Bluebell was AI-ed today

The bull has a cool name - DJ Jante. 

We now need to keep an eye on her in around 21 days time (was 20 days since the last heat I think) to see if she comes back in to heat again - in which case we need to call the man again. It was the partner of the man who did her before. 

If she does get pregnant from this time the calf will be born at the end of April.

Not sure what all the numbers and data about the bull mean.

Leveling the floor

Doug is busy leveling the top of the joists so that the floor in the bedroom is sufficiently flat. A few of the joists were a bit weedy and have been replaced, there was also a spot that had had a ladder between the two floors where a bit of one of the joists had been removed.

This is making lots and lots of wood shavings and saw dust as bit have to be planed and sanded flat. I think it is approaching finished although there are some tricky bits round the edge still to do - where the existing joist has been buried in the hempcrete and so an additional bit needs bolting to it so that the floor is supported at the edge.

Hot weather, as well as quite a lot of grass mowing and animal care has made progress difficult - in addition Doug is working on his own now.

Rabbits

The darn rabbits had one litter but have gone back to refusing to mate now. There is only one adult female (Bernardette) and two males. We are planning on keeping the two females from Bernardettes previous litter. They are 3 months old now, so another three months approx until they will be old enough to mate.

They are pretty cute. Blondie

Blondie again

Maybe this one should be called Debbie

Pig in mud

Now the weather is warmer the pigs love being showered with the hose and wallowing in the mud.

You can kind of see the spray from the hose here

Lismore photos

You may remember that Lismore is Bluebells calf, born in September last year. So she is about 10 months old now. We need to think about weaning her. We are thinking of selling Bluebell because she keeps feeding from her mum Buttercup.

She is a jersey highland cross and has come out a bit more hairy than a jersey but with a smoother coat than the highlands. Interesting stripes too. She is a bit shy and frisky at the moment, but we hope she will calm down to a friendly jersey temprement as she gets older - in which case we will keep her.

Mum is a real sweetheart now. Unlike when we got her and she was a pushy little madam. Probably partially maturity, partially getting used to the routine here and partially our training.

Shearing the sheep

Several sheep died this week with fly strike which is a gruesome way to go. Basically being eaten alive by maggots. We have treated them all with stuff called Coopers Spot On which I guess is a bit like the tick and flea stuff that goes on the dog. It should kill any maggots that hatch on the sheep. 

We did have one sheep die with fly strike before, but we thought he was ill before being struck. So overall we have thought there is not really a peoblem with it here and have not preventatively treated. I think the cool winter and then wet spring has made it worse than normal this year. But we will be applying the Spot On around this time in future years to try to avoid this happening again. Really sad to lose the sheep, horrible they suffered and gruesome for Doug disposing of bodies crawling with maggots.

Shearing is also meant to help, as it makes it easier for the sheep to rub off any fly eggs or kill the maggots when they hatch. We have sheared the bigger sheep and need to do the Ouessant next weekend.

We do it with hand shears as we don't have very many and it is easier not to cut them. They did still get a few little chunks taken out - and they end up quite tufty looking. Nice and cool in the hot weather though.

Mrs Suffolk

Missy (in front) with North Uist behind and a couple of the lambs

North Uist (he is a bit over a year old, half black face, quarter suffolk and quarter ouessant)

There are now only two ewes and one ram plus three lambs (one male and two female). Missy is Mrs Suffolks grand daughter and North Uist is Missy's son. So we need to get some new blood in now. The Mrs Suffolk blood line seems hardy as it is them who survived.

Change in the weather

We have had a wet cold spring and early summer in France, similar to the uk I suppose. 

This weekend is finally more what one would expect from weather in the summer in the south of France.

You can see the warm and damp weather has made the nettles at the edge of the lawn turn in to giants.

The tomatoes are growing quite well

Sweet peas look slightly frazzled but starting to flower

We made the most of it this weekend with two BBQs. Yummy!

Super app - GoSkyWatch

From your tablet (or I guess phone) you ppint it at any part of the sky and it tells you what planet or star you are pointing at. Is awesome!

Weekend mini break in London

It was a relief to see Doug's plane landing in London. I had been expecting a strike or something as so many of my journeys are messed up at the moment. Pretty much on time though so all good.

We ate in many many different places. This is the view from Royal China in Canary Wharf. Nice outside tables.

The Cutty Sark. Aidan and I went not long ago, and Doug thought it sounded good.

The bunks were pretty small as this was the largest one.

View of work from Greenwich observatory (on the hill above the Cutty Sark)

On the tube, bit different to the lovely country side in France

On the escalator 

Cool new route master buses (I guess not very new, been around a couple of years maybe)

Trafalgarsquare 

Exhibition at the National Gallery

Was good, interesting mix

China town

River at Hammersmith. We went to a 40th birthday party in a pub on the right of the picture here. Was really fun with free food and beer! Brill!

Amounst many other things we ate sushi. (other things being curry, dim sum, chinese crispy duck, pub food... and many more...)

The British Museum

View from the members room - Aidan is a member

Holy cow

Another holy cow in the Sunken Cities exhibition

Ram

The Elgin Marbles. Always makes me think of a Georgette Heyer book called Cotillion where a character Freddy gets really outraged at being made to go and see the Elgin Marbles (when they first arrived in London) because they don't have heads and are all broken up.

Assyrian statues. Our favorite things in the BM

More asyrian stuff. What are they doing with the lemon and handbag. Loads of them have them.

The O2 as seen from the Gun pub/restaurant near the flat

Aidan and Doug in the Gun

Great decor

Great beer

Great food

Horses hooves

Owen has had a sore foot on and off for over a week now, it finally came out as an abscess in his coronary band at the weekend. This is where an infection behind the hoof cannot work its way out and pushed out eithr above or below the hoof (in this case above - below comes out the sole or heel). He seems a bit prone to abscesses, we are not sure why. We now need to take care the hole doesn't get infected, but he is feeling much happier. I was reading about them and someone said they are a bit like colds and basically will get better in their own time whether you treat or not - you can get the vet to come and make a hole in the hoof to let it out if you realise what is going on, but that is not always the best option.

There is no picture of the hoof so her is Poppy sleeping through the boring horse stuff.

Stuff is growing

Not just weeds. These ar hollyhocks

Sweetcorn (and some weeds)

Beans

Mange toutes and sugar snap peas.

Raspberries

Some tomato plans. There are some more in the garden and others in the garden have been beaten to death by the rain.

There are also some chillies, a few of which are surviving rain beating and rhubarb which is doing well this year (one of them anyway). There are strawberries which have had a few fruit and chamomile, mint and vervene for tea.

I have planted more beans, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, cabbage, sprouts and some more lettuce but not showing signs of life yet.  

We also planted out the squash plants this weekend, we have been meaning to do it for weeks and finally got round to it.