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.