Sunday 6 July 2014

Sun, sheep, sewage and sunstroke!



Has been a busy month..

 Saturday14th June found us walking round our garden and serving tea to garden visitors for Talley Open Gardens Day.  A quiet start in the morning with a slow flow of one car in as one left was made up for by the 4 cars which arrived all at once in the afternoon ... much shuffling of cars before all were parked!    A lovely day chatting to people some of which we met here for the same event last year.    The previous week had thus been one of sweeping, weeding, planting and tidying... ( well maybe I exaggerate a bit )




The stock all needed to be moved ... cows to Home field where the grass has grown like mad, and the sheep into where the cows were.... is always a bit of a chess game to move the stock ... I had to move sheep into shed before I could move cows through the sheep field into their new field then move sheep back out across that field into their new field ( remember those games where you have to shuffle the bits of picture around to complete the full picture??)
Kass in bottom field amongst the buttercups

Ian has been busy constructing a frame for the fruit net ... he just loves working with green wood he hunts out in our woodland. 
It looks great and works a treat.
 
 
 
We had a bit of a problem which took some sorting ... a blocked drain ... took 2 weeks, 30+ drain rods and  loads of digging to find a fence post had been banged straight through the pipe (quite a number of years ago).  Not a fun job.. but well done Ian for sticking with it.

So hot and sunny I managed to get minor sunstroke whilst helping.
 
 
 
We have been busy with the sheep... the lambs have been growing fast and are now separated from their mums . 3 including Bill and Ben have a new home with Ken and Elaine.  The girls will join our flock and the boys will make some tasty freezer fillers we hope (orders being taken)
 
The ewes are now shorn and look very different .. so different that the two rams (Sam and Eddie) who have lived happily together for months, took one look at each other and had a fight to sort out the new-comer!
 
 
Ian and I are now enjoying some time away in Yorkshire. We watched the Tour De Yorkshire cycle past yesterday... lovely atmosphere in the crowd.  2 days of the local Dales scenery then back to start the project of getting cows pregnant!
 

Thursday 15 May 2014

The Cow's Go Visiting...






Yesterday it was a lost duck..... today ..... After 2 tours of our 11 acre field and a close inspection on river gully it became clear all 4 cows were missing...

They look so content here!



..... with growing fears of theft... I searched again ... signs of 'cow' on far side of river ... but still no cows .... hmm... Oh a fence post over ... could they have got through that small archway of tree and clambered over that mat of fence? ... cow hair on tree and foot print convinced me ...

.... Ok off to see neighbour to tell her she had gained 4 cows somewhere in her massive field (which has woodland, grazing and bog).   

She jumped on her quad and we were off to search .... cow pat near gate was giveaway as to their being about somewhere!...   located at bottom of the huge field (where else!!) ... now trying to encourage cows to follow a bucket of sheep nuts (that being all I have at mo)  when their bellies are full of grass  isn't ideal!   But somehow we managed to get them up the hill and eventually out the gate, up the lane and back home.   they will be confined to barracks until Ian and I have secured that fence!

Monday 21 April 2014

The trees have their uses!















Ian has worked hard to retrieve our veg garden from the trees before planting time ... some of them are now becoming a new bridge across the stream from the garden to the area which now has the poultry, and which will soon have a polytunnel.

Stage one complete......  3 large tree trunks become a bridge.

 




Stage 2  Adding decking top .....





Stage 3 Jovi tries it out...


Just a wire topping to stop slip and the hand rail to add now .... but as I pointed out if I'm pushing a wheel barrow the hand rail will not be much help!!
 
 
 
Sunsets at Nantygroes just have to be photographed!!
 


Sunday 20 April 2014

Lambing .. a review (part 1) ... cos I wasn't awake enough to blog during lambing!!


Lambing was due to start on 11th March ...  so City and Guild's who I work for, called a 2 day meeting in London on the 10th!!
This meant leaving Ian (who has never experienced lambing)  in charge for 2 days ... and me with the likelihood that I would miss my first Llanwenog lamb being born.

4.45am on 10th  I was up and ready to leave at 5.30 for the train ... thought I'd check the sheep before I left .... and there in the shed ... a ewe with tiny twin lambs (I didn't realise how tiny till several days later when several others had given birth.) .  Bill and Ben (as they have been named) kept the novice shepherd on his toes for 24hours, as they needed him to encourage their first time mum to stand still long enough to suck. Think he was terrified I would return to find they had not survived in my absence.
Bill and Ben with mum. 10.3.14

 
Another set of twins (boy girl) were born that eve ... needing no help, so Ian very relieved.

The third lamb born (good job I was back) was a HUGE male ... which arrived after some assistance from me.  Named him Chris after Chris who was here 'Help X'ing along with Alice.

Chris and Alice ... helping out.
Chris the lamb


Alice and Chris were a great help the week they were here .... allowing me some sleep as they checked lambs either late at night or early morning. Alice being a nurse loved it.

A week later and we had quite a lot of male lambs and a few female. A set of twins  spent some time being cared for by Alice and myself indoors after getting hypothermic but we were both relieved when they were fit enough to return to mum.


Other helpers were on hand ....

Ella feeds Sam the Ram
Pete checking the sheep

Henny helps out!





 


to be continued .....























 

Thursday 13 February 2014

More Disaster photoes...

Some more Photos of the disaster..
The hen house!!!!

Another view of hen house!

That was close!

... and rather close to the house too!  (did miss this little hen house which we used for chicks)

Shows size of roots

The back gate!



Our river has a new bridge (Ian is delighted)



New Views of the house ...

 
 
 
And finally the survivors ... cosy in their temporary accommodation (though not happy they couldn't wander freely as they normally do.)
 

 

Wednesday 12 February 2014

OMG Where are my ducks and hens??


OMG! 



My hens and Ducks are under all this!
 
My hen and duck houses flattened completely by a whole row of fir trees which had made such a great environment for the poultry enclosure. . I couldn't penetrate it from any angle to see if any had survived...
 
 
Amazingly out of the impenetrable mass of tree branches and trunks came all 6 hens and 4 out of 5 ducks. With some  help from some amazing friends (2 of which I only met 2 weeks ago)  all were caught and temporarily housed in the livestock trailer.     Just one  duck still missing ....which we couldn't find anywhere.
 

 
Initial emergency over time for tea!
 

Tuesday 11 February 2014


Sat 8th Feb

Today started with a Bang!

Just feeding the sheep in the sheep-shed some hay when there was an almighty bang!! .. what was that ?… then a flash of light followed 3 seconds later by another huge bang… thunder and lightning right over head .. then the mother of all hail storms.  The sheep in the field dashed for cover, Kass had to be rescued as I’d left her tied up, Jovi decided to stay in the shed whilst I slipped up the muddy slope to grab Kass.

All around was chaos … except for the cows who just stood there munching hay getting slowly whiter with a layer of hail on their backs!


 

We sheltered in the shed … the final lightning flash felt like it was in the shed with  me .. I was surprised the electricity still worked afterwards.

Only when I got back and tried to upload some pics to facebook  did I discover Broadband and the phone weren’t working …. A closer look found the white phone plug in the socket to be black and the plastic  cable from socket to phone disintergrated in several places.


 

Then the problem of how to contact BT when you don’t have a number!  Several calls to Ian and dad on the mobile and BT agree to send an engineer sometime in the next FIVE days!

 

Still waiting……….  Thank you BT back on now

Saturday 25 January 2014

Celebrations....


Life a year on...





A New Year and a new addition to the acreage ...  an 11 acre field with fab view and a 1 acre steep bank with gorse and bracken,   plus a waterfall and lovely river coombe.


 
 
 
Also this week we celebrated the one year on .............. with a slice of celebration cake (top tier of our wedding cake)
 
 
 
 
and our first home reared lamb chops.....
 
 
 
We have had our cottage viewed by a holiday cottage agency ....  it will be ready for rent at Easter for up to 4 people (no children under 8, except babies, due to very steep stairs) .... and is likely to gain a 4 star rating.... so book fast!!
 

 
Looking forward to spring when it WILL stop raining and lambs will arrive................