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News
2010
August
August arrived and we still haven't been able
to cut any hay or haylage due to the wet July. However, we monitor about 4 weather forcast
websites and identified a gap early in the month and low and behold, the weather held just
long enough for us to cut the home fields, turn it in a very nice warm breeze for several
days and they got it baled and wrapped on the last of those dry days!
Whooppeee, our main crop of winter forage now safely stacked.
Mollie, our newest Sow finally farrowed on
......Friday 13th !! Not a big litter but a delightful one none the less. She's a
fantastic sow and by far the friendliest we've ever had. There are of course lots of
photos on the Photos Tab under Summer 2010, but the one alongside is probably the sweetest
and they were only 12 hours old at this point.
Having had pigs go filming, we were then
contacted by a lovely lady from Surrey area who is writing a book about pigs and is also a
fabulous water-colour artist and asked if we had any photos of Middle White pigs she could
use for the book. Perfect timing as this was just a couple of days before Mollie farrowed
and so we were able to furnish her with some very new piglet photos. We are now looking
forward to seeing the artist's impression of them sometime in the Autumn and again we'll
keep you posted.
We have just collected our new Coloured
Ryeland Ram - Derwent Lapwing. He is a shearling (yearling) ram and this will be his first
season of 'work'. He's from a quality line and we are looking forward to some
cracking lambs by this chap.
Here we are at the end of August and we still
have about 5 acres of standing grass to cut and make into hay or haylage. The weather
just hasn't been good enough to risk it so far, but fingers crossed for the next few
days......
July
Complete change of weather this month - very
drizzly although muggy with it.
We had an email early in the month asking if
we had any pigs around the 40kg mark that a film company could use for a WW11 programme.
As luck would have it, our 3 porkers were at about that size and so we agreed they could
be used. After endless phone calls and emails between 3 different DEFRA branches and even
the Welsh Assembly having to get involved, we eventually collected a licence to be able to
move the pigs from here to the 'shoot' location in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. The pigs set
off with a friend of ours (and who was ultimately responsible for us getting the licence)
on a Thursday morning at the end of July and they spent 4 days in luxury accommodation
'on-set' being filmed before returning home on the evening of the following Monday. They
had apparently been absolute 'stars' whilst there and had even acquired their own fan
club. They were pretty tired by the time they got home and so slept for the next couple of
days recovering from all the excitement. We've yet to hear what the programme is going to
be called but I believe it is being broadcast in November. We'll keep you posted.
This month the soft fruits i.e Gooseberries,
Rhubarb and Blackcurrants have started to come into their own and with a glut of Goats
milk, I've been busy making soft cheeses again, and also discovered the delights of Goats
cheese 'cheesecake' and which as you can see in the photo alongside has been a huge
success when things like blackcurrents are added to the cheese and the puree on the top -
Delicious.
Home veggies in the polytunnel have started
to grow on well too. The first flush of Sugarsnaps are always popular as are the Ying
Yangs which follow on in August. Outside success has been minimal and the slugs have
dessimated the Onion beds yet again and as for trying to grow brasiccas outside -
hmmmm....waste of time. We'll have to have a re-think next year as losing so much crop is
very annoying.
After endlessly 'trying' to learn to Spin, I
finally 'cracked it' and have been busy practicing on a some wirey Herdwick fleece which
is very easy to spin as its rather like hair and very tough with it. Am looking forward to
moving on to some of our own Ryeland fleeces when I've had a bit more practice.
June
The weather this month continues to be
perfect for our hay and haylage crop. Lots of warm, dry, sunny days and then some showers,
perfect. We're keeping our fingers crossed we get a good early'ish crop this year as
last year's was a bit of a disappointment with regards to quantity, but not quality.
I've also been on a one day 'Skep Making'
course locally. Bee skeps were used many, many years ago and although we don't as yet keep
bees, the same process is used for some types of basket. Thus my Skep, became a basket and
I'm just waiting to get hold of some more cane in order to make a handle for it.
Our pig enterprise is currently thriving and
we have decided to re-home our two Kune Kunes,who are due to make the journey to
Derbyshire any day now. Once they have departed, we are due to collect a new addition to
our Rare Breed Herd. She is a pedigree registered Middle White Sow and is currently
in-pig. Middle Whites are on the 'Vulnerable' list of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and
we are hoping to help maintain this breed by breeding a few here at Glyn Elwyn.
May
Well, May was a month of Goat news - some
good, but some sad. It started with Jangalli going into labour 3 days late, having the
most dreadful time which culminated in 2 dead kids. Jangalli was terribly ill after her
ordeal and we were of the opinion she only had a 50/50 chance. However, with constant
nursing over the 4 days following the kidding, she eventually seemed to turn the corner
and finally started to nibble a bit of food (Banana) and drink a little bit of warmed
water with glucose in it as well as some warm goats milk.
During this time, Della decided to kid 2 days
early and produced 3 bouncing healthy babies. Two black boys and one
rather plane but dainty girl. We took the two boys to the vets for castration at about a
week old and one of them needed to be disbudded too (this means having the horn buds
removed). We were very fortunate to have been asked if we would sell the two boys to a
'Special Needs' farm in Bristol and we were more than delighted for them to have a lovely
pet home rather than having to be reared for meat. The young nanny kid has been christened
'Hebe' and will be registered under our herd name and will be kept on as a future breeding
goat.
Also early in May we purchased a second
Gloucester Old Spot Sow called 'Spotty' complete with her brand new piglets. Meanwhile
'Gertie' and her brood continued to thrive and enjoy the glorious sunshine and also the
wonderful muddy wallows I have had to keep topped up during the hot weather.
On the last day of May the 'Shearer' arrived
to rid the sheep of their thicky woolly fleeces. This all went well and we took advantage
of having the whole gang in (55 in total!) and trimmed all the feet as well as vaccinated
all the lambs and ear tagged them, ....although there are still a few to do!
April
April brought about the arrival (via
purchase) of a new male goat kid destined to be our Stud Billy. He is a
stunning looking black and white mottled chap (see photos) and we are absolutely delighted
with him. His name is Klimova Bacchus and comes from near Aberystwyth.
On the subject of goats, the two nannies are both due to
kid during May - so watch this space for updates.
April is always the time for "Wonderwool
Wales" at Builth Wells and we went along on the first day to see all the fabulous
crafts and to get ideas for what else we could do with our own fleeces. We are
hoping to send off some of the 'clip' to a wool producer who can process small amounts and
turn into spun wool. This is very exciting as to be able to make full use of
our own fleece from sheep to shoulder (as it were!) is something we've been hoping to be
able to do since first getting into sheep.
March
Sheep, sheep and more sheep! We started
lambing March 7th and finished on April 3rd having had a total of 41 lambs out of 22 ewes;
so a very good percentage rate. It was a month of sleepless nights (the two of
us doing shifts throughout the night) and watchful days but we only had one lamb that we
actually had to intervene and deliver, everything else, even the Shearlings, lambed quite
happily unaided.
The first batch of lambs benefited from being
able to go outside from a few days old due to sunny, dry weather. However, all that
changed for the second half of the month and we put up a 'poly-shelter' which the young
ones thought was ideal and at times it just looked FULL of lambs. End of
lambing brought lovely dry weather again and sunshine although a bit of nippy northerly
wind at times.
During the latter part of March, Gertie
farrowed and had a lovely bunch of spotty piglets, all doing well and having a great old
time rushing up and down the grass alleyway outside their run. They seem to
dare each to see who will venture the furthest...and then get squawked at by the geese and
high-tail it back to safety.
January/February
Well, we all survived the weeks of snow and
ice and regardless of weather the day to day work of running the holding continued.; in
fact, we seemed to be busier than ever!
The young male goat we had 'staying'
subsequently moved on to a friend a few miles away who also had a nanny she wanted
covered. Our two girls are due around second week of May and both are looking very
fit and well. On a sad note, our very aged Pygmy Wether contracted pneumonia
(as well as having a heart murmur) and despite numerous doses of antibiotics he finally
passed away in his sleep at the end of January. He'd lived to a good age and
although he annoyed the hell out of us at times, he was a real character and is still
sadly missed when going into the Goat Shed.
We 'finished' our remaining Berkshire and GOS
weaners in early February (several weeks past our planned date due to the weather) and
despite the fact there is risk of pigs running to fat if taken on for too long, these
girls, having the benefit of rushing around outdoors, 'finished' with a perfect level of
fat and as always the most beautiful flavour. On
this occasion we used the services of Dragon Farm Foods (near Tregaron) who are a
small family butchery business and we (and our customers) were absolutely delighted with
the butchery and the presentation of the pork.......We'll be using them from now on and
can highly recommend their services.
Still on the subject of pigs, our Gloucester
Old Spot Sow Gertrude is due to farrow around 23rd March and she too is looking very happy
and well. Daisy the Berkshire, currently has Bertie the boar
staying with her at the moment (this is a Champion Peter Lad Boar belonging to Chris Impey
of Cwmbran) and they are both holed up in the newly refurbished dutch barn, and looking
very snug as you can see the from the photo.
Finally we get to the sheep and all 22 of in
the in-lamb ewes are now safely bedded down in the new barn. Our first is due
around 9th March, which is one of the Ryelands, and we'll then be on sheep watch day and
night for about 4 weeks.
New Year and early January
As mentioned in the final update of 2009, due
to the snow, snow and even MORE snow.....feeding and watering of livestock took on a whole
new regime. Water pipes and subsequently - water troughs...were freezing
up on a daily basis and meant not only constantly having to break ice, but also bucketing
water to those troughs that were no longer self-filling. The Pigs and
Goats revelled in having extra Haylage (which they all absolutely ADORE), but the sheep
were a different story. We have 18 breeding Ewes and 2 rams about half a mile
away and this therefore meant taking daily rations of Hay to them......and the only way to
get there was on the Quad.
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