Snippets from me

 Lester is up a ladder.......

.....the sheep are still out grazing on Station Field because there is still a heap of water blogging the entrance to Home Field, which is the main field. It has been a rough winter for them, not cold, but wet wet wet, and Station Field is grazed right down now. We are giving them the homemade hay bales we made last year, I cut grass for them every day, and they have grain supplements. I think they must have known it was going to be tough because most of them have had only one lamb each this year. Last year nearly everyone had twins. Meanwhile the goats and Elise are being kept in a lot because of the wetness and lack of grazing. I think that we are going to cut the fence wire along from that water logged field entrance tomorrow to make another entrance so everyone can get out onto Home Field, which is now rested. That plan came into our heads today after Lester spent all day pumping the ditch out in front of that field entrance, but with overnight rain it filled right back up again. 

.......Maz and Blue continue to be hooligans: Maz is on the left and Blue on the right.

Should have been a vet visit this afternoon but other things happened, so tomorrow then. 

.....rummaging in Number Two chest freezer, thought I had pulled out some home raised pork chops, which once defrosted proved to be a neat little hunk of meat which had got squashed under other joints. Time to have a go at making bacon then.

........ had bought a huge bag of salt already, so ready to go. 

The recipe went like this: 25% brown sugar, 75% large crystal salt (not table salt) (4 ozs:12 ozs) Mix together, then rub into washed and dried meat. Done. This photo was taken after two hours, and you can see the moisture coming away from the meat already. Seven days is how long it takes apparently.  Won't be able to smoke the bacon though as we have no smoker yet, but at least we have made a start at the dried meats. 

Haven't milked the goats again, as we have a problem with separating the young from their mums. Need to make a gate in the Tall Barn between Elise's pen and the goat's pen because we have decided that morning milking is going to be better than evening milking, just in case Lester and me are tied into working at our computers. Goats milk is gorgeous! Can't wait to get a regular supply coming into the kitchen. 

So, Day One for the bacon cure, and six to go!

Lester has now come down the ladder, after having had an inspection of the work Jean Pierre is doing. He is now baby sitting our two puppy girls, who sound like they are having another patch of puppy mania, so I am off to join in the fun!