“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!”