We’re pretty much always at home and we sell at several farmer’s markets;
Teme Valley Market
Second Sunday of the month at the Talbot, Knightwick between Bromyard and Worcester. Open 10:30 – 13:30 We’re there with our Pork, Lamb and Charcuterie. Teme Valley Market Facebook page
Leominster – Lamb & Charcuterie
Leominster Farmers Market second Saturday of the month in Corn Square. Open 09:00-13:00 We’re there with our Charcuterie and Ryeland Lamb. Leominster Farmers Market Facebook page
When Stig, our toller, was just over a year old we had a cade lamb in the kitchen. She was called Xero as we didn’t hold out much hope she’d pull through. Her mum had mastitis and her sibling unfortunately only lasted a couple of days.
Stig took parenting duties extremely seriously mothering Xero throughout the two weeks she was in the kitchen and looking out for her when she was in the field with the rest of the flock.
Every lambing since Stig is desperate to have a cade lamb to look after. He checks all the lambs to make sure they’re OK, poking his head through the gate when the lambs come over. He has a healthy respect for the ewes keeping well out of their way.
Fortunately for us, if not for Stig, no cade lambs this year.
you get to see the Dawn. To me dawn is so different to dusk particularly when it’s still. After the dawn chorus is so quiet, everything is waking up and there’s a sense of anticipation as to what the day will bring, well at least that’s how it feels to me LOL. And this year we’ve had some amazing sunrises. I haven’t edited these photos this is really what it looked like at the time. The shot with the moon almost looks like daylight, it wasn’t that light the phone has over exposed it somewhat.
Over the last few months, between jobs, I’ve been fitting out a shipping container. The plan is to use it as the preparation area for the charcuterie. Progress has been slow but I’m finally getting there just the electrics, flooring and trim round the window and door and were done. Hopefully my EHO will be as pleased as I am.
Lambing is coming to a close, only 7 ewes left to lamb. Although it’s felt like a hard slog lambing has gone well and the weather has been benign, we must just be getting old lol.
Chaos in the CrecheOut in the Sun on fresh grassI’ve just woken up and I’m only 24 hours old
Normally our pigs are outdoors 24/7/ 365 but the ground is so wet and there’s 2 foot of mud outside their arks. Not great for the sows and certainly not good for the piglets so we brought Trudy and Socks up to the lambing shed just before farrowing. Actually I was a bit slow bringing Trudy up and she’d already farrowed when we went down to get her.
Getting her up to the shed wasn’t too bad. Carrying her piglets across the put from the ark to the dog crate was the trickiest bit. Six trips with 2 piglets at a time wading through 2 foot of mud, I was knackered.
The piglets are almost 4 weeks old, old enough to go outdoors. Trudy and Socks were really pleased to be back outside on grass.
The pig arcs have taken a battering, the group of delinquent teenagers have taken to chewing along the bottom of the plywood ark and a couple of the sows have pushed the back out of one of the tin arks. To be fair the tin ark is fairly old so not unreasonable it needs a bit of TLC. I can’t get the arks out of the field and back to the barn without trashing ground so I’m going to build a new ark for Tammy who should farrow mid Jan. I’ll pull the old ones out when the ground is dry or frozen and repair them back in the barn. You can never have too many arks!
Do I build a tin ark or a wooden one? The tin ones are quicker to build and do last, but I think the wooden ones are better for farrowing as the piglets can get into a corner and won’t get squashed when the sow flops down. I have a design that I’ve used since we first keep pigs. I found in on the web and would credit the author if knew who they are. It’s a good plan that anyone can follow and build a decent ark.
It’s been fairly quiet for a change. The tups went in at the start of October, Spot farrowed and the odd tree fell over in the October storm. It was the rain that caused most hassle in the Autumn, we had our highest October rainfall and November was above average as well. The pasture has stood up pretty well but the pig paddocks cut up quickly and in no time turned into mud soup.
Now we’re into winter the days are short, no sooner is lunch over and we need to crack on with the afternoon jobs before it’s dark. Several groups of sheep need hay plus a little cake for the ewes, then onto feeding the 4 groups of pigs and not forgetting that the dogs need a walk as well. After that there’s not much time to do anything else outside. While the ground is sodden I should be repairing fences, it’s a lot easier to bash the posts in when the ground is soft.
Like tens of farmers this year I really wasn’t sure we would get the hay in. It was ready at the start of July but it just kept raining 2 days out of 3 and August was no better.
Last Sunday the Met Office and OpenWeatherMap were promising that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday would be dry so I cut the 4 acre field. The grass wasn’t great as it had been standing for weeks but it’ll be good enough for the sheep.
The forecasts were wrong it rained every night and some times during the day. Not too heavy but not ideal, I even tedded in a shower. The forecasters were saying heavy rain on Friday and rain every day thereafter, but Thursday looked OK. If Wednesday was dry we had a chance. Wednesday morning it rained and I thought we had no chance to get it dry enough to bay.
Then the Sun came out mid morning Wednesday and by Wednesday night it wasn’t looking too bad. No rain overnight and although it was overcast on Thursday it was dry enough to bale in the late afternoon. The baler didn’t miss a beat and with the help of 3 friends we manged to get almost all the bales in the barn by 21:30. What a relief.
Lambing is well underway, the first lamb was born last Saturday and it’s been a steady week. Very easy so far, a couple of ewes lambed over night and we’ve had to bottle feed a set of twins for a couple of days, both on my night shifts.
Yesterday we let the older lambs out as it was warm in the sun and the rain/snow had stopped in the morning. Weather outlook isn’t great so the lambs will have to stay in until it improves or they’re old enough to handle the wind and wet.
A dustingNot nice for lambsStill snowy on the HillsEnjoying the SunAll calm on the wardThe onloookers
Teme Valley Market Facebook page
Dumblehole 