SPLISH, SPLASH, SPLOSH

Sunday 1st April
Is this an April Fool's Prank?

Wet does not describe it!
The whole smallholding has basically been transformed into one of those very trendy wild swimming pools. Needless to say, the only animals enjoying it are the ducks and geese.

Piled onto the cold start we've had to the growing season, this is going to put everything back even further.

The wet weather job list
I have a long list of jobs to do on the smallholding, but luckily I have a separate list for very, very wet days, when the soil can't be touched and it is just too unpleasant to be working outside. Since I much prefer to be working outside, there are some jobs that have been on this list for an exceedingly long time.
Working in the polytunnel is always a good option for such days, but there is only so much tending to seedlings that I can do. Love them too much and they die.
So reluctantly I started mending one of the chicken houses which have been sitting in the garage. The space will be needed soon for rearing chicks. Mending chicken houses is a case of scraping and scrubbing all the surfaces, a quick coat of creosote on the outside, new roof felt, often new hinges and a few bits of wood replaced. I quite enjoy doing it but always put it off too long.
Here's my starting point for the current project.



Turkey eggs-it
I spent some of the day trying to sell turkey eggs and goose eggs on the internet, as well as our trio of Ixworth chickens. It's amazing how many people can't read your location, the price, or even what you are selling!
We usually sell them at school but they quickly build up in the holidays.
Anyway, I ended up with future orders for turkey eggs which people want for hatching. So the last of last year's offspring needed to go as she was the daughter of the stag. I caught her after dark, when you can just pick the birds off their perch rather than chasing them round a muddy, waterlogged pen. Turkeys are easy to dispatch and surprisingly easy to pluck, although doing it in the dim light of the stables added a degree of challenge.
Finally, it's been covered in a separate blog post, but Ewe 0004 was looking slightly better today.

... while one of the other ewes is looking very close to giving birth. This is the same ewe who looks very close to giving birth for weeks on end every year. I am checking on her every hour or so but praying that she does not choose such awful weather to go into labour.

Monday 2nd April

Splish, splash, splosh
Me and three dogs woke up one minute before the alarm to bottle feed Rambutan.
Yes, I did say 3 dogs - Sue has abandoned me for Lapland and left me with her friend's dog. We all went for a long walk (involving lots of splashing) although Charlie was useless at dyke jumping.

I delved into the list of wet day jobs and decided to clear the stable where Ewe 0004 had given birth to twin lambs not long ago. It needed sweeping and disinfecting in preparation for the possibility of another ewe being brought up closer to the farmhouse to give birth.
Then somehow I ended up digging about 20 metres of dyke. I didn't plan to do this. The small dyke hardly ever has water in and when it does it's a good time to check for blockages.
Halfway through this I literally skewered my thumb on a reed. I initially thought it had just stuck into the end of my thumb, but when I pulled it out it became apparent that it had actually penetrated about an inch!
It quickly started bleeding quite heavily and I hastened back to the house, sucking blood as I went. Fortunately the blood stopped flowing quite quickly but it was very painful.
Undeterred and with the thumb cleaned up I continued digging the dyke until darkness was falling.
The reed had actually gone in the top of my thiumb and come out  a couple of centimetres further down.
It didn't affect me doing big jobs, but I was unable to do anything fiddly.



Tuesday 3rd April
Keeping busy

Dogs fed and watered, chicks fed and watered, Rambutan bottle fed, chickens let out, fed and watered, ducks, geese and turkeys sorted, cats fed and watered, dishwasher on.

Thumb hurts!

Raining.

A morning of clumsy seed sowing followed by trying to joint a turkey without using the thumb on my dominant hand,

Then onto breadmaking - luckily the food mixer does the kneading now, 

Then cooking - turkey tikka.

The list of wet-weather jobs is gradually growing smaller but I could really do with getting on the land now.

Wednesday 4th April

With Sue away, the three dogs and two cats get to sleep on the bed. There's a little room left for me too.

Rambo and his friend got the big pumpkin today and quickly set about devouring it. Pumpkin seeds are an excellent natural wormer, which is a bonus.

The Muscovy ducks have been having the time of their lives lately, making their way down to the 'lake' every day. The sun appeared briefly today and they rested under the plum tree - this plum tree was overtaken by whatever it was grafted onto, so it is completely unproductive but is the most attractive tree in the orchard, especially when it comes into blossom. There is still not much blossom about this year. Everything is just so late.

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Me and the dogs went on a long walk, though we had to abort when Charlie refused to cross the dyke.