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.

Orchard

Hubby has been busy all day. He has planted three extra fruit trees and staked fifteen more, of apples, plum, cherries and pears. Did you notice amber in the background? She is looking over the stonewall. 

He then brought a wheelbarrow of muck to each tree and spread it at the base.

The orchard is looking loved now. I'm very proud of his work!

I noticed that some of the willow cuttings are starting to take. I need to keep the pony out of the paddocks as he keeps stepping on them!

Amber went out today for the first time in the big field. She was not very happy about this! She spent the day mooing and following hubby around by the fence line. I think she might be in heat!

We still do not have the milking machine working. It is not producing enough vacuum. Hubby has tried tightening the belt and did a total disassembly and still doesn't understand why! 

Either way, we know it is a sample problem, just too damn simple for us to fix. He will visit a neighbouring dairy farmer this evening to see if he has any ideas. We have asked about five people so far and they all assure us it is a simple problem/fix but don't have any suggestions.

I spent some of the day with my little girl building a woodpile by the porch door for the approaching week. The boys were busy exploring for bugs!

Happy St.Patricks Day...

It was too cold and wet for us to bring the children to the parade this year.

What did you do for St.Patrick's Day if anything ?  

Bees, Pigs and Apple Trees

 

The bees are still out and about flying around during the middle of the day when the temperatures rise above 9-10 degrees.

As they have not clustered yet, they are using more energy and therefore food reserves but are able to feed although there is no forage available at this time of year for them.

I opened up all the hives, just taking off the roof to get access to the crown boards.

As you can see they have used most of the fondant that I give them in early oct. 

I made up another batch of about four litres and added this to the crown boards.

The fondant was still warm and more liquid but it quickly firmed up. The bees were delighted!

I will have to keep a close watch on them as this mild winter will see them needing more feeding through to spring. 

I prefer to over feed than for the bees to starve under the pressure of spring. 

I watched the bees going about their housework, cleaning out the hive and collecting moisture droplets from the grass.

I have them four years now and I am still in awe of them and their collective organisation. 

It hasn't rained here in a few days and the pig sty is getting messy. A heavy rain usually cleans out the sty for us. A job I must do today instead :-)

This is a young apple tree that I under sown with peas. The peas are dying back now but I noticed that the peas did a wonderful job of opening out the branches of this young tree. The weight/pull of the peas all season has trained the branches into a more ideal shape. A delightful accident!

 

The bees are busy in the orchard

All four hives are very busy foraging today. The hot weather has filled the orchard with a great buzz of bees. 

We planted an extra few fruit trees in the orchard over the weekend. We have a dozen planted there now. We cleaned out around the base of all the trees and spread manure to suppress the weeds and grass.

The birds have done a great deal of damage on the few remaining apples that survived the storm.

We moved the hen coop into the orchard  yesterday evening. I will move them a few feet every day, moving up and down on fresh grass. The young trees will benefit from the fertiliser and pest control. We would love to have them free range but Mr.Fox is always happy for an easy meal. They also do a lot of damage when free like scratching up flower/veg beds and pooping on our doorstep.