SNOW and more snow and sunshine.

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

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

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

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!!

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.

But what is it?

Oh! Whats this?

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.