April Already?!

Can't believe it is April already!  Where does the time go??

The farm is settling down for the winter, over half our lambs have gone off on the truck now, as have our big steers and we can concentrate on pampering our ewes.
We've got a gorgeous new Suffolk ram "Boy" he was straight into work with our current ram "Neil" Hes only a 2 tooth so we look forward to having him for many years to come.
In an happy turn of events we have been offered another 40 acres to manage in the area, so are looking forward to getting stuck in there, starting out with another flock of 30 ewe lambs, very exciting!

 The strawberry patch!  I actually weeded this out today and let the chickens have a little scratch around, then recovered it with mesh and fed with seaweed tea, so is looking a bit better than this now!

 The front garden, cleared out of all the tired old petunias, I need to get in and de-head the lavender next, looking forward to all the polyanthus flowering this spring

 New growth of Artichoke coming through,  there is just the one old plant left on the end that didn't sprout out new growth??   May have to pull out old plant and separate one of the other Artichoke to replace it

 The Passionfruit had a nice feed of seaweed tea today, hopefully we may get a few fruit off it next year

 The raised bed planted out with new Beetroot, Brussel Sprout, assorted Cauliflower and about a million Leek

 The Farmers hot red Chillies!

The big boys before they were off on the truck to their new home

The chickens are growing fast and free ranging for a good 3 hours a day now, they are behaving themselves very well in the garden, as long as we have the vegies well netted off!

We did a tour at "Heritage Poultry" which we are very lucky to have just down the road.  It was facinating!  Even The Farmer thoroughly enjoyed it!  We learned everything we were hoping to learn about natural wormers, Diatomaceous Earth, sprouting grains, the deep litter system, feeding, breeding, diseases, culling and so much more.  I left with pages of notes and saw some absolutely stunning birds.  It was well worth it.
We brought some "Stockmans Friend" with is a natural tonic for animals, with ACV, Honey, Garlic and Seaweed which we gave to the chooks as soon as we got home.  And followed up with a bowl of yogurt with their breakfast this morning.  At first they looked at me like I was crazy when I gave it to them but after eating a little bit off my fingers they were soon all into it and loved it!
Also brought some whole wheat and barley which we are currently sprouting for them, can't wait to see how they react.
We'll be preparing the Chicken house for winter shortly, covering the run with a roof so it stays dry and getting out deep litter system started in the house,  got to make sure the girls are warm and dry!

In other news it turns out The Huntaway is very allergic to Bees/Wasps.  I was sitting with her having my lunch about a week ago and I noticed she had a few bumps coming up on her legs, nek minnit  - she face had swollen up, eye, ears, and she had come up in lumps all over her body.  I immediatly threw her in the car and screamed off to the vet.  After a hefty shot of anti-inflamitery steroids she began to deflate. but boy! It was scary.  Luckily she didn't have any respiratory distress, but she now has steroid pills I have to take with The Huntaway where ever we may be, in case she is stung again.  Sadly The Vet says this is a condition with will worsen as she gets older.   The Farmer and I will have to be on our toes...

Love is in the Air

And in the paddock on the farm.  Our Ram "Neil", has just been returned to all his girlfriends this week, and was very pleased to see them, and to be honest they seemed quite excited to see him too!   So love is in the air, and before we know it there will be babies on the farm again.

Last years lambs are looking to go to sale very soon, and they are looking good, all the rain we have had this summer has certainly made for excellent grass growth and excellent lamb growth!

The chickens are growing fast, we've been collecting them some sand from beach as it is full of Sand Hoppers and they love it!  I think this has multiple benefits as it also adds some sand to the base of the run, there are little shells for calcium and sand for their gizzards, protein from the sand hoppers and fun from hunting them!  And fun for us watching too!
They are very friendly and happy climb over me when I am sitting in the run with them, they love it when I scratch up the hay for them, or turn over the pieces of wood so they can scratch up all the goodies underneath.
Hopefully it wont be long before we can let them out to free range, just waiting for them to get a little bigger so as our wee moggies won't be keen for some chicken nibbles.

In other news, this was a very timely quote for me to read today

Yes Yes Yes!

Chickadee Photos

So here are the wee guys/girls, pretty cute huh?

They are settling in well, I made them a mix of sunflower seeds/oats/quinoa/sesame seeds this morning that they really liked, apart from that they have been enjoying raw marrow,  slugs, snails worms, kikuyu and other various scraps

 They were all quite facinated with the sound of my camera taking shots and pretty soon all stopped to take a closer look

 This wee guy is Scratcher, we are pretty certain he is going to be a rooster, he doesn't have a tail at all yet 

The Farmer put this nice sandstone rock in the middle of the run for them to sun themselves on, they seem to quite like it.  We've also put various flat planks of wood around at the suggestion of my father-in-law, they are there to be flipped over once a week so the chicks can get in and eat any little bugs that have made themselves at home under there.  We are also planning to make a maggot feeder for the little guys as seen on the Farmlet website, but more on that soon!

We have Chickens!!

Woooo!  We just got them today!
 8 gorgeous wee 8 week old chicks, after watching them for a while we think we may have 3 cocks and 6 pullets, but not completely sure of course.  Yes we have just spent about the last 3 hours sitting in the chicken run with them watching them making themselves at home.  We couldn't believe they were straight out of the box and straight into scratching around, finding bugs and worms, all the while peeping away to each other.  They are quite friendly, taking food out of our hands.
In other exciting news we are booked in next weekend to do a farm tour with some local chicken breeders,  they keep their chickens organically so we are really looking forward to learning their methods and ethos.

Pictures to follow....!

Broccoli Disaster!

 This had been the site of our broccoli patch, sadly The Huntaway thought she would do some gardening of her own, planting a fish head in here......trying to add compost perhaps?

 The sole survivor, and he is not looking happy

In a happier photo the cherry tomatos are going great guns, and they are soo sweet!

Tomatos!

So now The Huntaway is pretty much back to to normal (hurrah!)  she is back to training.  Shes adjusting well to our new additions -  weaner calves
At this stage we are de-sensitising and she is practicing being a calm relaxed dog around the stock, and its going really well!
The calves are pretty keen to come up and check her out and she isn't afraid to take back her space when they get too pushy.
The grass is still growing like crazy as we have another 15ml of rain.  It has been such a wet summer!

In the garden we have started harvesting our tomatos.  I actually didn't think we would get any home grown tommys this years as our plants have really struggled, losing almost all the lower leaves, they look terrible, but are fruiting so its all good!

Our pumpkins are getting a little mildewy so I want to try spraying them with a baking soda solution as suggested by my brother.   He had a lot of success using this method on his courgettes, so I'm looking forward to trying it out in our garden.
On the veggie from we've also planted out more seedlings - Broccoli, Brussel Sprout, Cabbage, Cauliflower and Leek.  My seedlings are tiny, but so far are doing well.  We really need to build ourselves a wee seedling raising box...... But only after the chicken house is finished!

Back to the Vet (gross photo warning!)

The Huntaway had a rush visit to the Vet this morning.  She was due to have her last 3 stitches out tommorrow, but when I checked her this morning I was horrifed to see the area around the scar was swollen and hard.  The Vet says shes had a reaction to her internal stiches and put her straight onto antibiotics, two a day for a week.  The area looks gross and is weeping a little.  I feel sick about it and am now doubting my decision again.

So for those with a strong stomach, heres what it looks like....

This had been a flat little scar last night, almost invisable.  Still shes happy and bright so I have my fingers cross this is going to settle down quickly.