The blog posts here may have been much less frequent in recent weeks due to work commitments but they can’t compete with my “regularly” published articles in Home Farmer magazine.
The first article was in the May 2013 issue and the latest has just been published in the August 2014 issue. Obviously an article every year or so may not be considered prolific by most people and I won’t be giving up my day job any time soon as a result.
However I’m happy to think that technically speaking I’m a published writer and it’s rewarding to see my efforts on the page when they finally make it into print.
Hopefully this has helped to counteract what in my opinion seems to be a bias towards Wales and South West England in the smallholding magazines. There are plenty of smallholders in other parts of the country as well.
I hope the wider reading public feel that their boundless patience after my original article has been amply rewarded by this latest article.
If you don’t already subscribe to Home Farmer then you’ll need to buy a copy if you want to read the article. However I can highly recommend the informative and wide-ranging content in each issue so, in my opinion at least, a subscription is worth every penny!
Unfortunately this particular series of articles has probably reached a natural conclusion but I’m very happy to consider any other ideas for future articles.
It turns out that rhubarb is actually pretty strong stuff.
Recently while my back was turned on a business trip all the leaves from one of our plants – the Champagne variety – were stripped and the stalks were eaten. I’m not naming names but as I was away on business at the time I like to think that I’m in the clear.
On my return I was concerned that this excessive stripping of the rhubarb would have killed off the plant. After all, how can a plant photosynthesise if there aren’t any leaves? Or so I thought at the time…
It turns out that I was wrong and rhubarb is a bit of a fighter – who would have thought it?
I gave the pot a top up of compost, a good watering and added a netting cover to keep the chickens from getting at it while I was doing all that.
Now there are signs of new shoots breaking through and I feel like I may have overreacted when I first spotted the apparently empty pot. It’s almost like spring all over again …
It’s hard to believe that we have already passed the first anniversary of our move. Most days it feels like the intervening months have flashed past so quickly it can’t have been a year already. Sometimes though it feels like we have lived here for longer than that as everything seems so settled.
All things considered I think both of those must be a good sign!
The blog has actually been running for well over 2 years now – first post was on 12 Feb 2012 – because it dates back to the early days almost before our property searches.
I wouldn’t have missed the many highs and lows along the way but the journey has been a real education for all of us. Hopefully there will be many more learning experiences ahead as well.
Big lessons learned
The common advice from a variety of sources is always to take the first year to get a picture of the situation. I can recommend that from personal experience but I can also suggest that it can be ignored if you exercise a little caution.
Fruit Trees
Fruit trees are a good example where perhaps waiting a full year might have helped a little. It turns out that 1 or 2 of the new trees have been planted in an area which gets waterlogged after any extended periods of rain.
The drainage is just not good enough in those areas and I’d rather not take on a major civil engineering project to deal with that. At the moment most of them are holding their own but I’ve recently been forced to move one to a better spot as the new growth was starting to die off.
Livestock
On the other hand, I’m really glad that we didn’t wait a year before getting pigs. Most of the equipment needed was already in place when we arrived so only minor rearrangements were needed.
Our first weaners were hugely entertaining while they were with us and with just 2 of them it was no problem learning as we went along. Now I can’t imagine not having pigs in future but I have put off the idea of breeding just yet and instead taken on 3 more weaners this year.
Raised Beds
It soon became clear that with too much grass to cut and not enough veg growing space the answer was to make some new raised beds. As much by luck as through judgement these have proved a great idea particularly since raised beds mean we avoid many of the waterlogging problems that could have come up.
Future plans
Having underestimated the importance of machinery I can now work on drawing up my extensive shopping list of “boys toys”. I may not be able to afford everything but I can slowly work my way down that list as our finances permit.
The second-hand quad bike is probably first up for replacement but that may soon be followed by a compact tractor. Perhaps I’ll skip the replacement quad and just buy a nicer tractor to deal with all the heavy lifting and transporting around the place!
Livestock plans are on hold for the moment due to work commitments but there is still plenty to learn from having our neighbours sheep on the fields in the meantime.
It has become clear now that land management is a major topic but bit by bit I’m getting an idea of what’s involved. The field drains were one aspect that I had not given much consideration to in the past but through the winter it became clear that action was needed.
Luckily our neighbour also had similar problems and was willing to help with ours while he had a digger on hire. There is still plenty more work for me to do though as the existing stone field drains that were uncovered are completely blocked and must be well over 100 years old!
If anything the number of possibilities and jobs to be done can be overwhelming at times but now we’re here I certainly couldn’t give it up!
Unfortunately our chickens are now well up to speed with the egg laying and we’re in danger of disappearing under a pile of eggs.
In trying to deal with this glut my quiche making has improved, I’ve perfected a banana cake recipe and I’ve even had a go at making ice cream. However it’s not easy to get through 7, 8 or even 9 eggs every day!
Upto 9 eggs a day!
We can give some to friends and neighbours but I think it might be time to look at selling the spare eggs. At least that way the chickens do something to pay for all the feed they get through!
Now that the 3 weaners have been here a few weeks it seemed a good time to take stock of their progress so far.
For the first couple of days they weren’t too keen on eating the pig feed that was provided which was a bit worrying. However my suspicion is that after living in a stone barn for the last few weeks their new home in the woods was far too distracting.
The little “tractors” got to work almost immediately they arrived with their noses rooting under the grass and among the various tree roots.
They have now adapted well to the new surroundings and are always eager to see the “green bucket of joy” which arrives twice a day. There’s always a rush to the trough but at least there’s enough room so they don’t fight over it!
Not their best side
We are lucky that we have been able to get some waste fruit and vegetables from a local shop which can be used to supplement their rations. This helps to reduce the rate at which they will go through the expensive pig feed so the extra work in preparation is worth it in the long run. We must also remember to keep their fruit and veg separate as the regulations insists that pigs cannot be fed anything that has been in a kitchen or in contact with other food stuffs.
Unsurprisingly they are very fond of almost any fruit (they don’t get citrus fruit though) but they’ll also happily devour most types of root veg as well. It just needs to be chopped into bite sized pieces but it won’t be long before even that isn’t needed!
Weigh-In
Now that they are more settled in their woodland home the task of measuring is made much simpler now they are happy to have us around.The fact that these have been named based on their appearance is proving very helpful when checking on them.
One thing I’ve noticed is that they are definitely eager to nip any stray fingers or welly boots and they have a very nasty nip. This might be simply because these are the first boys we’ve kept and they’re just a little more boisterous.
Two Legs = 75cm long and 69cm heart girth
(0.69 x 0.69) x 0.75 * 69.3 = 24.75kg
Lefty/Righty = 72cm long and 68cm heart girth
(0.68 x 0.68) x 0.72 * 69.3 = 23kg
Looking back now it seems quite some time since the return of the lapwings and curlews followed around mid-April by the swallows that nest in our barn.
Seed Sowing
Now that we’ve reached the first week of May I look at the results of my early seed sowing with a slight air of disappointment. A hard lesson has been learned yet again about planting too soon.
This time around I waited a little longer before planting but didn’t make any allowance for our new location after moving much further inland and 1000ft above sea level.
I can take the blame for the timing perhaps but it’s too soon to apportion blame for the poor germination rate for seeds sown indoors. Depending on the results of the more recent sowings I’ll know soon enough whether it’s the seeds or the sower.
Fruit Trees
On the up side the 5 fruit trees (plum, pear and 3 apple) all seem to be coming to life so my first attempts at tree planting were successful. Hopefully they haven’t suffered any ill effects after spending some time in standing water due to the heavy rain over the winter.
Although the weather has been fairly mild since the start of the year we still got a frost at the start of May so it was lucky that I had a roll of horticultural fleece stashed away.
Ghosts in the garden?
I have been pleasantly surprised to see the Victoria plum is already flowering very nicely – I hadn’t quite expected to see flowers so early in the year. Obviously I need to read up a bit more on all the fruit trees so I can make sure they get a good start in life in their first full year here.
Victoria plum
The pear and 3 apple trees are much slower to get started but within the last few weeks all are making a start on leaf growth.
An early Easter present was the arrival of the three Oxford Sandy and Black (OSB) weaners and they’ve settled in well so it’s time for a formal introduction.
If I’m honest it was only supposed to be 2 weaners originally but I was “unsupervised” when I went to pick them up and couldn’t resist the extra one! I liked the idea of keeping the 3 brothers together
We had decided to try a different breed so that we can compare our experiences and the resulting meat with the first 2 Tamworths last year. It will be interesting to see if keeping 3 boys is different from the 2 girls last year but I’m not expecting too many differences between the breeds.
The one immediately noticable difference is that OSB pigs have “lop ears” so it helps to talk gently when approaching them. They can’t see quite as well with their ears in the way whereas the Tamworth has “pricked ears” so they can easily see you coming.
We have no plans to officially name them since they’re ultimately heading for the freezer but it always helps to have some means of identifying each individual animal. As luck would have it I spotted a simple way to tell them apart by looking at their back legs and noting the black colouring.
With the good weather over the last few days the first batches of seedlings have made some really good progress. However, there is due to be a little less sun and a little more rain from tomorrow so it seemed that today was a good time to plant some of them out in the raised beds.
Cabbages
I spent most of last summer learning the hard way about the damage that cabbage white caterpillars can inflict and as a result this year my preparations have been more thorough. A large roll of butterfly netting has been ready and waiting in the potting shed until the seedlings in the cold frame were ready!
Once the two types of cabbage seedlings had been planted out it was on with the netting and I’ll be keeping a close eye on things, trying to make sure nothing gets through. I even have a few seedlings of each variety left over so if I can find some space I can plant those to feed to the pigs.
Cabbages planted and netted
Carrots
Some carrot seeds were planted directly into the raised bed recently and now the seedlings from an earlier planting have been planted as well. This fills up that specific raised bed with the onions that were planted at the end of last year.
There has been no sign of life yet from the directly sown seeds and the seedlings sown indoors are only just big enough to plant out. Luckily I found out after moving here last year that carrots seem to do well so I have high hopes for a good harvest.
At 7am on a beautiful sunny morning I set off on the newly extended round of feeding.
First up and most vocal was the neighbours tups. Another 9 of them arrived yesterday to make it 11 in total and all were very pleased to see me. In some cases they were a little too eager to get at the food but I managed to escape unscathed.
Heads in the trough
Next it was the chickens and they were less keen to emerge. Eventually a few emerged to peck at the food I’d delivered and appear in this picture – maybe the others were having a bad hair day?
Not many early risers here
Finally it was the turn of the newly arrived pigs but when I got to their area in the woods there was no sign of them. A quick check in their ark showed why – They had decided to have a lie in after the stress of moving house yesterday!
After a month or more of grazing the limited grass in a nearby paddock, today seemed a good time to move our guests to a new spot. We’re only looking after the neighbours tups while he is busy with lambing but it’s been interesting to see them at such close quarters.
Somewhere with an untouched lush growth of grass was the order of the day and not hard to achieve as it’s only 100 yards away from their previous home for the last few weeks.
I’m sure they’ll love the fresh grass on offer but I’m doubt whether they will fully appreciate the glorious view of a North Pennines valley in spring time as well!
