Earth works

The fosse septic (septic tank) had to get a bit dug up to put new pipes in to it from the toilet, shower, etc in the ex-garage. This is completed now and it has been filled in around it. I feel the whole garden is going to need some sorting out once we finish the house as we keep digging up parts of if.

 There will be some more pipes coming in to it from the main house at some point.

Tiling under way

Looking good! 

Lambs to slaughter

We just took six lambs and one of the sheep to the abatoir. All from the Ouessant (mini and black) flock.

The sheep was one I was fond of - called Tiree - she has not had a lamb for the past two years and we had to abide by the 'no slackers on the farm' rule. She was very tasty though!

Hard to take a flattering photo of irish stew, specially in the dark...

Looking forward to eating some lamb too.

So how's dry January going?

Really good!

We are still dry and have enjoyed weekend skiing without a hangover.

Losing some weight. Not sure if I feel more healthy over all, maybe.

But looking forward to the odd tipple next month!

Mmmmm whisky

Lovely skiing

After the snow yesterday, it obligingly was sunny today, so we went up skiing. Some really nice powder, massive improvement on last week. 

I didn't take a camera, but you can see the Pic du Midi is much more snowy than it has been.

It's snowing

You probably cannot really see in the photo, but it is snowing at the moment, and was hailing a little while ago when we were out ear tagging the sheep (the lambs are heading to the abattoir on Monday).

Doug was up skiing during the week and there was some better coverage than there has been. Hoping to check it out tomorrow - depending on the weather.

Garden

Now dug 7 out of 16 beds. They still need composting. We need to do the planting plan so that we can see what needs most manure (or none in the case of carrots)

We are also trying to build up the side so that the tractor can fit round for mowing. We didn't have it when we put the beds in. Last time Doug and the tractor ended up in the giant bramble/holly mess to the right of the picture.

The earthy bit beside the brambles is where I have out earth (and weeds over the side) to try to build it out wider.

Soup

I have made many many liters of pumpkin soup with various different stocks (goose, pork and duck) to try to get through the giant pumpkin supply. A few of them are starting to rot so I made a vast batch at the weekend. There was about 15 liters I think. Doug needs to eat more soup for his lunch!

This is made with Potimarron (sp?) squash which are great because I just remove the seeds and chop roughly and they boil down to much, skin and all. Then I liquidise with a stick blender just to finish it off.

Cutting wood

We have quite a backlog of wood around the place waiting to be cut up neatly and stacked for dryng. Some is from when EDF put in the new electricity pylons and some from when Doug and team cut the trees on the road to clear them from the telephone line.

It is hard to find time to do this as Doug isn't allowed to use the chainsaw when he is on his own and when the help is there they do the house.

Again the lack of snow helped! We went skiing on Saturday, was nice in the sun but icy nightmare in the shade. So Sunday I did some things in the garden and Doug cut lots of wood.

And stacked it in our wood supply area. Stuff on the left is what we are burning now and on the right is partially some old crappy stuff we removed from round the house soon after moving in and partially lovely new stuff drying.

Here is another pile waiting for processing and there is some more that EDF cut and left ithe field.

New Rabbits

We did not manage to breed rabbits at all last year. We got a new young male early in the year and thought maybe the problem was he was too young. So we kept trying and trying and trying but they just stood and stared at each other. He is a large breed so we thought he was slow growing.

Finally patience ran out and we bought 2 new males. Both young. They both seem keen!

It seems there may be some explanation for the other 'male' bunny not doing the business. One of the new males mated enthusiastically with 'him', and he (she!) seemed pretty up for it too.

So either a girl or prefers boys... hopefully babies in a months time will confirm it!

She is a really lovely friendly (and more importantly chunky) rabbit, so would be good if she has bred.

Dry January

Normally I scoff at people who give up drinking in January (why would you DO that - isn't January depressing enough already?) and also at making New Years resolutions (again why would you do that - it is just something to get depressed over failing to achieve). But this year I am doing both. Partially with the hope that the not drinking will help with the resolution - which is to lose weight... Doug is joining in too and so is Aidan. Go us!

Benefits of lack of snow

With there being a bit of a dry spell we haven't been skiing for the past few days (it was getting to be more earth than snow), but looking on the bright side this meant that for once we did something on the garden over the winter. Usually it is too much in to the spring that we start and all the weeds have sprung in to life (yet again they keep doing it every time we turn our backs). Doug mowed around it so we could actually get to the beds and I have weeded 6 of them (out of 10).
Although it was all a bit hard work it is a lot lot LOT less work than the first year (2012) that we were doing this when the whole thing was either compacted mud (where the pigs had been) or dense with super hard grass embedded in mud concrete. It is now possible to week by just pulling them out in most cases rather than having to dig them out with a fork or mattock. There is still the odd dock and huge clump of tough grass but it gets easier each year (possibly this year the 2 beds not weeded or planted last year will be a bit of a trial).

Giant pile of weeds removed

Damp but mowed and weeded. You can see the weather has changed which is good for the ski area, but less good for normal life.

Happy New Year!!!

May it be a happy and prosperous one for you all xx

Here is a picture to inspire the snow to return (but not tooooo much har har never happy). This is the really really early snow at the end of November. It has lasted surprisingly well, but has had it now really. Fortunately the forecast indicates some coming. The sunny weather has been lovely too.