January Snow

The weather has been very cold today, although I think that we have had a very mild winter overall so far. The countryside looked very beautiful this morning as I took these photos while feeding the animals.

The orchard, with manure heaped at the base of each tree.

Moo is due her half at the start of May. She is in calf to an Angus. Her belly has started to get very round. She has not bagged up yet but she has eight weeks yet to go. I am looking forward to having fresh milk again. I really miss my morning shake of milk, an egg and frozen berries. It was a super quick and healthy breakfast that I could drink while commuting to work, and it would keep me full until lunch.

The horses are doing well. The 3 yr old is going to a trainer next week for a few months to be broken. I had considered doing it myself but I have too much work commitments and it just would be easier to let someone else due it.

I will be glad to have him gone as he is a bully and is giving the other two a great deal of grief.

We are about half way through winter and have used just under a third of our turf supply. We should have some for next winter also but we will cut more again during the summer. It is a very economical way to heat the cottage.

During the summer, we plan to put a stove in the sitting room and purchase solar hot water panels for the roof.

Winter has been pleasant but I am looking forward to spring. I am eager to get started again with the bees and to have a cow in milk and a horse for riding. 

The polynucs have surprised me. The bees cluster against the walls, so there must be very little heat loss. One nuc that should not have survived due to the small size, seems to be thriving. These hives are more active on mild days than the timber hives. I intend to purchase a full poly hive to trial this season.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! It has been too long. 

It takes a great deal of effect to maintain a blog and due to this, I had to put it on hold while I gave my attention to other areas of my life.

I am currently working and studying, in addition to being a mother, a wife, a milk maid, a cook and unfortunately a cleaner.

So with exams recently sat, I am able to update you on the goings on here at the cottage.

We are all ready for Christmas and the children are very excited. They finished up with school and play school on Friday and are counting down the nights still Santa comes.

We are over wintering my two young horses and the children's pony max together in a new sand paddock. It is working out very well and it doesn't hold a drop of rain.

They are feed haylage along the fence and it is super easy to keep them now.

Moo, the jersey cow has  been dry since we brought her in, back in October. She is her own cow yard near the horses. She is due her calf early in March and her belly is growing everyday. We let her out on grass for a few hours on dry days.

Our milking machine failed just before we dried her up, It will require a new motor and after some consideration, we have decided to purchase a brand new portable milking machine in the New Year. In the long run it should be more cost efficient. I do not want a newly freshening cow without a reliable milk machine.

The bees are clustered for winter. They fly on warmer days to collect water and empty their bowels. I will start to feed them when the days warm up in the new year. At the moment they can't break cluster to feed, I just hope that they stored enough for themselves during last season. We only took a few frames of heather honey from one hive. Some of this has been stored, should I need to it give it to a lighter/weaker hive.

The fox visited and took our two ducks and a young pet chicken called chirp chirp. The children were very saddened by this.

We currently have two roosters and ten hens that are still laying well for us. I collect about four eggs each morning at the moment.

Hubby got two male ferrets a few months ago to resolve the rat issue that we had. Our shed was alive with the amount of rats that were present.

Thankfully the ferrets have cleared out all rats in our immediate area. They have proven to be very easy to keep as we release them a few times a week and they come back for feeding, which is raw meat and off cuts free from our butcher. They are not very tame and handling of them requires gloves. I'm glad we got them.

Merry Christmas xx

October

Winter is drawing in and I feel it!
The evening are getting dark earlier and nights much colder. I have ordered the round bales of haylage for the winter and the animals will be moving in from the fields soon.

We have sold six of the seven piglets over the last few days. The remaining one will stay with the sow for company. They were very easy to sell which surprised me. I had imagined the market at this time of year would be poor compared to spring. Who wants additional livestock going into winter?

The cow will move into the cow yard in the next two weeks. She wouldn't see a field again until  May next year. The milking machine had broke down about two weeks ago and instead of forking out a few hundred to fix it , we have decided to buy a new portable machine in the spring when she freshens. At the moment I am hand-milking her every evening. She is giving about 5 litres on once a day milking. Once she moves indoor, we will dry her off. She is due her angus calf in early March.

The hens are doing well. We are getting about seven eggs a day from ten hens ( one pullet, two ducks and two roosters ). We expect to get (less) eggs right through winter as many of the hens are this years.

The bees are still foraging in the middle of the day. A great deal of pollen is brought back into the hives each day. I expect that the queens will slow down now and then cease laying sometime next month. The full hives should have plenty of stores as I took so little from them but I will continue to feed the two nuc's.

We have three horses. A pony for the children and two youngsters for me. The youngsters stayed at my sisters farm all summer, but the older of the two, a two yr old Mermus R gelding will move back here for the winter. I will collect him at the end of this month. I will be training him over the winter to lunge, long rein and then ride. I prefer to start them young and slow. I worked with him for a few weeks during the summer and he can already be tacked up in cross-ties and take my weight lying over his back. The children continue their riding lessons and will be riding their pony max over the winter. I plan to bring them to lead-rein show jumping leagues in Feb with him.

The range in the kitchen and open fire in the sitting-room is lit every day. The cottage is very cosy and snug! Thank God for turf :-)

Comings and goings...

I have two new young horses arriving this weekend. They are very well bred warm-bloods full brothers, a yearling and a two year old.

I sold my aged competition horse and I am working on the children's 128cm jumping pony. I am schooling him myself and will be bringing him to shows shortly to put SJI points on him. He will be ridden by a child at the shows.

The plan is to bring him on for our children to compete him at newcomers next year.

The gardens are awash with beautiful colours. The fruit trees are swelling with fruit and young potato plants push through the soil. The rhubarb needs harvesting and the chickens are still free to scratch out the vegetable beds unfortunately. They just keep escaping!!

The pigs are massive and enjoying the extra space of the cow yard. They have redecorated using the hose pipe and pallets ;-)

They are due to go to the freezer in ten days.

The bees are flying well every day and are bringing back plenty of pollen. I should have a virgin queen around now, from the hive that I removed the queen from. It is great mating flight weather and the other hives had plenty of capped drone cells last week.

Fingers crossed that she mates well and avoids the recently arrived swallows!

A little of everything...

Amber the cow has developed mastitis in one quarter. Surely it is from something I did or didn't do!
Anyway, I give her a tube into the teat canal and I also sent in a milk samples for analysis. The results were due back today but were delayed. I should have them tomorrow and the vet will give me antibiotics specific to her infection.
I recognised that we had a problem when the milk started to filter slower and then later started to produce clots, similar to cottage cheese. She was very tender on the quarter and started to kick out when I would clean and attach the teat cup. The infection has already subsided by using the tube and she isn't in pain any more but her milk is still producing clots from that quarter. She should be fine in another few days and we will be back to drinking her milk in a week, allowing for the withdrawal period.

In the meantime, the pigs are enjoying 14 litres a day of yummy milk and are putting on great weight. Ms.Piggy, the sow, showed signs of heat a few days ago and I was disappointed as I had assumed that she was pregnant, maybe she is! This is all new to me! I cleaned out their sty this evening, always a quick and easy job, using just the yard brush.

Hubby has completed the new hen house. It is my job to paint it when I get a chance over the next few weeks. He will mesh the fencing in the orchard this weekend before moving the hens permanently, fingers crossed. I guess we will have to lock them into the house for a few days until they beside it is their new home. I am collecting 8-9 eggs a day at the moment but I am unsure of how many they are laying as the dogs are professional egg thieves.
Planting of the veg garden is on hold until the hens are contained. They have already scratched out the bed I planted.

The bees are flying everyday and can be seen bringing back plenty of pollen. Each day the hives gets stronger as new brood emerges. I need to open up one hive to mark the queen. This is a difficult job, as finding one bee amongst thousands is a challenge. I haven't had a chance to do it yet, either due to the weather or children. But I know that the challenge grows with each passing day. I need her marked as I want to make splits later this month.

There is talk here of me getting another horse. Exciting! A young horse to work on over the winter and replace my current horse for next season.

Some cow photo's

Amber enjoying a few hours out at grass today. She is still nervous and is doing more bellowing than grazing.

Amber in her winter accommodation. She has a shed and a concrete yard to roam.

Amber being milked last night. Such a gentle girl, she didn't even need to be tied and I was able to bring her in and milk by myself this morning!

Christopher watching me milk from the top of the hay with Anita the hen last night. 

Me riding out this morning. I have a show jumping competition later tonight. 

Woodpiles & Ponies

We have been busy sorting out wood piles. Some fresh cut timber needs stacking to season and some seasoned timber needs to be brought into the wood/turf shed to dry out and be split.

We have about twenty trees that will be cut back or felled in the coming weeks if the weather improves. 

We have planted 270 willow cuttings recently and these will replace any trees that are felled. Trees are like crops, they should be harvested when they mature. Our trees are very mature at about forty feet tall and we worry about the next storm knocking them and all the damage that might bring.

It was a nice sunny spring day today. The dogs enjoyed sunbathing and our new pony 'max' has settled in. We brought him home on Saturday and our little Shetland went to a new home on Sunday. He was not quiet enough for the children or for my nerves. 

This pony is much gentler and quieter. I expect he should stay with us about eight years, by then the children will have outgrown him. 

He is eligible to compete at 128cm showjumping with our eldest boy next year. 

Our lovely neighbours dropped over at lunchtime today, a gift of five red pullets. I was delighted as we needed to replace the lost hens. Soon we won't need to buy anymore eggs!

We are cow shopping at the moment. So hopefully we will have news on that front soon.

The new pony

A kind neighbour dropped over a (free) Shetland pony for the children this morning. 

There was a lot of excitement. He has been named 'Ginger' and will be mostly stabled. He is rather fat and has poor feet and would be prone to laminitis, so he wouldn't be getting much grass. 

I will tether him out to graze for a few hours each day until we set up a small moveable electric fence for him. 

Otherwise he will be given dry hay. I will tidy him up tomorrow with a groom and hair cut. 

I hope to bring my son (5) with me next week to compete on newcomers classes while i compete in the adult classes. 

These are a show jumping class for children. The height of the jumps is just one pole sitting on the ground and mam/ dad get to lead the pony and child through the course. It is a nice way to introduce show jumping to children in a fun and safe way.

I hope it is a sport that we can enjoy together :-)

Dec Update

With only a few days left for Christmas, everything is settling down here at the cottage.

The boys have finished their last day of school for this year. The recent storms have kept us all indoors and thankful for comforts such as open fires.

There is a daily countdown to Santa as the kids eagerly await his arrival. 

We will spend Christmas away from the cottage in the homes of extended family.

I have been experimenting with several fermented foods/drinks; water kefir, milk kefir, kombucha and sauerkraut. 

When I get the hang of them, I will write some posts in the new year. 

I made up a large batch of fed for the bees yesterday. I poured them into old take away container and I shall place them upside down over the crown broad.

I am restocking their food supplies every month at the moment.

As the temperature are still quite high, the bees are still flying and taking feed when they can.

I bought a competition horse last week. We are keeping him at a nearby stables that has a indoor arena over the winter. The plan is to show jump him next spring at SJI events.

I gave up horses after having our third child and it is nice to get back into it again. The children are enjoying helping looking after him and we are considering getting them a small pony this summer. 

A new horse?

I meet up with my sister to go riding or kayaking on Wednesday mornings, depending on the weather. 

It is a nice break for a few hours away from the kids. The boys are in school and our girl stays with a neighbour.

It gives us a chance to catch up face to face and for me to spend some time with her horses. We always had horses but I sold mine before our girl was born. Two years later now and I think it might be time to get a horse again !

This is very exciting for me, a selfish commitment of time from me away from the home. And of Sundays being spent at shows next season. 

This is a sign of my life moving forward as our children grow! 

Does hubby realise what he has agreed to yet!?!