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| << August 2022 | September 2022 | October 2022 >> |
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1st: Grass!!! Nothing beats opening the gate to fresh grass: the goats sprint straight to the hedge, the alpacas do their happy dance and the sheep are heads down into the new growth. We love it!! Oak Field is now officially open!!  |
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2nd: Avian Flu Avian Flu has hit North Devon, we are just 2/3kms outside the Protection Zone!! Our plans to erect a netted area outside the poultry stable using use some of the poles from our fruit cage, are now proceeding a-pace! This afternoon we got the structure in place so as soon as we need to, we can get the birds under cover! The way we have to keep poultry in this country really is changing!!!!  |
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4th: All ready for the winter Hopefully this lot will now see us through the winter - over 100 bales of both straw and hay!!! Always a great feeling to have the barn full and ready , and we are lucky that these come from goof friends just down the road and are a very reasonable price!!  |
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5th: About that downsizing we mentioned... Meet Ben and Daniel: guanacos, rescued from a farm whose owner had died (and where the word 'cull' was sadly mentioned unless homes could be found). They are camelids, most closely related to llamas and their fibre is billed as 'luxury' (see.... with our rug making there is method in our madness). They are not as tame as the alpacas (yet) but we live in hope!!! Huge thanks to Gemma Earl for leading us astray!!!  |
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6th: Not quite as planned We woke this morning to find Daniel in Fruit Field and Ben in the Gathering Area - considering both boys were shut in the New Barn last night, this was a little disconcerting. We have discovered our guanacos can jump!! Quite high, well over four foot in fact!! Plans for a quite 'quarantine, let's get to know you' stage were thus abandoned and as we then watched Daniel jump from Fruit to Swallow Field, we also realised that efforts to keep them separate from the alpacas for a few days were also scuppered as both boys (we had opened the gates to allow them to be together) wandered over to the gate into Oak to say hi to Neptune and co who were looking very keen to met them. This followed a day of discovering they are bucket trained (but only when they want to be), that they are in fact MUCH bigger than alpacas and that they really do 'stress' quite well. Still, no more jumping fences occurred and Ben briefly ate from the troughs with the alpacas whilst Daniel watched from the wings. They are extraordinarily elegant and quite deer like! We are looking forward to getting to know them much better.       |
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7th: Own produce Not a lot beats having your own produce - this is a daily haul just now, and with soups and stewed apples, the freezers are filling up nicely!!   |
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8th: Rain It has been pretty wet September so far. We have swapped the sheep, goats and alpacas with the rhea, so the former are now in Goat Field with more access to field shelters - and of course the Guanacos are with them all as well. Goat Field is nearer the house so great for observing the new boys and it means they will get to see us - and the dogs - more. They aren't massively fond of the dogs (understatement - they scream when they see them!!). And we are pretty sure they don't like cats either!! We fed them all this evening, Ben came up briefly, Daniel stayed away. The dots near the fence are them!!! We guess it is all a bit overwhelming for them at the moment but we hope they will start to settle soon. Ben is more confident with us and the other animals but more jittery than Daniel - it is usually him that starts any screaming. They are eating okay though and they had a wonderful wander round the whole field when they first went in. AND we haven't had any more jumping!!  |
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9th: Rhea It's been a while since we mentioned the rhea - they are all doing really well! White Toe and Beta usually help in the mornings when we pick blackberries and otherwise they spend their days grazing, running, sitting and watching!! Not a bad life!!  |
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10th: Making progress Today we have made a bit of progress with Ben and Daniel, we have had more mixing, more coming up to see what is going on and slightly less screaming. It has helped massively that the weather has been glorious - blue skies and sunshine for much of the day!!    |
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11th: Feed time We don't usually feed the animals at this time of year but in an effort to encourge the guanacos to become part of the 'flock' and less worried and nervous of us, we are putting a few pellets in the troughs every other day. Definitley worth it when we get views like this - a sheep, alapca and a guanaco all feeding from the same trough. And more success in the Viewing Area as both Ben and Daniel now come up to see what is going on - in this case it was the dogs that caught their attention the other side of the gate - we still had a little screaming but not as much!!!   |
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12th: More commissions Our rug commissions are keeping us busy, in between all the other activities we have going on... we feel very lucky to have so many people entrust us with their precious fleeces. These are from today's photo shoot...     |
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14th: Land of Plenty It's the land of plenty on the allotment just now... a lot of these are destined for the poultry during the inevitable locdown as well for our own soups! We could grow so much more if we had more time and energy but we do what we can!!      |
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15th: On the defense She really didn't want us taking her eggs... And when we say 'her eggs' they weren't hers at all, they were laid by chickens and she stole them!!! |
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16th: 'The' spot!! Don't you just love it when you find 'the spot'!!! Gotta love a sheep with a waggy tail!! Master Muckle, being a total and complete sybarite.. |
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17th: No words!!   |
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18th: Dutch Spotted wool rug Latest rug commission off the loom, a rather scrummy Dutch Spotted wool rug. These colours are so rich and like me, we are sure you cannot help but think lots of chocolatey thoughts!!! Dutch Spotted sheep are relatively new to the UK, they wool has quite a good staple length and is neither too coarse nor overly soft. The preferred ratio of black to white is apparently 80:20. The sheep are generally bred for meat and are useful for crossing!!    |
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19th: Willdlife It's the land of plenty in and around the fields too - it's also hedge cutting season!! We are very glad we have full tree lines on two of our longest field boundaries. We really don't like the starkness of hedges that have been flailed so low - and nor does the woldlife!!     |
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20th: Another rug Another alpaca rug off the loom and ready to send to its new owner. This one was made from 3 animals: Ozone, Oliver and Orpeus - between them they have provided a fabulous range of colours!  |
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21st: Seems that guanacos like nettles Seems that guanacos like nettles, rather a lot!!! Yet another reason to love them.... |
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22nd: Happy 5th birthday to Roxy Happy 5th birthday to Roxy - mum to 22 fabulous Gordon pups. We couldn't be more proud of you!!!      |
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23rd: Incredible broody skies...
Just love how we see so much sky on our smallholding.  |
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24th: Scrummy Shetland fleeces Lucky us having all these scrummy Shetland fleeces to work with for a new commission. Thank goodness for glorious September weather for washing and drying!!   |
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25th: Common Green shieldbug Shieldbugs have to be one of our favourite insects. This is the Common Green shieldbug and every day when we pick our raspberries, we always see loads and usually end up with at least a couple crawling onto our hands as we lean in to pluck a ripe fruit from the plant! When they walk, they really seem to mean business, striding off under leaves and down the branches looking for juicy stems where they can drink the sap. This one looks as though it was missing two legs - thankfully, it wasn't!!   |
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26th: Incorrigible When we finish weaving for the day, we cover our rugs with a towel... ... I wonder why??  |
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27th: More progress Our guanacos are no longer screaming at our dogs on a daily basis and I do believe Ben here is actually smiling at Pepper, one of our cats!! Progress!!!   |
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28th: Attitude and cuteness Attitude and cuteness in one photo!! White Toe has both in abundance: he helps me pick blackberries, supervises my topping up of their layers pellets and inspects the feed bucket every single day, you know, just in case!!! And one a half seconds after this shot was taken, he tried to grab my phone.  |
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29th: Messy eating Roxy is just the messiest eater - it is no coincidence that hers is the eating space the cats flock to as soon as they have finished their meals...  |
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30th: Mixing And we definitley have more mixing going on with the new boys too - here they all are sitting down against the fence, waiting for the rain to pass!  |