Settling in......

The littlest piggies on the farm are settling in nicely and have made their home very cosy, with straw piled all around the edges and little pockets for them to curl up together and sleep in. They have the polytunnel as a windbreak (and a convenient source of fresh food), and the old tumbledown wall on the other side to mooch about under. ~

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I have had to re-install Mr Hawk Eyes on the edge of the chicken enclosure as the Rooks and Magpies were taking the proverbial and pinching all the chickens food. It's nice to have a farm hand that doesn't need paying or feeding!!

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Two of the Middle Whites in the Orchard

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Talking of farm hands, son number two is coming home tomorrow to look after the farm while we zoom up the motorway to visit Lovely Mum in Law, she's been quite poorly and we're looking forward to seeing her again.

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Tayla wondering what Mum's up to with the camera

~ I'll be gone from the Blog for a couple of days, as soon as we get back from Scotland, I'll be taking Jason back to Preston and then stopping over at my diet buddys' (Mum) for a day, to compare notes and healthy eating plans, and lots more girly talk......poor Dad!! No wonder he takes refuge at the allotment!

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A couple of the Large Blacks in the background in the Paddock, their new home. ~

I miss girly talk here on the farm, although most of the animals are girls, it's not quite the same!!

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Tayla and Tinka

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Back next week with more pictures of my cuties!!

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Sue xx

Meet Tinka, Tayla and Gypsey........

Yesterday after dashing about at first light feeding the animals, cleaning the henhouse and walking the dogs, we set off to Somerset to pick up our newest little recruits to the our farm.

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When we got back many hours later the first job was to build the pig ark, (we bought it from the same place as the piggies, so were picking it up at the same time).

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So with the light rapidly failing and the batteries on the torch, camera and power tools all dying too, we just managed to get them installed before bedtime. They had their first supper in their new home by torchlight and when that went out, they went to bed in their new house.

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This morning they are exploring and meeting the other animals in daylight. And for all those you who have patiently waitied........

...meet - Tinka.....

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...Tayla...

...and Gypsey. Our 12 week old Kune Kunes.

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Posing nicely for the camera...

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...and then assuming the pose all our other animals strike when they see me approaching, backs to the camera!

They are lovely friendly little pigs already, letting me stroke them and play with their ears this morning. The wanted to make friends with Rosy, but when they all ran towards her she was off like a shot!!

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I'm sure there will be lots more photos for you all to see over the next few weeks, especially while they are so small and cute.

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Sue xx

Beauty in the Frost

Out walking yesterday with the frost nipping at all my extremities and the dogs galloping to keep warm, there was still lots of time to notice little pockets of beauty.

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What normally escapes your eyes, when tinged with a laying of frost, becomes beautiful. In this photo a little patch of weeds with the early morning sunshine causing the flowers to open and give us a little glimpse of pink.

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Today on the farm we are doing the final preparations for our new inhabitants, a couple of you know what they are, shhhh....it's a secret. For the rest of you there will be pictures on Monday. Tomorrow we are in the village hall for the day, helping to paint the inside, to keep it the lovely light, bright place it is. And then Sunday......we set off bright and early to get our new girls!! The afternoon will be spent assembling their house and settling them in.

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I can't wait!!

Have a lovely weekend. I'll be back on Monday.

Sue xx

Brrrr.......a bit nippy!!

We woke this morning to a preview of Winter. There were no animal or bird noises to disturb the icy cold stillness of the farm. As the sun came over the horizon I decided that it was time to start the morning chores. ~

The birds came out of the henhouses much slower than usual, but once the sunshine had warmed their feathers they helped themselves to food and the freshly poured water.

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The pigs bunched tightly together to eat their food. While I went and thawed out their drinking troughs.

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Smashing the ice up with my boot and then pouring on hot fresh water, which meant a drink that would not chill their tummies too much!

~ The dogs waited patiently while I finished all the tasks, then it was time to roam the fields in the warming sunshine. Watching the world come to life, with the steady hum of the motorway in the distance, as folk hurried on their way to work. On the way back we accidently disturbed the owl perched on the rafters of the barn, warming herself in the suns rays. She flew off with a hoot of disgust at her sunbathing session being brought to an abrupt end.

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For me it was then time to hurry back to the warmth of the house, to peel off the layers and sit back with a warming bowl of porridge.

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It's hard dragging yourself out to do the chores on a cold and frosty morning, but once they're done and you're back indoors with a steaming cup of coffee clutched in your rapidly thawing fingers, the sense of achievement at making your animals comfortable is more than worth it.

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I hope your day warms up nicely.

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Sue xx

Red Kites in the Veggie Bed!!

First light this morning when all the world was frosty, the sun barely coming over the horizon, I spotted a wonderful sight. Sat in the small vegetable bed motionless was one of these magnificent birds. It sat there for what seemed an age, but in fact could have been no more than 2 or 3 minutes. Something I've never seen before, and then with a whoosh of it's wings it was airborn and circling over the farm. Magnificent in it's colouring and size.

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Now we always smile when it's announced on television or when we read in magazines how rare these are, and indeed they are, but here on the farm we see them everyday. Flying solo or in pairs, hunting. Sometimes in larger groups, soaring and riding the air currents. Watching them is mesmorising, the control they show when flying using their large tail as a rudder and changing direction as though they are having SO much fun.

The chickens see them as a threat and there is usually a warning call from the cockerels as soon as one comes into view, the hens all stand watching the danger in the sky and then gradually go back about their busy day of pecking in the grass and unearthing the bugs and worms. The cockerels stay alert, ready to defend their women folk from an attack.

Only once have we lost a hen to a Red Kite, an extremely rare occurence, but when we mentioned it to a visitor to the farm, not an unheard of one. She wasn't carried away, maybe she was a touch too heavy but she was killed instantly by the sharp beak.

Beauty and danger, magificence in nature.

Sue xx

( Pictures taken from the web.)

Almost back......

We're almost back......we've still got to get our computer files re-installed, but for the moment we have a skeleton system going. Everything went quite well except for us losing all of the accounts that Lovely Hubby had just finished doing. So yesterday evening was like Groundhog Day for him with a complete re-doing of the figures.

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Soon I'll have all my photos back and will be able to show you pictures of the farm. But for now I leave you with a picture of the cutie pies, caught cat/dog napping yesterday afternoon, shortly after the photo was taken Rosy was unceremoniously kicked out of the bed by Archie so he could stretch out luxuriously.

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The weekend was spent preparing the ground for the new residents, we are picking them up on Sunday, and we can't wait, three bundles of cuteness to rival Archie and Rosy.

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On our dog walk this morning we came upon a field of geese all congregating ready for their migration to warmer climes, and a wonderful sight has just occurred as I sit here by the window typing this post, they've just flown past in V formation honking as if saying their farewells.....a lovely sight, if only I had had my camera!!

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Sue xx

Farewell...goodbye and see you soon....hopefully!!

I am not going to be able to post at all for the next few days. We are having a complete computer upgrade, and things never seem to go smoothly when we do that, do I sound pessimistic, I sure feel pessimistic!!

I hope to be back as soon as possible, in the meantime here on the farm the main jobs for this weekend are strimming, strimming and more strimming, the parts for the broken strimmer arrived at last. And we also need to make ready a new enclosure for our new animals, they may be arriving sooner that I could have hoped for. Fingers crossed they will be in residence within the next week or so!!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and I HOPE to be back with you soon.

Farewell

Sue xx

Scenes from the Farm

Today a few pictures of the farm coming to life in the sunshine the other day. This morning there is a hint of rain in the air, hopefully it will vanish and the sun will be back. But we are in the middle of Autumn now and the farm is winding down.

~ Our landlord managed to get this field of Oilseed Rape harvested in the glorious sunshine over last weekend, and now all the fields are flat and some are bare. In others the stirrings of life, as overwintering crops show their faces to the fastly diminishing sun and hours of daylight.

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Lovely Hubbys' worm beds, where once there was one, now there are two. Well, when you've got 50,000 worms breeding away they quickly need more accommodation.

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This was the pigs outdoor area by the barn, their overwintering quarters last year when the mud got too bad for them to stay in the orchard. It's hard to imagine it as the bare dug up earth it was then, Mother Natures' amazing power of rejuvenation.

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Our tractor still with fence post knocker attached, after LHs' hard work of last week, putting up the fencing in the Paddock.

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My wellies.....finally free of mud after a long doggie walk across the dew laden fields. Now the dogs are snoring contentedly on their sofa, and I have time for a coffee and a quick Blog catch up, it's lovely to read what everyone's up to.

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What are you doing today, whatever it is I hope you have a lovely one.

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Sue xx

The Year of the Squash

This year truly is the year of the squash. ~

We have them coming out of our ears (well the muck pile anyway).

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We have big ones, little ones, round ones, lumpy ones and even as the picture at the top shows SQUARE ONES!!

Last night for tea we had Pumpkin Curry, not a huge success, I didn't make it spicy enough.....oh well, I can try again......I'm not short of squash or two or three......!

The ones in the muck pile are the results of a discarded plant in the compost bin last year. I needed some space so LH tipped the compost bin onto the muck pile and dug it in. Then in Spring we noticed something growing so left it to see what would develop. Well....we now have a HUGE plant and about 40 knobbly, bobbly squashes, that we don't even know the name of. Move aside any of the leaves and you find these lovely little specimens.

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Oh well, I'm getting out the cookbooks and looking for recipes to use up this lovely glut. At least squashes store quite well so we won't have to have them for every meal.

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Just outside the polytunnel I have four Butternut Squash plants that have suddenly come into their own, with the most adorable little Butternut squashes developing, (can you tell it's the first time I have grown these). I love baby plants as well as baby animals.

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A slice of squash in your porridge anyone?

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Sue xx

A Misty Morning

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The mist hung heavy over the farm this morning. The chickens were quiet in the henhouse, not even Normans' deep throated 'cock a doodle doo' was to be heard breaking the silence.

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Like a band of sea fog the mist slowly swirled around the trees, a long cold layer of moisture hovering above the wet grass.

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~ As it started to disperse the polytunnel came clearly into view, looking shiny and taut. There was an eerie stillness to the world at first, but now the sun is slowly but surely adding it's warmth to the morning and the mist will soon be a distant memory. ~

By the end of our doggie walk, the sun had warmed the branches of the trees, and the lovely red berries were glistening in its warmth, inviting the birds to breakfast. When I got back to the house, I did my bit for our feathered friends, and filled all our bird feeders with fat balls, wild seeds and peanuts. Within minutes there were two Finches tucking into the fat balls.

Later I must go out and put some fresh water in the bird bath, but for now they have the moisture that lingers all around in the puddles on the ground and the dips in the earth to wash down their breakfast.

Sue xx

Wow....what a weekend!!

Liz, Lulu, Jack and Lottie...the Large Blacks.

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Wow...what a weekend we've had here on the farm. Lots of jobs accomplished and at last we're on the home straight of tidying the farm for Winter.

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Lovely Hubby worked hard all day on Friday fencing off half of our 6 acre paddock so we could move the Large Blacks in on Saturday afternoon. We had them in while we were still attaching the electric fencing and this time, luckily for us, they actually stayed inside the fence once it was switched on, and didn't make the mad break for the M40 through the fence like they did last time we put them in there.

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All the fences have been strengthened and all the gaps have been filled in. The electric fence is a first line of defence inside the existing fences, and LH's new addition across the width of the field is the strongest of them all. The pigs are loving the abundant grass and hopefully, (fingers crossed), it won't be the same mud bath as in the orchard due to it being slightly better draining land. ~

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Of course little Rosy had to come with me to help feed the pigs this morning and check out the new living accommodation. We have given them two arks now as they are growing quickly and although four in a row in one ark is cosy, (and very cute), they will need more space very soon.

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~ Other jobs done this weekend....a very necessary mornings shopping done by me on Friday while LH was fencing, the complete clean out of all the pig arks, so the Middle Whites could move into the Large Blacks old pen, (it's the biggest one), a tidy up of the polytunnel, and at last we managed to get the grass cut, it was still a bit wet so we will give it another final tidy next week after we get the replacement parts for our broken strimmer, then we will be really tidy!

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Oh, and on top of all that we had a very successful morning at the Farmers Market yesterday, selling lots of lavender goodies and all of our eggs. And somehow I got us roped in to help with the painting of the inside of the Village Hall later this month. Me and my big mouth!!

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My next task is to do a bit of research about the next couple of animals we're buying. Lovely Hubby has given me the go-ahead, (I do like it when it's official.....no sweet talking involved!). I can't wait....they're GORGEOUS!! I promise you there will be LOADS of pictures.

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Sue xx

Fair Trade for British Farmers

image borrowed from the web

We were watching one of our new favourite programmes yesterday, 'Food - What goes in Your Basket?' on it they look at lots of aspects of food production, cooking, storage times....well everything about food really.

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A section yesterday was given to milk production in this country and in an interview with a busy farmer. It came out that he loses 3p on every litre of milk he produces....WHAT!! The supermarket (the seller) makes it's profit, the consumer gets cheap milk and the person that works all the hours that farmers work to milk cows makes a loss!! Is that fair.

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The next item that came on was about bananas, produced in St Lucia by some lovely, also hardworking farmers, but they are paid enough money to be able to send their children to school, look after their families properly and generally just improve themselves and their lives. In short they are paid the value of their product.

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Now I used to work for Oxfam and I am wholeheartedly, one hundred percent behind Fairtrade, I was a Shop Manager in the shops when the first products were launched, I was one of the ones that explained to customers why the coffee and the chocolate bars cost a few pennies more, and mostly people on hearing why, dug that little bit deeper into their pockets and paid the difference happily.

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Lovely Hubby at the end of last nights programme looked at me and said "Why don't British farmers deserve Fairtrade?"

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Do you have an answer?

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Sue xx

Tidying for Winter and pink knickers......

Another batch of chutney.

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One of the more pressing jobs at the moment is tidying the farm for Winter. It is all too easy to overlook day to day mess around the house and polytunnel, but at this time of year it's nice to get everything 'ship shape'. As well as making the place look better, if we tidy away all the extras that we aren't using on a day to day basis, they aren't just out there getting wet and worse blowing around in the wind. We sometimes seem to live in a wind-tunnel and things you can't imagine get blown into the hedges around the places.

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I'd hate to give ramblers a shock with the sight of my pink knickers festooning a hedge!! (They were white, but you know what happens when you have red socks!!) Yes, I did hang some washing on the line yesterday....why do you think it rained!!

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Sue xx

Sunshine on a rainy day.......

My stall on Saturday.

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On Saturday while Lovely Hubby was putting up the new fence across the paddock ready for the Large Blacks to move into, I was busy at the Craft Fair in Wheatley. It was a lovely sunny morning, quite the opposite from Friday when it rained and stayed dark for most of the day. ~

The Craft Fair was pretty well attended and but us stallholders all had time for a chat with each other, so it made for a lovely atmosphere. There were some new stalls this time, and all in all a lovely mix of goodies for sale. I'm already looking forward to the next one on 6th November - blatant plug!!

~ I must get on with making a fresh batch of soaps today, as my stock was very quickly depleted and I have my Farmers Market coming up this Sunday. ~

When I got back to the farm there was a parcel waiting for me, a gorgeous splash of colour that would brighten any day.

~ And inside........my lovely new bag from Pam at hortensia ... ......and also in the parcel another little gift, a gorgeous notebook and little gift tag. I'm a lucky girl to have made such lovely Blogging pals. Thank you Pam, I love it all. ~ The main reason I'm not putting on pictures of the farm at the moment is that I'm fighting against a sea of mud, it's not a pretty picture the farm at present and I need to see pretty pictures. Summer vanished way before I was ready, Autumn leapt in with both feet and caught me unawares. ~ There is lots of tidying needed to be done to make the farm look ready for Winter. It's a sparser view from the windows during Winter but I still like it to be a tidy one! So I'm off out in a short while to make a start on tidying the patio area while the sun is briefly shining. Have a lovely day. Sue xx