29January2008
Posted by Richard under: Rural Issues.
Shropshire County Council have opened a can of worms and announced the impending closure of 22 local primary schools, 20 of which are rural. Their decision is based wholly on financial budget constraints. They are targeting small schools, regardless of performance or importance to the rural communities. Their proposed solution is ill-concieved and poorly thought-out.
Our village school is one targeted with closure.
The Rural Affairs White Paper published by Defra in 2000 highlighted the importance of vital rural services, such as local primary schools, in maintaining a viable rural community.
- Welshampton School
- was founded in the mid nineteenth century.
- has a total of 81 pupils (out of a total of 84 places).
- was graded as ‘outstanding’ at the last Ofsted inspection.
- was highlighted as offering ‘outstanding value for money’ in last Ofsted report.
If you feel that closing rural schools that are popular and performing exceptionally is fundamentally wrong, then please take the time to complete the petition on the attached link:
Save Welshampton School
Alternatively, please sign the Number 10 Downing Street e-petition. This is a more general petition asking the Prime Minister of the UK to to strongly object to the proposed new policy document for reorganisation of primary schools in Shropshire.
20January2008
Posted by Richard under: Fruit & Vegetables; Smallholding.
We planted up the raspberry canes today. We’ve got eighteen canes and with one and a half foot between each cane there was enough room for two rows in the area we set aside. We have three varieties - and early, a mid-season and a late fruiting - and we weren’t sure how best to split them up. In the end we went for three of each in each row.
We will be watching them now hoping to see new growth coming from the base.
Oh - and we planted a whole heap of garlic in one of the raised beds. I know we were potentially a bit late doing garlic…but better late than never.
19January2008
Posted by Richard under: Fruit & Vegetables; Smallholding.
We got our Christmas presents from my parents delivered on Thursday - 18 Raspberry canes, one Redcurrant, one Whitecurrant, one Blackcurrant and a Gooseberry bush. We ordered them prior to Christmas, but Marshalls closes down for deliveries for a couple of weeks in mid-winter.
On Thursday evening we put the canes and bare rooted bushes into a couple of buckets of water to soak until we had opportunity to plant them out. The wet weather was holding off today, so wheeled a good load of well-rotted manure up from the heap, and planted up the currants and gooseberry. We thought the soil would be terrible to work with all the rain - but it was fine (all that digging and manure last season must have done the trick). The tough bit is pruning back the bare stems, knowing that you’re not going to get any fruit this year - but you keep telling yourself that it will mean more fruit in the long run. (I am looking forward to our own redcurrant jelly to go with our own lamb).
We will tackle the raspberries tomorrow (probably in the rain). Six of the canes are of the ‘primocane’ that fruit on this seasons growth - so at least we may get a few to eat in the autumn.
17January2008
Posted by Richard under: Chickens; Smallholding.
The two surviving hens have started laying again. We have had a few eggs laid occasionally for the past couple of months, but nothing to speak of - but this week has seen one or two every day.
Kate had sourced a local poultry supplier, and there should be some new ‘point of lays’ available around easter time. Just got to survive on reduced fresh egg rations until then.
15January2008
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding.
Lambing could commence as early as three weeks away now, and our kitchen is starting to resemble a veterinarians storeroom. With the health problems with A01 and X9 in the last few weeks we realised that we were possibly under-prepared so started gathering some of the kit we need (and possibly don’t need).
- Obstetric lubricant (to smooth the way for assisted lambing)
- Antiseptic solution (useful in many ways)
- Iodine (for treating umbilical cord stumps, amongst other things)
- Lambing rope (for misaligned lambs)
- Various syringes and assorted needles
- Panacure (the ewes worm count can soar after birth)
- Prolapse spoon (to help recovery of prolapse ewes)
- Liquid Life Aid (in case of further cases of twin lamb disease)
- Calcijet (in case of further cases of twin lamb disease)
- Glucose (instant energy for hypothermic and exhausted lambs)
- Lamb Macs (plastic coats to reduce risk of hypothermia in lambs)
- Feed Bottles (for extra feeds or cade lambs)
- Colostrum tube (direct stomach feeding of colostrum)
- Powdered colostrum (if we can’t get enough from the ewes)
- Eartags and tagging pliers (thanks to the EU & Defra we need to double tag the lambs now)
- Elastic rings and applicator (Southdowns do have docked tails, but not too short)
There is more work to do and things to sort, but we have most of the essentials now.
9January2008
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding.
Yesterday, Kate noticed that X9, our oldest ewe, was behaving a bit strangely. Intially she was concerned that she might have been aborting her lambs as she was not feeding and was spending her time away from the flock.
Kate kept a close eye on her for a few hours and after reading up we felt likely that she may be suffering from ovine pregnancy toxaemia, which is also know as ketosis or ‘twin lamb disease’. This is a metabolic disorder and will be fatal if untreated. It usually happens in old fat ewes carrying multiple lambs - as their guts get restricted by the lambs and excess fat and then are too small to hold and absorb enough nutrition. The lambs are now doing most of their growing - so the next 4 or 5 weeks are a big stress on the ewe and their ability to provide nutrition to the foetuses. Our feeding regime had been pretty good - reduced bulky feeds, more concentrates and a high energy lick - but X9 is an eight year old Southdown and is definately on the fat side of ‘conditioned’.
We made a quick call to Andy - who immediately suspected ‘twin lamb disease’. The only treatment is to start a course of glucose solution direct to the stomach of the sheep (drenching) - so we called the vet and Kate went down to the surgery to pick up a bottle of glucose solution.
She returned 20 minutes later with the bottle and a 60ml syringe of calcium (which is also a vital part of the treatment). We gave X9 160ml of the glucose solution at 10pm (and will repeat 80ml doses twice a day for 3 or 4 days) and injected her with the calcium in two lots behind her neck. We checked on X9 a couple of times before midnight and she seemed more active but still hadn’t eaten.
She is penned up in the stable by herself, with her own feed and water, fingers-crossed she will pick up and start feeding.
6January2008
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding.
Andy dropped in this afternoon as he was passing, and I got a masterclass in telling whether a ewe is pregnant (in lamb) and with how many.
If you take a look at a ewe from directly behind (or in-front), you look for which side is bulging. Once he pointed it out, it was obvious.
- A bulge on the right-side only (of the ewe) indicates a single lamb. Lambs usually go to the right, while the intestines and stomachs lie on the left
- A bulge on both sides indicates multiples (twins or triplets…or heaven forbid…more). Andy says he had a ‘five’ once.
- A lack of distinct bulges could mean no lambs - or that the ewe is going to lamb late.
I will try to get some photos to show what I mean. (I have since added the photo above of one of our ewes that is probably pregnant with a single - you can sort of see that the bulge on her right side is more pronounced)
I will need to do a proper check (making a note of eartag numbers) - but a quick scan sort of implied that around four or five ewes were expecting multiples, a similar number expecting singles - and one didn’t look pregnant at all.
We’re not sure on exact lambing dates (as we didn’t use a raddle to give us a clue) - but based on the tup being introduced in mid-September we guess the majority will lamb sometime around mid-Feb onwards. It’s just going to be a case of watching when their milk comes in (‘bagging up’ - when the ewes udders swell and become visible) - it only a few days then until they lamb.
3January2008
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding.
First off, a belated ‘Happy New Year’ to everyone - Welcome to 2008.
We have been a bit busy over the last few weeks with Christmas and New Year stuff, and keeping this blog up-to-date has become a challenge…but hopefully we should get a chance to keep things ticking over now.
The only smallholding news of note in the last few weeks happened yesterday while I was at work, but Kate dealt with it better than I could have. One of the ewes ended up cast (upside-down on her back unable to get up) and had a prolapse struggling to right herself.
Kate moved the ewe up to the stable and called the vet out - he adminstered an epidural and with a bit of struggle and a quick stitch she was back to relatively normality. Obviously the ewe was still in quite a bit of pain so Kate brought the rest of flock up to keep her company in the stableyard for the next few days - we are also checking them 4 times a day now. It’s only 5 weeks now until the first lambs are due. We will need to remove the stitches in a couple of weeks prior to lambing .
While the ewes and the tup are all in the fold, we are going to take this opportunity to treat all their feet and get them out onto clean pasture - we are determined to cure this footrot once and for all. The footrot bacteria only lives in the soil for around a week to ten days…so if we get them sorted now we should be clear for the coming season (fingers-crossed).
PS: There has been a bit of a clean-up, back-up and wordpress software upgrade behind the scenes at notaproperfarmer. I have had a good check and can’t see any technical issues with the blog - but if you spot anything let me know.
23December2007
Posted by Richard under: Fruit & Vegetables; Smallholding.
My mum and dad have come up trumps with a top Christmas present this year - they have bought our soft fruit bushes - not only a useful gift, but they should last for years - so value for money:
- 18 Raspberry canes
- 3 Currant bushes
- 1 Gooseberry bush
- 3 Rhubarb crowns
- 1 Blueberry
I have just put our order in with nursery, so they should arrive in 3-5 working days (first week in January, fingers-crossed). The planting sites for the bushes are all sorted and were manured and dugover back in October - with the recent frosts, the clods of soil will have broken down nicely. We have even planned the site to ensure we can easily erect some netting to keep the birds off the currants and raspberries.
I have included our 2008 seed potatoes in the order as well to save on delivery…I can start them off on a cold windowsill while I dig over the beds.
At the first sign of warmer/drier weather in 2008, the new fruit will get planted up.
Merry Christmas
21December2007
Posted by Richard under: Chickens; Smallholding; Wildlife.
A fox attack was always on the cards since I saw a large dog fox take a rabbit in the bottom field about a week ago. It was one of those moments that you know is a double-edged sword - thrilling to watch but knowing that it is bad news for a smallholder. It was a logical move that he would head up the hill at some point and have a go at the chickens. The cold weather was going to make him hungry and bold enough to attempt attacks on the poultry in daylight.
On Tuesday, one chicken went and we lost a further two yesterday….leaving us with two bantams and the cockerel. I suspect they are also on the menu in the coming days - with fingers-crossed and plenty of dog walking around the fields they may just manage to avoid becoming a vulpine Christmas lunch.
It was always probably too optimistic to have the chickens completely free-range, but we gave it a go. However, before we get any replacements we will need to build a good sized and secure run.