After being on the borderline of a drought and threats of hosepipe bans (very ironic after the massive floods in November) we have had our first rain in a month this week. The air has freshened up, the dust has gone, the tourists are moaning (good old Lake District Holidays) but the grass is sprouting again! (Unfortunately so are the weeds – back to the ‘Round Up’ and Napsack sprayer then!)
Thank goodness we finallly got our first egg …
How egg - citing!
… this was some time ago and we have been managing 2 a day for some time now unfortunately 3 a day seems beyond our means unless the little monkey is laying somewhere else…
We’ve had the driest Spring ever and farmer’s all over the valley have been tearing their hair out over the grass not growing. Lucky for us we had a fine crop and our first cut for haylage was dropped and picked without so much as a threatening drizzle to slow us down – PHEW!
The bales are all beautifully stacked and the horses can’t wait to get their nashers round it!
A couple of months on and the guys are still loving the horse walker. We can see a difference in their muscle tone and fitness an excellent addition to the yard. We’re not quite sure how we managed without it!
They’re in it twice a day – Big Bob in paticular just can’t get enough of it!
Have a look at the video below to see it in full swing …
On 27th April the horse walker was installed and up and running.
After many hours hard slog – shuttering – concreting – hard coring – digging etc. etc. the horse walker boys came in and made the erection look easy they had it up and running in a grand total of 2 days! The horses have taken to it like a dream and we are seeing the benefits already.
We’ve even done a couple of laps in it ourselves – not that funny at the time!
The chickens have a brand new house! They’ve moved in and are delighted. No eggs as of yet but watch this space!
As we sadly (and happily) lost the Turkeys this week we have welcomed (courtesy of Father Christmas) we welcomed 3 new chickens!
Look out for an update with their names!
Last week as i’m sure was obvious we had to say goodbye to the Turkeys!
I am proud to say that the lovingly nurtured, well fed, healthy specimens managed to make a final weight of 14 lbs (thats 4hrs and 40 mins cooking time if anyone is interested) and they looked cracking.
They were definitely the tastiest turkeys ever and the only dissappointment was that someone tried to sell one in the pub for £15 despite them having a value of £50!
Today the Yard became messy-dropping everywhere-notquitesoabsorbent-itchy straw free as all the beds became shavings! In a bid to make life quicker easier and tidier we had 3 pallet loads of shavings shipped in and out went the straw and in went the shavings!
We’ll just have to see what we prefer!
There are a few animals on the yard that are not strictly necessary to the running of a stud farm however, they keep life interesting all the same!
At the weekend the 6, rapidly-growing-fit-for-christmas-dinner were allowed out for a stroll! They spent alot of time scratching and being rounded up by Brandy the dog!
They had a great time and will be taking a trip out again in the near future. Next time however, they will NOT be allowed on the new grass as it seems they have VERY big feet!
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