H&C

"I was lucky enough to visit Argaty, near Doune last week. Argaty is home to some of the Red Kites that were reintroduced to Scotland in 1996. In winter, there can be up to fifty birds wintering there – last week there were twenty-five and they made a spectacular show. Although the birds have a five-foot wingspan, they only weigh around 800g, so they are no threat to lambs. The estate of which Argaty is a part does a lot of conservation work, including bees and pond life. If you get a chance to visit Argaty, which is supported by RSPB, please do so – it is well worth a visit. Saturday found me at Caledonian Marts in Stirling at their sale of rare and traditional breeds, and poultry sale. It turned out to be a good social event where I met a number of folk who are regular contributors to the forums on “The Accidental Smallholder”. I did well insofar as I resisted bidding fever for most of the day. There were a couple of lots of poultry that I was interested in but when they went above my top price, I stopped bidding. In the past, my urge to “win” has taken over! In the end, all I came home with was a dozen Copper Black Maran hatching eggs. Despite it being autumn and hardly the natural time to hatch eggs, I have had two Black Rocks go broody. Since the hens have slowed down laying anyway, I thought they might as well do something useful. We have a Copper Black Maran cockerel, so I’ll be able to retain purebred eggs in future (hopefully, but no counting). Anyway, when I got back from the sale, both broodies had absconded from their nests. By bedtime, both were back, though, and looking fluffed up and grumpy. One went in the broody coop and one in the bachelor pad, each with six eggs. This morning, the one in the broody coop was sitting tight but the other one had decided motherhood wasn’t for her, so all twelve eggs are under one hen. I hope she manages to avoid cracking them. Twenty-one days to go! A friend of mine has recently purchased three Kune Kune weaners – two gilts and an unrelated boar – with the intention of breeding. I was a bit sceptical, but I have to confess, they are lovely. I can understand why people would want them as pets, now. One of our dogs is lame – she’s off to the vet tomorrow. She has a swelling on her left front leg; the joint is slightly twisted – I’m not sure if she injured it when she was young or whether she was born like that – so it may be slightly arthritic. Other than that, everyone seems fine – touch wood."

“Well, the weather certainly improved towards the end of the week – and thank heavens for that! It has been so wet here. Fortunately, although we are near the river, our land is quite free-draining. Dan lifted the rest of the potatoes, so they have dried on racks ready for bagging. Next year, we will REALLY keep a good note of what we planted. The vegetable garden looks quite bare now the potatoes are up, but there are still many vegetables in the ground. The red cabbages look good and I love it braised with apple and raisins and spices. The Savoy’s look well, too. I’m not so sure about the sprouts and the broccoli but they might be okay. Dan’s leeks look great but I can’t decide whether to lift the carrots and store them or leave them and use them straight from the ground. I suppose that will be okay if the ground doesn’t freeze on a day we need root vegetables. The greenhouse is all but empty now; there are two pathetic tomato plants, some aubergines and a few peppers, plus my newly planted salad, of course. I think a hen may have snacked on my spring onions! The greenhouse is, literally, green, so we’ll take it apart and wash all the glass this year. It’s one of these jobs (like most jobs) that aren’t as bad as you think it’s going to be. Like weeding the flowerbed under the living room window. I have been putting this off for months, or maybe years, but I finally made a start this week. I’m ashamed to say that I took three wheelbarrow loads of weeds out – it looks terribly bare now. I will have to prune the roses so that I can finish the weeding, which is a shame as they still have some flowers on them, but I have to keep up the momentum. I was pleased to see that the soil was in great condition, with loads of worms and beasties. These did take a bit of a hit, as the hens were “helping” me. The pigpens have dried up well; the pigs don’t mind the mud but it makes moving about in the pen difficult for us and we have regular episodes when it feels like a wellie is coming off in the gloop. The pigs are in good condition – at slaughter, we would want to be able to feel the backbone if we press firmly on the back. If we can’t feel it at all, the pigs are too fat and we’ll cut down on food for the last month or so. The Hubbards are now in the freezer. This batch was a bit disappointing for some reason – they were quite variable in size and two looked like they had been maize fed, which they weren’t. We need to think quite hard about whether we are going to continue to raise our own or simply buy from a reputable source. We had three 70 mile round trips to pick up the day olds, deliver the grown birds for slaughter then pick up the dressed birds. I’m not convinced this is cost-effective. As well as the Hubbards for the freezer, I also brought back ten Warren pullets. We’ve used all sorts of ways to introduce new hens to the flock, but this time I decided to put them straight in with the rest and hope that Hector would sort out any bullying. I held the Warrens in a run immediately adjacent to the main hen house until all the other birds had gone to bed, then opened the pop hole and let the Warrens in too. It has been pretty trouble free. Next morning the old girls piled out, while the Warrens made a more tentative exit. For the first few days, they stayed pretty close to the house, so getting them to bed was easy. They are now ranging a bit further afield, but we’re making sure they are all tucked up well before it gets dark. We haven’t caught the fox, which in some ways I’m quite glad about.”

“As autumn approaches (quickly, it seems) it will soon be time for the pigs to go for slaughter. We have three Tamworths and they will be going on 20th October. They go to a local abattoir and them to a butcher in Blairgowrie, who also makes our sausages and bacon. We have done both curing and sausage making ourselves before but, frankly, he’s better at it. The Hubbards will be going for slaughter next week; we had one die this week for no apparent reason, so there are seven going. This is the first time we’ve sent them away; usually we kill and clean them ourselves, but time is of the essence this time. When I go back for the chickens on Wednesday, I’ll be picking up 10 Warren point of lay to replace the eight the fox has killed this week. What a nightmare. We’ve set a humane trap, but haven’t caught anything yet. I appreciate that the fox is only doing what comes naturally, but I can’t afford the loss of sales or the cost of replacements, or the emotional upset. Our ewes and ewe lambs are now in the big field and the orchard is now a bachelor pad. We need to get another wire on the fence though as Jinx met me in the yard on Saturday afternoon. The five lambs had their blue tongue vaccination on Saturday before we moved them, then the vaccine went to a friend for her sheep. When you only have a small number of sheep, it makes sense to share these things with other small flock owners, otherwise there’s a lot of expensive waste. Dan lifted about a third of our maincrop potatoes and they are drying in the garage on racks before being bagged up. Problem is, I don’t know what variety they are. They don’t look like Desiree, which is what we planted (I thought) but we did get some “miscellaneous” seed potatoes from a friend who had spare. I must consult my planting plan! The pigs make short work of any tasty treats coming out of the vegetable garden. On Saturday, we were lucky enough to see a Tawny Owl perched on our fence post. It was there for about ten minutes, before flying off to a nearby copse. We have noticed an increase in the rodent population since Cassius died, so there should be plenty food for it. Let’s hope it tucks in!”

“The autumnal feel continues – some leaves are changing and the hedgerows are red and orange with berries. We’ve had a lot of rain – apparently this has been the wettest summer for 100 years. I can well believe it. Even though we are close to the river, our land is quite free draining, but even so the pigpen resembles a battlefield. Given the change in the weather, it’s time to make some chutney! My favourite recipe is Old Dowerhouse, from Delia. Since it uses Victoria plums, cooking apples and green tomatoes, it fits perfectly with our produce. I’ve made about 12lb, which will be enough to last all year. I suspect that I will also be making green tomato chutney some time soon. I still haven’t managed to get any bedding plants, but I’ll make the effort this week. I love pansies and primula and wallflower. Oh, and grape hyacinths. I did sow some salad leaves, herbs and spring onions, plus some corn salad outside. The salad leaves are in the greenhouse and coming away fine and the basil and coriander are starting to sprout, in pots on the kitchen windowsill. No sign of the parsley yet, though. The new lambs are doing well. They do keep together, but once they have had their vaccination for Blue Tongue, which will be sometime at the weekend, I think, the ewe lambs will be going in with the ewes, while Bud and Dickie stay in the orchard. We don’t want any accidents! We moved the ewes over into the field across the road on Friday and this time they have stayed put. I think they were a bit bemused by the space and I don’t think they have been more than half way up it yet. One of the outputs from sheep is wool. Almost all sheep need to be shorn once a year, usually in early summer. Each ewe yields about 3-4kg of wool; because my ewes are coloured, I would get literally pennies from the Wool Marketing Board. Last year, I had one fleece professionally hand spun, but it cost quite a lot of money. Some folk use the fleece to line hanging baskets or to provide footing in gateways, but that seems like a bit of a waste. So last Christmas, I gave my father-in-law a raw fleece (cheapskate, I hear you say). He has now mastered the basics of spinning and my mother-in-law has dusted off her knitting needles, last seen when my OH was in short trousers. Now we all have “slocks”. I have a pink pair with bows, made from Shetland wool; our daughter also has a pink pair and Dan has a pair made from our own Ryeland wool. “Slocks” are a cross between slippers and socks – hand knitted and felted, they are really comfy and cosy. And because they have no hard sole, you aren’t tempted to wear them outside. The kittens continue to thrive. They are so funny and their antics keep us much amused. We can tell the difference all the time if they are together and most of the time if only one is around. They don’t seem to mind the rain and are quite happy playing outside even if it is wet. Which, given the summer we’ve had, is just as well.”