Fifth Ouessant lamb

Which makes eight in total so far...

This is the 5th Ouessant. He was born already the same size as the four born a week before. So now there are 5 Ouessant lambs - 2 boys and 3 girls - and 3 'meat flock' lambs 2 girls and a boy. We will eat all the boys, keep the meat flock girls and not sure about the Ouessant girls - maybe sell them.

There are two more Ouessants that could have lambs (but only one that looks likely) and one more 'meat flock' that could have one but is not likely too (bit young). So in summary we expect one more lamb.

We have an extra beyond what we expected as one of the Ouessant had twins. One of them started off very weak but is doing fine now. What a clever mum! Maybe we should keep one... are they more likely to have twins, being a twin? Not sure...

Mating rabbits

Still not going really smoothly!

We have had a bit of bad luck with the males and both Bunny Boy (ginger) and Stud Bunny (black and white) died recently. Stud Bunny was old, but we are not sure what happened to Bunny Boy. We have a new male but he is not showing any interest in the ladies yet. He is a bit young. We had mated the other two, or tried to, many times with the girls, but there is only one of the 4 who seems she might be pregnant. So project bunny still not totally under control.

Maybe pregnant

Good looking, but not interested yet... 

Lamb picture

Proud dad

Four lambs in one day!!

We have been wondering if little Raasey was old enough in the Autumn to father lambs.

Today three of his ladies had lambs - one of them twins (which Oessants rarely do - but presumably the father doesn't have much input to whether it happens or not).

All girls, which is quite amazing as that means we have had 6 girls and a boy so far. There are a further 3 ouessant ewes who will hopefully also lamb. One of them - Tiree - didn't manage a lamb last year so she better make an effort this year else we might be eating mutton. Possibly the fact that she is quite friendly and super keen on sheep nuts which makes it easier to move the flock may save her even without a lamb.

No pics yet...

Wildlife

I hope that fox stays away from the chickens! If you remember, last summer ther was a young chick massacare, I suspect there are quite a few foxes around, so may have been this one or not.

These snowy ones are from some weeks ago

Wild mountain man?

Badger? Hopefully they don't all give TB to cattle!

Ok so these ones shouldn't we wild, but they escaped.

Funny picture!

This picture made me laugh!

Hay field flailed

It is clearer in real life, but you can see that the upper part of the field has been done. There is no before picture, but there were quite a few small gorse bushes and trees as well as brambles which have now been turned to DUST! It is amazing to see it go over a sapling (maybe 1.5 cm thick the ones here were) and there is just nothing left. No identifyable bits, nothing. We were keen to get this done before the grass really starts growing as we want to make hay here in perhaps June and it will be a lot better for not having all those bits in it. The flailing also smooths the surface quite well, so hopefully that will make it easier too although it may need a few more years with a go over each year to fully improve that - and having the cows on it doesn't help th surface.

Hams hung

One we salted in a box as we did for the previous hams. The other two we put in a polly bag with less salt and drained off the liquid occasionally. We left all three for 5 weeks - which was a week longer than intended as work and life got in the way. Hopefully won't be too salty!

Lovely ski

I did mention that I am on holiday this week didn't I? It is kind of a ski holiday although we arenot going up every day. We are also doing useful things in th potager (kitchen garden) and around the farm, basically chilling out.

We had a brief return of lovely spring weather yesterday and went on a nice ski tour down the Aygues Cluses valley. Unfortunately we didn't take the camera, but this is what the view looked like. 

It was a steep climb from the top of the quatre thermes lift through a quite exciting hole in a rock like this - these people do ski holidays which include this tour. http://www.pyrenees-mountains.com/ski-touring/intermediate-ski-tours/pyrenean-off-piste-ski-safari

We were quite knackered by the time we got back and happy to sit down in our lovely new outdoor kitchen for some hot chocolate.

Three lambs

We now have three lambs, two girls and a boy.

Blizzard (the older girl). That is the mum of the boy she is standing next to.

Rug, the boy with his mum, and behind Blizzard with her mum

Ruff the youngest. She has a little white ruff under her chin.

There is still one sheep (Skye) in this flock we hope may have a lamb. The remaining ewe (PomPom) was only born in the summer so is too young.

The other flock haven't had any lambs yet, we are think Raasey may have been too young in the autumn to father any, we certainly didn't see any action from him. We shall see. He is quite a small fellow so we have been thinking of getting a slightly bigger ram for that flock. You see people looking for a swap sometimes and some people prefer very small as they are a miniature breed.

Starting spring planting

In November we planted peas and broad beans which grew a little before resting over winter. They should start up again soon. We have now planted some more in the other half of the bed. We plan on some more in about a month and another month after that. We should get crop over a longer time like that.

We have also planted 2 beds of potatoes - which we very thoroughly manured with stuff dug out of the barn and taken up in the tractor trailer. It was a bit difficult getting it up through the muddy track in the wood, but much easier than hundreds of wheel barrow loads. We have only planted Charlottes this year as we are trying to keep things managable with me working and Doug focusing on the house.

In the background of the previous photo you can see purple sprouting broccoli which seems very late actually sprouting. Presumably it will manage it eventually, and along with the kale and cabbage that is still going we should have enough to see us through until the new season crop.

There is quite a bit of weeding to be done before anthing else is planted! Each year that is getting a bit easier though.

New male rabbit

He is called Bat Ears. Bunny Boy (the ginger male) died over the winter, and Stud Bunny seems to be feeling a bit old and not so up to the job any more so we decided we needed a new male. He is only 4.5 months old, so maybe not quite ready yet. We may look for a new ginger male at some point.

Wildlife in Southwark

Beautiful weather for a walk

Along the ridge above our house.

Unfortunately the weather has returned more to winter now - for my weeks holiday!

Playing with our tractor

The trailer is meant to have a seat on it, but they forgot to pack it. It is in the post apparently.

We also had a go at some brambles and saplings in the fields which went very well.

Insulation in the main house - done!

Yay! This picture makes the whole house look squint. It is not!

Next up is the bedroom - which is now ready for insulation with the cross pieces sorted out. We are hoping it will be easier than the main house because it is a bit more regular and doesn't have A frames. We will be doing 30cm here instead of the 24cm in the rest of the house.

Before and After

When we moved in the outdoors kitchen was stacked full of crappy wood off cuts.

We laboriously trundled most of it over the the wood pile area - and have now burnt much of it!

It took quite a long time slowly whittling it down

Eventually it was empty and we could use the space - despite the wierd post in the middle holding up th ugly shonky roof.

Now look how beautiful it is! Lovely new roof and floor, running water, insulation and ceiling, a door and shutters, kitchen units and cupboards. Amazing! 

Eventually we will put shelves in to the storage room and some lights and a power socket but that it it for now.