Tuesday 7 March 2017

Belated weekend antics

After the excitement of the pigs, I thought they needed their own post, so today's post is to bring the blog up to date with the weekend's fun and games.
Remember the sheep chasing the fighting cockerels?  Well, not 1, but 2 sheep managed to lock themselves in the outside toilet on Sunday.  I've not laughed so hard in a long time.
The chickens that hatched in December have now been moved to the meshed greenhouse to get them outside of the barn but keep them away from the big ones (they would be bullied.)  Eventually the girls will go in the main section and the boys will be dispatched for the freezer.  They will be small, so Ste will joint them and I'll use in the slow cooker/curries and things like that.


We need to set our minds to the table birds we want this year, the Ross Cobbs.  They will be bought in at day olds.  We won't be hatching any more laying hens this year but I will take a few orders of rare breeds for people to keep the pot topped up. 
The geese are starting to think about incubating their eggs so we hope for a few goslings to be running around the place in a month or 2.  I'm not sure what the sheep will make of that!
A bit blurry as this was mid "discussion" between the geese and sheep
Anyway, the weekend.
I sowed loads and loads of seeds and was in my element.  In went more cauliflower, cabbage, onions, beetroot, sunflowers, nasturtiums, swiss chard, courgettes, wild garlic, leeks, calabrese and tomatoes.  Lots of different varieties.
I was doing this in between lifting wheelbarrows with Ste who was shovelling the 4 tonne of soil we ordered.  He got 2 tonne moved yesterday into the beds which have the muck in them.  They're ready for planting now, some will be empty a while yet though (pumpkins, squash and so on).
He was being watched with interest.
Whilst the birds were watching him, my daughter was watching something else.  She noticed a suspicious van drive by and park illegally along the bridleway.  So she did as she's been told to and came to tell Ste and I who were shovelling yet more muck at the muck heap.  I swear, some days all we see is sh*t!
Anyway, she said it was open backed so Ste wondered if they were fly tipping which happens where we are being remote ish.  So he had a walk up to the van (maybe silly) and it was empty!  He took a photo of the reg and I sent it to the farmer who confirmed they shouldn't be there.  The farmer could see them walking up the bridleway and went to have a polite word with them, and they left.  He messaged me to say they were hawkers, out with their dogs and are known to them for all the wrong reasons.
I must say, I'm glad they weren't in the van when Ste went up and I'm also pleased I wasn't out riding or walking the dogs as the hawkers dogs do tend to immobilise anything small and furry!
Who says county life is quiet?

8 comments:

  1. Fantastic post chic! Ewes in the loo? Sooo funny!! Love the meshed chicken house.I wish we had more room to have table birds as well as layers because we eat a lot of chicken; maybe something we shall have to look into. Look forward to seeing the goslings. So many seeds - fab! Still have some rebel sowing to look into! Well done Grace, and great that you could ask the farmer for his help, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope you manage to get even a few table birds - maybe you could keep a breeding pair and let them hatch their own each year...I shouldn't be putting ideas into your head should I? Haha xx

      Delete
    2. Yes, bring on those ideas!! We will have a bit more room after an upcoming project so we may look at table birds then. Not sure I would be confident about the hatching thing...?x

      Delete
    3. You could leave them to do it ;)

      Delete
  2. Ross Cobbs is what we are looking at for table birds, fingers crossed this year, we still have a couple of roosters to get in the freezer, shame you didnt get a pic of the sheep in the loo :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When do you plan on getting them Dawn?

      Delete
  3. You can also buy Ross Cobbs at five week olds so that they are off heat. We did that because of space issues and it still proved cost effective. I have to admit I could never get to grips with just how much food they could get through. They are eating machines!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brilliant info, thank you. We'll be sure to stock up on feed!

      Delete

Week 8 - The depths of February and going strong.

We have decided to put the area where the pigs were a few years ago back to grass.  They did a great job of eating what was there, weeds and...