Phew what a scorcher!

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!