Hay supply

We were getting a bit stressed before last weekend that we were down to the hay scrapings off the floor in the hay loft. We have several arrangements with local farmers which had been interrupted by snow. Then two of them delivered within a couple of days if each other so we had a bale straight in the field for the cows and 7 bales put in the barn for sharing between the horses, sheep and cows. The rabbits are still eating hay that we made ourselves - we are looking forward to being able to make a little more hay this year with the two wheel tractor. But it will still not be anywhere near enough for the amount that 2 horses and 4 cows guzzle.

Not a very good picture, but we are very happy to look in and see it so full.

1st lamb of the year!

It is a girl, we have called her Blizzard as she was born in one. She was born yesterday morning and seems to be surviving the horrible weather (pouring sleet and snow, wind etc) ok. Her mum is a good carer and is feeding her plenty of milk, keeping her out of the rain a bit and only occasionally stepping on her. She is quite inquisitive and less shy than many lambs.

You know...

... when you have been mini Doug - That is Doug's joke (having DESTROYED something with the mini digger). Which reminded me if one if my dads favorite jokes. 'What do you call a man wi a spade in his head?' - 'Doug' 'What do you call a man without a spade in his head?' - Douglas. Cue hysterical laughter. He could have heard it 5 times a day and still laughed I think. His favorite was 'What is brown and sticky?' - 'A stick'!

Anyway... we have an ugly lean to roof against the barn which has looked very shonky and in danger of imminent collapse since we moved in (we didn't store the car there for that reason). Under the weight of recent snow it fairly gently gave up the ghost, fortunately not crushing the mini digger that we did keep under there. We were planning on moving the tractor out of the garage and under here too so we need to do something about it before we can get on with the house. Aaarrgh.

It isn't super clear in the pictures, but the far end in the 1st picture and the right hand end in the 2nd has dropped down. There is a massive steel girder which has dropped down from being balanced on the bank to sitting on the ground. The other end has remained balanced on a post.

 Doug used the mini digger to pull the post out. We were a bit worried about the metal supports crashing down and roofing firing off, or something smashing through the barn wall. But it was fine.

Shortly all the metal sheets will be removed and the beams brought down to the ground. Not sure what we will do with them then as they must weigh a lot.

Eventually we will build a wooden garage/shed here but as we want to stabilise the bank behind, remove a tree and resculpt the entrance to the area we don't want to do it until the house is at least more on the way to being done. So in the mean time we plan on getting a temporary canvas garage to keep the mini digger and tractor dry.

Course liver pâté recipe

Liver, heart and tongue from a pig

The liver will be about 1kg

Same weight of pork as the tongue

100g lard

1 onion

1 clove of garlic

200ml of milk

100ml of apple juice (or other fruit juice)

100ml brandy

1tbsp herbs de provence (or thyme or rosemary)

1tsp salt

1tsp white pepper

1tsp nutmeg

Mince all the meat

Fry the onions until soft and mince them too with the garlic

Mix everything together in a large bowl

Test the seasoning by frying a little of the mixture.

With a stick blender mix the gloop around until it is a lot smoother. When you cook it the bits seem to grow and won't stick together like pâté unless you have blended it quite a bit. But you want it to stay chunky still. You can get an idea how it will turn out by frying it. If you end up with a big pile of lumps then blend some more.

Put in to foil trays and cover with tin foil. Pile in a pan and simmer for about an hour, or put in a bain marie in the oven for similar time, It is cooked when 70C in the middle or when a knife is inserted the liquid that flows is clear not bloody.

More snow is coming...

... but today it was lovely weather. Easy to kid oneself that winter is over and spring has sprung.

Hay hay!

We only got this on Friday and look at how much they have eaten already! Bluebell likes to climb on top, and they all like to sleep around it.

The phone line

They have not finished fixing our phone line from when it blew down 2 weeks ago. A man came on Friday because the internet worked but not the phone. not sure what he changed but it all works now. he wasn't sure when the proper fix will be made.

That white wire is temporarily connecting the broken ends. It seems slower than before. The wire is thinner so I guess fewer electrons can squeeze through...

A benefit of all this was that the nice man who came to look at it fixed where a falling tree knocked the wire off one of the poles on the drive a few years ago. We had asked them to do it before but the said we would have to pay a call out fee. Clouds and silver linings or something.