Saturday 18 January 2014

Nearly a Year!

Nearly a year since we moved in... hard to believe its been that long.

 Time for an annual review
1) The Weather
After a lovely. very dry. summer we are still wading through the mud created by the non stop rain which started the day after I posted a comment about Wales drying up!  The sheep are developing webbed feet.   The ducks are loving every minute dabbling in the mud the cows are creating.  We have had some amazing sunsets....



2) The Livestock

The Llanwenogs are hopefully all pregnant and lambing due to start early March.   Eddielamb  is still with us, he was saved from the butcher by suddenly losing condition just before Christmas, his friend is now inhabiting our freezer (as of yesterday). 
The cattle have settled well. Bonnie asserts her authority over the others shoving them off what she decides is the best food.  They surprised me by being easier to confine and drench than expected. This morning I found them in the shed with the bales (opps must have left the gate open!).. Luckily they hadn't been there long when I discovered them.

The ducks are now laying an egg a day (that's 35 a week!! .... eggs anyone?).

Kass decided being a cattle dog wasn't a good idea when she got a bit close to Drynwen's back leg... so now avoids the cows at all cost!

3)  Exploration.
We are slowly exploring the local area ...... above ... picture of Talley Lake.

... there is a great red mountain bike run in Brecfa (according to Ian!  )
We have cycled the local lanes (well I've pushed my bike quite a bit!). The views are superb... the Brecons, Black mountains and Cam
brian mountains can all be seen.

The National trust have some good properties locally ... including the Dolicothi Gold mines ... we haven't been down the mine yet but the walks on the estate are lovely (and have dog friendly stiles).
The Dinefwr estate also has great walks and a fab castle to explore.

The National Garden of Wales is so good I took an annual membership.


We had a lovely 2 days at St David's visiting the cathedral and the lovely coast (see below)


There are so many auctions in the area ... household goods, farm equipment and livestock market auctions such fun (so far I have resisted spending too much!!)


Plans
It's been a great year and I look forward to year 2.   We should exchange contracts on a further 12 acres this week so we move into year two with about a third more land than we started with.

This next year we plan to get the Beudy rented as a holiday cottage, erect a poly tunnel to expand the fruit and veg growing and find customers for our lamb meat. ... I might even get my donkey!.....watch this space....



 

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