Fencing, etc....

We have been fencing here, fencing there, and fencing over yonder, all in an effort to control our numerous animals who seem hell bent on eating everything, and I mean 'everything'. 

For a start, there are the sheep who moan about being let out on to pasture upon which they had grazed on the day before, then there are the goats who will squeeze through the tiniest of gaps to get to 'better eating' spots, not to mention the chickens who made a united assault at the temporary fence betwixt them and the veg plot that we are currently working on. 

So we have fenced Station Field into two sections, Home Field now has a fence line which is  halfway to being completed, and the other two fencing lines in that field will be done this summer. Jacob, our ram, and sundry other males, but not Lester because he lives in the house with me, as do Gussy and Boolie, our two watch dogs along with Maz and Blue, who are our trainee watch dogs only they have a long way to go in regards to barking at the right times because they seem to think they need to bark when nothing much is happening, as I was saying...... Jacob, and sundry other males, (not Lester, etc) are to go in their own part of Home Field, so they can't do naughtiness with the girls. 

.....because we are over populated with sheep and goats, and we need to reduce the numbers drastically if we are to have an easier time of it next winter. This means selling or freezing, and we have opted for freezing, the reason being that when we sell an animal we have continuing thoughts about how that animal is doing, and we have not seen any of our sold or donated animals yet who actually look better than what they did here. It sits too heavily upon us that this is so. The freezer will be bulging by the time autumn arrives. It is the way of a smallholding.

Been paddling in the river, not by design, but by necessity, because Bools had gone into the water to fetch a stick, but had become tangled in brambles which threatened to drown him. The water was only thigh high though, and it was a quiet patch of water, not the faster flowing main stream of the river, so it was not too bad. Squelching back to the farm in soaking wellies and skirt was a bit much though. Not to worry, Bools was happy that he had been rescued, and I was happy that I had rescued him. 

Been out on the veg plot today, Lester rotovating, me trying to dig trenches for the potatoes, but I kept stopping, full stop, you know, when all energy evaporates and you want to move but you can't, well that was me out on the veg plot today. But I did do nearly three long trenches, only three more to go. If all goes well, we should have quite a good quantity of potties later on. I have approximately 190 potatoes to plant. Thought I would do a trench a day, plus do one lot of seeds into pots. It's a plan. 

Maz and Blue, as previously mentioned, are trainee guard dogs but are not showing any particular flair for this task at the moment. But they are good at peeing on the floor, even though the front door is open, and they are good sneaking a munch of cat poo from the cat's litter tray when I am not looking, and they have also realised that their increasing height enables them to stand on their back legs and munch on any food left on the work surfaces, oh and there are the egg hunts when no one is around (they are very efficient at this), and have evolved a dislike of the broom which has been known to arrive on their bums during difficult puppy mischief times. 

....waiting for the surge in energy which should accompany longer, sunnier days, but which seems not to be happening at the moment, I sign off. 

Hope you had a lovely Sunday, and hope that you have the surge which seems to be lacking in moi at the moment.....