The constant
cycle of rain and sun is making everything grow at a vast rate. The
veg and grass are both shooting up and keeping up with them both is
proving to be a challenge, especially as my mowers keep needing
visits to the repair shop. The wild area now has grass, hogweed,
docks and a range of other plants that are about up to head height.
As I wander through I see dragonflies, butterflies and loads of
other insects. There also seems to be something quite large making
tracks through the plants and flattening large areas where it sits
down. I have no idea what it is at the moment, but as it doesn’t
seem to be eating the veg or upsetting the livestock I’m not too
worried.
The pigs are
getting really big now and have managed to decimate every last leaf
of vegetation in their run. They managed to escape as well a couple
of times recently. The electric fence had been left off and they dug
their way under the fencing and out into the field. Once there they
ate lots of grass before heading to the compost heap to raid that.
Luckily as they are big and very food obsessed they happily followed
a bucket of food back into the safety of their run. We thought
initially that we would have to separate the pigs as they got bigger
but they all seem happy together and seem to enjoy all cuddling up
with one another in the pig house at night.
The lambs are now
getting really big and catching up in size with their Mums. They are
still enjoying getting milk though as well as the grass. Two of the
sheep are being shown at the Driffield Show on Wednesday by the kids.
They were shampooed at the weekend (in between shows at Beverley
puppet festival) so they look their best for showing. Imogen is going
to show our black bottle fed lamb. Harriett is going to show Tilly
one of the lambs we bottle fed last year. This years white bottle fed
lamb was very uncooperative on a lead and so we switched her for
last years star Tilly, after Harriett had spent a substantial amount
of time dragging a very unwilling lamb around on a lead.
We have had a
brilliant Strawberry season so far with a fresh batch most days. With
having plenty to eat we have also frozen a good quantity ready for
jam making. It’s still a bit of a battle wrestling them from the
slugs and birds, but overall I think we are winning with that one.
We have fresh broad beans at the moment and peas, runner beans and
Courgettes are all going to be ready any day now. I am struggling
with growing lettuce as the slugs just keep destroying it. I have
tried a good few tactics, but, as soon as my back is turned they all
dive out of the ground and scoff the lot.
I spent the whole of Tuesday cleaning out and sterilizing all of the
chicken runs as we found loads of red mites had got in there and were
annoying the chickens. I have virtually dismantled all the chicken
houses and scrubbed them clean the problem seems to be well under
control. The chicks are still doing well and it’s now really clear
which as cockerels and which are layers. This is the first time we
have had chicks of the same breed to be able to compare them against
each other and the differences are really starting to show. We still
have all 9 of the chicks that we hatched, and have 2 more from Tim
down the road who popped a few of our eggs into his incubator along
with a load of duck eggs. The ducklings are elsewhere but the chicks
seem to be happy with us.
It’s now just a
case of polishing the sheep now, ready for the Driffield Show. I am
sure they will do well.
