6 April 2008
One year down…many more to come.
Posted by Richard under: Chickens; Fruit & Vegetables; Hay; Ponies and Horses; Sheep; Smallholding; Wild food; Wildlife .
Well, that’s the first year done. We moved in one year ago today - and a fair amount of water has passed under the bridge over the last twelve months.
We started to grow our own vegetables and fruit - with some successes, and some failures. The greenhouse did well - with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers being harvested all summer. Outside we managed to crop lots of lettuce, leeks and onions. We didn’t have much joy with either the carrots or any brassicas. The former was mainly due to stony soil (this year we have gone for container grown carrots), while the latter were subject to major catapillar attacks. This year we got organised a bit earlier - so we should have more on the go, including new potatoes, parsnips, chillis, and horseradish.
We also got a great crop of fruit of the trees and bushes - apples, plums, gooseberrys, blackberrys and lots of hazelnuts. We also found time to plant up raspberries, blackcurrant and redcurrants.
We got our own hens for the first time - after we had made the neccesary repairs and amendments to the old garden shed. It resulted in more fresh eggs than we could think of ways of cooking. In the depths of winter, the local fox managed to reduce us down to three birds - but we have restocked now, and are back up to a full seven bird production.
We’ve managed to end up with a decent sized flock of pedigree Southdown sheep - we now have eight breeding ewes with thirteen lambs in the Brownlow Flock. We have gone through the whole shepherds year - bottlefeeding, weaning, fattening, slaughter, tupping, lambing…everything apart from shearing (which is coming up shortly). Kate remembered her shepherding skills from 20 years ago. We had to deal with movement restrictions due to FMD and BTV. Despite the weather, we even found time to get 120 bales of hay off the fields which saw the livestock through the winter.
We still have the two resident Shetland ponies - Kaiser and Katie….black lumps of pure muscle that thunder around the fields making the ground shake. Powerful animals despite their size.
And there has been plenty of wildlife - from butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, newts, owls, partridge, redwings, fieldfare, foxes (grrr), to badgers.
There is still plenty we want to do - bring the old well back on line, plumb some proper troughs in, take some ram lambs to the autumn sales (if they are good enough), show some sheep (if they are good enough), a few ducks, access to more grazing, hedgelaying, the list goes on - but today we celebrated with a good meal of our own shoulder of lamb braised in port with carrots and roast potatoes and had a day off (except feeding the lambs and putting the chickens away).
11 Comments so far...
Lucy Says:
6 April 2008 at 9:23 pm.
Happy Moving-In Anniversary! All the best for the forthcoming year 
x
colour it green Says:
6 April 2008 at 9:45 pm.
congrats!
quite a lot to get in in one year. I’m impressed you got in hay as well as having the sheep - you nust have more land than I realised.
what next?
Cottage Smallholder Says:
7 April 2008 at 12:10 am.
Well done. You’ve achieved so much in just one year. I loved reading your lambing posts - we don’t have enough land for sheep here but I almost felt that I was there beside you!
Thank you for a great blog.
Cottage Smallholder Says:
7 April 2008 at 8:39 am.
I forgot to say that I have tagged you for a meme, hope that you don’t mind.
Jo Knight Says:
7 April 2008 at 8:54 am.
Well done for a fantastic year!
You’ve achieved a great deal in a very short space of time, & should feel justifiably proud of your smallholding. And I bet that meal tasted all the better for the knowledge that it was on your plate as a result of your labours!
Congratulations, & all the best for the future.
Jo, Tony & Ffarm Fach menagerie.
Val Grainger Says:
7 April 2008 at 11:04 am.
Wow I have just found you have a link to my site and want to say a humble thankyou! I think you have done a very good job, looked after the land too! Fantastic achievements for a year one smallholder. I will link you on my blog too…..:o))
Richard Says:
7 April 2008 at 12:44 pm.
Lucy - thanks for the comments, and I look forward to checking up on the smallestsmallholding - I may need to get your advice on our hens if they ever get poorly.
CIG - we haven’t got as much land as we would like (or need) - but last year the bottom field was long before the sheep arrived, so we saved it as hay. This year, there is a good chance we will need to buy-in hay even with the extra few hectares we are renting.
CS - no problem on the ‘tagging’ - I don’t usually get chance to do memes, but I may find time in the next day or so.
Jo - Thanks for your comments and advice in the past few months - I look forward to any ice-cream that needs testing in the future (hehe).
Val - We have only just found your site - but it’s great…sheep, hedgelaying and a caravan thats been renovated - what more could we ask for.
David Says:
7 April 2008 at 6:25 pm.
You’ve achieved a lot in twelve months. I wish we’d got slightly less stock and/or slightly more grazing because we’ve had to buy some hay in for two dexters. I find reading your blog very helpful if for no other purpose than as a sense check. It’s amazing how our neighbouring (”proper”) farmers’ well-intended and sought-after advice can contradict one another.
Finally, the meal sounds very tasty and well-deserved, I’m sure
susi Says:
7 April 2008 at 8:36 pm.
Happy anniversary!
I really enjoy reading your entries.
If you ever get tired of Southdowns, try Ryelands.
All the very best.
paula Says:
8 April 2008 at 11:00 am.
Richard and Kate - and I bet it’s flown past in some ways and in others it’s hard to remember when life didn’t revolve around seasons, stock and crops!
I’ve only just seen you’ve got me on your blogroll - hey, thanks so much.
And you know the thrill of eating a plate of food that’s entirely grown by you on your own land never ever ceases to amaze. May you continue to thrive and enjoy.
Richard Says:
8 April 2008 at 7:08 pm.
David - thanks the kind words…we are slowly getting to grips with stocking levels and defras advice on ‘livestock units’ per hectare, etc, etc…we’ll get it sorted in the end.
Susi - I like your site…I do like Ryelands (and they are probably a bit more local to us than Southdowns)…but Southdowns it is for the time being.
Paula - Thanks for the comments…I’ve been reading your blog for while…it’s great on so many levels, conservation hand-in-hand with farming, and your based in my old stomping ground of Devon.