sandalfarm

SNOW and more snow and sunshine.

2010-01-01T06:53:00.000-08:00

Its been a lovely two week period up here at Sandal Farm. The sheep are enjoying extra sweets and silage, the cow has her very own silage bale that she is disappearing into and the chickens spend most days in their house. The dogs are clean and loving the long walks through snow drifts and iced puddles. Now the cry is "Skating" not "swimming".
Happy New Year.

Suspension of Blog

2009-09-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

Sad news for the one follower and 5 other readers, I am suspending the blog until I have a working camera. There is little enough to keep you riveted here but without a photo...there is nothing.

This photo is a dramatic portrayal of 2007 winds that destroyed our new greenhouse. It WAS standing when a windy night left it looking as if a herd of elephants had made their way over it.

I hope you all have a good winter, but it will be better than this one up here - whatever the weather!

RE; Last Posts

2009-09-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

I realise that you may bethinking that I now have 8 children living next door but no...not yet.
The photos all messed up when O loaded the East Yorkshire post so are not in order of my description. The animal vegetable is a potato but can you seem the resemblance to a sleeping sheep?

East Yorkshire

2009-09-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from the day.

Clockwise from the left, view from the top of the wood. If it was clearer you would see the Humber Estuary.

Moss and Pip walking next to the sunflower crop, yes, east Yorkshire not Provence!

The ploughed fields, chalk! The wood next to ours is Chalk Pit. but all the land is like this around here!

Red berries, seen further along the Wolds Way. This a hover fly with a light aircraft in the background...good photography eh?

I didn't do any work on the wood, just explored the area, looked at goldfinch eating thistledown and buzzards swooping over game bird hatcheries then sat and ate my lunch with the paper. Bliss!

The wall is DONE!!

2009-09-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

So this is the piece of work that has occupied my summer. The little dog with a frisbee in her mouth is PIP who keeps herself out of mischief by running after the frisbee when I throw it, bringing it back and waiting patiently for the next throw. Moss lies in wait, like the herding dog that she is and when Pip runs, so does Moss. They race for the frisbee then if Moss gets it, she runs away with it and lies down, waiting for Pip to come and pick it up. Then she grabs it and turns her head away.

Collies have endless capacity for this type of occupation as every collie owner will know. And it does keep them well exercised.

The new neighbours apparently are moving in on Friday, possibly with 8 children? Is this the end of our life at sandalfarm as we know it?

New arrival at sandalfarm.

2009-09-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

But what is it?

Oh! Whats this?

2009-09-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

This is autumn.

It is definitely AUTUMN!

Oh well, it is dry and I have nearly completed 60' of wall in under 4 weeks, a saving of £400 doing it myself.

O my aching back and legs...but I'm so pleased to be working all day in dry weather. Stone walling is even more satisfying than growing your own veg. Not only is it creative but it sabes me money while growing your own veg doesn't really make economic sense unless you buy organic from Waitrose. (whoops, product placement creeping in, I never buy from Waitrose as the nearest store is in Otley which is full of traffic and a long way from here).

The tractor flail mower broke a belt today so no mowing today but we have on order a STARTER MOTOR so no longer will I have to stand and listen to the agonising groans of the engine as it is turned over again and again and again...until the flat battery demands a jump start.

OH and I both back at work tomorrow. And dark ay 7.30pm.

LOOK, DRY FIELDS!

2009-09-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

So the tractor is put to work yet again! This picture was taken in the sheep paddock (formerly the Pony Paddock). It is a much drier field than the Reedy Field where Cloud lives but it has more than its fair share of reeds.

What a transformation to have them down and shredded (the yellow device on the back of the tractor does both, it is flail mower).

Sadly for the first time we have evidence of worms in the sheep so the next job is to construct some sort of pen again to get them seen to. I hasten to add that it isn't MY sheep that have brought them in but an interloper from a neighbouring farm.

They need to have their toe nails cut anyway and Molly has lost her tag and the lambs from last year are now due tagging.

Shetland sheep are incredibly low maintenance and I am glad we got this little flock.

It is pitch black at 8.30pm.

2009-09-08T12:31:00.000-07:00

So lets look at the evidence that we had a summer...

Our neighbour (not immediate neighbour but round the corner) has made a beauitful vegetable garden, spending so much time and money on a fence, trees and shrubs and drainage in an attempt to create a "good growing area", and it looked to have worked. Their vegetables were tall and green looking in the view I have from my bedroom window. He built raised beds with real soil brought on the back of a wagon, put in drainage, lovely chipped paths and a seating area with stone walls and pavements. There are beautiful flowers and lights that twinkle in the dark having stored power from the daylight. Their umbrella shades the view of their table and chairs from my prying eyes but I know how much I have used my own this summer...

Then over one day the beautiful vegetables disappeared from view. I thought, he obviously didn't use successional planting...but it wasn't that! His brassicas had been decimated by caterpillers. Oh, it is a sad truth known to those who indulge in the passion of growing their own vegetables (sorry, I've been reading the biography of Jane Austen) that vegetables need daily attention if you want to grow organically. Nothing can replace the daily toil of picking off the leaf needy insects and SQUASHING them. If you are vegetarian, there in lies your dilemma...kill a creature and lose your veg or leave the creature...etc.

As you all know, I am no longer vegetarian having reverted to canivorous life on buying the farm and having access to kindly reared and happy animals (at least until they are slaughtered), but can a human live by a holey cabbage alone.

The sunflower seeds will help.

Tractor tribulations.

2009-09-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

This is what he did...got the tractor stuck...well and truely stuck...but all was not lost because I drove the truck, hooked up the tractor and he drove the tractor and lo...all was well again. It wasn't bogged down in the rain sodden field but on a piece of metal...

Who knows what the metal was, but it just got longer and longer and disappeared into the next door's land. Shame there is no scrap value in metal anymore, with the amount we have dug out of sandalfarm we could have retired.

I am back...

2009-09-06T04:52:00.001-07:00

This is the River Spey, a wondrous river for fishing and canoeing and dog swimming.
There is such a sense of aloneness when walking through the woods in this unpopulated part of GB. Fishing, farming and shooting sre still the main industries, alongside whisky and shortbread.
Still, it's nice to back at sandalfarm and getting going on the neglected jobs.
I dug up my potato crop yesterday. It was no where near as good as last year but some good sized tatties there and should keep us going for a few months.
The runner beans are the best I have ever grown up here and the onions are "variable" - some are huge and some are miniscule.
Sadly, my first day back was spent in work, my second day it rained for half of the day and the third is today...I am breaking for oat cakes (yes, brought home from Bonnie Scotland) and Wensleydale Cheese before returning to the great wall of Cloud's field.
The house next door looks to have been sold but I don't know how big the family is yet and I am certain that they are not interested in keeping stock. Shame. I have 6 weeks to get the wall finished so I can trespass on their land to get it done.
Better get back there...
Tomorrow I will show you what OH was up to while I was away.

Too busy to take photos.

2009-08-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-08-24T06:32:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-08-15T11:54:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-08T09:14:00.001-07:00

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!

Soggy land.

2009-07-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

It is too depressing to post a picture of the last 2 days so I have posted one of a drier summer 3 years ago. This show the extent of the reeds in "Rushy Field"and one of Cloud's calves. Then we didn't have the equipment to manage the field. Now it is because

the rain has been extremely heavy and the result is the land has become saturated once again.

I have strimmed around the essential bits, pulled ragwort and picked crops but even though the sun is now shining, I am not walking on the ground any more, trying to keep the damage minimal.

The sun is shining now and the forecast is good for tomorrow. Luckily for us, the butcher hasn't started on his job with our beef so we are free tomorrow and are heading off to the wood. Saturday looks grim and that is when it will be ready for collection.

Although we don't butcher ourselves, the meat comes in plastic sacks and has to be sorted out for freezing and distribution. Last time it took 5 hours to divide into two and bag up our half. This time we are dividing into 3 and bagging our third. It is also a smaller bullock, so I'm hoping it won't take quite so long.

A gruesome job.

Cloud meantime is munching on grass and seemingly content enough. There are 2 Highland cows in the field at the end of hers so she has made that end of her field her desired resting place. She isn't moo-ing at them and is still meandering around the field to graze, and actually helping us by keeping the top half of the field to grow new grass.

I wish we could get this field sorted...

Neighbours.

2009-07-26T05:09:00.000-07:00

I have described about how our farm is attached to two other houses, occupied by families. I am not sure I said that one is for sale, the one attached to us and therefore the one with whom we have most contact.

Worrying times...

But last night while OH was digging drainage holes at the end of the cow field, the neighbours from across the road invited us round for a G&T in the warm evening sunshine.

They are an agreeable couple that we see only occasionally and they are a very agreeable couple. So what started as a drink in the garden became a full-blown evening in with wine and pizzas.

In fact the midges drove us in before we took a first sip.
I wonder how to dispense with midges when it is such a lovely evening. Usually there is too much wind for them to bother. Wind - difficult to grow things, gets on your nerves, cold versa wind - dries the soil, keeps the midges away, cools it down on a hot day.

So there you have your plus points and minus points;

neighbours - share tasks, have a drink together, look after the chickens in an emergency (maybe) versa -neighbours, resent sharing their space with you, getting bothered by their requests for help, having to entertain their children. (picture - which I have made small to protect identies)

I am rambling. Time to go and pick the rest of the gooseberries.

I'm back.

2009-07-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken last August. This time the dogs stayed at home with OH who was on holiday. I have just returned to an ecstatic welcome (from the dogs not OH who has disappeared to dig a trench somewhere) and I am off to survey a week's worth of weeds, say hello to Cloud and the sheep andrecover from the 7 hour journey home.

PS, the picture is of Moss in the woods at Grantown on Spey.

What a day!

2009-07-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

Can you see the rain on my window? This is the view from the office and the computer sits under the window. Usually at this time of the day, the sun streams in, making it the best part of the house to sit in. Not today, it is relentless.

Can you see my model sheep, I bet my little flock wish they could be as dry. They have a shelter and rarely use it, prefering to huddle by a stone wall or in the long reeds. Silly sheep.

It is 10.9c and the wind blowing at 15mph with gusts up to 22 mph. Yuk. I have had a day at work anyway and the dogs weren't that bothered about a walk, they told me. We have played "Find the Ball" and "Fight Each Other Because we're Bored" and eventually they'll give up and sulk quietly.

I won't be posting for over a week now, so don't forget to catch up on sandal farm news for the rest of the July and hear the thrilling news about Arthington Show and OH's week solo at sandalfarm.

Soooo many gooseberries...

2009-07-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

And I don't even like them that much...I have picked pounds and pounds of them and still the bushes are graoning under the weight of them. I like them best raw and ripe or made into a fool or with oily fish but don't like them at all in a crumble.

Our collie that had a taste for them (Fly circa 1982 - 1996) would get terrible diahorrea after eating the fallen ones so Moss and Pip are not being allowed to discover them. Both like to eat the bluberries which are ripe now and Moss can pick her own, but as we only pass them when out walking she doesn't get much chance to consume many. We walk quickly...

As a quick sad note, the bull went today. It was very stressful, none of us like this part of farming. He loaded well and travelled reasonable well but wouldn't leave the trailer. Horrible. Anyway, the deed is done with Cloud now quietly chewing on the cud alone at home and unperturbed, seemingly.

OH said, lets become veggies, no doubt living on gooseberries.

Wood photos at last!

2009-07-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our beautiful (steep) wood. My path, above left, which now reaches the top of the wood and left me exhausted yesterday. My path, above right, which leads from the "Fairy Glen" into a birch woodland. OH at the chainsaw, removing dead and over-crowded trees. Please no messages about suitable gear to wear while doing this task...it is a sore point as I saw a pair of chain mail trousers in a charity shop for £8 and didn't buy them. OH went back the next day and they had gone and I've not lived it down.

It was a peaceful day as the road was closed and no neighbours appeared. We didn't have a barbeque this time but it was warm and sunny and the flowers were so beautiful! I took 3 photos of the wild flowers but none are of reproduction quality.

Also the birds...I wish I knew what they were, but I can't identify anything by song alone and in the trees it is impossible to see them. I only saw the wood pigeons and heard a cuckoo cuckoo

Meet Little Eagle.

2009-07-08T15:01:00.000-07:00

Little Eagle is the chick. She has been with us for 5 years and was our first home bred chicken. She doesn't lay eggs anymore but when she did they were lovely blue ones being as she is part Aracana and part hybrid.

The dog is Mist, our two and a half year old collie that died of poisoning on the moors near here, that was 3 and a half years ago. This story is another one because tonight is Little Eagle's page.

I've always loved this photo and I'm feeling lazy...

Introducing Billy.

2009-07-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

This is an old photo of Billy, our ram, he is now 4 years older and not quite so pretty.

Billy, like the Shetlands (he is not full bred Shetland, a bit meatier for lamb production) does not need to be sheared as his wool kind of drops off. It is a slow process and he gets quite itchy so round about this time of the year he becomes very happy for me to tug it out.

He stands, leaning against me, even if there is food on the ground, while I pull off his fleece. If he was a cat, he would purr. The other Shetlands are not happy to be pulled manually so I leave their rugs to drop off in their own time. Consequently they look a little wierd with skinny necks poking out of a ragged rug.

It costs a lot of money to have them sheared, even commercial farmers don't always bother as there is no market for the fleece. In flocks that are a bit more intensive than ours and perhaps where they are in a more sheltered environment, the fleece can encourage fly strike, where a nasty fly lays eggs in the fleece which then burrow into the skin to feed.

We have never had a problem with our hardy little band of Shetlands. They may not be the most productive so definitley fit the "Low in-put, low output" expression.

Woodland day

2009-07-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we spent the day at the wood. How lovely it was in bright sunshine. The trouble is, I forgot my camera again! So the picture is NOTHING to do with woodland.

ONLY, we met the owners of the next section of woodland and had a long chat about what their ambitions are. He is a young man with a wife and2 young children and they had come to camp overnight with friend and brother and brother's daughter (and others? I lost count). He has cleared some land, and planted some trees, put in some bird boxes and daffodils and made some tidy piles of logs to dry off. We were just off as the extended family arrived as we had spent all day there, doing the same as last Saturday.

Only this time we had a barbecue lunch of sausages (our own) and black pudding. It was lovely to sit under the trees and eat with Saturday's papers spread about. We used dry twigs to set the brickettes alight, although I felt we should really have made a campfire and cooked over that.

I found a new path that went across the wood, so was easier to clear. I did some more of the steps to take us up to the top of the wood and then returned to the horizontal path which was a lot easier.

I found another clearing and many beautiful silver birch in excellent condition which was great as I thought we only had ash, hawthorn and sycamore. Silver birch are probably my favourite tree.

Our neighbour is thinking of grazing some of his clearing, with a native rare breed. So the picutre of our Wensleydale lamb with his blue pot on has a vague relevence.

Ponies and horses.

2009-07-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have owned and loaned ponies since 2001.
First loan was Boo Boo. He stayed 1 month and nearly killed me and OH by his behaviour on separating from his field mate.
Second loan was Jess. She was a gentle giant and may have stayed a bit longer only the field I kept her in was trashed with over-grazing. She was sold to the riding school where I had lessons. She was too big for me anyway, although she was sweet.
I borrowed one of their ponies but she bolted with me on the first day so she went back to them,
Then I bought Tanzy and after she backed into walls at alarming speed, galloped around the school and wasn't safe to hack out in company or alone, she went back before the end of the one month trial.
I then got Sophie, pictured. I had Sophie for 18 months. This picture was taken from her new home with her teenage owner. Sophie wasn't as fat then! She lived at a farm and small riding place and the owners, with whom I became friendly, helped me a lot to get her going out alone. She was ridden by others and the arrangement worked well. I had an idyllic summer with Sophie but then we moved to sandalfarm. I had Storm, a retired pony from the same school that took Jess. After only 6 weeks Storm died and Sophie went back to the farm with my friends.
Lacking the facilities (no stables at that time) or a companion for Sophie, I sold her reluctantly.
I rode other people's horses for a while, Brandy being the most long term of these, then bought Paddy without too much consideration and sold him just as quickly. He just didn't like me, nor me him. He wasn't cuddly at all. 2 months after I sold him he died of a heart attack at 12 years old.
I went back to riding schools then found a nice local place for livery, a woman wanted to have company for her own horse.
I bought Thor, a Norwegian Fjord. I had him for a year. It was a miserable year and I only rode him with fear and trepidation. He had a massive "nap" and just set off for home without any pre-warning.
I kept on riding at a local school which was fun and stress free. Then I hurt my back and 18 months later have not done much with horses at all.
The yearning doesn't go away but I promised I would never never buy a horse again and stick to dogs, cows, sheep etc. But my friend is down-sizing and she mentioned putting one of her school horses out on loan.
What should I do?

Repairing the drive.

2009-06-30T02:38:00.001-07:00

Look at the misty morning, taken yesterday at 10am. It was nice to be a little cooler in the heatwave and the cows were certainly glad!

OH was determined that I noted his hard work over his week's holiday. The picture you see on the left is him on the roller and the neighbour on the digger. The picture on the right is the finished product, looking down to the house which is ours.

The drive has gradually been eroded over the last five years with the heavy down pours that we experience. It was left with a big bump in the middle and scattered debris on the two ruts. The men tackled it by digging out the hump and rollering it flat.

Now OH and I have motorbikes so it will be great to be able to use the drive without fearing for a tumble! We will just have to wait and see what it looks like after the next winter.

Ate our first broad beans last night and spinach tonight. Worth waiting for!

Down to the woods today.

2009-06-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

Sadly, although I put the camera on to recharge, I forgot to take it, so no photos. What a fool. Also we took, a little stove, a tea bag (for me) and a sppon or two of coffe (for OH) and milk in a plastic bottle BUT FORGOT CUPS! Well, eating our picnic al fresco we decided to use the plastic box for the dried fruit for my tea and cut the top off the milk bottle for OH's coffee. All was saved.

We spent from 11.30am until 4.30pm in a variety of tasks,

clearing a path to the top of the wood using a spade to cut in steps (me, still unfinished)

clearing a lot of old wood and over-growth to make it easier for the undergrowth to develop (OH)

clearing spindly trees from above path (OH)

taking out millionbs of sycamore seedlings, branbles where they are are not needed and ragwort (me)

collecting the next harvest of wild strawberries (me)

eating above collection (both)

discovering a new path leading to a copse of silver birch (me) And what a delight to do this as we are worried about our silver birch at sandalfarm that are all dying.

watering new trees in (me)

clearing nettles etc to reach above trees (me)

So, a lovely day. What a wonderful place. Birds singing, flowers flowering and a cuckoo in the opposite wood across the valley.

Shame about the photos.

I must not forget the camera.

ps the photo is the foxgloves back at sandalfarm that perhaps I will plant up in the wood.

Preparing for Jet's final journey.

2009-06-26T05:15:00.000-07:00

Now don't be sad. Remember that Jet has had 2 long happy years in idyllic setting, if a little wet and windy sometimes. He is a little bull and actually can be quite scarey as he thunders across the field to headbutt you playfully with his enormous head.

So, no more pictures of Jet.

Within 2 weeks he will be very used to going into his trailer for a bucketful of food. It all helps to make the unpleasant business of farming, a stress free as possible.

The trip takes about half an hour depending on traffic and only one of our animals has shown any stress. This was the last bullock who tried to climb out of the horse trailer in the middle of Bradford. OH got out of the truck and punched him on the nose and he settled down then. I was so shocked and scared that he could get out of the trailer that the rest of the journey was one of the worst of my life.

I am hoping that this episode was a one-off. I'll let you know.

CLEANING THE POND

2009-06-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

Oh has been hard at it! Clearing the pond that is...and did it need it?

You can see the murky water, well that is nothing like it was. The dog got diaroaha (can't spell) from drinking out of it. They both came back orange coloured after diving into it!

We have a lot of frogs and toads that appear from under stones but the way the pond looked, it would never sustain any life in the future.

So the hours of standing in his waders (my Christmas present to him) have resulted in the island (right) which mat even give somewhere for the ducks to nest.

The piles of mud and weed have to be left for a few days for the pond life to crawl back into the water. But then we will have an idyll, believe me!

The garden is abundant with flowers and fauna, including the wagtail family who appeared last night, learning to fly the nest...

The spinach and broccoli and sprouts and leeks and parsnip and potatoes are all doing really well, keep watering every night is if a warm night or in the morning in overcast...

what a wonderful life.

Tomorrow I will tell you about the preparations for the bullock's departure.

First crop from the wood.

2009-06-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went to the wood and spent five hours there. One of my jobs was to collect some of the ripe strawberries. They are wild, obviously, and the photo shows them next to my care keys...so that little picking fitted into the palm of my hand!

Still, they are very sweet and there are 1000s of plants so hopefully there will be more to come.

The jobs were divided according to tools. OH had the loppers so pruned dead and diseased branches for 5 hours. I had a spade so started to make steps up the side of the valley. It is very steep and although there is one twisting path, it doesn't actually have a start on the valley floor so a finish on the top.

After 2 hours I gave my back a rest and went to the clearing to pick the strawberries, then got stuck into clearing the brambles from this site. There is a thicket of them at the top in the sun and will provide a good crop of blackberries later on.

Then I collected piles of wood and made piles while circumnavigating the site taking out ragwort.

The dogs careered around until I tied them up with a pig's trotter each. That kept them quiet.

More of a feast than out strawberries will provide!!

Keeping Bees.

2009-06-17T09:36:00.001-07:00

This cotoneaster bush is alive with bees when the sun is shining. Although my photographic skills are a bit lacking, you can easily see a flying bee in my snap!

OH went on a bee keeping course and was assured that it would not be possible to keep a hive up here on windy mountain. The bees get blown off course and can't find their way back apparently.

Poor little bees, they need all the help they can get (visit the co-operative campaign site for more information).

The routine watering was back in force yesterday but today there has been steady rain all day. This is how it should be of course. I can catch up on paper work for my jobs and tidy the house. Being an outdoors addict does have a "downside". The dogs seem content to lie around even though I have been out all day. Their 20 minute play in the rain was enough.

And no sign of a bee this afternoon.

Views.

2009-06-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

People often come to Sandalfarm and say, "What a View!"

I don't really rate our view (not a great photo but it gives you some idea) as it is an industrial view, interupted by power lines and a city.

The city of Bradford lies five miles down the valley and it isn't a pretty view to overlook any city except perhaps Oxford with the dreaming spires or St Davids on the south west coast of Wales.

From Bradford it is a plateau that stretches to the east coast.

The most visible landmarks are the power stations at Ferrybridge, Eggborough, Drax and the other one (the name escapes me). Their plumes of untrapped steam identifies them easily from any high point in West Yorkshire.

There is also the Bradford University and the church at Thornton, the village unknown as being the birth place of the Brontes.

We moved in on Bonfire Night and it DID look spectacular then. All of Bradford were welcoming us to our new home and our new view. Now we see fireworks when there is a wedding or (so I am told) when the drugs arrive.

Pots of pansies.

2009-06-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

A wonderful flower is the pansy! I bought a tray of tiny plants for £5 from our farm shop (not OUR farm shop, but the one near to us) and pootted them up and located them around the front door and yard. They flower and flower and later on, I'll let them run to seed and collect for growing next winter.

These pansies have put up with strong winds, drought and excessive rain in the last month. I think they should be a mainstay of every "low maintenance" garden.

It has been dry for the past few days so I am back to watering everything. I watch the weather to then make a decision on whether to spend the half hour to an hour that the watering takes...but the weather forecast is too unpredictable to be a reliable guide.

At a farm visit for the Co-operative (I am a committee meber) in Goole yesterday, I saw the dry baked soil of the this area and decided that although most farming for crops is in the east, there is a downside to this. Their soil looked like an African plain, arid and cracked. I despaired of the trees planted last weekend at Dale Wood.

Perhaps I should have planted the resiliant pansy!!

A Boundry Wall.

2009-06-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of a corner of the Rushy field with a finished wall, well almost finished.

You can see the fence and wire that is still on the cow side of the wall. Everytime I go into the field, Jet comes for a nosy around. He is quite timid, not at all aggressive, but he does like to bump things with his head. It is fun and it may unearth some nice green grass.

I do NOT want to be bumped, however docilely so finishing this wall has been slow progress.

It is finished up to a point where I need to refence to keep the cattle in. My neighbours wanted a bit more land and this involves refencing. So I have decided to wait until the field is empty, well at least empty of Jet as he is the bumping sort of problem (as Pooh Bear would say).

My walls are rebuilds and are built for stability. To make a lovely finished edge, I need to spend more time chipping at edges, instead I get on with finishing the job. Except of course...finishing means waiting...

Nice weather for waiting though.

The Woodlanders.

2009-06-07T12:08:00.001-07:00

Well, here we are in the sunny side of Yorkshire. We had the key delivered on Friday and on Saturday trundled off down the motorway to our woodland.

We drove straight past as it looked so different in full leaf! And what a wonderland or wild flowers and grasses, trees and even wild strawberries.

We had taken some fruit trees to plant so I got down to that while OH started snipping off dead wood. 3 and a half hours passes so quickly, it was only thirst and hunger that drove us home.

The view from the top is over our wood but you can look along the valley and see the Humber. It was glistening in sunlight at that time as the tide was out, just a brown streak yesterday.

Isn't it wonderful! I feel so priviledged to be able to have this little oasis of trees and birds as a retreat. There is a lot of work to do but none of it is urgent or day by day. A complete delight and better anyday than leaving money in a building society earning zilch.

Pylons

2009-06-03T01:02:00.000-07:00

One reason our farm was cheap to buy is the location. It is on a hill overlooking the city of Bradford, which is not a popular city to live despite the proximity of the Dales, the Pennines, major cities and the Asian restaurants. If our post code had been HX for Halifax which is a step away then the price would have been more. The other price depressing factor was that our land also has the electricity wires running straight over the fields. We receive £9 a year for this priviledge from the National Grid.

I haven't become depressed since moving here as one friend informed me was inevitable, neither have I developed cancer (although it is early days yet having lived here for only 5 and a half years). The worst thing about them is the noise the wires make if the wind is blowing hard from the west. They howl and keep me awake. Kathy Earnshaw's howls fade into insignificance in comparison. In mist they spit and hiss.

I don't see them most of the time. But sometimes they provide interest like last week when men in little cradles were suspended above me as they checked their viability. And a man comes to see if our trees need to be lopped if they grow too close to them ... it will be an acheivement for us when this happens! The first visit from National Grid for this purpose made me laugh, as if our weedy little trees were anywhere near his lines! But the last visit, he said they were getting there and he'd have to monitor them more closely. Yippee!

Anyway, this picture was taken on Monday evening. Shows some beauty to the monsters that tramp across our view.

Buttercup Days

2009-06-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed the sea of buttercups in every farmer's field? Last time there were this many was in 2003, the year we were trying to buy Sandal Farm. It didn't happen and we missed the warmest, sunniest summer since 1976. So, keep fingers crossed. I don't know of any "old wives' tale" that could confirm this, but why shouldn't I start my own.
It is too hot though. I am still suffering from the sunburn from Thursday/Friday and although it is blazing hot outside, here I am, indoors wishing there was a little more shade up here. I am dressed up from hat to shoes, preparing for another hour of sweaty strimming. Those buttercups have to go I am afraid!
Talking of shade, I have been in and paid for our 5 acre wood. The contracts are signed but I expect it will take a couple of days for the cheques to clear...and then we will be woodlanders as well as farmers. We will be escaping to the wood on windy days, during westerly rainfalls and on blazing hot days (and school holidays when the kids next door are at home day after day).

Phew what a scorcher!

2009-05-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

I am sunburnt. OH is sunburnt. Cloud is looking very pink and the dogs are fast asleep, heat exhaustion. The chickens are laying like mad.

The summer has arrived with a vengence...long live the summer!

Tonight it was pork sausages and black pudding for tea. Not our own black pudding...but definitely our own sausages. Well, not quite. The farm shop at the end of our drive actually butchered our pigs and as we wanted sausages but they couldn't really spend the time sorting our individual meat out for them, we just got the equivalent weight, made up of our pork mixed with their's. Their sausages are very nice so we had no complaints.

They (the farm attached to the shop) were going to have a few pigs but apparently, although a delivery was made of several Tamworths, they escaped and caused mayhem so went back. The shop does stock more and more of their own meat and locally sourced meat. It is a highly successful venture. I buy my vegetables and occasional other products from them but use the co-operative food stores for as much as I can. I am on the co-operative area committee and am supportive of their fair trade and ethical stance, including those on farming and animal welfare, of course!!

Barbrqued lamb and pork for friends tomorrow.

Dog Agility Competition

2009-05-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

Moss and I were elimated for all 4 of the classes we entered. Moss completely ignored my directions and made a bee-line for the obstacles that weren't jumps, when I re-called her to go over the jump, she took it from the far side, ending up by my side, but eliminated! I couldn't stop her head long rush for the see-saw, the tunnels and anything that wasn't a jump! (the picture isn't me and Moss but shows some of the course, a participant and the judge)

It was a very hot day and I left the house at 6.45am and returned at 5.30pm. At a time when there is so much to do around the farm, it was frustrating to be hanging around for all those hours for what was in the end, about 2 minutes of activity.

So on Tuesday I set down to potting on...which I didn't finish but at least got the bulk done. Wednesday was raining and cold for the most part but I was not farming at all anyway. Thursday has been out except for a spell in the early evening when I got down to some more weeding of the greener than ever vegetable plot (see my previous post with photo).

Tomorrow is a free day. I hope to be weeding and walling and strimming and potting up ALL DAY! Plus of course running Moss through her home made agility course that she does so well.

Field Drains.

2009-05-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

This (left) is a picture of one of the many field drains which is the OH's main activity on the farm this spring. You can see the water running through the bottom of a stone trough and the edge of the "lid" of the drain. As tractors etc have caused them to collapse, the water from the natural springs and run-off from the rain (of which there has been plenty) has had nowhere to go. Hence the water logged and rushy fields. (picture of water jam, right)

OH is digging out all the drains that he can with a spade and uses drainage rods to clear the clay and mud away. Then he replaces the "lid" and covers it back up again. Hey presto! A nice dry field...eventually.

It is a back breaking and filthy job but it does mean that the fields are not trashed by a digger making its way across and all the original structures are in place.

To me they are like the stone walls. They are part of the traditional farming system here and it is right to try and preserve them. The only trouble being that it takes a very long time. Keeps the OH busy though (and fit).

Some colour on this grey day.

2009-05-21T02:22:00.000-07:00

This is my shrubbery. It is not a design garden from Chelsea as it is made up from the assortment of plants that OH buys at the farmers auction sales at Murton.

His monthly outing involves a stay overnight, dinner with his folks, a long evening with his sis and a trudge round 3 fields of largely junk. I have been twice or maybe three times but I'm usually at work and anyway, it is pretty boring.

The nice part is when he comes home with the truck loaded with trees and plants, all for under a fiver each!

Dogs and ducks.

2009-05-20T01:34:00.000-07:00

Look at our residents ducks. They alternate between the pond, the hen house and the Rushy Field which has a spring running through it. Sweet.

Yesterday when my back was turned, Moss went into the sheep field and started to round up the sheep. She knows not to do this of course but it is now 7 months since she did any work. Her absolute joy is to work, all day if she could. She spends most of the time "herding" Pip as a second best.

So, although she is in training for her first agility competition on Monday, she is now officially in training to round sheep again.

I put her on a long line because she is just too enthusiastic and very fast. This means that the sheep don't group and then of course they can't be herded. I haven't a small round pen which is used for a dog in training but a line does as well.

She did very well. She needs to learn an instant "down" which again has always been a problem for this young, keen dog. The rope worked really well for that and we grouped the sheep and "drove" them across the field nicely. When one ewe and lamb split from the group, we used "look back" command and after a short while she remembered it and brought them back.

We were both happy with her performance.

Pip will never be a sheep dog. She just goes for them and will bite a leg given the opportunity. She is a good hunter and has killed rabbits, mice and a grouse (which we ate but don't tell the shooters). She is also hard to train as she is too timid and Moss dominates her which doesn't help. But she loves people and children and is a good pet and very pretty. (see pick after her one dog show when she came second at Arthington Show This year's date is July 19th)

New Plans...

2009-05-17T02:33:00.000-07:00

Here we go again...no heifer today.

Because OH decided we need to spend some time on "Rushy Field" (the correct name for the cow field) so as to make it less rushy and better drained. Although it is over 4 acres, there is no grass and at this time of the year, that is pretty bad.

I agree that it it is in theory a good idea. The land will not sustain 3 cows over the next 3 months and moving to goats was something I had discussed with him before. He wasn't keen due to their reputation for being so wayward. However, he has thought of it himself so now we are moving in that direction for next spring! Hurray!

The downside is that Cloud, as an unproductive cow in her dotage, will have to go. At least, that is the plan. Meantime I am looking for alternatives, a rest home for cows perhaps, like they have for horses. Google has not come up with anything yet but my research has only just begun.

I did grab a soft hearted colleague of OH in a supermarket the other day and tried to convince him that an elderly cow would be a good pet and not get run over like his kitten had.

I may have some way to go on that line of persuasion.

Picture is of "Rushy Field" taken 2 years ago with one of Cloud's calves.

New heifer on Sunday, hopefully.

2009-05-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

She will be a Dexter, in calf we hope. She lives out and is 6 or 7 years old. So, no spring chicken which makes for easier calving. As she lives in Whitby, we haven't met yet but are going over on Sunday with the trailer. A Dexter is a Dexter and if you want to know what one looks like try Googling "Dexter" but the picture is of Jet, an approximation of a Dexter, being half pure, regsitered Dexter and half Cloud (GallowayXWhite Park).

OH is busy rebuilding the stone drainage system. A back-breaking job when it could be done by borrowing a mini digger and getting new drains in place in a day. But it does preserve the old drains which are made of stone and are works of art just like the stone walls. He is on holiday this week so maybe one will get finished by Friday, if the sunshine holds out.

I tidied the front garden as the East wind makes it the most protected land at the farm. I have also put in two more rows of parsnips and a row of winter sprouting broccoli. We are eating fresh English Asparagus everyday. I wish we could grow it...sigh.

OH is also planning on the 3rd polytunnel. The other two blew away. The trees are bigger now and provide more shelter. Too late for this year, but watch this space, again.

Off to do some strimming.

2009-05-09T05:25:00.000-07:00

Well, it is a job that has to be done. I strim down as much as I can. Weeds, lawns, grass, and there is plenty to go at. I aim for about 5 hours of strimming a week when it is summer months. It helps to keep the place looking tidy. The picture os of OH having a go.

Bird spotting this week, swallows (of course), ducks that are happy paddling in the pool in the cows' field, a blackbird that is stealing the chicken food, a small flock of gold finch (surprisingly!) and lots of magpies that come up for the remains of the sheep food. We also have a heron that raids out pond. They are aloof and magestic and I don't mind losing a few tadpoles to them!

The larks nest in our fields but the lapwings do not although they are getting closer. We have had twites.

It isn't a bird watchers' paradise but as the trees get bigger, so the birds spend more time here.

I can't put it off any longer...

Looking for a new heifer.

2009-05-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well, this isn't Cloud, my cow, it is the first (male) calf that we had from her. Doesn't he look like his mum? That's me on the right.

Cloud is 17 years old and she didn't run with a bull in 2007 because of movement restrictions. She did last year but I have given up hope that she caught. So, she may just have got a bit old...

She is staying with us but we are looking for young beef heifer before Jet goes in the summer. It's an exciting time as there is NOTHING as good as getting a new animal, especially a cow!

I just hope she will be as amiable and easy as Cloud (and her off-spring). She came with a calf at foor and Daisy was sold on for breeding with another small-holder. I would like to have her back really. Below is a picture of Cloud and Daisy when they first came to Sandalfarm.

This wasn't taken today!

2009-05-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

No, because it is bank holiday Monday, May Day...so of course it is raining.

This morning was OK. The dogs and I walked in a local estate and marvelled at the young green colours of new leaves. The intensity of the colour never fails to amaze me, every spring! And the bluebells are out.

We have some planted here that were given from someone's garden supply. They are the Spanish ones but as up here on windy hillside, no native bluebell would raise it's little head, I hoped I was alright to do this. Of course is The Woodland, it will be natives only.

Back to the picture, what you see there is the edge of the cow field (Rushy Field as was once called). The rickety fence is now being replaced bit at a time with a new stone wall, built by my own fair hands. The wall that runs down from this is one I built earlier. It took a long time but without a doubt, building and repairing stone walls is my very favourite occupation on the farm.

So, back to cleaning the sofa...happy holiday.

A spot of weeding needed!

2009-05-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

Look what happens after a few warm days and a few April showers.

Gardeners beware of the thriving growth on your lovely veg patch. I aim to weed every second day at least in this weather or else your seedlings are lost in a field of green. You can see on the left hand picture that I don't aim for a spotless bed, I just don't have the time. I hoe between the rows and handpick around the seedlings. These are perpetual spinach beet, an easy to grow crop that if left will self-seed. And you need those Popeye muscles that spinach is supposed to help you develop when you live at Sandalfarm.

OH and the neighbour have been digging in the sheep field, making new drains and finding old ones, so as to divert the water away from the drive. The drive is a long, unmade up track which has 6 cars/vans from residents and of course the usual traffic from post, deliveries, collections etc. But it is the water from the leaking drains that render it impassable in icy weather and deeply rutted in any weayher.

I have been entertained by my neighbours' small boys who have been "helping"me to build a stone wall between their land and the cow field. For about 2 hours or more they have lugged stones, broken stone for in-fill and fought amongst themselves. They will need their spinach tonight as well!

The cost of livestock.

2009-04-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

Oh dear. A visit to the rare breeds auction on Saturday left me reeling. No belted galloway or white park heifer for us! A beltie was withdrawn when bidding failed to reach over 1200 guineas. A smallholding friend was there to bid for some weaners...the saddlebacks went at 60 guineas each. Our rare breed crosses cost us £35 for weaners. If you are going to eat them, it seems pointless paying for the registration certificate.

Now, today we have had some rain at last. This evening is mild and sunny but alas, I am back to work and am busy doing the administration my job demands. (home based)

So, a short entry.

Don't forget to weed your garden every day though. They are sprouting every minute. My bug bear is the dreaded mare's tail. This will not be weeded or even killed. No wonder it is the longest surviving weed since pre-history! (pic, they are the spikes sticking up. I'll show you a full grown one later in the year)

Sad news.

2009-04-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

I did say I would tell you some sad news...well out of the 5 lambs born only 2 have survived. This is indeed a heavy loss, especially to Betty which is the one ewe that lost both her lambs. She has a full udder at the moment but doesn't seem unperturbed, making me think that perhaps she isn't the perfect mother. The other 2 ewes have a lamb each so are happy.

The weather has been so dry that already I have to provide the cows with a supply of water...uinheard of in April! Cloud is showing definite signs of "bagging up" (increased size of her udder) so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, I trudge up and down the field with water for the seeedlings in the pig pen, keep my greenhouse pots(pic) and the flower pots all well watered and so far everything looks very nice.

Rhubarb crumble again for tea but the purple sprouting broccoli is still producing new shoots so I am getting my vitamins.

Cool cloudy day but 14.4c on my weather station and rain forecast.

What a difference a week makes!

2009-04-22T10:33:00.001-07:00

I have been up north during the week of sunshine and no rain!. I have returned to a JUNGLE!
My beautiful seed bed, in the old pig pen, has sprouted millions of tiny seedlings...weeds of course. There are brussel sprouts and a few spinach beet seeds and one pea as well.
So in a blitz this morning, I planted up some of my veg in pots in the greenhouse. Peas, runner beans, sunflowers, courgettes, leeks! The greenhouse seeds of broad beans and lettuce are doing well and there is no use planting up parsnips. Lets hope this will whizz them on a bit.
Also because the soil is so warm, I have put in my potatoes. I have used Marfona for the last 2 years with great success. So in they go again. The last of them from last year was used just a week ago!! So they also store well.
I cleared a raised bed ready for the parsnips, the 3 rd row.
I weeded the decorative beds for 2 hours.
I strimmed the front "lawn" and the worst of the long grass around the chicken run and "orchard". The speech marks are because the lawn is just a patch of green moss with lots of weeds in (see pic) and the orchard is 3 unproductive (no edible apples have yet been produced) apple trees, bent with the wind and knarled even though they are only 4 years old.
However...the place is alive with unfurling leaves and primroses, daffodils, grape hyacinths, pansies and the seeds of the self sown annuals. It looks nice.
Next post...the sad news.

Rhubard rhubarb

2009-04-15T04:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, its time to pick the rhubarb! First crumbles ready for eating tonight!
It is a brief interlude for me at Sandal Farm as I am off to Scotland again tomorrow, having just come back from the wilds of the Cotswolds yesterday. Only a 2 day break but the sun shone and the trees and flowers were in full bloom.
There are two lambs again as Betty lambed on Sunday, the morning before I went off. A little girl lamb so no intervention needed as yet. She is a companion to Becky's boy and they are prancing around like...well, like happy lambs!
Sadly there isn't much activity in the seed beds. Only the cabbage has started. I am going to plant up in some pots when I return from Scotland and get them going in the greenhouse. The broadbeans in the greenhouse are looking good...but fancy having to grow broadbeans in a greenhouse!! The allotments in Warwickshire made me weep with envy.
Still...it's better than living in the Cotswolds because I have acres of moorland on my doorstep and get away from every living soul very easily. Today, I wouldn't see a living soul anyway as it's fog up here!
Catch you in a week's time.

And then there was one...

2009-04-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

One lamb as sadly one died. The ewes can't count so I think twin lamb was left out in the cold wind for too long. He hadn't been mauled. It's a hard life. People ask why I don't bring them in but these sheep are very nervous and do not like to be in a closed space. While some breeds adapt to life in a pen, these do not. There is a shelter in the field but it is hardly ever used, and of course there are the walls and rushes which they do use.

Two more ewes to lamb and although it is damp today (Good Friday), it is very mild. Betty is all bagged up and ready to drop so I am keeping my eye on her.

The rain is needed for all the seeds I've put in. I have done the second sowing. I am still waiting two weeks until I put my potatoes in though. No rush up here!

No sign of a calf, even though Cloud had a show about 2 weeks ago. Our imprecise farming methods are cheap and animal friendly but a little haphazard!

Here's a picture of Cloud with her calf from 2 years ago, who is still with us.

Lambs and harrows.

2009-04-08T01:40:00.000-07:00

The first lambs have appeared overnight. Two wee boys from Becky the biggest and oldest of the Shetlands. They are shivering in the wind this morning but tucked behind their mum by the shelter wall, seem happy enough. Of course, you can never tell with lambs. Last year we didn't loose any but we have done in the past.

The mild weather has got my started...I am re-building a stone wall that my neighbour knocked down last summer. I have re-started it once before but then he decided it would be in the way, a week's work wasted as he demolished it. He told OH to go ahead so I have attacked it with gusto. It is a mess of wire and pallets as it is the best way for Cloud to get into his field with all their uneaten spring grass.

The hay fields were harrowed yesterday, a lovely smell of cut grass! The farm shop look after these fields for us as they take off the grass for silage and keep it, except for the 3 or 4 bales that we need. So gardeners, get harrowing for a fertile, weed free lawn. I don't do my one lawn as it is mostly moss and looks green with it but would look bare without it. It is only for visual purpose anyway.

Happy Easter!

An Away Day

2009-04-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I take a Sunday off to walk with my walking club. It is based in Huddersfield (as that is where I used to live) but someone will usually pick me up if the planned walk is in the Yorkshire Dales.

Today I left the dogs and spent the day tramping the hills on the opposite side of the valley from Ilkley Moor. The route was beautiful, starting and ending by the River Wharfe near Bolton Abbey, the company was the usual mix of sane and mildly eccentric walkers with a young couple whom I'd not met before and the weather was sunny. What more could I want.

Shame I have no photos, I am very bad at bothering with carrying a camera but any Yorkshire tourist site will direct you to the beautiful countryside that West and North Yorkshire have to offer.
There were lambs being born as we walked past but other ewes are still hanging on to theirs. The Shetlands are huge with their tiny bodies up to twice the girth, so it must be soon. I wish for good weather for the few days after birth so although rain is forecast this week, it is also going to be mild. So watch this space...

The picture shows where our ewes give birth. This was my first ever lamb, four years ago now.

Compost...how NOT to do it!

2009-03-31T01:46:00.000-07:00

I love making compost and every year for the last 20 years I have made varying amounts of lush compost which I use in the greenhouse to feed tomatoes and peppers etc. But this year as I went to empty my bins I dreaded it. The compost was wet and slimey and smelly.

It was hard work emptying them and as it was, totally useless. Obviously I had been turning the compost, just a couple of times during the summer and autumn so I knew it wasn't going to be great.

There was a lot of chicken manure in but also all the kitchen scraps except the ones the pigs ate. There was also some lawn clippings but not many as the chickens and cows usually get these (grass clippings can be death to good compost) so I was mystified as to why, this year, I had failed so badly!

It became obvious when I lifted the last of the compost. It was totally sodden underneath and the wet had crept up the heap. Compost needs to be moist but not wet and this was saturated. The wettest summer I have ever known has resulted in the mush.

I barrowed the compost up to the "resting" vegetable bed and spread it out. I re-located the bins on to drier land and have started again! I'll let you know next spring how I get on!

Why a wood?

2009-03-28T04:45:00.000-07:00

A power cut terminated my connection on the last post so I didn't finish what I was saying.
My one follower!!(Hello Carrie!)asked me why we had bought a wood. Well, we have some money in savings that are earning nothing and anyway, we have no one to leave any estate to, not that there is that much except the farm. So we decided to purchase a little more land for the sole intention of quiet leisure and as an inheritance for the Woodland Trust.
It is also a sort of holiday home. We wanted somewhere we could travel to for a day but also somewhere peaceful where we could camp for a week and still have nice places to walk the dogs and have a pub lunch. We can leave the farm animals under the watchful eye of neighbours if we are not too far away and can get back for any emergencies. In the summer, only the chickens need day by day care, and they could come with us!!
So, there you go...a little bit of land to preserve and enjoy.

Extending the Empire

2009-03-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

For some time, OH and I have been thinking about putting our savings into a new venture...woodland! We haven't a lot to invest but it is sitting in a building society, doing nothing. We have been looking spasmodically at sites around the north or England, Scotland and Wales but after 2 weeks in the east of Scotland, away from the wind and rain, I decided it definitely had to be in the east of the country!

I mentioned it to someone who lives in Durham, telling them I would consider anywhere between Scarborough and Inverness! But then this woodland came up near Hull. It is a 5 acre site with mixed trees and a south facing aspect and on windy Sunday, we went to view. It took an hour to travel there, straight off the end of the M62 and how lovely it was to walk in the sunshine and stand upright. The woodland is for "peaceful purposes only". I was quite delighted, loving the village it is near and the fact the Wolds Way is on the doorstep. There is enough to do to make it interesting but not too much to be onerous, so we came home and on Monday I called the agent.

Windy week!

2009-03-25T02:55:00.000-07:00

It's still windy up here. What damage it does is negligable these days as we have everything tied down. The first greenhouse was up for a month and then ended up like the picture demonstrates...looks more like the work of elephants than the wind. The insurance paid out and we spent twice as much on a wooden framed, robust one.

The polytunnels have disappeared down the valley, as did our neighbour's. I am using cloches this year and the plastic ones have blown away and torn but the fleece ones are staying in place. It is so cold and windy that even the most English vegetables need protection.

I had the most amazing potato crop last year which we are still eating. They store well and haven't gone green at all! They were Marfona. Obviously I have the same ones chitting upstairs at the moment.

Windy morning.

2009-03-23T02:41:00.000-07:00

What a morning! Gusts of up to 33mph and my new cloches with the first sowings all over the place!

I am confined to barracks as I can't stand upright! The sheep have a shelter but huddle under the wall at the top of their field. Betty and Becky are looking very pregnant and it will be just like them to wait for a cold snap to produce their lambs because they do it every year. Then I sit with my binoculars trained on them, running up the field every now and then in a panic. The first year we had to help Betty as the milk wasn't coming through and we've had 4 new lambs die very early on in 4 years so not too bad. Last year there were no fatalities at all but I did see the fox stalking Becky's single lamb. She was very assertive with her and she ran off.

Two nights ago the fox was making his eerie barking noise at night. They have taken next doors chickens and ducks and from a chicken breeder on the top road but so far we have been trouble free except for one Boxing day when it broke into a temporary arc and took 4 cockerels that were in there for fattening. Not a feather left!

Back on the farm.

2009-03-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

My mum died so I have been in Scotland for her natural burial. Coming home was very sad but also nice to be back to a normal routine and spring like weather has helped.

Soon there will be lambs and perhaps a calf but at the minute it is time to start to think about planting. I have put in the garlic, onions and broad beans. The cloche to protect the onions has blown away but there is still growth there. The broad beans were left unwatered for 2 weeks while I was on compassionate leave from the farm and OH didn't know they were in pots in the greenhouse! There is no sign of growth there.

We are still feeding silage as Jet is still noisily demanding it. A new bale will be delivered tomorrow.

The dogs came with me to Scotland but have had no agility training and then this week it is cancelled. Today's picture shows Moss going through the "HOOP" in the field at ours.

She also did a bit of sheep work this week on a walk because a ewe had got stranded in the fenced off bridleway. Moss went off, under instruction to bring her back. Despite a perfect send-away, the ewe refused to budge and Moss ended up circling her, frustrated. In the end, we did it togther. The ewe was reunited with her flock and Moss was happy thinking she was doing what she does best!

Picking up the poo.

2009-03-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

Oh, what a lovely sunny, mild, spring light day. What better way to spend it than to clear pig poo and apply to the raspberry bushes!

The pig enclosure has been nicely turned over but has remained too sodden or too frozen to do much with since their departure in January.

But now it is March, hooray! Daylight until 6pm and hours of sunshine!

OH had picked out some the big rocks they turned over with their noses. Rocks too big for me to manhandle. The enclosure is big and very stoney so I started to pull out smaller rocks and pick up any nicely turned soil and remnant poo for my fruit trees. The smaller rocks will be invaluable for the on-going stone wall repairs. Not much goes to waste here.

Mindful of the lack of use of my shoulders and back, I interspersed this activity with speading the muck around the trees and bushes, weeding, throwing the frisbee, talking to the nieighbour and shifting my make-shift agility course to a drier patch of land. And taking the dog through her paces on the newly erected agility course comprising of 5 dodgy jumps. a weave made out of electric fencing posts and a tyre suspended from a frame.

It was poignant to look at the pigs bed, still hollowed out of rushes and silage in their shelter. They slept so soundly in there and when I called, I had to shout loudly to get them up. Then they would startle, jump up and run, squealing, across the boggy/frozen expanse of their run, eager for more pig nuts, rotton apples, stale bread or unwanted veg.

The tin fencing will have to come down. It is unsightly and the run will be empty for at least 2 years now.

What a load of bull!

2009-02-26T02:12:00.000-08:00

I have two heads of cattle. Cloud is a 16 year old GallowayxWhite Park. She came from a farmer friend who was down-sizing. She is a perfect cow for us as she is small, docile and has no horns!

She has had a calf every year since we had her, except for last year. In 2007 we couldn't move her as there were foot and mouth restrictions. So her calf is from 2007 and now nearly 2 years old.

This is him in the picture. He is pure Dexter crossed with Cloud. We had to measure Cloud to make sure the Dexter bull could reach but there was no problem there. The little bull took one look at Cloud and she was pregnant!

We call him Jet. The only problem with Jet is that OH thought I had applied the rubber bands to ensure his balls fell off and I thought OH had done it...total break down in communication there! It wasn't until it was a year old that we noticed the swinging appendages...oh dear.

He is for slaughter and normally would have gone last year but because Cloud had no calf last summer and he was so SMALL, he stayed.

So will Cloud have a calf by her son...or was he too small to reach? Watch this space in the next couple of months.

Weekend Away

2009-02-23T02:49:00.000-08:00

Life on the farm carried on without me while I went walking in the beautiful White Peak. It has been lovely and sunny and the snowdrops are all in full bloom. One minute there is snow...next spring flowers have arrived.

Once when on holiday in the Italian Alps in March, spring arrived over the course of the week. We were there for the ski-ing and conditions weren't perfect for the sport. The snow was frozen in the morning and slush by lunch time. However, walking around the beautiful resort on paths through woods and along the river, the change during the week was spectacular. Sadly I have no photos to show you of thie event but primroses appeared everwhere, in full bloom, replacing the snow.

Here the snow has left all the grass brown and it takes a long time for our spring flowers to push through. I have planted many bulbs and the number that flower is depleted each year. The last 100 daffodils have been put in boxes in the greenhouse and I will pick them as cut flowers. Such is life at Sandalfarm.

(the picture shows the land at it's best...)

Back to the murk.

2009-02-15T02:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, the snow is disappearing slowly (except from the track). There is fog and mud and we are back to a traditional upland winter.

As I still couldn't take the car up the track yesterday, the dogs and I walked from the farm. It is on a busy road but after 15 minutes there is the choice of open moorland with walks across to Wuthering Heights countryside or sheltered paths by streams and rivers, farmland and woodland. Yesterday we did the latter and ended up walking for four hours. So today we can take it easy.

The Archers are on. I listen intermittently, obviously more interested in the farming bits than the tussles of conscience on religious matters. I priced my pig rearing against Tom Archer's and his came out cheaper. How did he manage that? I didn't over-feed them because there was just the right amount of fat. Must be economies of scale.

I also watched Jimmy on pigs. I was a member of Compassion in World Farming for a long time, years back (I'm always supporting some cause or other) and knew then I couldn't support any form of intensive farming. Here are happy pigs (above picture).

Collecting the post.

2009-02-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

A spring like thaw hasn't really touched our track so today I made my way to the sorting office to pick up the week's post.

We have a new source of income!

After 4 attempts, I have finally managed to get my Single Payment from the Rural Payments Agency. I have filled in forms for 2005 2006 2007 2008 but although I knew I had blown it on the 2007 claim as I was late submitting the final application (this was because RPA returned it to me with ONE DAY'S notice as I had missed a section out), I wondered why I hadn't at least received a payment for 2008 because I had spent long hours on the phone with a very helpful case worker, making sure I had got it right.

I have had to make another call or two to try and sort out the 2008 payment but at last was assured I was going to receive the payment, but only because my 2005 claim was also correct.

(Don't ask me)

I will receive £300 for the 2 years combined.

What a wonder the world of farming is!! But it will help towards the thousands of pounds we have spent on drainage, field maintenance, outbuildings and of course the crummy tractor. I don't expect anything but if a proper farmer wanted to buy the place, with a few more acres from somewhere, then this payment is essential.

I may spend it on a new calf!

Is that more snow?

2009-02-11T11:44:00.000-08:00

It was! It also blew across the track to the farmhouse so even the 4 wheel drive skidded sidewades. OH and I are taking it in turns to go out and to go to work as my impractical Mini sits locked in the barn. I put £53 worth of diesel in it today...so much for trying to live enviromentally sound lives.

I did catch a bus to work on Monday as OH had to work as well and he has much further to go. I worked for 2 hours but the whole rigmarole of catching a bus, walking to stops and station and waiting, plus the 2 hrs 30 mins at work, took 5 hours 35 minutes! (and the bus fare was £4.35p).

No wonder we won't contemplate giving up our cars.

We do have a very old decrepid tractor. I have driven it once and am not so keen to try that again! I can't start it anyway, OH has trouble. He resorts to a magic fluid that you pour in to the air cleaner. The air cleaner is obviously not working as the tractor then pours out storm clouds of black fumes...another failure to live the "green" life.

So, tomorrow the tractor will be taken up the track to flatten out the ruts and make life easier. I would still rather have the snow than the mud and wind and grey of the last 4 winters we have had since we moved here. Long may it last.

On the trail of Billy...

2009-02-10T14:35:00.000-08:00

Having tried to spot the white sheep in the white fields that are spread over several acres, OH and I took a bucket of feed and a dog lead each, and drove off in search of the rampant ram. It didn't take long to find him, in a group of about 20 sheep, male and female. Poor Billy, missing his daily feed, left the group to return to us quite happily.

He had his feet trimmed and his horn sawn off as it is starting to poke himself in the eye and then he was free to patrol his own wee flock again, this time with a full stomach.

Tonight, Moss went to her dog agility class. Not having enough sheep work to keep her canny brain active, we started the class in September. In usual Moss style, she thinks she knows what she is doing and does it at full speed. But more on that later...

We are loving the proper winter with snow and sunshine. Here at Sandalfarm we are hoping it lasts a bit longer!

Billy goes on the rampage.

2009-02-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

Billy is our ram. (pictured on the left of the photo) He is a sturdy small cross breed that we have owned for 4 years. He is usually content with his small flock of pure bred Shetland ewes and will stalk around the field during the tupping months keeping other sheep at bay.

This all changed yesterday. I check on the sheep every day but in this weather, feed them twice a day. At tea time, no Billy! I walk all over the field, calling but unusually there is no response.

However I do notice some prints in the snow around the perimeter fence. They are up and down the fence and in my field and in my neighbours field.

I clamber over the fence at the point where there are most prints and sure enough, I spot our Billy, having his way with a small number of someone else's ewes. I go back to the house for a bucket and my partially trained sheep dog.

Sadly for Moss, she hasn't been working sheep for 4 months and is all too enthusiastic. She spooks them with her too fast out-run and brings me just one home as the others flee into their own field. I leave the one to return to her sisters and take Moss home. She isn't happy so decides to round our flock up, just to show me she can still do it. She is ignoring my commands completely. Ho hum.

This morning there is no easy sight of Billy amongst the huge snowy fields and large flock of a neighbouring farm. And I have acquired the ewe that Moss brought back to me. She jumped into my field just as I walked across to renew my search for a sighting of Billy. Damn.

Due to work and neighbourly duties, I have to leave it like this until tomorrow. I will be exploring these fields with a bucket and OH as back up! Watch this space.

Sunday Sunday

2009-02-08T01:54:00.000-08:00

It is quiet.

The little farm house was once a barn to the big house on the main road. Then it became a house in 1837 with 2 barns attached.

Then it became 3 houses (about nine years ago).

The farm house, which is the one we live in, is a lumpy, bumpy house. The walls are at all angles and the floor is up and down. If you are 5'9" tall, you are in danger of concussion on the beams and doors. We are both below that height so survive a tour of the house unscathed.

It isn't a warm house as it stands end on to the prevailing wind and there is no shelter from it's force. This snow has come from the south and east so the bitter wind is hitting the 2 barn houses first.

But we have oil fired central heating that quickly warms us up and the log burning stove in the living room is effective and cheaper to run, and of course, more sustainable. We burnt scrap from around the farm to begin with, old fence posts and rotting pallets but having drained our unhealthy resource of wood, we now have a new free supply via a farmer friend who takes a tree surgeon's off-cuts.

There was an Aga. It was small and took coal but as we both go out to work, we didn't use it. Last summer it went and everyone shouted at us...don't do it! But the lovely big, range type electric cooker fits in our massive meat joints and still looks the part.

We had the outside of the house rendered during the summer, new front doors fitted to cut down the wind chill through the old ones and the bedroom plastered. It still looks run down but everyone assures me it is "farmhousey" and if it will never be immaculate, I don't have to worry about trying to keep it that way.

More time for farming.

Feeding.

2009-02-05T01:45:00.000-08:00

More snow...

Some unhappy animals around as they stand folornly chewing on poor quality silage. The chickens are eating spare dog food as unlike the outside animals, the inside ones have lost their appetite. Moss, who would eat for the realm given the chance, has just started eating dry biscuit, rejecting the tasty morsels of pork crackling and fat.

Three weeks ago we had two pigs slaughtered. They were mixed GOS and Lanrace, hoping for the taste of the rare breed but the lack of fat from a more commercial breed. It has worked. They were big, healthy, happy pigs.

Some people ask how we can eat our own animals but I only need to ask if they eat meat or diary and do they know what conditions their animals lived with. It is always sad to take an animal to slaughter and it is a task not relished but when we see the commercial pigs squealing with fear and dying in transit for no apparent reason, while ours trot out into their holding pen, I know who is doing it the right way.

We are so lucky to be able to do this. It is a wonderfully engrossing hobby, even when it snows and snows!!

Hobby Farming

2009-02-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

My first blog!
It's snowing and the schools are closed where I work in the afternoons. So I have a bit of spare time.
Sandal Farm is a smallholding of 11.5 acres, about 10 acres of which is sodden, rough grazing. We moved in 5 years ago and have been repairing the old field stone drains and the crumbling stone walls ever since.
Living at the farm, indoors, are; me and husband and my collie, Moss and his collie, Pip. Of course mine is the intelligent one but Pip is cute and loves people.
Outside we have Billy the Ram and his flock of 3 Shetland ewes, Betty, Becky and Molly and a lamb that was too small to eat so he is staying until he is mutton.
Then there is Cloud who is our elderly GallowayXWhite Park beef cow. She lives with her calf, who is at the moment a DexterX, a nice little, beefy, hairy bull.
And we have 4 hybrid ish chickens and Little Eagle who is a small useless, friendly araucana chicken. She laid nice blue eggs for some time though.
So that is us.
When I learn how to post photos, I will do so!