I've been pruning my apple trees!

Oh yes, I've been pruning my apple trees.

I have 9 apple trees in my orchard, and a small tree in each of my chicken runs, plus two new crab apple trees in my vegetable plot.

I inherited 6 small trees, grown on dwarf stock, and these trees need pruning every winter other wise they get out of hand and end up growing nothing but new branches and plenty of leaves and no fruit.

Of the other three trees, one is a crab apple, bought in to aid pollenation, most apple trees need a pollinator which can be another apple tree that blossoms at the same time or the crab apple which tends to have an extended blossom period. The other two trees are large trees and other than keeping them tidy will be allowed to reach their full height!

When we first inherited these trees we decided to go on a course that would show us how to prune apple trees properly, and although I can remember the basics, I am still not 100% sure that I do it right!

We are pruning back to fruiting spurs, the fruiting buds are bigger then the leaf buds, and they appear on a short spur, and so all of the growth from the leaf buds will just use up energy that the tree needs to prodcue apples. So, we prune back all of the previous years growth to where the fruiting spurs are, so that the blossom has the best chance of being pollinated, and the apples have chance to take hold before the tree does indeed start producing leab-ves and new brabch griwth!

We have been doing this for about 6 years now, and for sure we are getting better fruit production for our efforts.

Here is one of the trees before pruning.

And here is oine of the pruned tree!

A bit different isn't it!

We are getting pigs!

We are getting pigs!

We have just ordered 3 piglets which will be ready to collect in the middle of March.

We have ordered gilts (females) which will be easier to keep and unlike boars will not taint if I keep them for too long!

The idea will be to have three, two for us, and one for a friend, and they will be in the freezer by early October, and we will probably just have them for pork, rather than sort out any bacon or gammon.

I do need to sort some housing out & cor blimey isn't stuff expensive, so it's going to be a DIY house for them, and it'll be one that can used to house some of our pygmy goats at a later stage.

I'm looking forward to the challenge - watch this space for pictures!

Feeling frustrated!

Every now and then I get frustrated, and today my frustration is all around the poor broadband speeds we get here in the sticks. I live a good distance from the exchange and at best get around 1.5Mbs which I know can be good, but the average speed that I seem to get is at the lowest of the proffered range which is close to 0.4Mbs.

At that slow speed, two laptops, two mobile phone and two tablets just freeze and to even see a 15 second video on facebook can take over 2 minutes to watch, so more often that not I just skip past videos as there is just no point trying to watch.

But my frustration is with the provider, who for this blog will remain nameless, and ultimately the salesman that sold me the service. I now know an awful lot more than the salesman and if I had known that before then I wouldn't have bought it, and the salesman should not have sold it to me!

A previous provider(s) can provide me with a service where the lowest speed is close to 1.2Mbs which is acceptable considering where I live, but can provide me with up to 2.1Mbs which is brilliant and we can do pretty much what we want.

The story goes on and the penalty for extracting myself from the contract is far greater than having a a new line put in for 2 years by one of those other providers, so all the promise of savings from this new provider go to paying for a decent broadband service from someone else!

The story of my life as I have in the past wasted hundreds of pounds chasing that elusive better broadband service, and am getting more and more frustrated with my own endeavours.

I do wish that salesman would have the gumption to apologise, that would make it a little better!

I moved the chooks!

I moved the chooks last night - last week I bought a 6m long polytunnel off eBay for about £100 - and I put it up on Wednesday just gone, fixed it on Friday after it being blown around on Thursday night, anchored it to the ground and cable tied the cover onto the frame.

A bit of duct tape to repair the damaged cover & yes, we were finally ready to go last night!

I am hoping that this will survive the rest of the winter and to the 28th February when teh DEFRA rukes revert back to normal!

My chooks are still locked up!

My chooks are still locked up - DEFRA has extended the lockdown period until 28th February!

My chooks are struggling, so at the weekend I bought a new polytunnel - 6m * 3m - and today erected it over their coop. They are not in their coop, they are locked in a shed and will wonder what all that extra space is when they get back to the coop.

I also bought some ground disinfectant - DEFRA approved - to sprinkle over the ground, and tomorrow the ground will be sprinkled!

Some extra time will be needed to tie down the polytunnel so that it won't blow away in the first gale and I hope to do that on Friday and the chooks moved back on Saturday morning!

They'll be pleased, and so will I.

They'll have grass to run around on again and will be under cover out of the worst of the weather too, so hopefully the best of all worlds!

Travelling!

A couple of days away to start this week.

My sister sadly lost her husband last year to cancer, a chap just a little older than me, and a really lovely bloke - one that you could spend plenty of time with and never really notice how long you were with them.

My sister is struggling a little with his loss, and it wasn't until I saw her before Christmas that it came home to me that I really to need to make more effort to see her. We, along with plenty of other folk, would visit to see her and her husband but since his passing we thought life will get back to normal but it doesn't, it never does & never will.

She mentioned in passing how in general visits had dropped off, and I thought, darn, I am one of those folk, and I must do something about it.

So, I did, we went to the pictures, or movies, and saw Rogue One, we had beer, wine & dinner out, we had a fun time, we stayed up until the early hours just chatting. We had laughs, we had a few tears, and we must do it again!

After all, I'm not that busy that I cannot find time out to show some love to my siblings!

We are eating & drinking leftovers

We didn't really over buy this Christmas, but when you make meals we always freeze any leftovers as they make a quick & easy meal at some point, and we have reached that some point!

We have a chicken casserole for dinner tonight, just add a few fresh mushrooms when re-heating, with a jacket potato & that's dinner done - we even remembered to take it out of the freezer this morning to allow it to defrost first.

We had a chicken curry last night, and I think we have a beef stew tomorrow night, all yummy stuff the first time around!

But drinking too! Oh, yes, there are leftovers there too!

I had a glass of port after dinner last night - that finished that bottle off!

I bought a polipin of beer and there is a few pints left in there, so that's tonight's evening drink sorted. At the weekend I might just polish off that bottle of Bailey's, it'd only go to waste otherwise! In fact in the outside store there is enough booze to keep me going for a month or so, my house guests over Christmas let me down :-)

But, very little of it will go to waste, it wasn't just alcohol, there was a pint of whole milk, not normally seen in our house, but our granddaughter drinks it, but that last pint made a very nice refreshing drink one lunchtime! I think there's a few cans of diet coke too - the caffeine free variety - that'll get drunk at some point - 4 bottles of fizzy water turned up from somewhere too!

Cheese & biscuits with home made chutney seem to be a regular lunch at the moment, we had rather a glut of cheese leftover!

Mind you, it's not just at this time of year, that we eat leftovers, we do our best not waste much all year long!

It's back to work!

Yes, it's back to work today!

The last official day at work was on 22nd December 2016, and today is teh first day back after a long winters break.

Or is it?

When you work for yourself, you check emails every day, even on Christmas Day, or at least I do! The computer is on to wish friends and family who live far away a Happy Christmas, and so therefore is the phone and as everything just happens automatically, when it goes bing-bong, you check to see who it is. Awful really.

Having said that we had house guests from 16th December until 30th and it was difficult to really do any proper work, so I guess I had a proper holiday. I got plenty done in the garden, ate loads, drunk even more, slept properly, and even exercised in that most days I got my 10,000 steps in! I didn't on Christmas Day, but we are allowed an occasional lapse.

So, today, was back to work day, and boy didn't I get a lot done!

I did a leaflet drop, I sent out a small mailshot, I had one appointment which I am hoping will lead to something, I updated my CRM, planned the first quarter, although I didn't quite set my targets, which I shall do in a minute, I even managed to do an hours worth of digging & weeding in the garden, did 13,000+ steps, had a chat with my manager this evening, had a nice chat with an old client looking to pick my brains and a 15 minute motivational chat with a good friend of mine (something we do each week).

The next few days I am back to my employed job, but this working for yourself lark, is fun!

What do I do, watch this space!

It's just us - again!

Whilst it is great to have house guests, it is sometimes even better when they go home!

It's just us - again!

We have had a house guest or two, or 3 since 18th December, and finally it is just us again!

We had our 10 year old grandkid come and stay on 18th & he was joined by his mum & 12 year old brother on 24th December. They left us on 27th and on the 27th our youngest grandkid, just 2 years old, and her parents came to stay until today!

So, what are we going to do today?

Catch up with some chores! We have decided that apart from some milk we have plenty of human food but we are running low on goat food, a few treats for the chickens are required too, as they are locked up and cannot freerange they get a daily treat of some sort - today they had some apples, tomorrow they have a squash, and then we run out. I'll get some more apples, and see if they have some cheap melons or something that they will enjoy!

When we get back the chickens all need a good clean out as well and be given some fresh bedding. The goats yard needs a sweep too and our visting goats left yesterday and their pen needs a good clean out too!

The house needs a bit of attention but that can wait - animals first!

What day is it?

I thought yesterday was Thursday.

What day is it?

It's Thursday today!

Thursday is an important day in our neighbourhood, it's rubbish day.

So, yesterday, I put all the rubbish out and I also put out our recycling box and bags.

I did that because I thought yesterday was Thursday, but no, today is Thursday.

I noticed this because no one else in my neighbourhood had put their rubbish out, which I thought was a bit odd, although not everyone remembers during the holiday period as sometimes the council changes the day of collection which really confuses us all. But, having figured out that yesterday was in fact Wednesday, I had to go out and bring all the rubbish back in! I had to that because some neighbourhood cats do like to rip the rubbish bags to have a good scavenge!

So, today, I put all the rubbish out and I also put out our recycling box and bags.

And, today is in fact Thursday, so that's all right then!

A bank holiday!

I think it's Tuesday, a bank holiday!

Christmas Day was on a Sunday, Boxing Day on a Monday and we get an extra day off because Christmas Day was on a Sunday! A bank holiday, so what to do?

Well, here on our smallholding, it's much like any other holiday day, we start off by feeding the animals and then letting them out into their enclosures to while away the day. A couple of hours in the vegetable plot preparing the ground, a quick dash out to the shops, grab a sandwich, back to walk the dogs, a bit more time in the vegetable plot, an hour sat at the computer, and then it is time to feed the animals and put them to bed for the night!

In between times talking to our house guests, if they'll listen, clean out the boiler, eat, drink, that sort of thing. It's a bank holiday!

At least I did a couple of hours in the vegetable plot, I feel as if I have achaived something, otherwise it is just a waste of another day!

Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas everyone!

We have had the grandkids with us this year, and so a hectic time, but enjoyable none the less!

I have, however, drawn the short straw this morning as grandkid number 2 has had a proper paddy and I am staying in to babysit while the others all go out for a long walk. He is 10 years old going on 14, and he feels the whole world is against him and it is everyone else's fault except his own. I guess we all went through it and he will come out of the otherside.

In reality it was a long day yesterday and he is over tired so bed is the best place for him.

I noticed that I haven't written a blog here since January earlier this year since I posted that our llamas were for sale. A very stressful time finished in January & we did manage to sell all but 2 of our llamas. The walkers went to work at an activity centre in North London, Nazca went to guard some alpacas in mid-Devon & the rest went up to roam on a 60 acre farm in Scotland!
So, that leaves with 2 - Lima, the first one we ever got and her mate Clara!

This is Lima with her son Cuzco, must be nearly 8 years ago now!

During the year we also sold of two big 3.5 acre fields to a local sheep farmer so a major downsize and believe it or not, this has given us a load more time to get on with things we wanted to do to make our lives that little bit easier.

We have around 2.5 acres left in approximately 5 areas, two of them are for the llamas,a winter field and a summer field, we have 15 pygmy goats in another area, we have two small flocks of chickens, and the rest is our garden area, which has room to grow vegetables, room to play, a small orchard and some wildlife areas. So, we still have plenty to do!

Including blogging, so here's hoping 2017 we will have time to be that little bit more active on the blog front!

Our llamas are for sale!

We had a tough end to 2015 with a requirement to have our llamas TB tested - the good news arrived earlier this month to tell us we are TB free - however, the stress and discomfort that both the llamas and ourselves went through makes the whole idea of keeping llamas one that just fills us with dread rather than joy, so we have decided that it is time to call it a halt and move on!

We were breeding our llamas for sale in any event, so making a real effort to sell our llamas rather than just let the herd get a bit bigger every year, it sort of adds some reality to the situation.

Last year we made the decision to stop breeding as we were running out of room, but Nazca surprised us by getting Katie, Willow and Princess pregnant before he had the fateful operation, and despite failing the previous two years to get anyone pregnant.

This year he has produced Miss Take (Misty), Miss Hap (Happy) and BooBoo.

This is BooBoo!

I also turned 60 this month, a time to take stock and decide whether the directions I am taking are the ones I want, and whether it is time to make a change. All these things added together made it an obvious choice to sell the llamas - to good homes obviously - so that is what we are doing.

Not only that, but we will be selling two 3.5 acre fields that te llamas live in, once they have gone.

So, if you are interested in owning a llama (it must be at least two, as they are a herd animal) please do get in touch, and maybe check out our new website www.llamasforsale.co.uk - please spread the word!

Well, I nearly made a mess of that!

We were moving llamas today, with the forecast of some bad weather coming our way, it is time to think about bad weather and whether each field has enough shelters for the llamas.

We had 14 llamas (including this years two cria) ....

...in one field but that field only has one shelter big enough for just 6 or 7 llamas, whereas in a smaller paddock we have just 4 llamas and the shelter can take at least 10. We also have an empty field that can also take 6 or 7 in its shelter, so....

First up was to move the 14 llamas into the empty field - easy - but I had forgotten to close the gate at the bottom so instead of the 14 llamas stopping in that field while we did the next bit, they went on through that gate, round the side of our land, went up the side of the 4 llamas paddock, through a side gate (open because we had no reason to have it shut), they carried on and found our new hedge and decided to stop there and start munching it.

Panic stations as there a few poisonous plants in that are as well!

We managed, easily as it turned out, to get them to join our three llamas (not yet mentioned) who were living in the pond field (keeping up?) and as it happened were destined to meet up with this lot anyway.

Of the 14 llamas, only 13 of them went that way, there was one - Llancellot - who decided that there was a short cut, mainly because he saw his old enemy Nazca (one of the three) and was giving him some nasty snorts and spitting across a fence line - we caught him, Llancellot - and coerced him back to the empty field, no mean feat, as he clearly didn't want to go. He tipped me up once, or at least made me slip in the mud, but he went, but was very unhappy for a while as he was on his own.

So, at this point we have Llancellot on his own, 16 llamas in our small paddock, the pond field, and the 4 boy llamas who were wondering just what was going on.

These 4 were the next to be moved, as they were in the field with the big shelter, and as they are readily halter-able we planned to walk them on their lead ropes. First up was Wilbur & Gallahad, and as Gallahad hadn't really been walked before we took them through the empty field (Llancellot - his dad, was in a pen, rather than the field) and with a bit of tugging they both walked very well and were put into the bigger field that the 14 llamas had just vacated.

Next, Buster & Cusco, we decided to walk up the lane to join them, the thought of walking them past Llancellot wasn't worth thinking about. That went smoothly, so we had one set of llamas in the right place. Those four had a bigger field but a shelter that would comfortably accommodate them. This will be their home for the next six months, at least until spring.

Now, to split up the 16 llamas - we needed to put at least 6 of them back with Llancellot, so we chose Lima, our first llama (the matriarch) along with Princess & Tallara who were the other two of the three, who needed a bit more space, we put Clara, Bella & Evelyn who are three of our oldies as well. It took a bit of sorting to get them into two groups, but once done they were run back to the empty field to join Llancellot, who was a much happier llama.

So that left just 10 llamas, both sets of mum & cria, along with Poppet, Guinevere, Cola, Llatte & Wispa and of course Nazca, who all need a bit of extra training (except Nazca who is well trained already) and where better to do that but in the paddock closest to the house. It will be good for the youngsters to see the older ones being trained so that when it is their turn it won't be a surprise.

Phew, that's that done, but it wasn't the way we planned it!

It's been a busy old time!

No excuses really for not keeping my blog updated - all good intentions to write at least once a week just goes out of the window when other things come along.

There is plenty to blog about too!

We have ten acres of land and we are not making best use of it, so we have decided that we need to make the land more productive. Some big decisions needed as it means more work is required to be done outside, and that has meant that social time is impacted as i still have a business or two to run too!

Earlier last year we decided to stop breeding llamas, we are finding it difficult to make the llamas pay for them selves as we struggle to sell some of our youngsters off. In December we had Nazca, our older entire male castrated as he had failed to produce any youngsters for two seasons. Nazca is a great male, well trained to the halter, you just have to show it to him and he puts his head in.

Anyhow, as we couldn't put him in with the other entire male Llancellot we put him in with a few females, thinking that he hadn't done anything the past two years, he won't do anything this time - how wrong we were - look what he produced:-

Misty on the left and Happy on the right (short for Miss Take and Miss Hap) and Happy really does take after her dad Nazca!

When we were breeding - haha - we had four  large enclosures built, with small shelters to keep the stud males in - at one time we had three studs - and we also used them as "sick bays" or as "maternity wings" depending on what was happening, but with no studs left, we do have the ability to keep most of the herd together - with the two new arrivals we now have 21 llamas - but as is the way, the ex-studs still fight and have to be kept apart, and Wilbur doesn't get on with either of them, so he has to be kept apart too, so we still have three groups, but we do not need all of the enclosures, so we have bought in some of these fine creatures:-

Boer goats - these are four young doelings - just weaned from mum - two pairs of twins, and we hope to start breeding from them next winter (2016/17) and will be on the lookout for a buckling in the spring!

These now live in one of the enclosures, the one with the biggest shelter, and they will live there in the summer months. In the winter, our billies will live up there as they are a bit hardier and these girls will share the space around the workshop where our girl pygmy goats live.

One of the other enclosures is being fenced up to take a variety of chickens, the first one is up and has Light Sussex in and next year I hope to add 2 or 3 other varieties - particularly interested in having some Rhode Island Reds and some Cuckoo Marans, and maybe we will have one enclosure of ducks too!

Well, that's this weeks update, follow us on Twitter at @llamakevin for daily updates on what is going on at Ashwood Llamas.

Remembering to put the chooks to bed!

OK, so I don't lock all my chooks up every night.

In my main run, where we have two large coops, one broody coop, and one small isolation coop (this is for a broody and her young chicks before they get let loose with the grown ups, a way of introducing the little ones so the resident hens are used to them and don't bully them when they are let out) - we currently have 10 hens one brood of 3 youngsters that are now around 12 weeks old, one brood of 5 that are around 9 weeks old, a brood of two that are around 4 weeks old, and a another brood of two that have just hatched out.

This run is a very large area, about 50 metres by 30 metres, and has a 4 foot high fence with a single strand of electric fencing running along the top and another running along the bottom. It is a main unit so there is a good wack if anyone or anything touches it (it is not mains electricity, it is a small DC current, run off the mains) and gives a constant level of power as opposed to a battery operated unit that gets weaker over time.

This has been in place for two years and just once over that time have I lost any chickens, and that was on a really wet and windy night, when my llamas were sheltering in their shelter, oh yes, my llamas have access to the next field and guard the fence line on two sides, the two sides where predators, mainly foxes are likely to approach my land.

In this run, I do not go down and lock the chooks up, I leave the guarding to my llamas.

This year we decided to breed a few pure Light Sussex, I had 11 chicks hatch out and they are now around 12 weeks old, we think we have 7 pullets (females) and 4 cockerels which have been split up into two groups. The 7 pullets have had a refurbished coop, and a 6' high enclosure built around them, they too have llamas guarding one side, but as they are youngsters and not wise to the ways of the world they need shutting in at night, no electric fence up there as way too far away from any power.

The 4 cockerels are also in a coop away from all the others and only has a small fence but are closer to my office and have goats on two sides (not sure how effective they'd be against a fox, and in any event they are all locked up at night.

So, a new routine, these two sets of chooks need locking up at dusk, and whilst I have remembered most nights, I have forgotten once when a glass of wine seemed to ruin the memory, luckily nothing happened but I must not forget again, must I?

Changing mobile phones!

What a pa lava!

Our contract is coming up for renewal and it was time to look at upgrading my phone.

The main aim though was to try and save ourselves a few bob, after all these top of the range rockets cost an arm and a leg and at the end of the day they are just a mobile phone. OK, they are a mobile phone that you can send and receive emails, you can tweet away, or check out Facebook, you can upload pictures that you have taken on your phone, and you can even take videos.

Well, on researching, there were a lot of smartphones out there that will do all that the top of the range models do at a fraction of the price.

I had an iPhone - cost was around £500 - they said it was free but I have more than paid for that during the 24 month contract I had to sign up for, and if you deduct a cost of a SIM only contract then that is what I paid for it.

So, this time I have gone for an android, cost just less than £90, and I will be going on to a SIM only contract when the current contract expires - I should save myself over £20 a month, so the phone will have paid for itself in four and half months and the most amazing thing is that this phone does everything that I ever did on the iPhone.

There, I feel better already!

Another broody!

Yes, we have another broody!

This is our 4th - the first successfully hatched 3 chicks, the second 5 chicks and the third just two.

In between times we hatched out a big batch in the incubator. 15 hatched, and 11 have survived so far!

Trouble is with broody number 4 is that our eggs are no longer fertile as we had dispatched the cockerel, so a quick shout out on our local Devon Smallholders Facebook group and I found someone local who had some hatching eggs. So, a quick dash up to Woolsery and I bought 5 french maran eggs. The lady I bought from said that a broody will sit on an odd number of eggs, so I couldn't have six, I had to have 5 or 7, so 5 it was!

Who knew!

Ticks!

Blooming animals are forever picking up ticks - just found a fat juicy one behind one of Lladdies ears. The 50p tick remover that we invested in several years ago has well and truly paid for itself. I think this year that is Lladies second, Gizmo has picked up four, Pepper one and Hilda the cat has picked up three.

Luckily though, no humans have picked up any - always wearing boots or wellies and jeans, very rarely have any bare skin showing. If you do get bitten by a tick be aware of Lymes disease - Many people with early-stage Lyme disease develop a distinctive circular rash at the site of the tick bite, usually around 3 to 30 days after being bitten. This is known as erythema migrans. Follow the link to the NHS website for further symptoms and as long as it is picked up early it is treatable.

However, it doesn't appear to infect the animals - it is just an irritant whilst it sucking their blood.

We have rain..

In fact we have loads of rain, the type of rain that gently comes down and soaks everything. It's good because it soaks into the soil instead of running off and flooding places, it's also good as we fill up our water butts with, in some case much needed water. It's also good in that the vegetable plot won't need a good soak for weeks, but....

It's not so good, because it is summer, and we need sunshine to ripen my tomatoes, amongst other things, so please can we have some more sunshine!