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 !

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.