Of mud..and having Faith
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Its been a productive but increasingly muddy few months on the farm. We've had a flurry of activity in the fields, clearing the cut wood, processing it and then moving it to season in the barn. Thank goodness we were talked into using a processing unit – a magic piece of kit that has saved us days and days of back breaking cutting and splitting. At one end you feed in cut and cleaned off straight tree trunks. It gets sawn, in our case into 12” chunks, then it gets split and then via a conveyor belt spat out into a trailer. We then dump it and stack it and hey presto....an hour of work can process up to a tonne of wood. For us this is good news as the recent hedge clearing has produced many many tonnes of wood to process.
We have finally reached the outer
limits of our boundaries and have now cleared and made fencing ready
the last two fields. For thirty years or more the trees in this one
paddock have grown and grown and just crowded the banks and sides of
the paddock. The trees had grown as wide as they were tall in some
places. What we've achieved is more grazing ground. And more to the
point it is safe and stock proof . By this time next year the grass
seed we sow in the spring will have taken and grown and more than
likely be being nibbled by our rams.
Yes rams. We now have two rams on the
farm. One is our Wiltshire Horn ram who was busy with the Wiltshire
Horn ewes, and the other is a newcomer along with 22 ewes of mixed
breeds (right of the photo). This is our first 'Commercial Flock' which we'll lamb in
the spring and then selectively sell (and eat) over the summer and
autumn. Over the next few weeks the last two fields will have been
stock fenced which means the whole farm will now be stock-proof and
we have much more flexibility to let our sheep graze. Its a great
achievement for us and has taken a long time to do. It has been a
big investment financially and physically, but so worth it and
hopefully a one-off deal that will just need a little maintenance
over the coming years.
We had a huge surprise just before
Christmas. One of our ewes in the commercial flock had a lamb. We
weren't expecting this flock to lamb until April, so when we bought
the ewe she must have been in lamb already. It was our inexperience
– we didn't see her 'bagged up' – we should have spotted her
udders full and therefore very close to giving birth. To be honest
we weren't looking for signs like that. The farmer who bought them
for us did so in good faith and unfortunately these things happen.
So anyway, the lamb was fine, a ram lamb. He lived a week. One
afternoon he didn't look so good so we called up our neighbours –
experienced sheep farmers – and they took a look at him. They gave
him a jab of antibiotics and did what they could to help. The next
day he was dead. It was such a disappointment. We don't know why he
didn't make it. But this is not new to seasoned sheep farmers. If
you have livestock you'll need to expect dead stock too. It just
happens. There isn't always an answer as to why. And we have to get used to it. As we keep being told;
sheep have two ambitions in life. One is to break out, the other is
to die. We took it on the chin and will hope for better luck when
the rest of the flock are lambing in the spring.
A big digger has been on site this
month. As well as making ready for the stock fencing, he's also been
busy clearing ditches that haven't seen the light of day for a year -
or twenty! Its like the farm has undergone a complete colonic
irrigation. We have probed and prodded along the fields to find the
drainage. Where they're blocked or broken the drainage has been
replaced. Where they're non-existent they've been established.
Some open ditches have been laid with seriously large pipes and
covered over in order for us to get the landscaping sorted out.
We
have a pond that runs along the drive and connects the incoming
water from the neighbouring fields down past our majestic oak tree
and off through the fields and beyond. It is on our deeds and the old maps, so was designed by the Victorians who built the farm. It was probably for fish, ducks and geese (for the table), and to allow water to flow on and off the property.
It has now all been cleared
and in one continuous flow it comes in and then leaves – no
blockages along the way. It is such a great feeling to know it has
be finally completed. The last piece of this irrigation puzzle has now been
completed with our driveway pond being restored and dug out, the silt
removed and the banks re-established. The clay has been scraped up
the sides to help keep it water tight. The rogue saplings and
brambles have been removed and the sides graded. We are watching it
fill, and hold water. So far, so good.
Now I can get some ducks. And geese.....the list is endless.
Our plans for the big build have been
gathering pace. It is crunch time with the budgets and we have been
pouring over the architect plans with a fine tooth-comb, trying to
rationalise every square inch and see where we can make savings.
Its a tough call, but nevertheless a very important stage we are
reaching whereby all the estimates are being firmed up into quotes
and a bottom line is being reached. We're over budget.....who isn't?
But we have to hack and slash until we reach our goal. It has all
gone quiet over the holiday period and first thing back our new QS
will be on the job to give us a final bottom line. Its all a bit
daunting.
We had a good last harvest from our
growing room and the veggie garden. This included a few surprise
beetroots; lots and lots of onions that will keep us going through
the winter; many butternuts that have made some nice winter soup, and
a huge pumpkin or two. The Ologist made a very delicious 'Late
Harvest Chutney' with red and green tomatoes. This will be the last
time we grow in this area. Early in the new year the growing room
will be demolished to make way for one of our holiday barns, and the
new vegetable garden will be established in a paddock closer to the
farmhouse. We will have to move the chickens and pig ark and combine
it all, together with a polytunnel, fruit cage and compost bays.
The
paddock is to the east of the farmhouse and has good all round light
and low hedges so hopefully will be an ideal spot for all of the
above. My main mission next year will be to set up a mulching
system. Mulch is very important for garden beds. It improves soil
condition no end, but more than that if spread really thick it acts
as a major weed suppressant – which for any gardener is good news.
It is expensive to buy locally, even when you take your own trailer
to collect it, and shovel it off at the other end yourself. We still
have some major tree work on our hands and I'm hoping to shred, chip
and mulch until I have enough material for my garden. It takes a year
to rot and season so hopefully this time next year I will be smug as
a bug looking at my leaf mould and garden mulch piles and lack,
therefore, of weeds.
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| Above & below: dogs inspecting the recent ground clearance |
It has been a good year all in all.
And we have come to the end of it all of a sudden. I liked my New
Year resolution last year. It was to not make any
resolutions. Instead, I set myself an ambition. I wanted to be good
enough to be a Sunday bellringer by the end of the year. Ringing on
Sunday, in my head, is proper. That's when you are calling the
people to church and you need to be better than on practise night! I
achieved this by Easter so I was quite chuffed. I thought it would
take longer. But, as I found out last practise, one can't be too
smug. On Christmas Eve, I did the best 'rise' I've ever done (its
a technical thing; at the beginning of ringing you have to get the
bells 'up' and you have to do this in time with everyone else. It's
quite tricky and can easily go wrong). I was so
pleased with myself and the congratulatory nods that I was receiving
all round that I was floating in my own clangourous bubble of
self-righteousness and totally lost the plot. I missed my call,
which in turn put the others off and we had to sit the bells in, and
then start again! Oh well.
The new year starts in just a few days
time. With it comes a fresh new start and the challenge of
navigating through the year ahead. Our compass is set and our goals
laid out. We will hope to have a year of mud, dust and organised
chaos; of demolition and new building; of lambs in the spring; of
summer splashes in our swimming-pond; of replanted autumn raspberries
in our new veggie patch....and best of all of bums in new beds in new
holiday barns by next winter.
To quote my all time teenage heartthrob, recently deceased '...I gotta have faith'. RIP
George. And I do. Have faith...that is. I hope you do too, for a
great year ahead.
Happy New Year.
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