The lambs now are
growing really fast. They are spending more and more time together
and away from their Mums. They are usually found in a group sleeping
or playing together as a four. They are very playful and are often
jumping, climbing or running around together. Their mothers still
look like goats with their lack of wool, but our shearer did such a
neat job they look quite good still. Our last adult who has not had
any lambs is definitely male, as became much more obvious once he was
sheared. He is destined for the pot very soon and so we can then have
our first lamb meat. I believe at 18 months they still count as lamb.
I would like to keep some until they are mutton to try but we only
have limited grass so this might be tricky. We are trying to work out
at the moment how many we can keep over winter as the amount of
winter grass is limited.
Mary and Tilly the orphaned lambs are
currently living in with the chickens. Out tractor mower is at the
menders and so the grass in their and other places is getting rather
high. So I've sent the lambs in to try and bring it down. They are
working on it slowly, but I did notice today that they have started
to make a dent on it. The grass is so high in there it's easy to
loose the chickens and they have warn little chicken paths in various
places through the grass and nettles.
Our pigs seem to be
permanently hungry, more so than the last pigs we have. You seem to
have to pop a bit of food over the fence before going in with them
otherwise they try and nibble at your ankles. They are happily
settled and showing no more signs of escaping. They have started
seriously rooting up their run and apart from the toilet area, all
the grass is gone. However there are a few green areas where nettles
and Thistles grow that they don't seem to like.
We now have a
cleared out a barn we are converting into a small shop. It is quite
nice inside panelled out in wood, not just stone and spiders webs. I
am hoping we can open this fairly soon, I did even got my first
customer in the shop yesterday.
The Hay Festival we
went to was really interesting. The kids got to meet lots of authors
and illustrators. They managed to get their pigs drawn by one of the
illustrators and so we have the picture now at home. I found a talk
about beer which I thought was great. Books of course can be about
everything and so this lady had written a book about beer and her
talk included tastings. Who could argue? We also took our Canoe down
the river Wye a couple of times while we were there. It was nice to
have a break, but equally good to get back home at the end.
Especially as Kevin and Christine (who had been looking after the
animals) had cleaned up the back patio in our absence. It looks
fantastic now.
It was amazing how much everything had grown in the
week we had been away.
The polytunnel and
plants are coming on well although it's a constant battle with the
slugs at the moment. They are everywhere. Last month I tried
parasitic worms but they didn't seem to have much effect. I am now
onto slug pellets. I have always avoided these in the past due to
their effect on other wildlife, but I have done some research and
found some organic ones that seem to manage to kill off the slugs
without effecting the rest of the food chain (apart from the fact
that there are less slugs). I am hoping that these will at least make
a dent in the huge slug population that we seem to have in the field.
I sometimes worry I am getting a bit slug obsessed. Zoe thinks I am.
But the little buggers do just eat the little seedlings that plant
out having looked after them for weeks.
I think it's sausage
making at the weekend as we have run out and have a freezer full of
meat to turn into sausages. Hopefully I'll have finally planted out
all the seedlings soon as well, it's starting to get quite late.
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