another day!

Well my son and his girlfriend are up at the moment, and they have been great help while they have been here so far, the shed that took a huge battering is now upright and solid, Sunny had a go at it and it still stands, thanks to the two of them for fixing it!

They have also built a trap for the rooks to stop them getting at the hen eggs, although unsuccessfully so far, this trap is a humane one, but at the moment the rooks seem to know what its about, and haven't fallen yet!
Although I bought an air rifle yesterday, and my partner managed to shoot one! the smell of death must of scared the others away, as we haven't had any eggs nicked today..........yet!

So far while they have been up, We have baked bread, foraged for blaeberry's....bilberry's to some of you, walked on beaches...and built things around the house and garden! as well as the usual jobs and practicing with the air rifle!

We have also harvested some Peas, Potatoes, Strawberry's(although we are battling with the slugs with them) Marrow, curly Kale and Onions! so all in all a busy wee while.

weather has not been horrendous, a couple of days of sunshine this week....even managed five minutes in my hammock!! Although saying that, its a beautiful, warm sunny day today, and that hammock is calling me....oh what to do...oh what to do ;-)


Yesterday the animal welfare came round to check on my paperwork, which i am pleased to say was all in order, and he went away a happy man! But when i Rang to register the pigs, they said they would send another one to check the feed etc...you would of thought that they did all that in one hit! Oh well....we are tidy, the feed bins labeled and ready for anything they chuck at us, so now we have to wait and see.

Today my son and his girlfriend have done a fantastic job of clearing the barn! as well as clearing all the rubbish that the pigs have dug up!
Its really surprising, not only how much they dig up...but how much was buried as well, I wonder if they ever dig and say " another piece of inedible rubbish"
I must admit, I do sometimes wonder if all the livestock 'plot' together.....I am sure i have seen them all gathering in a little meeting in the barn now and then......nahhh they can't be............can they???

The Piglets arrive!

There has been upheaval in the small holding recently............the goats have been stirring and trying to work out what is going on next door to them..........

and the commotion that went on when the piglets arrived!........ well .... see for yourselves........

You can almost hear the goats saying....

"oh no! we have pigs for neighbours!"

But the piglets have settled down nicely....they don't seem bothered by our goats....or the fact the the daft dog keeps touching the electric fence with his nose....thought spaniels and collies were intelligent....but poor ghillie must of been in the back of the cue for brains....four times in one day he touched the electric fence, then yelped, and once the following day, as well as yelping in his sleep(could of been reliving his day i think!), the piglets don't even look bothered by next doors cows that have also had a shock from the fencing...oh well!..

Already we have named them Salt and Pepper, I know, I know, you shouldn't name something your going to eat!

Which is why we named them salt and pepper, so we wouldn't forget we were going to eat them and so we wouldn't get too attached to them, besides it wouldn't of been fair to name all the livestock so far and not these two would it!?!

Salt is the closest and bravest of the two....she also looks the biggest, but they are the same size, i just that's my bad photography at work!

Picked some lovely red strawberries today...put them with the other fruit to see if my partner will spot them...yeah i know they are bright red....but he is colour blind, and rarely sees them against green, guess what i put them with? ...... hehehe yep green apples hahaha

Guessing i will be in trouble when he reads this next hahaha

He now has his house up for sale, so we are hoping it will sell quickly, then we can put the money into expanding the farm.....well that's the theory anyway.....so anyone want to buy an investment? 120k set price....in a quiet village not far from a sandy beach(about 5 miles ish)....two bedroom with large back garden.....only an hour(just under actually...well more like 40 mins haha) from the city of Aberdeen....oh well worth a try..... we have a viewing tonight....so fingers crossed.

The money has been spent already, want to buy the field next door and get some boer goats as well as the livestock we have already....but its like everything you dream of doing....your finger tips just cant quite reach your goal....still one day.......one day (sigh)

heatwave!!

How hot has it been! Bit cooler today...but phew!!

Wasn't sure at first whether to keep the goats in in this temperature, but when i felt the heat in the barn at 10am...decided they were better off outside!

So out they went, Sunny has his usual routine, the first thing he does is to go straight over to the shelter in the paddock...this is the result!...........how can one goat do so much damage!?

Its struggling to stay up...and i don't think it will be long before we loose the 4Th shelter....back to the drawing board i think!
After demolishing the shed they all join in to eat the bark off the trees! Again this is the result...about a quarter of my trees look like this at the moment..not a pretty sight :(

Although the goats have a definite look of "it wasn't me, honest gov!" ... but they all have this lovely stain of bark around their mouths, which gives them away slightly!

Alice is coming on leaps and bounds, still suckling now and then, but I must admit its not been that often

The piglets arrive this Sunday! my partner is really looking forward to it! all i see is roast pork, pork chops, and a side of ham! Its suppose to be easy-ish to make a parma style ham...will let you know at a later date if it is or not.

I do keep thinking that I should get the chalk ready to mark out the joints, But my partner said i am not allowed to! I guess he is right really, after all the chalk would wash off in the rain!

still the sty is finished, just the pen to do really...and that wont take that long, its more of a case of making a gate to fit on and put the electric wire up...job done!....if only it was that easy, things will go wrong , especially as we don't have a lot to do to it! Or am i being too pessimistic?

We are chuffed to bits with the veg this year....its looking great

the veg are going great guns...although the chickens desecrated the carrots so we had all of 8 of them! but we don't eat many anyway...so no great loss really.

We did do an experimental bed...My partner built a coldframe, put a layer of straw down, followed by the contents of the compost heap....he then planted some pumpkin seeds.....and left it to its own devices....the result?

Well........ see for your self!!

what grew was Pumpkin, perpetual spinach, sunflowers, tomatoes, potatoes, marrow/courgette and feverfew...i dont think i missed anything out, but not bad seeing as we only planted the pumpkin hahaha.

Well i am off to hose all the animals down now...most dont mind it, although Ghillie and the chickens dont seen to like it much ....never mind it will cool them down a bit.

Bye for now xx