A new year, and a new project, possibly

It is the middle of the festive season and things are quite different to previous times. We are now further away from the children and because of this, and because they are now adults (some with children of their own), this is the first Christmas I haven't had to be Santa. Although this is a little sad at least I didn't have to have a midnight carrot (for Rudolph) and a glass of tepid milk. A further difference is that work doesn't really stop on the smallholding, the animals don't decide to take a holiday for a fortnight so the daily rhythms continue largely unaltered.

As winter is really here we have started giving the sheep the hay we made this summer. All the hard work over those brief, sunny days seems to have paid off and I am glad to say it seems that the sheep have given the thumbs up to their new fodder. From the first time they saw me walking over with the first bale they have oriented to it.  Usually my presence sends them to the other end of the field and it is quite unusual to see them follow me around rather than running away.

Once the hay is in the manger, and I have stepped away to about 2 yards away from the manger, down they come en masse. I misjudged the manufacture of the manger. I had planned for seven sheep standing around it nibbling at the hay. I had not anticipted seven sheep, and about 300kg, pushing and shoving for position and climbing over the manger. Wood was not the best material and I will have to get, or make, a metal one. Hopefully, over the winter, as they get to associate us with food then they may become slightly more domesticated and slightly easier to work with.

The festive weather has been wet, cloudy and cold. This has brought the possibility of a hydro-electric scheme back to mind. Our neighbour has quite advanced plans for his scheme on the same river as runs through our wood. He called round this week with equiptment to survey our land (he had just done his). We have a respectable drop of about 16 meters from the beginning of the leat to the site of the old waterwheel and rough calculations suggest we may be able to generate around 4Kwh. While we were looking at the site of the old Pelton wheel we are quite impressed by the amount of the building and channelling which still remains. It also looks like our pond is less decorative than possibly being a header tank for the water wheel.

We have booked a preliminary visit for a site survey and may make this a project for the new year. It certainly seems a better bet to rely on rain, rather than sun, for energy generation in North Wales. So perhaps next year Sion Corn might have to bring a waterwheel if I am good

Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda !

Hydref

Autumn is possibly the best time on the smallholding. Summer has its charms but it is still largely a time of work with little reward. Autumn on the other hand is the time when the produce arrives. There is even produce from plants which needed no input at all through the year. The rowan-berry, bramble  and crab apple  harvests were good and we now have good stocks of jam, enough to see us through until next year.

This year the potatoes, peas, beans and leeks did well. The squash did poorly, ending up supplying more to the slugs than to us. The tomatoes didn't do too well as there was insufficient sun to ripen them. We can tak a little of the bees' honey before we close them up for the year.

We do not know if our ram has done his work this year. On the few occasions that I witnessed him the ladies did not wish to stand for him. The next months will tell.

We have re-fenced portions of the upper pasture and moved the sheep there. The grass should see them for a further month or two. 

Auger

The fencing went easier than I had anticipated. It was greatly helped by having a good auger to start the fence posts. We bought this on holiday in France and I have noticed that we have changed our holiday souvenier buying. Now we tend to prefer agricultural implements as sharing the values of charm and utility. The dagging shears from Turkey are a good example.


We lost one of the birds this week. A hawk or a buzzard caught the smallest, white, female duck. All the other poultry are doing well. The four most  recent hatchlings are living outside and thriving.

The weather has, however, changed. It has been much colder and the mornings have had a taste of winter about them. Hopefully it will wait a little yet ..

Agricultural archeology

Now that autumn is established and winter is just around the corner I have started to prepare to help the sheep over the cold season. I had noticed an uneven area of ground beside the coach house and wondered if it might be the site of an old sheep pen.

After five hours of ground clearance it is clear that something used to be here. There is a good collection of shaped stone and certainly enough to create a stone sheep pen. Over the next weeks we will have to reclaim the stones and refashion the walls.

As if to confirm the change of season there was snow on top of Calder Idris.

Major changes in the pecking order

I had not realised that the ducks had a very established pecking order. Now that three drakes are in the freezer there is a power vacuum. This has been increased by the introduction of the four new ducklings into the flock.

There was quite a commotion at the duck-house door this evening as the brown drake seemed to make a bid for the throne. Hopefully they will sort this out among themselves over the next few days.

Dw i'n wedi lladd hwyaden cyntaf heddiw.

Well the deed has been done. I killed the first of the ducks today. I created a killing cone out of an old traffic cone and attached it to a large oak tree in the woods near the duck meadow. The hatchet, from France, was sharpened until it was razor sharp and in one thud it was all over. Death seemed to be instantaneous and I feel happy that the duck felt no pain.

Plucked

The plucking was easier than I had anticipated. There are conflicting pieces of advice of whether to go with, or against, the grain. In the end I went with what seemed natural and the fastest.

I found a good site which gave advice on how to prepare the duck for the freezer. This guide from the Girl's Guide to Guns and Butter is an excellent aid to the task of butchering the duck and preparing it for the freezer.

I found an old bagging machine and we used this for the final freezer preparation. In addition to the bird, we have kept the gizzard, liver and giblets (neck and heart). The gizzard is the base for Salad de Gesier and ideal for lunch, I hope to make duck liver parfait as well.

There are four more to go later in the week and the freezer will now start to earn its keep. Overall an unpleasant task, but less distressing than I had anticipated. 

Jam and pigeons

Autumn is early this year and seems to have arrived in September. The  cold and wet weather persists and the trees have started to show their reds and yellows. Two Maples in Dolgellau brighten up the woodscape in town though our own woods remain verdant.

The berry crops have been poor and the volumes of jam and jelly we have had, as a consequence, also poor. We have made Rowan Jelly (Criafol), Bramble Jam (Mwyar Duan) and Plum Jam (Eirinen) this year successfully but in smaller amounts. The Rose-hip syrup (egroesen) was a disappointment with the berries and the syrup lacking colour and taste. The leftover lemons were useful way of using up older eggs as they were transmuted into Lemon curd.

The sheep remain well and have put on a lot of weight. In the very heavy rains it has been odd to watch them standing very still. It looks quite eerie as even the chewing seems to have stopped. The ram seems  to be entering adolescence. He now looks more masculine and is starting to take an interest in the ewes.

We had an unusual visitor this week. Karen had noticed a pigeon walking looking tired and lost. It later became clear that this was a homing pigeon who had become diverted. It had travelled 300miles that morning from Lille but had ended up too far north (as its home was in South Wales). It got a lift from Lisa back to its family.

Mae'r dosbarth Cymraeg wedi dechrau. Dydy ddim wyneb newydd. Does dim wynebau newydd. Dw i'n gobeithio dysgu mwy y flwyddyn hon. Croesi bysedd !

Hay Bales by Hand

Last week we managed to harvest the hay from the top meadow. This was strenuous labour which has left us with a barn half full of hay, in one glorious, unshapely and unmanageable lump. We needed to convert this into bales but wanted to avoid the expense of buying a baler. This was our solution to the problem of making serviceable bales by hand.

First collect your equipment. You will need a sharp knife, some baler twine, and a large plastic bin (but no sticky back plastic at all). The bin needs to be a lot taller than it is wide (by about twice) and should be sturdy. We used a water butt from Wilkinson's for the purpose. On one side we made two small "V" shaped notches to hold the twine's loops and across on the other side two "I" shaped slits to hold the twine.

Run two lengths of baler twine down into the bucket keeping them parallel. Put the looped end over the V notch and jam the other end in the I slit.  Make sure the twine goes to the bottom of the bucket. Also make sure that the two  lines run parallel. They should run about 1/4 in from the edge of the bin on either side.

Now fill the bin with hay. Fill it fully to the top, pressing it down hard by hand as you go. Keep an eye on the twine, watching that it does not get pushed out of place.

Once you have filled to the top and pressed down as hard as you can get in the bin and start using your body weight to compress the hay down further. Try and get the bale to no more than a third of the height of the bin. Pack it as dense as Rhudda's beard

Now slip the free end of the twine through the looped end. Wiggle and pull the twine to take up any slack. Then pull the twine tight and tie it with a good knot. The difficult bit is now over.

Remove your bale and use the remaining lengths off twine (the bits hanging free after the knot) to put a loop of twine around the other side of the bale.

You now have a serviceable bale. It will stack fairly well, it takes up less room and is fairly robust. It is nothing like a real bale in terms of its density or regularity, however,  if you really need that you are going to have  to spend some money.

If you want to see a video of this process then take a look here. The whole process takes about 3 to 5 minutes per bale.

Low Technology Hay Making

We have had the unusual circumstance in North Wales of a run of dry sunny days. Three dry sunny days in a row to be precise. While previously this might haver been a cue for considering having a barbecue, or visiting the beach, or even taking off a jumper this year it meant only one thing; making hay. It has been so wet until now that we feared we would never manage to make hay and I was fearful of what our neighbours would say when they saw our sheep all  bags of bones over the winter with nothing to eat.

The first step was to find our field of grass. The upper 2 acre filed had been earmarked for this. It had not been topped this year and has not been grazed for a few years and it looked like a good meadow to start with.  It shares with our other fields the disadvantage of being very hilly and as the manual labour went on this became increasingly important. Cutting uphill is serious business and develops aches in  muscles that you never know you had.

We used the Goldoni two wheeled tractor with a 53inch finger cutter for the cutting. (It is called a finger blade after the tendency to remove the users fingers and toes). We have no pictures of this in operation as we were to keen to get cracking and get the field cut to take any pictures. The weather sites gave us a maximum of 3 days and we could not loiter.

During the cutting I became very aware of how many creatures call the meadow home. There were voles, frogs, crickets, dragonflies and even small snakes fleeing from my path as I advanced through the grass. The cutting though hard work took about 4 hours and the machine cut well leaving good clear swathes of grass behind it. My assistants followed and arranged the hay for drying.

At the end of the first day the hays was gathered up into windrushes to try and reduce the effect of dew in the morning. The next two days were taken up with turning and tedding the hay. The hay was turned twice each day. Each time taking a minimum of two hours.

During this we learnt the advantage of using the right tools. A pitchfork is much better than any other implement and well worth the money. We now have two, one each, and they might also come in handy if ever there are strange ungodly goings on at the local castle (Though I am not sure we have any flaming torches to go with them).

By the end of the third day we were exhausted and the final turn of the hay was  followed by a gathering of it together into mounds for transfer to the barn. This was the hardest of all the jobs.Each load weighed about 40 kilograms, was dragged on a tarpauline to the end of the field (Up and downhill) then carried to the barn. It was slow going and we didn't finish until after 10p.m. and the latter runs were done by torchlight.

However, it is now done. The barn is full.  It rained through the night and most of today and it did not matter. Our sheep have their winter dinners stored safely away and we have another skill tucked under our belt.

Grass

Just started

Done (notice darkness)

If the winter was mainly concerned with wood, felling it, logging it and burning it, then the spring and summer have been concerned with grass. The wettest June on record has made it difficult and we had been trying to manage with manual implements. However, after a day with a scythe and a steep field it dawned on me that machinery was needed. Enter the Goldoni two wheeled tractor.

We have now had this little workhorse for just over 24 hours. In that time we have topped the big field and moved the duckhouse and contents. In preparation for the four new ducks who arrive tonight.

The large field would have taken days by hand. It is probable that, even if we got the weather, we would not have had the time to make hay. This is the next stage on the medium field. If we ever get a run of dry days we will try and take hay from the top field. We can then test out the power scythe and see if it works as well as the topper.

This field is an optical illusion.

This grass field is an optical illusion. If you look at it, initially, it looks very much like other fields. It looks as if it has grass like any other field. But look closely and you will see that the grass here is only two or three inches short unlike those long-haired hippy fields next door with their wavy, luxurious locks.  No, this field is an optical illusion. It looks gently sloping and benign. No matter how hard you look you will not see the steep slopes and slippery aspects. These are even more impressive when you traverse them carrying a razor sharp scythe. This field is an optical illusion as it hides its content. It looks boring and empty but up close it is covered in butterflies (mainly Meadow Browns and Red Admirals), crawling with frogs of all sizes and lively with beetles. This field's optical illusion hides its size. It looks small and compact, it does not look as if to cut it would take a walk of over eight kilometers to reach every part of its area.This field is an optical illusion. Looking at it you would not know that it had received four hours of manual attention with a scythe. Four hours of back-breaking labour leaving me with muscle pains where I didn't even know I had muscles. Four hours of rhythmic swish-swish, sweat-sweat, sharpen-sharpen, stagger-stagger, swish-swish (repetere ad agone) and it looks much the same as when I started.

We are now going to explore two-wheeled tractors.

For in seven days I will send rain on the earth ...

Will this rain ever stop? The wettest June is now being followed by the wettest July. It is a dreary reminder, to mull over miserably when you are trapped indoor, that one aspect of climate change for this area of the world was not just increased temperatures but increased rainfall. It has been so bad that the bees have been able to collect little and needed fed again this week. They were ravenous little mites and drank a pint of syrup over a period of two days. They are a fairly large colony but have little in the way of stores and we have no honey, as a consequence, in he supers.

The wet weather had another dismal consequence. The risk of fly strike is higher in this setting. The prospect of the sheep getting infested by maggots and eaten alive horrifies me and therefore we needed to apply prophylaxis. We assembled, by chance, a crack team of five adults with a variety of skills (medical, psyops, statistical, IT, communications and drama) and set to work It was pathetic to watch as this team was outrun, outjumped and outwitted by itsopponents. It took over two hours to round-up the sheep. There was then a short period of clambering, jostling and falling while the pour on was applied and the deed was finally done. Relaxing in the victory celebrations and filling in the medication log I noted that the instructions are quite clear on one point "repeat in 6 to 8 weeks". Interviews for the new team start shortly.

The mark of Maesneuadd

When the sheep were sheared last week they were marked as planned. Interestingly, in the process the original mark for the farm was unearthed. We have the original blue 'M' for Maesneuadd. It is tempting to use this elsewhere but Lola and Cosmo have been quite quick on their feet. All six ewes and the ram are looking well. They seem to have hefted to the far end of the large field but do roam the full extent and it does seem that the grass is getting shorter.

During the next month, if we get any dry and sunny days, we should try and take some hay off the top field. The last few days have been constantly wet although it has been warm, this is an unpleasant mixture for logging as the sweat pours and sticks to you.

The poultry have been fine. The chickens are still providing 8 eggs a day but we have reduced the layers pellets and increased the mixed corn to see if this will help this. It is too early to know if the incubator is doing anything other than heating some water, it is another 5 days until we candle the eggs.

The ducklings are getting used to their new surroundings but, again if we get some dry days, we hope to move them down to the hidden meadow. The pond we dug there has filled well and will be very suitable for them.

Lovely weather for ducks

The last few days have been very wet. I missed most of it  as I was stuck in the car travelling. However, it is, as they say, lovely weather for ducks and it is thus apposite that they arrived today. Six ducklings have joined or small poultry enterprise. There may soon be more as we met a man at the farmers' cooperative who may be able to supply is with turkeys. This would leave us enough time to get them ready for christmas and might solve all our present problems.

In addition we have now got an incubator working and hopefully in three weeks or so we may expand our flock of chickens. This is the most basic version where you have to manually turn the eggs but the cost sis very reasonable. We'll soon know if Geoff is firing blanks or not.

Mae hi'n braf, yn y diwedd

The day started off wet and grey, We spent the morning inside low-lying  cloud, there was no colour and no visibility past a few hundred yards. This prompted me to create a shelter where I could work on the timber store without getting completely soaked. Fortunately we had an old tarpaulin, from the days of The Dolphin, and this was pressed into service. This should also help next winter's fuel dry faster.

In the afternoon the sun did come out and the temperature rose to the giddy height of 21 degrees Centigrade. While working near the back of the house I noticed that we had small lizards. Probably two of them (but they are fast and difficult to count) about 4 inches long.  They looked like common lizards (lacerta vivipara or zootoca vivipara), brown with lined markings and scaly skin. They were impossible to photograph as I could not keep track of them and this speed itself make it more likely that they were lizards (as opposed to newts)

In the late morning we had a new bird visit us. A Blackcap,  a male , was in the small field foraging between there and the feeder at the front door. This had quite a clear and identifiable call and one can see why it was sometimes called the northern nightingale. It is straneg to think that this small bird, about the size of a robin, has probably travelled all the way from Germany to visit us.

Our own birds remain productive with a further 8 eggs this morning. We will have to find out which one is not pulling her weight and giver her her cards. We will also have to find a lot more egg based recipes as we are starting to fall behind.

Outside the office window the tree has just burst into flower. It is heavy with large, white flowers and really brightens that area of the garden. It is unfortunately yet another plant I can not identify, hopefully the gardening club members will be able to help when the meeting is in our house next month. I wonder if it is a type of Hibiscus or cotton rose, though the centre of the flower is not of this type.

Today was also the day to change the water filter. We had changed the UV light filter, which hopefully kills all the bugs, previously but guessed it must be time to change the mechanical filter, which gets rid of all the gunk. There is no good way of telling by looking at them when they are past their best. I think we will just change this 5 micron filter every three to six months. Another task for country living.

Rain stopped play

Sheep

The sheep might be regretting the loss of their fleece as it has been cold and damp. However, they don't seem to be distressed and have spent their day in the big field eating and ruminating.

Poultry

Eggs Today :6

The hens have looked bedraggled all day. The girl with the prolapse seems better with no scouring and a less of a prolapse.

Bees

A quiet day for the bees, we will need to check sooner (if this rain persists) if they need further feeding.

Weather

A pleasant start to the day, warm and dry with a light breeze and cloudy skies. Unfortunately this was a false start and by mid-morning the skies were grey and there was constant drizzle. This grey, wet theme continued for the rest of the day

This was perhaps the wrong setting to receive the letter saying our Solar Panels were now set up to receive the Feed-In-Tariff. When opening the letter we were generating only 368 watts under the weak and insipid sky. (However, since they have been installed we have generated a total of  1134kWh in about three months)

There was a temporary break in the rain, not exactly stopped but no longer annoying, when we were able to get the birch tree further logged. It has contributed well to the winter's fuel

Vegetables

The cold drink make from sticky willy tasted exactly as one might have imagined water infused with weed extract might taste. It tasted slightly of pea (The legume, that is).
It is no surprise there is no large scale commercial enterprise using this recipe.

Hedgerows

The main flowers in the hedgerows just now are wild honeysuckle, foxgloves and dog roses of various colours.

25th June 2012

Weather

This has been a very pleasant day. Mostly sunny with reasonable cloud and a gentle breeze. It never rained and was warm throughout.

Vegetables

The biggest problem we have had with weeds has been Galium Aparine or sticky willy. The onion and garlic beds were awash with it. This grows so well it covers the other plants blocking their light and throttling their growth. However, I have discovered that it may have uses. In addition to being able to be made into tea or coffee (as can anything; as long as you don't want a pleasant refreshing beverage) it is also edible - not in the raw state as the hairs, or velcro, are mechanically unpleasant in the mouth. The leaves, not the stalks, are cooked like spinach. We will try this tomorrow.

It can also be used to make a soft drink which is meant to be good for the skin. I have started an infusion and will report how it works (If I haven't got a job as a model with my beautiful skin).

The first earlies are ready and we have taken enough potatoes for tonight's tea. The peas and beans have come on well and will be ready to pick soon.

It seems that the strawberries were ready in our absence, our grandson informs us that they were nice.

Poultry

All the hens remain well barring the one with a prolapse. This seems less prominent and the others have not paid her any attention. We tried reducing it again and they have already been wormed with Flubivet.




8 eggs today, all quite large.




Ducklings will probably be ready this week.

Sheep

All seem well and continue to look better in their short coats. It is harder to tell the ram from the ewes at a distance, anything over 15 yards and we find that moving testicles are hard to discern.

Bees

The bees had wolfed down their syrup. The litre of syrup they had last week was completely gone. I have given them a layer of supers and will check them again at the weekend to see how they are getting on.

Visitors

There were no new birds to report this week, the same old tits, woodpeckers, heron and siskins. Wood wasps are around and quite large and vicious looking, however, what appears as a sting is the ovipositor and these are in fact harmless horntails.

Back from the holidays

A week away and the lanes and grounds have become seriously overgrown. Proof, if we needed any, that the area is fertile and well washed with rain. Over the last week the grass seems to have grown at least 6 inches and possibly more, there is a serious weeding challenge in the vegetable garden.

Bald sheep fleeing unknown predator

The animals seemed happy that we were back. The sheep had been shorn during our absence which was a pleasant surprise. We will need to check whether they were given pour on at the same time. If not, then we will get some and have a go ourselves. They certainly look a lot happier, and younger, in their short coats.

The hens and bees seem safe and productive. We will have to search out egg recipes as we have quite a backlog that needs eaten. The bees were fed last week because of the rain but this week looks better and we will check the hives later.

The holiday itself was fun but watching sun-slapped holiday-makers greased-up and sautéing their beached bodies was not always pleasant. The sight of proud men strutting, mistaking their 'moobs' for pectorals, lingers in the mind, unfortunately. As the holiday was all-inclusive, with very good restaurants,  there is a risk that I too have started down that road, so vigorous exercise is required.

One of the hughlights of the holiday was a visit to a turkish barber. This was an exciting 20 minutes as it is quite an edgy experience having someone stick scissors into all the orifices in your head in search of small hairs to be snipped. It was then followed by an equally anxious period when any small hairs which had survived the first sweep were eliminated by a brush over with a burning cloth on a stick. I may now need to change my avatar to reflect my hirsuit-challenged appearance.

Plants

This blog is both an aid for my memory and also a call for help. I hope to record the plants which appear over the year in the garden and, thus, create a list. I would be grateful if any anyone can name the unidentified flowers.

33.) Primula Japonica

32.) Daisy

31.) Forget-me-not

30.) Dandylion

29.) Celendine

28.) Magnolia

27.)

26.)

25.) Violet

24.)

23.) Bluebell

22.) Magnolia

21.)

20.)

19.) Periwinkle

18.)Flowering Currant

17.)

16.) Forsythia

15.)

14.) Viburnum

13.) Flowering Quince

12.) Bell Heather

.11.) Switch Ivy

10.) Camelia

10.) Camelia

9.) Crocus

8.) Snowdrops

7.) Daffodil

6.) Primula

5.) Primrose

4.)

3.) Hellebore

2.) Azalea

1.)

1.)
2.) Azalea
3.) Hellebore
4.)
5.) Primrose
6.) Primula
7.) Daffodil
8.) Snowdrops
9.) Crocus
10.) Camelia
11.) Switch Ivy
12.) Bell Heather
13.) Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles Speciosa 'Rubra')
14.) Viburnum burkwoodii
15.)
16.) Forsythia
17.)
18.) Flowering Currant (Ribes, Sanguineum, King Edward VII)
19.) Periwinkle (Vinca)
20.)
21.)
22.) Magnolia Stellata
23.) Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
24.)
25.) Violet (Viola odorata)
26.)
27.)
28.) Magnolia
29.) Celendine
30.) Dandylion
31.) Forget-me-not
32.) Daisy
33.) Primula Japonica