making hay whilst the sun shines ....

.. not really making hay, but certainly making progress here on our little "farm".  The arrival of two experienced and v hard working farm labourers, aka my Dad and Jane, on Tuesday has meant that after 5 days hard, hard graft on their part and Russell's we have achieved lots, including the following:

1. The Turkey house is FINISHED (I will post pictures soon, it really is fabulous);

2. The turkeys have had their wings clipped (Jane is a super turkey catcher, who knew?) and are in their new home and fully free ranging;

3. The rappa fencing is complete, with the electric cable neatly buried (thanks dad for digging the trench), the biggest earth stakes you have ever seen all dug into the ground;

4. We have hose pipes out to the field, a harder job than it sounds;

5. I have a neat muck heap, with panelled sides and everything, I'll show you we mean business when we say we will keep the farm neat;

6. The sheeps are tame, bucket trained and in the top paddock with the ponies;

7. The sheep have shelter.

The compliance officer came to see us last week and we showed him around. Apart from one slightly sticky moment when I had to leave the compliance officer  alone with Russell whilst I saw the grass topping guy it all went very well.  Russell isn't safe to be left alone with anyone from the council, just in case he starts going through all the little bug bears he has with the Council.  Anyway, the compliance officer has since written us a very nice letter, saying that our turkey house and shelters are all legit and no further action is needed.  Plus he gave us some advice as to how to use our permitted development rights, i.e. we have the right to erect buildings for agricultural purposes such as barns, animal houses etc but we need to write to the council first.  So now we know and he has printed out a copy of the policy for me and popped it in the post.  He signed off his letter by saying "May I take this opportunity to wish you every success in your farm business".  How nice.

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Mary had a little lamb

After what seems like months of waiting I finally picked up the sheep on Saturday night.  We haven't got a trailer yet and after looking into hiring one or bottowing one it dawned on me that they would probably fit in the back of the 4 x 4.  "Can I take them home in the back of my car?" I asked Jane, who runs the Rodings Plantery where we bought them from. "Err I'll have to check" came the reply.  Anyway, Russell laid the back seats down flat, and this space combined with the already large boot, made plenty of room for the 6 three month old ewe lambs. I took Luke to pick them up with me on Saturday evening after he had been to a party and well, they are gorgeous.  is it rude to brag about how gorgeous your sheep are? Well they are and they are in the bridge paddock until they are tame.  After a week they are starting to get used to us. 

In every post I write "the turkeys are enormous" but really, they are now. We were meant to be in Scarborough on holiday this week, but we cancelled and actually I'm so pleased we did.  The kids are having such a great time on the field anyway, and the Rappa fencing went up today - giving the turkeys an acre to free range in. As soon as Russell has the house finished we will move them to their new one acre home. 

I was in Homebase buying a power hose to clean the garage and managed to get into an awful converstaion with the guy that works there. In certain walks of life and situations, I have discovered one tends to come across people who have worked in turkey farms / chicken farms / or know someone who has and they seem to want to discuss the grizzly details of the business. I was looking at the power hoses when the shop assistant came over to me and began to ask me lots of questions.  I feared he may be a person with turkey farm / chicken farm experience or know someone who has and so I didn't want to tell him that I wanted the hose to clean the garage where the Christmas turkeys had been kept whilst little.  However he kept asking and so eventually I told him, as soon as I had his first question was "how are you gonna kill them?" and he then launched into a discussion of the many and varied forms of slaughter, hand signals and gestures and everything.  Yuck.

Of course the truth is I don't know how we're gonna kill them, it certainly won't be me but a "professional" and I don't want a discussion of it. In fact, the word is banned from now on. I am slightly concerned that we may have 26 pet turkeys come January 1st. Joke - for those of you who will order one, I really am joking but I am fond of the strange feathered creatures.

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Complying with the Compliance Officer

Well I spoke to the Compliance Officer at the Council today and I think everything is going to be alright.  I explained what the turkey shelters are being used for and that we have 28 acres etc etc and he told me that he thought it sounded fine but that he would have to come and look at the site, to follow process properly.  He is coming in a couple of weeks when he gets back from holiday.

I also managed to do half an assignment today, the meat chickens have started laying eggs, I've booked onto a training day for my Riding Instructor qualification and I've had two offers of help over the summer holidays with the animals, offers I will snap up.  Snap snap.

Russell is away with work so only "business as usual" is happening out on the field ie feeding, watering, mucking out all animals and riding of the ponies.  The weather is amazing and the kids are happy just running around playing on the field and in the sun.

They are muddy, tanned and tired. Just like me.

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Sunshine in the sky, but not sunshine everywhere today ........

Not going so well today. 

We've had a letter from the Council saying someone has complained about the turkey shelters on the field.  The letter says that the land must be used for agricultural purposes only, and that even if it is being used for agricultural purposes, land of less than 12 acres still requires planning permission for erection of buildings.  I'll call the enforcement officer tomorrow and explain that the structure isn't a building, it has no base or foundation and is being used to house Christmas turkeys - a bonafide agricultural business.  Plus, the site is 28 acres, comfortably larger than the 12 acres needed to erect agricultural buildings sans permission, so with any luck it will all be OK. 

I am concerned that someone is obviously upset / angered buy what we are doing - enough to complain to the council.

Also, I spoke to the environment agency today regarding the stables.  The recent issue being that the strip of land alongside the brook is an area of flood risk  zone 2 and 3 and so the env agency don't want us to build in this area. The guy said on the phone "we take the safety of horses as seriously as the safety of people when building in a flood risk zone".  Hmm. The thingy majigy here is, as I said to the env agency chap, the council want us to build the stables as close to the hedge line (and so the brook, which runs behind the hedge line) as possible so as to "minimise intrusion on the countryside".  So there you are, stuck between a bit of a rock and a bit of a hard place. 

My planning consultant is back from her jolly hollybobs today- think I'll call her tomorrow and see what she says.

I did it, I did it

I've only just gone a bloody well done it. 

Pluck and dress a chicken ready for eating that is. 

On Friday, Fred came round and killed 3 of the cockerels, I will keep 1 to breed from.  That was horrible, Russell and I were quite shocked with how horrible it was in fact, to see the beautiful, big birds hanging in the garage wasn't nice and we found it profoundly upsetting.  The images of them stayed with me all Friday night and into Saturday.  On Saturday night, at Russell's sister's wedding, we were telling people we may not do poultry after all and may even stop eating it. 

However today, with a terrible hangover, I took the birds round to Sam's mum Christine who showed me how to pluck them and dress them.  Plucking is fine but dressing (taking out the innards) is the most disgusting thing I have ever done, it is not pleasant at all.  The smell, the sight, the texture - so very disgustingly puke inducing. Still, I did and and I have a bird in the oven as I type.  Not  that there was much meat on them, so we'll see how they taste. I can't quite believe I did it.

I took the ponies along to be used for the Riding for the Disabled annual picnic.  The girls came too as it was a day neither of them went to pre school.  The lorry isn't mine, its Pep Brookbanks, and it is very nice indeed.  I would love one of these  ..... I think they are horrendously expensive though so maybe I will have to work my way up to a lorry and start with a second hand trailer off e bay. The ponies were well behaved.

Elsewhere on the "farm" the dog has been castrated and then ill with a virus.  A week, a course of antibiotics (tablets and injection) and several trips to the vets later he is back to his normal self and is better.  Poor thing, he has not had a good week. 

When I take him places, people seem to like him and make a fuss of him but people do keep asking me if he is a rescue dog.  "No, he isn't" I reply, and then the person who asked always seem to look a bit embarrassed. Anyway, I knew he was feeling better when he chewed holes in Quito's fly mask.  He is a very melodramatic dog, I don't think he is particularly brave or has a very high pain threshold.  He looked like he was on his way out one day, but actually I think he just had a bad doggy cold.

Oh, how could I have left this piece of news until last? You'll never Adam and Eve it but the turkeys are finally on the field.  In a cage, as you can see in the pix to protect them until they are a bit bigger. but they are free ranging! They love it outside, the feel of the wind in their feathers and the sun on their backs.  Although lately they have had to feel quite a lot of rain on their backs too of course.  This also gave us a sleepless night or two as we lay in bed worrying in case a fox gets in to eat our little turkeys.  Russell has spent hours putting 3 layers of mesh around the cage and some barbed wire.

A historical moment :-)

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Weekend away

We went to Centre Parks for the weekend and I'm not sure I liked being away from the "farm" very much.  We had a great time, as one always does at centre park,s and the kids loved it but I am very pleased to be home.  I didn't sleep very well on the first night away, worrying about the wretched turkeys and then moped about a bit on Saturday morning missing the dog! Still, at least I knew all the animals were in the capable hands of the lovely Paula (ponies, dog and turkeys) and my fabulous neighbour Martha (both sets of chickens). I am pleased that we have cancelled our week long summer holiday for August, we won't need to go away again now until next year when hopefully we will be more set up and feel able to leave things more easily.

Anyway we are back now and the turkeys are enormous.  We are currently having a housing crisis, they are far far far too big for the run we have for them in the garage and so out of desperation I have let them loose in the garage.  They are making such a mess in there it is unbelievable. Russell is as I type trying to get the outdoor run finished for them so they can go out on the field.  Mind you, we are concerned about the wet weather and so it is probably a good thing that they are still indoors.

I had my first go at instructing today at RDA.  I was pretty nervous but prepared a little 30 min lesson (walking 10m circles, halting and trotting) and it all seemed to go ok.  I lost control of everyone a bit at one point, and Jaki had plenty of feedback for me at the end but overall I think it was a fair first attempt and I LOVED it! Its always quite nice being bossy and in charge :)

Exam Success

A lovely large envelope came in the post for me last Saturday, containing my certificates from the BHS Stage 2 riding and horse care management.  Amazingly I passed all the modules, flat work and show jumping. To say I was relieved is an understatement; I made some clangers during the practical exams, particularly around shoeing and clipping, so I wasn't sure whether I would pass it all. Even on the flat work, the first horse I rode was completely lazy and I had to use my whip quite a lot and then the second horse was the opposite - it was all het up and fizzy so neither ride was brilliant.  I did enjoy the show jumping though, the horses I rode for that were great.

So onto my teaching qualification (the PTT) and Stage 3.  Ever the dedicated student I have already received the text books and have started reading them.  I have also bought "How to teach Children to Ride - A Guide for Instructors", which is proving very useful bedtime reading.  I will put some of it into practise tomorrow on Luke and Claudia. The ponies are doing fine, they are quite fat but they have settled in really well:

The turkeys are huge and can go on the field in a couple of weeks.  Andy, from the Rodings Plantery, is coming out to see us tomorrow to advise us on electric fencing for the turkeys and some landscaping. He is also the guy we are buying the 6 lamb ewes from and they will come to us at the end of July. We really need them, I have had to pay twice so far to have the grass topped, we have too much of it and its going totally wild man. Everyday it grows taller and taller and I look out at the (already) fat ponies and think oh my, we need a whole flock of sheep to help keep the grass under control.

We have met with the architect who is going to create some inspired drawings for the stable block. He is the brother of our planning consultant and they compliment each other very well.  He really focuses on the design and throws caution to the wind when it comes to the planning aspect, whereas she is very risk averse and cautious and keeps him in check. Hopefully between us we will come up with a design that is acceptable to the council, but does not compromise too much on style, design and practicality of the building.  I have also been in touch with the water people, the electricity people , the env agency again etc etc so I feel that things are moving (albeit slowly) again with the project.

I have also booked Jack in to get the snip.  We are sick & tired of him running off to spray his scent all around Barleycroft End.  Whilst he is starting to be a good guard dog (helped I think by the fact we haven't had him "done" yet) I don't think our neighbours will really appreciate a male lurcher running all over their gardens looking for lurve. 

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