Rain is with us

The rain has been going on with few breaks for days now. The mud is starting to appear around the smallholding. As is traditional the pigs area is the first to go. They had already done a good job of turning it all over so it didn't take long with a bit of rain to turn into serious mud. Luckily they are tall enough now so that they are out of it most of the time. I was hoping that during the weekend we could fence them off a new area so they have some grass. However a forecast of rain all weekend has meant the CSA day is cancelled and so I am not sure we'll get it done. However I will do at some stage in the next week. I'm letting the pigs in an area to do some ploughing for me. They can root up any potatoes left in the ground, which is great for blight prevention. They will also turn over the soil ready for it to be grown in next year. This year we grew squash and potatoes here. Next year I am hoping to make the area much larger and growing some fodder crops for both the pigs and the sheep. It's handy that we can keep the pigs happy and get all that work done it one go. It might save me from having to hire a Rotavator in the spring.

I have put it off long enough now and I am going to have to bite the bullet and get some decorating done. As it's pouring down at the weekend I might have to actually have to get going with it.

The chicks are all now getting quite large but still none of them have either layed an egg or cock-a-doodled. I thought I heard one of them cock-a-doodle several weeks ago but it must have been me as I haven't heard anything since. As it's coming into winter it could now be a good while before the girls start to lay. We suspect that the Light Sussex is a cockerel but it's only a guess as he's so much bigger than the rest.

The sheep are getting to the time of the year where their feet start to be an issue. I have already have to deal with two of them going lame in the last week or two. One seems to be on the mend. The other one still doesn't seem to be right. They also start to look rather bedraggled on stormy or wet mornings as they tend to wedge themselves as deep as they can into the hedge (this hedge is about 12 feet wide and you can walk around inside it). So they appear looking soggy and with various branches and brambles stuck in their wool. One of the lambs left us a week or so ago and we now have more excellent lamb in the freezer. We have already had liver and bacon, liver pate as well as some great lamb shanks. Still haven't done anything with the wool from the sheep. I'll add it to the list of winter jobs.