Pigs back again

It seems amazing now that we have almost been here a year and those spring jobs are starting to appear again. The lawn mower and strimmer have both been dusted down, removed from the workshop and been put into action. The grass is growing which is great for the sheep, but not so good for the strimming, mowing etc. I haven't yet tried out the tractor as a mower. Our little tractor has a bit of history and my grandfather got it back in the early '80's to mow his Paddock and partly to take us Grandchildren for rides in. He used that until he became to ill to manage it. My Uncle got it back into working order recently for more Grandchildren rides and now it is here working hard. I don't know if it is upset that we can no longer buy the 2* petrol the instructions (which I have) state should fuel it. It was originally a mower so I should be able to get the blades back on and use it for some mowing. I need to do all around the vegetables. It's an area I don't really trust the sheep to do. I know from experience they'll just eat the strawberry plants which will greatly upset me as I am looking forward to my strawberries this year. We have to get enough to make some jam for Harriett this year even if it is just one jar.

Having pigs back again is great now that they are in and settled. Those following our facebook and Twitter accounts will probably know the tale (story not curly thing at the back of a pig) about the new piglets. Zoe and the girls collected them from a lovely smallholding in Hull where they were well looked after. Most of the pigs were kept outside, but these weaners (weaned piglets) were kept inside as they kept escaping. They got driven in the dog crate in the back of the car back here. We lifted the crate into their new run which was fenced off with electric fencing and let them out. They ran all together to the fence, touched it, got a shock, then ran through it. We then for 5 or 10 minutes had them coming back in and then out and finally they headed onto the road for a trip up to the village. It then took a long time and required the help of some willing volunteers to get them back. Once caught we had to carry them by their backlegs back to the house (they are pretty heavy) and quickly lock them in the barn. There they lived for a week or so causing chaos. They were living in our feed barn and proceeded to knock over buckets of feed, steel bags of carrots and generally be a nuisance. Clearly pigs need to be outdoors where they can enjoy the sunshine and have plenty of things to keep them entertained. In the meantime we built a second fence around the pig enclosure so they now have a metal mesh and electric fence to keep them in. The other night I tempted them into the dog crate (food at the back and wait by the door). We then drove the crate down to their run, put the crate in their enclosure and let them go for a second time. I was worried, but, all went well. The weaners didn't even bother to try and run off like before. They just ran around the grass enjoying themselves and then found an area to root. They did go near the fence once or twice and the odd squeal meant that they were learning not to touch it. Unfortunately the pigs learnt this quicker than Harriett who managed to give herself quite a belt from the fence. So the pigs are now happily in their run, enjoying the outdoor life and not escaping. They are quite cute in a morning if you go over as they are all cuddled up together under the straw in their house.

On top of all of this I have now started doing some supply work a couple of days a week and some tutoring so suddenly time is at a bit of a premium. As usual it is probably the garden that is loosing out here as the weeds start to creep in, but I have mowed the lawn once. As the lambs are getting bigger they are taking more and more of an interest in the plants of the garden. They have another few weeks on the milk but I think they are going to have to go into their own area of field soon. 

The Humber Bridge Market is back around again at the bank holiday and we should be there again selling bread and preserves, so it's going to be a very busy week ahead. I am looking forward to a weekend in the vegetable garden and polytunnel, planting, weeding, mulching and communing with the plants. I still haven't put that comfy chair in the polytunnel.

Market Mayhem

As those who have been following us on Facebook now realise we have two lambs: Tilly and Mary. Both are doing well and are getting bigger and stronger all the time. Steve who gave them to us visited the other day and reckoned they were probably slightly bigger than their siblings they left behind, which is fantastic. Once we had Tilly a week or so and she was feeding well and looking strong we moved the lambs out into the barn. This has saved a lot of mopping up every morning. They now spend all day in the garden and the night in the barn. They are starting to show an interest in eating plants (not grass especially) so they will need to move into a field area of their own before too long. We still feed them milk from a bottle every three hours or so, and they are taking a bit of solid feed too (although that gets tricky as the dog likes eating it). They are still very cute, get very excited whenever you go near them and do lots of jumping as lambs do. At the other other end of the lamb scale our lambs that are now a year old need to go to slaughter very soon. This should be a double bonus of freeing up some field space and getting some delicious lamb onto the table and in the freezer. Sticking with the subject of stock we have some new pigs on order and are picking up three weaners later in the week. They are going to be Tamworths and Tamworth-Old Spot crosses. We are getting three this time. Two for meat for us and one to sell the meat from.

We've had a manic few days recently with markets. After very early mornings baking around the South Cave market I had a plan in place ready for the Driffield market which meant not having to go to bed too late or getting up too early. This all went well and we had plenty of fresh bread and pastries ready for sale at the market. We managed to sell out of all of our bakery stuff and sell a few jars on the side. The market was Easter Saturday and so Saturday afternoon I was just sitting down ready for a relaxing afternoon when I got a message from one of the organisers of the Humber Bridge Farmers Market. As locals will know this is by far the biggest farmers market in the area. So the afternoon went from a relaxed having a beer in the garden to a manic baking session. Well at the start I went to bed for an hour and sent Zoe and the kids off to Tesco. But once they were back then it was all go and didn't stop until about 2:30am when I finally got to bed. Once I got to the market it was very busy and everything sold well which was excellent. They were also keen that we go back on a regular basis.

The polytunnel is now full of seedlings that are growing well. I could do with them growing a bit faster and be ready to plant on as the workbenches I have for growing are starting to get full and I have another load of seed planting I need to do in the next few days. A few things are sprouting outside too like the broad beans and parsnips. I am trying to grow a few things to feed the pigs. I've planted some Turnips. I'd like to grow some fodder beet which are the Turnippy looking things you often see sheep eating. However seed suppliers only sell the seed by the tonne of if they are really going to town by the kilogram. However when I need a hundred grams or so those sorts of quantities are rather over the top.

We are now doing final preparations ready for our sheep to lamb which should be happening soon. They are starting to look quite large now although there are no other signs that the lambs are on the way yet.

I have managed to squeeze in some decorating into the mix somewhere in the last week or so, but the gardening has got pushed out a little. I am hoping to have a gardening and brewing day some time this week. This may sound like an odd combination of activities but there is a lot of waiting on brewing days, an hour here, two hours there so there is plenty of time to do other things, or just finish off the last brew (although this never does much for the quality of the new brew!) I've also noticed that Dandelions are coming out so I am keen to get out find a good Dandelion field, take the kids and get picking. With Dandelion wine, syrup (like maple syrup) and marmalade that can be made it's always a great spring treat picking in the sunshine and then making all the goodies at home.

We are thinking of having an open day at the Smallholding in the near future (hopefully once we have our lambs and piglets). As the plan develops and details (such as a date) appear I'll post them on Facebook and our website.