It's all happening at the 'farm'!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

It's been a mixed week tinged with sadness, we lost a Silky bantam chick which drowned in the pigs drinking trough, and the next day Nanny Southwellski found a dripping wet Silky bantam chick shivering next to the ducks sunken bath.

Dr Coco sprang into action and helped me get everything ready to try and save the little wet chick.

What the blazes is that blue thing?

We made a hot water bottle and sat the chick on it after we had dried it with a towel, covered it with an emergency space blanket and another blanket over that.

It was Dr Coco's prescription of a dose of Eeyore that made all the difference and an hour later the chick reluctantly left the warm furry hot water bottle and was returned to the wilds of the garden.

Made us think for a while that we should stop the chicks getting to the water but then again we would have to rethink how we look after all the other animals and without penning everyone up it would be difficult to remove the risks.

Plum picking

As we all know anyway, you remove one danger and it is immediately replaced by two more.

Talking of danger, have you ever tried to pick the top plums from a hedgerow plum tree?

Thought not, it's a risky business I can tell you and even with a ladder it wasn't easy.

My little helper didn't make it anymore successful by taking a bite out of every other plum, declaring it "not ready" and pitching it back into the hedgerow!

Mrs Harrison and Brandy

 But never mind, we didn't pick plums for long.  Mrs Harrison who is 90 came by with her dog Brandy and we just had to stop and say hello.

Mrs Harrison, or Betty as she keeps trying to get us to call her, walks her dog morning and night and is a real character who knows her spades from her spades and doesn't mind telling you so.

I don't think we will ever relent and call her 'Betty', it seems disrespectful somehow so Mrs Harrison it is.

Blackberryless bucket!

It's Friday today and it's been flipping blowing a hooley up here on the hill. We were forced to resort to jumpers. thick socks and wellies when we went out to find some blackberries.

It was a wasted trip as even the biggest bushes nearby didn't have a single berry on them, but that said we did pick some apples and a few green beans on the way through the garden.

On the crop front we had a great harvest of potatoes, beans and courgettes and the greens are at last looking good despite the cabbage white trying to eat them all.

 The grape vines are doing exceptionally well, shame I don't know how to look after them but hey isn't that what google is for?

I trod on a grape once, it gave a little whine!

We'll try again, one plus one is two!  Got it?

The animals continue to be amazing and very productive.  Simone and Aisha are just the best and they stick almost to their own routine.

We literally open the goat run of a morning and Simone takes herself off to the milking shed and settles herself down while we feed Aisha and then return to milk her.

But for me, the best bit is that they are just such gentle animals.

Coco spend hours searching the garden for plantain and dock leaves to give the goats.

BUMP!!!!!!

They are both so good with Coco, but rest assured we haven't lost sight of the fact that they are still animals and could do a lot of harm to a certain small child.

So in a nutshell that about it from the garden today.

I will return.

Has anyone missed me?

Potatoes ridged up! - Lovely!

At the beginning of 2012 I said I wasn't going to get locked into religiously doing my blog.

It would be done when I was good and ready!

Now that I am finally good and ready, I have found it's been such a long time since I was last here that it would take me hours, nay days to cover everything that has happened so I thought that a pictorial re-introduction to our garden is in order.

Except, or maybe that should have been a 'but', it should now be called a 'Grandpa Southwellski's smallholding'.

Read on all will be revealed.

The polytunnel getting stocked up

 The polytunnel has been a hive of activity and here it is in early May being prepped/planted for the summer.

What you see here has now been and gone, and has been replaced by other crops also since departed to the kitchen.

The evening skies - spectacular!

A thing of beauty

There have been a few additions to our livestock/poultry numbers since my last post, in fact there have been 23 new additions. They come in the guise of, 2 Goats, 2 Berkshire pigs, 2 sheep, 9 Silky bantams that Nanny Southwellski hatched out (in an incubator of course!), 3 Khaki Campbell (white) ducks, 2 crested ducks and 3 laying hens. Now add that to the 12 various chickens and cockerels we had, 4 dogs, 2 cats and you have a menagerie of 41!

So lets meet a few of them.

Big and Small

We bought our three Khaki Campbell's from a local smallholding in something of a hurry as Blossom our scatty rat catching terrier had consumed 3 of our 'Miniature crested ducklings' on the day of their arrival after they escaped from their box.

The one remaining duckling, 'Small', was very lonely so we thought get some ducks and he'll be fine.

They didn't want anything to do with him so we contacted Melsop Farm in Norfolk and took an orphan black crested duck.

As time has gone on it is quite clear that despite having a crest, Small is anything but a genuine pukka Miniature Crested Duck.  He is more like a Crested Indian Runner! (is there such a thing?)

The Three Ducketeers!

The Khaki's were just that when they got here, a dirty Khaki brown but once they'd got the hang of the pond they soon cleaned themselves up.

Their first encounter with a pond was not an auspicious occasion as they hadn't a clue about swimming and it was only by accident that one got out of it's depth and started swimming backwards!

Burpy burpy sheep sheep!

They have since been banished to the paddock to live with the rest of the critters
 since they turned our lovely pond emerald green and ate all the plants!

Our lambs/sheep have the greater part of the paddock to graze and live a life of luxury.  We supplement their diet with ewe nuts and despite being a bit nervous when they got here they are getting to be a bit more friendly.

They are very gentle and allow Coco to get right up to feed them from her hand.

The pigs

The Berkshires, well what to say about them really?

They have given us such entertainment since we got them, I now see why people say they are some of the most intelligent animals around.

It's hard trying to stay detached from them as they are only with us for a short period of time, but already I notice that come morning they are the first ones that Nanny and I head for.

They are our first tentative steps towards producing our own pork and likewise the lambs are also destined for the freezer.

Simone and Aisha

Our goats came with names and are here for the duration as dairy goats.

Simone and Aisha are very affectionate British Alpines and Simone currently provides us with 3 litres of milk each and every day.

Nanny Southwellski then filters and separates it for cream and semi skimmed milk and uses it to make cheese, butter and the most amazing ice cream you are ever likely to taste!

We have a licence to walk them round the block should we choose to do so.  We had a visit from the State Veterinary Service who walked the route (in a car) we wanted to use in order to see if there were other bovines on it.

Not that it matters if there are because as long as they are 2 metres away from the other animals that's OK.

And.....................

Even he said it was a farce dreamt up by the politicians in Brussels.

Incidentally did you know you can feed your pigs eggs in France but not in the UK?

And did you know, (oh no, here comes Meldrew!) that you can pick an apple off your tree and give it to the pigs, if you bring it into the house first and wash it they can't have it because it then becomes catering waste!

Anyway, he gave us our permit so when we want to take a playful goat or two out we can :)

Not that Aisha will need the exercise. she loves climbing (see left) and chasing the sheep around the paddock.

Silky bantam chicks

The last members of our cast are the silky bantam chicks.

There are only 9 of them but sometimes when you look for them you find 5 in with the sheep. 4 in with the pigs, 7 in the veggies, 3 in their run, and at least another 20 in various parts of the plot.

However they're are soooooooooooooo cute they can go wherever they want.

Well, that's it kind of up to date so see you soon!