This is Hainoa eating a little new bit of field Doug has made down by the road by changing the route of the fence to closer to the road. She gets a lovely view of passers by.
Monday, 17 July 2017
Calf watch - Highlands not ready yet
Islay's udder has started to swell quite a bit, Hainoa's not so much.
This is Hainoa eating a little new bit of field Doug has made down by the road by changing the route of the fence to closer to the road. She gets a lovely view of passers by.
This is Hainoa eating a little new bit of field Doug has made down by the road by changing the route of the fence to closer to the road. She gets a lovely view of passers by.
Calf watch - Bluebell has had her calf
One out, one in!
It is a girl. No name yet (I have suggested Aphrodite as the greek version of Venus. Or Myrtle or Rose which are symbols of the goddess Venus)
Buttercup seemed imminent ALL weekend and I inspected her approx every 5 mins. She waited until perhaps as much as an hour after I had left. Typical.
When we got back from taking Bif to the abattoir in the few minutes I was home before having to rush off again I noticed that she had quite a bit of slime dripping from her vagina and her pins seemed to have gone, plus her udder had suddenly swollen up a lot more.
They all keep coming out looking all over ginger instead of what I think of as the more traditional Jersey look of Buttercup and Bluebell. Perhaps it is the bulls here. Pretty though.
Doug says she looks less spindley than Venus when she was born. But she looks pretty spindley in the photos! She has had 8 days longer in the womb than Venus though.
This was udder yesterday evening
Just before I left this evening.
Bluebell says 'Thanks goodness I have had her, maybe you will stop staring at my vagina and taking photos of my udder, it is weird!'
It is a girl. No name yet (I have suggested Aphrodite as the greek version of Venus. Or Myrtle or Rose which are symbols of the goddess Venus)
Buttercup seemed imminent ALL weekend and I inspected her approx every 5 mins. She waited until perhaps as much as an hour after I had left. Typical.
When we got back from taking Bif to the abattoir in the few minutes I was home before having to rush off again I noticed that she had quite a bit of slime dripping from her vagina and her pins seemed to have gone, plus her udder had suddenly swollen up a lot more.
They all keep coming out looking all over ginger instead of what I think of as the more traditional Jersey look of Buttercup and Bluebell. Perhaps it is the bulls here. Pretty though.
Doug says she looks less spindley than Venus when she was born. But she looks pretty spindley in the photos! She has had 8 days longer in the womb than Venus though.
This was udder yesterday evening
Just before I left this evening.
Bluebell says 'Thanks goodness I have had her, maybe you will stop staring at my vagina and taking photos of my udder, it is weird!'
Bif to abattoir
Hurrah! We got him there safely. We got there nearly an hour before they opened, they opened a little bit early, and we were out of there just on when they were supposed to open!
My driving of the giant horse vehicle (horse box behind 4x4) in a confined space got a little bit stressed as we were going out, but was basically awesome.
His last moment in the field with his friend Lismore
Leading him to the van (the blue rope is tied to a tree so any advances are not set back if he got nervous). He went in pretty easily, much easier than the highlands when we were taking them to the bull.
Arriving at the abattoir. They have a very efficient system
Each animal goes in to a stall.
Then we have never seen the end but we hope it is as quick and efficient as the rest of their operation.
I felt pretty sad, nearly a bit tearful as he was a good cow. However the relief at having managed to get him there and the worry about the freezer space over shaddowed that!
Doug will hopefully get the skin when he picks up North Uist (taken in last Wednesday and hung for a week - it was touch and go whether Doug caught him, thankfully he did!) packed neatly in boxed (but not his skin as we have others still waiting to be cured).
We will then get the meat back on the 26th of July (9 days hanging). We have very little idea how much meat there will be (150kg? 200kg?) but however much it is, it is not likely to fit in our frankly ram packed freezers. Although a friend will give us some freezer space we are concerned even that won't be enough so we have panic bought another freezer. My calculations suggest if there are 200kg of meat even that will be touch and go (including with our friends freezer).
Any one who wants to buy some give me a shout (shipping abroad may not be practical!).
My driving of the giant horse vehicle (horse box behind 4x4) in a confined space got a little bit stressed as we were going out, but was basically awesome.
His last moment in the field with his friend Lismore
Leading him to the van (the blue rope is tied to a tree so any advances are not set back if he got nervous). He went in pretty easily, much easier than the highlands when we were taking them to the bull.
Arriving at the abattoir. They have a very efficient system
Each animal goes in to a stall.
Then we have never seen the end but we hope it is as quick and efficient as the rest of their operation.
I felt pretty sad, nearly a bit tearful as he was a good cow. However the relief at having managed to get him there and the worry about the freezer space over shaddowed that!
Doug will hopefully get the skin when he picks up North Uist (taken in last Wednesday and hung for a week - it was touch and go whether Doug caught him, thankfully he did!) packed neatly in boxed (but not his skin as we have others still waiting to be cured).
We will then get the meat back on the 26th of July (9 days hanging). We have very little idea how much meat there will be (150kg? 200kg?) but however much it is, it is not likely to fit in our frankly ram packed freezers. Although a friend will give us some freezer space we are concerned even that won't be enough so we have panic bought another freezer. My calculations suggest if there are 200kg of meat even that will be touch and go (including with our friends freezer).
Any one who wants to buy some give me a shout (shipping abroad may not be practical!).
Riding Miss Daisy
Doug had a good idea this weekend that we could take Daisy out in the box and take it in turns going for a short ride (Owen is getting rid of an abscess). He found the perfect place last week while walking the dog.
He then also had the great idea of taking some fencing poles with us and setting up an arena to school her in a bit.
We weren't sure if we would take Owen, as balancing on 3 legs in the trailer could be tricky - though he would be sad to be left behind and Daisy would prefer it if he was there.
In the end his abscess FINALLY decided to come out of the coronary band (at the top of the hoof). There is a chance if you drill through the hoof you will hit the right spot and let the pressure (pus!) out without it working it's own way, but otherwise if comes out either the sole or the coronary band. Once it does it is a massive relief for the horse. He wasn't in too much discomfort this time otherwise we would have called the farrier to try to find the spot - I am cutting their hooves, but not happy to start digging holes through the middle of them.
You can kind of make out the arena here, Doug is at the far end of it on Daisy and Owen is outside it grazing (lucky boy had a lazy time!)
Cornering in the arena
Looking to see where Daisy has gone. I took him for a walk leading him while Doug went for a ride on Daisy
The arena was a great success, we might try to get some letter markers so we can make it even better and do some things like measuring out the correct lengths of rope so it is easier to put together.
Owen should be able to join in next time.
He then also had the great idea of taking some fencing poles with us and setting up an arena to school her in a bit.
We weren't sure if we would take Owen, as balancing on 3 legs in the trailer could be tricky - though he would be sad to be left behind and Daisy would prefer it if he was there.
In the end his abscess FINALLY decided to come out of the coronary band (at the top of the hoof). There is a chance if you drill through the hoof you will hit the right spot and let the pressure (pus!) out without it working it's own way, but otherwise if comes out either the sole or the coronary band. Once it does it is a massive relief for the horse. He wasn't in too much discomfort this time otherwise we would have called the farrier to try to find the spot - I am cutting their hooves, but not happy to start digging holes through the middle of them.
You can kind of make out the arena here, Doug is at the far end of it on Daisy and Owen is outside it grazing (lucky boy had a lazy time!)
Cornering in the arena
Looking to see where Daisy has gone. I took him for a walk leading him while Doug went for a ride on Daisy
The arena was a great success, we might try to get some letter markers so we can make it even better and do some things like measuring out the correct lengths of rope so it is easier to put together.
Owen should be able to join in next time.
Cheesy wheat and the milk supply
Venus is growing and now managed to drink all but somewhere between a 1l and 1.5l of the milk. One quarter is tasting a bit funny (and has since Venus was born) so we feed that to the chickens. Up until now they have been getting much more than that as there has been waaaay more than we can drink. We need a pig! Though we are glad we don't have one as we are having a freezer crisis already. Must eat more meat.
We soak wheat in the milk as they won't really drink it like the dog will. They go crazy for it. It smells a bit cheesy as it takes a while to soak into the wheat and then a batch can last a few days. They don't seem to mind, and it must be good for them too with all that calcium and protein.
We soak wheat in the milk as they won't really drink it like the dog will. They go crazy for it. It smells a bit cheesy as it takes a while to soak into the wheat and then a batch can last a few days. They don't seem to mind, and it must be good for them too with all that calcium and protein.
Friday, 14 July 2017
Is this steer ready for the abattoir?
We better hope that he is, as he is booked in for slaughter on the 17th of July (about 10 days after this photo was taken) and will then be hung until the 26th when they will butcher him and return him in nice shrink wrapped packets.
We are planning on getting the skin back on the 21st and starting it curing over that weekend.
Rosbif. He is two years old and milk then grass fed. We are hoping/expecting him to be very tasty.
Bit concerned though how much meat there will be and how on earth we are going to fit in in the freezer. We have kind offers from friends to lend freezer space.
On the right here with his mum and little half sister
We are planning on getting the skin back on the 21st and starting it curing over that weekend.
Rosbif. He is two years old and milk then grass fed. We are hoping/expecting him to be very tasty.
Bit concerned though how much meat there will be and how on earth we are going to fit in in the freezer. We have kind offers from friends to lend freezer space.
On the right here with his mum and little half sister
The bedroom
As the strimmer broke Doug got a slight break from outdoors work to do some work in the bedroom.
He has insulated round the window.
This was quite a tricky job but looks good now
The rest of the ceiling needs some more metal struts putting in to stop the insulation falling out like it has here. Then it will be ready for the plasterboard.
He has insulated round the window.
This was quite a tricky job but looks good now
The rest of the ceiling needs some more metal struts putting in to stop the insulation falling out like it has here. Then it will be ready for the plasterboard.
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