..but you can't make it swim. That had appeared to be my ducks motto in life until a couple of days ago. Having been 'released' from their pen area to explore the 'big wide world' (barring a day of enforced pen area after a friendly, hungry Buzzard was spotted in duck land.) Pongo, Petra, Tinkerbell, Camille and Jemima spent their initial time running at the fence, falling over every crack and bump in the ground and generally behaving like a Laurel and Hardy / Chuckle Brothers (depending on your generation) farce taking it in turns to be the 'leader.' Now Pongo is a gentle drake, still getting to grip with being the 'man of the house' but slowly, he is learning to lead. It is always with great amusement do I watch Jemima my feisty white IR 'hold back' from running the show. I think she pities him and when Pongo leads his girls into a fence, well it's be rude not to follow...I can just imagine what Jemima's thinking when she stands back watching him, gives a loud decisive 'quack' and then follows Pongo into a more suitable area. I can just imagine her saying 'there you go dear, you were right all along...'
They have now ventured into the water - only at the side of the pond mind, just enough to get filthy in the mud of the bank and stink like the smell on school coaches when someone always opens egg sandwiches then peels an orange... Very well behaved mind you they are too - I hope Pongo maintains his gentlemanly behaviour unlike my last drake Waldo who was a brute! At bedtime, he leads them all into the house - no chasing them with a net, no rugby tackling, no scratched limbs on the many hawthorns ( I still bear the 5 inch scar on my arm, really attractive and I don't think.) So far, so good with them and my confidence is being restored in the world of the IR.
The sheep remain fine. I am now searching for a Dorset Ram to 'borrow' for Dolly & Dors in October. I had found the services of a Southdown but having done a small amount of research realise this wouldn't be a beneficial match really, most notably I'd get a smaller lamb. So when the boys go for the chop (sorry!) it's a lighter carcass. Of the others, Hiltz continues to disturb me in her behaviour! Even now she constantly tries to latch on to her sisters for milk! She's been weaned for +12 weeks for gods sake! At sheep nut feeding time it's always Hiltz who fails to realise the foods In the bowl, it isn't THE bowl. The winter will be do or die for her.
DH and I thought we were 'planning ahead' by considering leaving a field fallow for a year before cutting and making hay (whilst the sun shines...) Ha! We are both as green as the grass! Clearly in the real world this is easier said than done. Firstly the cost of machinery (hire or buy - to hire you have to pay a reliable farmer and the going rate is roughly half the bales!) Then it's finding a reliable 4-5 dry day forecast window (errr 'BBQ summer' ring any bells?) Plus there's the decision to treat the field or not (more £) then do I make hay or haylage...? It comes with a wealth of terminology that I don't yet understand and a science I have no hope of understanding other than it seems to be for a 1.5 acre field lots of work, reliability on others, plenty of £ = little return in hay! Perhaps we'll just graze some more animals on it after all... Of course, when discussing this locally and through reputable forums I showed my hand way too early using the word fallow - that's not what it means at all in leaving the field to grow. Fallowing involves ploughing etc... My reputation befalls me once again...
Off to read up on my pig breeds...after having my hair and nails done (check out how countrified I am thesedays though - am going shopping at the weekend - for a pink pitch fork!)
Mx
Weather: Wet! Cool 19 degrees, thundery showers making sheep and duck feeding soggy and cleaning the duck house miserable and slow, made my slow by DD's new 'friend' the imaginary Hollie who has to be let through gates and given a bucket...
Scouse in the South
Thursday 25 August 2011
Tuesday 16 August 2011
The management side of life
Well I can barely write this for my poor hands are rough as sandpaper. Oh my poor paws! Once renowned for their smoothness and softness they needs a whole lot of tlc in the form of cocoa butter and vitamin e! I was at a smallholders fair at Sissinghurst castle on Sunday and tried some New Romney (sheep) natural handcream. Well...soft it might be but I'm so not ready to move into my 'lavender' stage of life. I'll stick with my unnatural but gorgeous smelling handcreams thanks....mind you if you could combine the natural product with a fabulous smell for those of us under 50 then I could be on to something I guess!
Anyway not only are my hands rough my arms are shredded and I have been stung by so many nettles I now have immunity to them! Let this be a lesson - a) when thinning out the brambles in the hedge ensure you have proper (= thick) gloves on, not my lightweight but matching-to-my-outfit pink ones as hawthorns hurt! and b) it's so not the time to top up the tan when ones arms are required to enter nettle and thistle territory. You see not only have DH and I been 'tidying up' (any excuse for DH to get the brushcutter out) but we have been learning about ragwort. In cityesque naivety one may assume ragwort is only trouble for horses. Not so. It is a liver poisoner for most mammals so I have learned (thankfully this time not by the hard way.) Therefore my sheep and ducks and soon to arrive pigs (wait for the info!) are at risk. Not that we have tonnes of the stuff but having spent the best part of the day digging up the year 2+ growths and searching for the year 1 spread of leaves it's enough. Remember a few posts back the link to the Chaninbar moth? Well, it's weirdly become a big friend as they stand out so well against all the greenery and their favourite diet? The ragwort....Each bit needs handling with gloves, burning and where the roots remained (Madonna aint got nothing on my arms but still, I'm not made for heavy pulling) killing off with Round Up (another X against my name for the organic campaigners out there I'm sure but I'm of the opinion toughness needs dealing with in a tough manner - Dave take note when next thinking about the rioters.) But I'm proud to say at the moment we are ragwort free. Unfortunately our neighbours have tonnes of it...
The other pest we have been trying to control has been the wasp. After feeling pretty smug all year that we have limited wasp appearance all of a sudden they're everywhere. Annoyingly all over our apples that are just about ready with a bumper crop and our raspberries which are just starting to fruit making daytime picking impossible. Having acquired 2 pretty wasp traps to replace the homemade jamjar-hole-jam ones both DH and I felt confident in the traps claims that wasps can't fly down. Hmmm...not sure what type of wasps you have Mister-Inventor but I can assure you all ours do! They can also sting pretty well too at this time of year both DD and I getting done in the space of 30 mins on Sunday.
The aforementioned smallholders fair led to discussions again on pigs and having met a couple of useful companies - notably Over The Stile there we are making moves in obtaining a pig ark. We're not short of land, I hate pigs so am unlikely to get attached to them and the obvious reasons of meat spring to mind. the market turn for purchase-rear-freezer is pretty good too making it not a bad 'investment.' Special rare breeds the best apparently and we are thinking about rearing them organically so if we do sell a bit of meat it's likely to be a better price for the supreme quality with the same work ethic. 2 weaners might be heading our way pretty soon...watch this space. The best advice I have heard on them however is not to name them, or more to the point not to let DD name them!
For the named animals the sheep continue to grow - missed a trick with Minty and Rosemary. They are prime lamb! Looking forward to getting the ram over in October to Dolly and Dors as if they produce more of the same it won't just be pork sitting a plenty in our freezer! We've made contact with a farmer over in Kent who can 'loan us' his Southdown ram. Just need to look into the pros and cons of Southdown x Polled Dorsets offspring.
The ducks continue not to settle and rush around wildly including the fence, fence posts, side of their house anything really! Pongo the drake nearly knocked himself out 2 days ago when trying to catch them to do my weekly check of them. Ha! There's some irony attached to the principle of catching your ducks to check them over for health and injuries when your ducks freak out so much they do themselves injury! Pongo went to bed that night with a bloody beak and bit of a headache methinks. In the morning he'd obviously used the white Jemima as some sort of sponge...poor Jemima, typical bloke!
Mx
Weather: Been mixed, mostly warm, sunny spells, windy periods, anything from 19 - 25 degrees. Mad August!
Anyway not only are my hands rough my arms are shredded and I have been stung by so many nettles I now have immunity to them! Let this be a lesson - a) when thinning out the brambles in the hedge ensure you have proper (= thick) gloves on, not my lightweight but matching-to-my-outfit pink ones as hawthorns hurt! and b) it's so not the time to top up the tan when ones arms are required to enter nettle and thistle territory. You see not only have DH and I been 'tidying up' (any excuse for DH to get the brushcutter out) but we have been learning about ragwort. In cityesque naivety one may assume ragwort is only trouble for horses. Not so. It is a liver poisoner for most mammals so I have learned (thankfully this time not by the hard way.) Therefore my sheep and ducks and soon to arrive pigs (wait for the info!) are at risk. Not that we have tonnes of the stuff but having spent the best part of the day digging up the year 2+ growths and searching for the year 1 spread of leaves it's enough. Remember a few posts back the link to the Chaninbar moth? Well, it's weirdly become a big friend as they stand out so well against all the greenery and their favourite diet? The ragwort....Each bit needs handling with gloves, burning and where the roots remained (Madonna aint got nothing on my arms but still, I'm not made for heavy pulling) killing off with Round Up (another X against my name for the organic campaigners out there I'm sure but I'm of the opinion toughness needs dealing with in a tough manner - Dave take note when next thinking about the rioters.) But I'm proud to say at the moment we are ragwort free. Unfortunately our neighbours have tonnes of it...
The other pest we have been trying to control has been the wasp. After feeling pretty smug all year that we have limited wasp appearance all of a sudden they're everywhere. Annoyingly all over our apples that are just about ready with a bumper crop and our raspberries which are just starting to fruit making daytime picking impossible. Having acquired 2 pretty wasp traps to replace the homemade jamjar-hole-jam ones both DH and I felt confident in the traps claims that wasps can't fly down. Hmmm...not sure what type of wasps you have Mister-Inventor but I can assure you all ours do! They can also sting pretty well too at this time of year both DD and I getting done in the space of 30 mins on Sunday.
The aforementioned smallholders fair led to discussions again on pigs and having met a couple of useful companies - notably Over The Stile there we are making moves in obtaining a pig ark. We're not short of land, I hate pigs so am unlikely to get attached to them and the obvious reasons of meat spring to mind. the market turn for purchase-rear-freezer is pretty good too making it not a bad 'investment.' Special rare breeds the best apparently and we are thinking about rearing them organically so if we do sell a bit of meat it's likely to be a better price for the supreme quality with the same work ethic. 2 weaners might be heading our way pretty soon...watch this space. The best advice I have heard on them however is not to name them, or more to the point not to let DD name them!
For the named animals the sheep continue to grow - missed a trick with Minty and Rosemary. They are prime lamb! Looking forward to getting the ram over in October to Dolly and Dors as if they produce more of the same it won't just be pork sitting a plenty in our freezer! We've made contact with a farmer over in Kent who can 'loan us' his Southdown ram. Just need to look into the pros and cons of Southdown x Polled Dorsets offspring.
The ducks continue not to settle and rush around wildly including the fence, fence posts, side of their house anything really! Pongo the drake nearly knocked himself out 2 days ago when trying to catch them to do my weekly check of them. Ha! There's some irony attached to the principle of catching your ducks to check them over for health and injuries when your ducks freak out so much they do themselves injury! Pongo went to bed that night with a bloody beak and bit of a headache methinks. In the morning he'd obviously used the white Jemima as some sort of sponge...poor Jemima, typical bloke!
Mx
Weather: Been mixed, mostly warm, sunny spells, windy periods, anything from 19 - 25 degrees. Mad August!
Tuesday 9 August 2011
Calmness
....that's generally the weeks National topic - or lack of it. I have just returned from a short break in the Lake District which was astonishing. Although I have been there plenty of times before what struck me this time was the sheer magnitude of the beauty about the place. The dramatic ever changing landscape that throws up so many questions as to it's origins, age and the communities that would have survived such elemental brutalness. I bathed my hands (I was desperate, having ripped 2 nails across the nail bed fiddling around with the tin shack of a hire car we were given - worst.car.ever. No manicurist or spa around in the middle of the Honister Pass. A slate mine yes.) in a waterfall. Pure, cool, refreshing mountain water - in the purest form you could take it. Just me, nature, DH who went off rock hunting or something, the tin shack on wheels and the sheep - my god, the toughest sheep ever. If ever mine need security it's these Hebrideans I'm calling. The Lake District is breathtakingly beautiful. We are so lucky to have this in our country, so accessible and so looked after. Nowhere else in the world could you sit in a 'proper' country pub betwixt Buttermere and Crummock Waters (The Fish) looking out of the door at a waterfall!
Which brings me to the sadness of the violence around the Country. We have so many reasons to be proud of this country - not it's wealth, politics or anything else material. Each and every one of us have access - even the inner citiers, access to a calm area. The sea, the mountains, the rolling fields, the rivers - whichever, whatever, it's beautiful. It provides natures answer to everything - calmness. It demands respect, something the politicians, police et al fail to do at times. So why are we being hellbent on destruction? Destroying our own environment? It's crazy, it goes against our instincts, where we began - all of us, in the most natural way through our Mums. It breaks my heart to see so much hatred and violence, especially in Liverpool. Liverpool with all of it's heritage, it's maritime history. The fabulous architecture. The dynamic, unique people. The sporting achievements, the musical achievements, the medical advances that are made there... So many great people, great places - all born within the foghorns of the old docks on the Mersey - the great natural river. We all have connections with nature - most of all with each other. As I pat my sheep and let out my ducks this morning, pushing my daughter on her swing on the old Oak whilst watching the young buzzards soar and screech I can't help but feel great sadness for what is going on. Nature comes in many forms and as I am learning down here, it is greater than anything else and needs to be respected. We all need to learn that lesson methinks. Urban nature is beauty too. Beating up nature and the environment is not the answer nor will it provide one. I hope for an end to all this soon.
Weather: Sunny mostly, bit cool though 18 degrees or so! Brrrr!
Which brings me to the sadness of the violence around the Country. We have so many reasons to be proud of this country - not it's wealth, politics or anything else material. Each and every one of us have access - even the inner citiers, access to a calm area. The sea, the mountains, the rolling fields, the rivers - whichever, whatever, it's beautiful. It provides natures answer to everything - calmness. It demands respect, something the politicians, police et al fail to do at times. So why are we being hellbent on destruction? Destroying our own environment? It's crazy, it goes against our instincts, where we began - all of us, in the most natural way through our Mums. It breaks my heart to see so much hatred and violence, especially in Liverpool. Liverpool with all of it's heritage, it's maritime history. The fabulous architecture. The dynamic, unique people. The sporting achievements, the musical achievements, the medical advances that are made there... So many great people, great places - all born within the foghorns of the old docks on the Mersey - the great natural river. We all have connections with nature - most of all with each other. As I pat my sheep and let out my ducks this morning, pushing my daughter on her swing on the old Oak whilst watching the young buzzards soar and screech I can't help but feel great sadness for what is going on. Nature comes in many forms and as I am learning down here, it is greater than anything else and needs to be respected. We all need to learn that lesson methinks. Urban nature is beauty too. Beating up nature and the environment is not the answer nor will it provide one. I hope for an end to all this soon.
Weather: Sunny mostly, bit cool though 18 degrees or so! Brrrr!
Tuesday 2 August 2011
The week so far
Well, all ducks still standing. Good news therefore albeit they nearly tied themselves into knot panicking and diving around. A bit like my dog seems to think he's a small terrier particularly when glasses are on the coffee table so my ducks seem to have not realised their necks are long enough to get themselves into quite a riddle! They are still as fractious as ever but I think are slowly coming to terms that DD and I are not going to eat them as much as were not going away either! I had been giving them access to food constantly but today is day 1 of 'training.' Food in the evening, before bedtime. That way when they get released onto the pond it'll only take them ooooo around 4 months for the penny to drop that me = food = into the pen = bedtime in the house. Tis a slow old process sometimes. And that exactly echoes my thoughts I had this morning walking down to the field. Nature educates you in it's own way through it's own time. It's a serious lesson that nature is greater than the Mac, iphone or Blackberry or anything else that keeps us 24/7 going.
What I hadn't mentioned up until now was my great adventure this week with a pheasant chick. Out walking, dog comes back having retrieved a female pheasant....one chick left in nest. So feeling slightly guilty I had the whole 'country angel v city devil' discussion and decided I would try my best to rescue the chick until I could get him to a wildfowl home. Cue emergency cardboard box home being made lined with mower grass cuttings, bit of water etc. Phone call made to my duck man who also keeps pheasant who tells me it'll probably be dead by morning. Well it took 2 days for that to happen and between there and then the chick was moved to luxury accommodation of an old cold frame, undersoil heating with straw and gourmet meals of crushed chick crumb and seed. She was even treated to a 'cook and catch your own party' when the flying ants came out. But nature said it wasn't right and wasn't to be and she didn't survive last night. A pity, but I am becoming hardened to certain events...
Mx
Weather: Beautiful, hot hot hot! 30 degrees.
What I hadn't mentioned up until now was my great adventure this week with a pheasant chick. Out walking, dog comes back having retrieved a female pheasant....one chick left in nest. So feeling slightly guilty I had the whole 'country angel v city devil' discussion and decided I would try my best to rescue the chick until I could get him to a wildfowl home. Cue emergency cardboard box home being made lined with mower grass cuttings, bit of water etc. Phone call made to my duck man who also keeps pheasant who tells me it'll probably be dead by morning. Well it took 2 days for that to happen and between there and then the chick was moved to luxury accommodation of an old cold frame, undersoil heating with straw and gourmet meals of crushed chick crumb and seed. She was even treated to a 'cook and catch your own party' when the flying ants came out. But nature said it wasn't right and wasn't to be and she didn't survive last night. A pity, but I am becoming hardened to certain events...
Mx
Weather: Beautiful, hot hot hot! 30 degrees.
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