Littlest Piggies on the Farm

The littlest, cutest little piggies on the farm. (Shhh....don't tell the others I said that!)

We picked them up on Saturday and by teatime they were busy exploring their pig ark.

Looking around for their brothers and sisters, but happy to be together.

Never straying more than a couple of feet from each other they gave the whole of their enclosure the once over before settling down to a snack of pig nuts.

After checking everything out and marvelling at the barking Jack Russell that is smaller than they are, they settled down for a little snooze in the sunshine. The most laid back little piggies I have ever met (I think they get that from their Mum, Cilla.)

On a sadder note Latte, one of our original girls died during the night. We expected it from yesterday afternoon. We have noticed a real pattern now when a chicken is going to die in it's sleep. They take themselves away after a meal and a drink, for an afternoons solitude, then at bedtime the others huddle around her, as if saying goodbyes. It's sad but a nice peaceful end to a happy life.

RIP Latte, you were a lovely lady and a fun chicken to know.

Sue xx

Early Potatoes In!

The front of the house is calm and peaceful......around the back there is work in progress. Yesterday was spent planting my 1st Early and 2nd Early potatoes (Lady Christl and Kestrel). and then quickly protecting the beds from my army of little helpers, who were determined to dig up said potatoes as soon as possible to check for signs of early growth and possibilty of edibility.

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So here is a quick photo post of work as it happened (I do like it when I'm organised enough to remember to take the camera out with me!!).

I started the day uncovering the beds and lightly digging over the soil.

Cappachino checked I had brought the right trowel for the job.

Another 'little helper' walked the line!

82 potatoes planted.

(I know Dad.......way too close together but they wanted to be cosy!!)

Mystery bag, deposited on the patio by nice white van man!!

It contains every chickens worst enemy........netting!! No more free access to our food!

Using 3 bamboo support hoops I covered the bed.

A ha....say the chickens.....another chance.

But now I've got the hang of this there is no stopping me and within an hour 67 more potatoes are in, and supports fashioned from branches of last years trimmed trees.

The netting is quickly attached, and hopefully our spuds are safe from chickens.

Today I'm having a bit of clean up in the house, (and a mad supermarket dash) as we have guests for supper (real people, wearing clean non-muddied up clothes that need a dust free area to sit on!), and then, only then will I be free to plant the next lot of lovely food stuff in the 'Kitchen Garden'........our new name for raised bed area at the back of the house.

No posting on the Blog tomorrow, as we set off at the crack of dawn to pick up Lulu and Lottie our new Large Black piglets..........I can't wait they are GORGEOUS!!

Excited Sue xx

Milly

The new girls, the Speckledys are settling in well. They now come running when they hear my 'chook chook' call along with all the others.

A Speckledy, they don't have names yet!

They are slowly learning to perch on the roosting bars at night in the henhouse. They used to squeeze (all ten of them) into 2 or three of the nesting boxes, now just four of them sleep here, something I really want them to get out of the habit of because it messes up the straw for laying early in the morning before the house is open.

After a walk you lay claim to the food!

They are getting into the same routine as the others, the only thing they don't do quite of much of at the moment is follow me everywhere. Morning walks are fast becoming a parade, with three of the chickens (two whites and a Welsummer) following me when I walk the dogs. So the order is Sophie ahead, Rosy chasing after then me, quickly followed by three chickens and Archie, the cat bringing up the rear. If only someone had a camera!!

If no one else wants it....you get stuck in - even if it is layers pellets!!

The sun is shining now, slowly melting the frost that we have had overnight and the pigs need feeding, so off I go. Camera in hand (closely followed by 3 chickens and a cat and led by two dogs) ....hey ho, hey ho.....!

Sue xx

Almost There......

We are almost there with our raised veggie beds. Over the weekend Lovely Hubby and Jason managed to get over a ton of hardcore under the last three raised beds to bring the ground level to match the rest of the beds and then they filled the beds with some lovely fresh manure......mmmmm the aroma.....cough, cough!!

Then we put down the black membrane to help suppress the weeds in the pathways in between each of the beds and topped it all off with over forty bags of bark chippings. These we quickly ran out of, so me and Jason headed off for the garden centre for another 12 bags (we still need more, but that can wait until next weekend). While we were there we also got some paving slabs to make stepping stones for under the washing line.

The chickens love the bark chippings and are spending every available minute moving them for us. They are also emptying the new beds of the manure almost as quickly as we put it in!! Tomorrow (weather permitting) we will make a start on planting the potatoes in the six beds we completed first, these have been covered in polythene to help warm the soil and keep the chickens out.

A covering of membrane and bark chippings in front of the shed helps hide all the mud the chickens have made with their little feet. And there is now a pathway right around the shed so we don't have to slip and slide in the mud.

In the polytunnel work went on all weekend with 159 sweetcorn seeds being sown and lots of successional planting done. I moved of some seedlings into their permanent polytunnel beds and also did lots of thinning out of seedlings in the trays and tubes. I must remember in future that I seem to be getting about a 99.5% success rate with seeds and stop putting two into each toilet roll tube! It's looking very productive in there at the moment, but most of these seedlings will be going outside in the new beds, then I will have lots of space to pot on the tomato, celery and pepper plants and they can stay in their own beds in the polytunnel for the summer. I have already taken the plastic off the top half of the doors, but am quickly pinning it back up at night at the moment as we have had some frost forecast. The last of the Leylandii trees were finally planted yesterday. That's 200 of them dotted around the farm. These were bought mainly as water drinkers to try and mop up the huge excess of water we have in the orchard. They seem to have all survived the cold winter and the Welsummers....who all love a nibble at them. Back tomorrow. Sue xxx

A Tiring Weekend

The picture that sums up our weekend.

Lovely Hubby only sat down for a breather on Sunday afternoon and within minutes he was fast asleep. Rosy and Archie soon found him, and decided that after a day's running around after each other a nap would be an excellent idea.

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I'll be back tomorrow with pictures of just why LH is SO tired.

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Hope your weekend was as successful as ours.

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Sue x

Happy Easter from all at the Farm

I hope everyone is having a lovely Easter break, I've just nipped on to the computer for five minutes while LH makes his getaway with the trailer. If I don't stay in with little Rosy while he does this she runs after him all the way to the village.

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Yesterday morning was spent at a Craft Fair in Wheatley and a lovely friendly little fair it was too, with lots of people needing advice about lavender, eczema and babies not sleeping. I surprise myself sometimes with the words of wisdom that come out of my mouth. I have obviously absorbed lots of information since I've been dealing with lavender and herbs, it's nice to be able to share it with other people.

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A good little seller were my jars of little heart shaped guest soaps in assorted 'flavours'. When I got back to the farm it was back to business in the polytunnel, and that's where I am today. I have just finished planting 159 sweetcorn seeds and the next crop of radishes.

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Also this morning I thinned out the beetroots and filled lots more pots with compost ready for this afternoons planting. Lovely Hubby is picking up a load of very well rotted manure to put in our last three raised beds, which he has spent the morning filling around with hardcore to bring the level of the ground up to the same as the others.

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Now me and Jason are off to put down the membrane around the beds and then we can top it all off with bark chippings and then, at last, the beds at the back of the house will be finished and ready for planting.

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Hope your Easter is turning out just the way you want it. Mine is.....I have four Easter eggs to chomp my way through!!

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Sue xx

A Handy Little Tip

Just a little post today as I've only just got Broadband back, there was no sign of the Internet earlier, just a number to call to check for faults and work in progress, when I phoned, the list of places without Internet went on and on and on........ So I left the computer alone and went and made some more soaps for my Craft Fair on Saturday morning.

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Now it's suddenly popped back on and I thought I'd leave you with a handy little tip before Easter.

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If like me you've used up all your diddy little plant pots for seedlings but you still have some more to get started instead of putting them into huge pots and risking a straggly root system, put cardboard dividers into a large pot and then treat it as four little pots.

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The pictures show you what I mean. It means each seedling gets a good start with a strong compact root system and you also have less fiddly little pots around the place.

Just appeared in the polytunnel are my lovely little celery seedlings and cucumber plants, I have four cucumbers in pots and two tray fulls.....I wonder how many cucumbers you get off each plant......and there are an awful lot of celery seedlings. I could be in for a very 'salady' summer!!

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I am now taking a little Blogging break for Easter so I'd like to wish you all a lovely Easter, may all your eggs be chocolatey (or gorgeous free-range with golden yolks) and may your teeth survive the onslaught of all the sugar!! Back Soon. (The PIF names will go into a hat over the weekend and be drawn on Easter Sunday, if you would still like to enter scroll down to my earlier post.) Sue xx