The Last Frost???

Monday 7th May 2012 (bank holiday)

Scary stuff!
Thought I should dress up for what is hopefully the last frost of the season.

Friday night's promised frost never really materialised, though it did appear overnight on Saturday, but nothing to match this morning's. Hopefully it will be the last significant frost of the year.

I forgot to mention yesterday, I did manage to completely mangle one of the fleeces I had placed over the young potato shoots. I just caught the edge in the mower and this was the start of an unstoppable, cataclysmic reaction which saw the fleece spiral into the mower blades and come out in tatters until the blades eventually ground to a halt. 

Some of the potato shoots got caught by the frost. Not too many, and I will use the opportunity to see how much damage is caused. That way, I'll know for next year how much effort to put into protecting my spuds.

After the sunrise photo, I came back into the house to give the sun a chance to warm the ground. I was delighted to glance at my phone and notice the following two comments posted to this blog. Due my my tinkering with comments systems, I've lost them again, but am copying them here as they really cheered me up and made me feel proud of what we are doing here.

 

Found you yesterday. In the interests of research, bacon for breakfast and roast shoulder of pork for dinner today. We are very difficult to please but your product is SENSATIONAL. Keep up the good work and we look forward to being regular customers. Very Best Wishes ~ Sue and Steve

Have just enjoyed reading your blog.I
It was nice to meet you earlier today. Hope we didn't take up too much of your time. Thanks for letting the girls feed the piglets they loved it.

As I fed the chickens, I was lucky enough to be able to watch two baby Mistlethrushes begging and being fed by their parents. What a lovely start to the day.

Chasing piglets
At 9 o'clock I received a surprise phone call which made the day considerably more eventful.
A while ago a couple of other smallholders had put a deposit down on three piglets and we had sort of arranged to hand them over on Monday 7th May, once they had been weaned. However, we had no further contact and had got the ansaphone yesterday.
Unfortunately, when it comes to piglets, lots of people profess a definite interest in acquiring them, but the promised phone call of confirmation never comes. So I never really felt 100% sure that we had actually sold three.
Anyway, true to their word, Bev and Stuart were coming shortly to pick up their piglets. Bother! I had already fed them. I say this because pigs are ten times easier to control when they are hungry.
I would shortly be faced with the task of catching three of my little piglets. To be more precise, three boars. Ideally I would be able to view them from the back so I could tell what I was catching.

However, just look at the state of their pen after weeks of constant rain. Old clothes would be required!

And just look how wary they look having just been separated from mum. Piglets are not stupid. In fact, they are rather smart, as well as being fast and strong. The extra people, the dog carriers and the second feed of the morning all spelled danger to them. They would not let me get within about 6 feet, and even then they made sure they were facing me. This meant I could not easily tell the boys from the girls, and it would take a most athletic lunge to grab a back leg, the best way to catch them.

Please excuse the lack of action photos, but it was not our main priority!

Fortunately Bev and Stuart had brought a large fishing net with them (note to self...buy one!) We were very lucky. The first three piglets we caught were all boys. They squealed to high heaven, but quickly settled into the carriers and seemed happy enough in the back of the people carrier.

 

The pair in the foreground,
three ganders in the background.

Bev was then kind enough to give us a lesson in sexing birds. Having scoured the internet, there seemed to be numerous different ways to tell boy from girl geese, most contradiciting each other. My birding experience convinced me, from their behaviour, that we had a pair and three younger ganders, possibly the offspring of the other two. This was confirmed on close inspection (the fishing net coming into its own again).

Bev also gave us lots of advice on looking after the geese.

Beetroots and Salsify
By midday we had already done what felt like a full day! But the weather was holding off so I took the opportunity to do some more planting in the veg patches. I finally got round to planting some beetroots, golden, stripy, purple and red. I interspersed them with onion sets, as these are supposed to be good companions. Then into another bed were sown salsify seeds with pot marigolds. A few weeks late, but it should be OK. Known as the oyster plant, salsify (purple salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius ) is a lesser grown veg in this country. However, it grows well and has a pleasant and unique taste. If a few plants are left to overwinter, they produce wonderful, spiky purple flowers in their second year, beloved of bees and hoverflies.

Asparagus

The asparagus bed, weeded and mulched.

I put thirty asparagus plants in last spring and they struggled in the bone dry conditions. However, they eventually grew well producing their feathery fronds late into the autumn. Asparagus cannot be harvested in its first year, since the plants need to build up their strength. A few spears can be taken in the second year (though I will be patient and let the plants continue to build their strength). From the third year on, and hopefully for quite some years after, spears should be produced in profusion. 

This year, the asparagus has been slow to grow. A dry winter, a hot March but then a cool, wet April and start to May have not been ideal growing conditions. But now the spears are starting to emerge in larger numbers. Unfortunately the weeds are growing even faster and asparagus does not like competition. 
So, with the soil wet but not sodden, it was the ideal time to pull the weeds without the need to cultivate too deeply. 
I read somewhere that asparagus loves a mulch of hay, but did not want to do this earlier in the year as it would block the rain from watering the soil. However, this is not now an issue and the mulch will lock in the moisture and hold back the weeds. 

At the end of the day, we gave the four chicklets an hour of freedom in the whole chicken pen. These four chicks have very strong characters and love to explore. Off they went through the long grass with no fear whatsoever. It was lovely to watch them.

A piglet peers through the fence at Guinea Guinea.

Weaning Day

Saturday 5th May 2012

Yesterday was a wearing day. Nothing to do with the smallholding, but I had work in the morning and another appointment at the hospital in the afternoon. Everything was OK, but it was an emotionally draining day.

So it was that I blearily woke up, still in my smarter work clothes, on the sofa at 4:20am! Apart from a few showers, the weather was pleasant enough to work outside today - and that's what I did, from half past 4 in the morning until weariness beat me at 7 in the evening. 

Weaning piglets

Main job for the day was to wean the piglets from Daisy, their loyal but worn out mum.

Last time I weaned the piglets off their mum was the first time I had done it and I didn't really know what to expect. I had an ingenious plan to erect an electic fence to create a new enclosure next to the wooden fenced pen. A gate could be unscrewed and Daisy tempted into the new area, then I could screw the gate back on and mother and litter would be separated. The plan actually worked like a dream!

Having never erected an electric fence before, I researched as much as I could and found a very friendly company in Scotland who answered all my questions. Out of interest, an electric fence does not need to run in a loop to make a circuit. It works by completing a circuit through anything that touches it, through the ground and into a metal rod driven into the ground at the business end of the circuit.

But still I was unsure of myself and so I put it off until it really had to be done. I started by connecting it up around the inside of the wooden fenced enclosure, so that the pigs could learn about this new boundary without being able to panic and pass straight through it. This resulted in a few shocked squeals until they learned, which did not take too long.

However, by the time everything was ready, the piglets were gone nine weeks old and Daisy was thoroughly fed up with them. Her teats were scarred (piglets have needle-like teeth) and she needed a rest. It is almost impossible to keep the sow's weight up when she is feeding a full litter, but it wasn't long before she came back into very good condition.

We had read all about providing the piglets with 'creep feed' to ease them onto a solid diet, but our enquiries suggested this was not necessary. In fact, from the age of about two weeks the piglets had been attempting to eat solid food, and by weaning they were all tucking in and competing enthusiastically, even with mum!

So we had learned from our first litter. Commercially piglets are weaned off the sows much earlier, but it is much better to leave them with her till 8 weeks. But we knew that we needed to be ready to separate them at this age and not beyond.

Daisy has stayed in relatively good condition with this second litter and I suspect that they almost weaned themselves anyway.



On the other side of the fence
I've sown the seeds
of a late autumn feast for the pigs.
Daisy has enough grass to be going on with
... for now.

Before tempting Daisy away from her offspring, I had a plan to make some adjustments to the route of the electric fence. This was a process which involved much walking up and down the fence, lifting and shifting the plastic posts which hold the wire.

The idea is to create an area where I can plant all the spare Jerusalem artichokes left from last year, as well as a few seed potatoes and maybe some other fodder crops. When the time comes later in the year, I will move the electric fence again so that these become accessible to the pigs. They will love being able to snout around and find food naturally. Besides, Jerusalem artichoke is a great food for pigs. Unlike potatoes, its nutrients are just as available to pigs when uncooked.

The Grass Really Is Greener On The Other Side

Daisy followed the feed bucket straight throught the gap before the piglets even realised what was going on. Once through, Daisy set about the task of munching every blade of grass she could get into her mouth, while the piglets could only look on from the other side of the fence!

And so it was that the piglets spent their first night in the ark on their own.

Proper Mingin'!

Sunday 22nd April 2012
Pig Moving Day

Imagine The Good Life crossed with Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. Throw in a Benny Hill chase scene and a bit of Mr Bean.
You could well end up with a scene similar to what occurred on our farm this morning, for it was pig moving day. Sorry for the lack of pictures of the most exciting (!!?) bits, but there just wasn't an opportune moment. All planning ahead had been done. The route is well marked and foolproof, clearly defined with fencing and with gates along the way which can be shut to secure each part of the journey. The only problem was that I suspected the piglets could squeeze through the stock fencing if they wanted to do, but that wouldn't happen as they'd follow their mum down to the pig enclosure... wouldn't they???

We deliberately left Daisy without food for the morning (there is only one way to a pig's heart) and so, at the appointed time, she dutifully followed me, or to be more precise the bucket of food I was holding, out of the stables and into the yard. The piglets followed in a straggly line. Well, most of the piglets followed. A couple stayed behind and a couple went off exploring in the stables. So Daisy turned back to check on them all. Nothing unexpected so far, and we have learned to be patient when moving pigs. This happened a couple more times, then Daisy followed me in one clean, swift move all the way down to the pig enclosure, about 100 yards from the stables. I decided to abandon Plan A and to make hay while the sun shines. I could attend to the piglets next.

I then headed back toward the stables, only to meet Sue expertly ushering half the piglets down the garden. This could go very smoothly... or they could scatter in all directions, breaking through the fence and heading for the potato patch, the dyke and the farmer's field.

Which is exactly what happened. One ended up in the chicken pens, so we shut the door and left it to calm down. Two ended up with Daisy. And we ended up chasing the other two all around the garden and, eventually, all the way back to the stables. We ushered them back into their stable block, ready to move on to Plan C.

One, two, three, four, five, six...SIX!

Fortunately number 7 was soon relocated under the log pile and, after a bit of an adventurous chase around the garden, was reconciled with its brothers and sisters.

Plan C proved far more successful. Catch the piglets one at a time and carry them down. I am now an expert piglet catcher, and once they've had their mad, crazed squeal they soon settle down to their new form of carriage.

It was during one such operation that one of the little porkers must have weed on me. I stunk like the worst men's toilet I've ever been in!

The word MINGING somehow works very well to describe this attack on the senses.

All the time, Gerald (the boar who overstayed his welcome) was taking a very keen interest. This was the first time he had seen any of his offspring.

Eventually, all settled in to their new home. They ate so much grass and ran around so much, I wouldn't be surprised if half of them made themselves sick. They took a keen interest in the chickens, and vice versa.
There now follows a series of cute, happy piglet pics.

After the move, the clean up.


It might not look a lot, but you try shifting it!

Slowly the second pile grew...

and grew...

 

 

and the stable emptied...

until the last load..

was done.
These compost heaps and manure piles are the beating heart of my fruit and veg patch.

Now I was proper MINGING.

Time for a long, hot bath.

Some more gratuitously cute pig pics

Laurels not Hardy

Tuesday 10th April 2012





I woke up to a clear, fresh morning. The air felt sharp and clean. To the South a glorious moon, to the East a fiery sunrise.

A layer of ice prevented the chickens from drinking until I broke through it for them, but as the sun broke the horizon I felt an instant warming on my back. It was going to be a lovely day.

I erected the "Piglets For Sale" sign. This sign caused untold controversy last time it was erected, with some selfish so-and-so complaining to more than one authority about it and a couple of apes from the Highways Agency ripping it from the ground under instruction from their useless boss. I retrieved it from the back of their van ready for the next batch of piglets. Spending cuts may not be welcome, but lets hope that at least they weed out the incompetent and the jobs-worths!

Anyway, rant over.

The sign is back up, firmly on our land. Because I've had to move it back a few feet, I had to take out a line of laurels which obscured it from passing traffic. A couple of these were LARGE and demanded some persistent digging, tugging, grunting and groaning before they finally gave up and released their hold from the earth. I couldn't save all their roots, but hopefully they will survive in their new home where they protect the greenhouses from the ravages of a south-westerly wind.

Some of the smaller laurels did not survive the night of the big freeze back in the winter, and it is becoming apparent that several of the more exotic plants succumbed too. The olive, a small bay, mahonias, the witchhazel, hibiscus, pawpaw and maybe the kiwi. There is a chance that some of these will spring back into life, but they have certainly been hit very hard and it is touch and go. We live and learn. If and when I replace them, I will protect them with straw if such ridiculously low temperatures threaten again.

Weasel Ridge

Sue worked hard again today. She managed to dig another strawberry bed under a fruit tree, then set to work on Weasel Ridge.

When I carved the veg beds out of the sheep paddock, pagan walls of upturned turfs needed a new home, so Weasel Ridge was created. After a year, the turfs have rotted down nicely. A couple of days ago I set Mr Rotavator loose on the mound, and today Sue extracted all remaining weeds and sowed it up with hundreds of poppy seeds. It should provide a huge splash of colour in a couple of months, and will only need cultivating at the end of each year to repeat the same show year on year.

By the way, I am hoping that the "Pork For Sale" signs will deter all those visitors looking to buy a pet pig who called in last time the Piglets sign was up.

Pet pig! Ridiculous!

A Couple More Cute Piglet Pics

Monday 26th March 2012
Another murky March morning.

 

Mum's tipped over the water trug again. Looks like a good place to sleep.

The misty morning gave way to a fine day with temperatures reaching 20. Unfortunately I was stuck at work for much of it, but the change to British Summer Time does mean I get a few hours to work in the garden when I get home. Reshaping veg beds was the order of the evening, interrupted by a Short-eared Owl hunting along the dykes. You're probably getting tired of me telling you every time I see an owl, but I just find them remarkable creatures and think they deserve a mention whenever I am lucky enough to see one.

Forgot to mention, I saw a Red Kite floating over Wisbech yesterday. Surely only a matter of time before I see one in the skies over the farm.

Short-eared Owl upgraded and the First Chiffchaff

Friday 23rd March 2012

This morning the first Chiffchaff of the year was singing loudly from a small isolated willow next to the orchard. Bees buzzed around the pollen-filled catkins. In the background, a Yellowhammer belted out its song from the top of a bush.  Two tortoiseshell butterflies cavorted in the meadow and a brimstone fluttered through the garden. Spring is most definitely arrived.

Short-eared Owl Upgraded
I'll jump straight to the most exciting event of the day. As I returned from work, I was scanning the ducks in the dyke when a Short-eared Owl appeared to spook the teal. I never tire of watching owls - there's something very magical about them. Anyway, I lost it behind a copse, so carried on along the road. Shortly after, a second owl crossed the road in front of the car. I pulled up and watched this one land in a small bush. I put the scope up, intending to snap a picture, but by the time I got set up there was a crow in the bush where the owl had been. I scanned around searching for the owl, only to spot it perched on a white post. Hang on a minute! That post is on my land. The bird flew off straight over the forest of plastic tubes on my farm. Short-eared Owl has been getting closer and closer to the farm, but finally one was briefly on the farm. As it flew over the rape field next to my land, it sped up its flight and flushed a female Hen Harrier from the field. This then also flew straight through my land. Only the second hen harrier of the winter. After both birds had departed in opposite directions, I continued along the back road, wishing I had actually been on my farm when these birds flew across. The views would have been amazing. Shortly after crossing Coy Bridge, a third Short-eared Owl was hunting over a field by the road.  Three Short-eared Owls and a Hen Harrier on the way home from work. Not bad.
And when I got home, the Chiffchaff was still in the same small willow, five hours after it had first flown in there.

This tiny willow held the year's first Chiffchaff for five hours today.

This was all after I had dropped in to see a Great Grey Shrike in a small copse by the A47 at Thorney. It was distant and not in good light, but it's a scarce winter visitor and one which I would love to find on my patch.

Record shot. If only it had sat the other side of the copse.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, the piglets continue to grow at an astonishing rate. They are intelligent, inquisitive creatures. Most have now grown into their saggy skin and they are starting to play, climb, poke and prod. I think we have six or seven boys again - I do know how to tell the difference, but counting them is proving difficult.
Hopefully they can move outside next week, when it will be easier to count them and separate them.

"I wonder what's in here."

"Look, green stuff. Must stand on it, then eat it."

And finally...
The white linnet put in another appearance. Feeding on the ground in Don's orchard, it was more reminiscent of a Snow Bunting. This bird is so distinctive, I don't give it long given the number of raptors around here. Odd birds like this tend to get snapped up quickly, though it's managed to avoid capture thus far.