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.