Too busy to take photos.

This is what is keeping me busy...the wall is a new one so the foundations have to be solid, the stone imported from another part of the farm and it is work in progress.

I spent from 11.30am until 7.00pm with half hour lunch and half hour for patching up the silage bales as the plastic had torn leaving the silage exposed...a certain way of acheiving a nice mouldy for Cloud in the middle of winter.

Speaking of Cloud, that white lump is her. She tends to hang around while I am working, whether eating, chewing the cud or sleeping. The latter applies in this photo.

Wonderful day, warm and not too hot. BUT more rain tomorrow.

This will be the last blog for a week as I am off on my travels again. I usually leave the farm for a total of 14 days a year at most in short breaks but family commitments in Scotland and more than doubled that total already this year. I am resorting to weed killer and neglect to get through.

ps my runner beans, spinach and potatoes are all cropping well. I don't let the beans get too long as they are unpleasant in my opinion for what it's worth.

Repairing the hen house.

One very rotten floor.

Evidence of a rat's nest or maybe just a big mouse...certainly moles throwing their soil up and making piles and a hole where humans can fall through to the waiting rat. Work in progress, pictured above.

To the left of the pop-hole, a creature was making a new one. It isn't visible on this picture but it was further evidence of a rat (says OH).

It is now finished but pouring with rain again so you will have to wait for tomorrow for the last photo. Bet you can't wait.

Busy busy...

So after neglecting to do much work over the summer due to frequent trips to various locations (and another coming up) I am now getting stuck in. Rain has just stopped play so an ideal time to catch up.

On the farm; cropping potatoes and other veg (not so many, it is not a great place for vegetables as I have previously remarked).

Continuous strimming particularly around the trees.
Weeding and spraying so it looks a little less neglected than of late.

Ragwort spotting...as it still pops up.

Worming for them that need it.

Cutting rushes, moving rocks, repairing the chicken house. (OH)

Finding eggs as they started laying outside again while friends were farm sitting last week.

AND...best job of all, building a new wall!!!

In the wood; clearing the front edge in preparation for the hedge which will eventually be layered.

Bramble bashing.

Building a log cabin...well it is a log shelter for me to wee behind ready for when the leaves fall off the trees.

Ordering natural/native daffodils and bluebells and preparing for planting next month.

What a wonderful life it is...never bored except when it rains of course.

The photo is of Little Eagle when she was a chick. Nothing to do with the content but cute.

Erecting an electric fence.

After the hay fields have been harvested, I asked for 3 bales to be left behind this gate (the bales are not in the picture), which they duely were. Now in the field behind the gate is Cloud. She is a wise old cow of 17 years and knows what lies beneath the black plastic on the round things that have appeared in her field. She needs to be kept off them.

Until OH is around to help erect a wire fence, I decided to employ my brand new (well it is 5 years old but not yet used) electric fence to do the job.

Ho hum...searching for all the bits took half an hour. I had to dismantle the agility course because it is fashioned from the plastic fence poles. The battery was already on charge so that was no problem. And yes, it was charged, I know that because I electricuted myself 5 times in the process of learning how to erect an electric fence. (how do you spell electrecuted??)

Still, all in a days work on sandalfarm...

So the fields are bare and the winter feed is in place and the nights are drawing in. OH and I are off to Wales to look for a pedigree White Park heifer (maybe).

Catch you next week.

First potato harvest 2009

After some wet days in Somerset (yes, on holiday) I have returned to glorious sunshine! What a state my vegetable gardens are in! So many weeds.

Anyway, this is the first of the potatoes, so not bad. I roasted them with home grown coriander and bacon and a bit of chilli as my chillis are only just in flower.

Also, the farm shop farm manager has cut our hay. We only need 3 bales, having only one little lonely cow to feed, so he has left us 3 bales in the field and taken the rest. Hopefully this will mean that we don't have to pay for the cut like we have in past years.

I read a leaflet and after a few shocks, managed to erect an electric fence around the bales to keep Cloud off them. There is a lot of grass now she is on her own and she probably won't look at them for a while. She is staying down the end of the field near to the field with the closest cows are but she doesn't spend hours mooing at them, in fact she hasn't mooed at all, but she certainly is keeping closer to them than she used to. She still waits for me in her usual place in the morning though. Sweetened calf feed is the best food of all!