos with mum deciding to come at the last minute I forgot the scales but I'm going back on Thursday so Ill take them then.
I must remember to buy some Heptovac for the lambs as its about time to inject them.

Osi (short for Oswald) the boar has a very snotty nose and runny eyes so I think he has pneumonia so I'm calling the vet out today for antibiotics. The nearest farm vet is 24 miles away so I'm dreading the cost. I must get some antibiotics so I can inject them myself in the future. Much cheaper that way.

The broken tail (attacked by other gilts) that that gilt has is covered in muck cos she cant move it out of the way to go to the loo and its now raw and bloody cos I suspect she rubs it on the fence so the vet can look at that too. I think the lower part of the tail is dead now.

One of the chickens was being attacked by most of the others and her back end was a bloody mess, she was litterally being eaten alive as chickens get cannibalistic. I went mad at my son for not separating her but he said he had but then put her back with them at night!!!!!! GRRRR!!!!

I separated her and sprayed with sepsis purple spray but it was too late she was dead in the morning.

I am so mad at my son as hes not an idiot and has lived with loads of animals all his life, mainly cats and dogs. but to not realise what was going on was just cruel!
Yes I do know hes busy most of the day with the building work but still?

I had ordered 40 geese from Gulliver Geese and they have been really good and held the geese for me until we are ready for them so I'm getting them much older than most people and at an excellent price, however, Ive had to reduce the order to 20 as 40 seems a lot for our first time with geese.
Les is sectioning a huge grass area off for them today with 2 large sheds to sleep in and to get them out of the rain as I'm told they just stand there and get ill in the rain!
I'm collecting the geese on Thursday so I'm back at NK until they settle in.
These geese are for the Christmas market (and my table) as they sell quite well plus Ill keep a few for next year and eggs.

Two feral cats went off to their new farm on Monday last and the remaining 2 are fine just looking very skinny so Ill get some wormer's for them.

My two GDS are full of fleas so I can only presume its from the cats so Ill deflea the dogs on Thursday. I cant get near the cats to deflea them.
Oh and we are taking the GSD's individually to the animals once per day to get them all used to each other. So far so good.

The huge natural pond we have on the land we have decided to section it off for the newts that it already has plus the newts I'm taking to NK from my own natural wildlife pond. Then add goldfish and grass carp. Les wants to add my good koi but I'm very wary of doing that in case there is anchor worm in the water and my koi get sick cos I wouldn't be able to dose the pond with potassium permanganate.
We will add our own pumps, filters and air bubblers that we now have on our 3 ponds at home so the pond will be much, much better than it is now.
I can see Les's reasoning as he doesn't want to dig another huge pond (at least 4000 gallons plus liner) which the koi will require and it is better for koi to be in a natural pond, usually.

We bought 5 little goldfish and 2 grass carp and dropped them into the pond never to be seen again as the pond is HUGE. 
I'm taking some of my own goldfish from my goldfish pond over to NK this week  but the koi are very large so will need slightly more specialised transport than a bucket with a lid on. I have 3 large ponds at Melton.

The tree that was set alight has now been chainsawed down and Les has left a 3ft tall stump which hes going to make into a slide for Alfie. The stump will have steps made into it so Alfie can climb up inside the stump as its hollow and then Les will make the slide from planks and tin sheeting which will be tacked onto the planks from underneath so its one large continuous sheet with no spiky bits to hurt Alfie.
We have what used to be a large air raid shelter on the land and its a sort of hill now that we cant mow so Les said hes going to build Alfie a fort on top of it and eventually dig out the inside of the shelter to see if he can make a play house/secret den in there for Alfie.

We have invited Stacy's in laws and their parents up to NK for New Year plus Les's mum and brother are coming so all in all we will have 15 people for NY. We have enough rooms to sleep them but how the heck am I going to seat them for dinner?

I was so mad at Les and Martyn about that chicken that I said "I don't care what else you do but we are moving in to NK in 3 weeks come hell or high water mate!"
the house wont be finished, or even nearly finished but I cant keep going back and forth now that we are getting more and more animals because they are getting a bit lost between us all.

I am picking up 6 more lambs in 3 weeks and these are fully weaned so will go straight out on the land.

My new gilts are ready in 3 weeks too so the pig pen is being got ready by the cade lambs as we speak. lol

That reminds me I must contact Smiffy about when my pedigree breeding gilts will be ready.

[Jackie]

Oh I didnt say but it seems as though we now have a pet pig! 

Martyn has fallen for a wild boarX gilt who jumps up and puts her feet on the fence so she can get a cuddle everytime my son goes past and he said "Ill buy her from you so she doesnt got to slaughter cos she has a cuddle just like a dog, and I bet she would follow me around like Rodeye* the chicken does." 
She will stay and be a breeding sow and is now called 'Sweetheart'.


*Rodeye is that chicken that has the twisted beak and Martyn makes a fuss of it and feeds its on its own so it always gets loads, now its getting cheeky though as it flaps up to the bucket when Im carrying it to feed the chickens and wont get out and pecks me if I try to move it from the bucket! The chicken is often out of its pen and run and following Martyn around the farm.
One day the cocky little thing will make a mistake and flap into the pig pen as another 1 did the other day and the pigs cornered it to eat it but Martyn leapt the fence to rescue it.
 
I can just see Martyn walking down the yard with a chicken and the gilt following him!

[knightquest]

Nice quiet life for you then Jackie.............

You seem to be coping well even without sleep  Good luck to you and here's a "HUG" for your mom. My grandmother had dementia too. I know what you are going through.

Ian