A lamb to slaughter

Chops, our oldest lamb was taken to slaughter last week and we picked him up from the butchers yesterday. He looked a good weight going off to slaughter, but exceeded our expectations on return. As a general rule of thumb, the walking weight of the lamb should be around 40kg for an on the hook weight of 40lb, (can't beat a bit of mixing units of measure). Not having an agricultural weighing scale, we guesstimated him to be around the 40 Kilo range. We were pleasantly surprised to find he weighed 46lb-21Kg (dead weight).

The idea was to convert the whole carcass into chops as we eat quite a lot of them, hence his name. However the shoulders proved a bit of a head ache to work out how to chop them so they ended up boned and rolled into roasting joints. A trip to our butcher for a lesson or two might be good before the next two come back.

          
In a relatively short space of time (2 hours) the whole carcass can be cut up, bagged and thrown into the freezer. The hardest part is trying to decide which bit to eat for dinner that night. We settled on the best bit, cutlets and were not disappointed. Considering we had a lack of grass and had to feed the lambs finisher nuts, he tasted pretty good. Better than from the supermarket!!
Our last two lambs Shoulders and Shanks are eating up the last of the finishing nuts and then they to will be on a one way trip. Not sure how Jes will react as Shanks is her favourite and he use to suckle on the end of Jes' ear when he was younger. She didn't seem to have too much of a problem when she was chomping on Chop's shoulder bone last night. 

Cheers,
Diz and Stell

A cake to order

I have enjoyed making cakes for friends and family, but when I was asked to do an anniversary cake for a complete stranger and be paid for it, that was a different kettle of fish.
The lady wanted a square cake with a white background and silver icing. Plain and simple. Anyone who decorates cakes will know that silver and gold are not as simple as other colours. They would come out more grey and yellow using food colouring. So after some investigation I found some silver dust and instructions for what to do. I love google and you tube!
The lady wanted sponge cake so I could only make it a couple of days before which meant the pressure was on as I would normally make a fruit cake and give myself plenty of time to 'play'. The first day I made the sponge cake, waited until it was cool and then butter iced it. I then made some white hearts and painted them silver with the dust I had acquired.  Following day I covered the cake in white fondant icing and smoothed it out as best I could (I'm not an expert at this yet). I then piped on the writing and decoration, waited for it to dry and then carefully painted on the silver to finish it off.

It looks such a simple cake and every time I look at the photo I think 'why did it take so long, there's nothing to it?'. It took me the best part of two days to do and I was so relieved to get rid of it to the customer.
She was pleased with it, so I was happy.
All the best
Stell

Turkey update

We have had some fantastic weather over the past few weeks with wall to wall sunshine and not a drop of rain in site. One day our underfloor heating thermometer recorded the outside temp as 32 degrees celsius, pretty impressive for Ireland.

So with all this lovely warm weather we have been able to get the young turkeys off heat and outside to free range. There is two weeks difference between the two groups of Turkey poults that we have. The Bourbon Reds were four weeks and the Wirral Black were two weeks. Still a bit early for the blacks but the reds could go out as they were nearly fully feathered.

They are still very pale, but will grow darker red feathers as they get bigger. They loved their new found freedom, enjoying a big open space for them to spread their wings.

It wasn't long before they were exploring their new surroundings and eating grass. We will try to keep them shut in their pen until the sheep have gone and they are a bit bigger to defend themselves against the geese. I say 'try to keep them shut in' because within two days of them being in their new pen some had learnt to fly up onto the gate and drop down the other side. Some had miss calculated their training flights and had gone over the fence to where the grass is greener. They then spend the rest of the day trying to get back into their house.

By the end of the week and with the glorious weather continuing we decided to chance our luck and put the blacks out as well. Wasn't a problem at all and they all instantly got along.
I love watching these little creatures, they make me laugh and cry. Even at a couple of days old the stags started to strut their stuff and display their feather (well they would have done if they had any, not quite as impressive with 'fluff'). Now they are out and about the displays are getting better.
They are now 6 & 4 weeks old , so we moved the little trouble makers this morning to a pen with more grass, but they have no respect for fencing, its just a challenge. It's there more for their safety than trying to keep them in. We know that doesn't work. They have already flown onto the top of their tin house and have been eyeing up the branches in the conifer trees above, it's only a matter of time.
We have fourteen turkeys this year for the Christmas market, I already have 5 orders which we had from the beginning of the year. In August I will text our previous customers to see if anyone is interested in a bird this year, but for now we are happy for them to keep us entertained.

Cheers
Stell & Diz

Pile of rocks

Finally with some fabulous weather we decided to have a day off and have a day out. We have both been working very hard and weeks seem to be mingling into each other without us even noticing. We are so behind with all our own jobs and the endless things to be done around Cloghermore, that one more day away will not make any difference.
After checking all the animals have plenty of water we load the dogs into the car, pack the camera's and picnic and off we go. Diz has wanted to head over to 'the Burren' in Co Clare for a couple of years which have the most amazing limestone pavements, ruined castles and rugged coastline, but in particular a 'pile of rocks' that he has wanted to photograph for some time.

First stop, a small village by the sea, time for lunch and a stretch. Poor Jes has started to get car sick so Diz cleared up the back while I take them for a walk. Unfortunately the tide is out so we can't paddle in the sea but there is plenty for them to sniff and loads of people about for a fuss.

Then onto the pile of rocks and the limestone pavements. This particular pile of rocks is the 'Poulnabrone' Dolman, which means 'Hole of Sorrows'. It's a portal tomb dating from neolithic times and is a particular good example, especially because of the limestone background. While Diz set up his camera the dogs and I had an explore and were amazed at the number of small unusual wild flowers to be found in the crevices of the pavement.   
There were plenty of tourists fleeting in and out, which provided some entertainment, especially when the women in red got into Diz's shot totally oblivious he was even there and wouldn't move because she was on the phone. He was patient, while muttering under his breath.
He was using inferred film so it will be interesting to see how they come out. This is one taken from our small digital camara.

We had such a lovely day and just while we were thinking how nice it would be to do again and soon, we returned home to find we had been visited by Mr Fox! It had taken one of the mother hens, Manc our black hen and fabulous mum and one of her seven chicks. We initially couldn't find Tuft, our white mother hen who had just hatched 10 chicks, but found some of her chicks running around desperately calling for her. I eventually found her in the barn looking terrified and returned her to her chicks only to find she had lost four of her babies. We lost one of our new Barnevelda hens and thought a couple of the adults had gone as well as there were several piles of brown feathers, but they were all there. On closer inspection one of them was missing a lot of tail feathers!! Aaaahhhhh, well my language was a lot stronger than that! 

So we are now on Fox watch as it is bound to return for it's free meal, but we will hopefully be waiting.

Take care

Stell n Diz

xx

New Gates at last....

Ever since we arrived and renovations were started at Cloghermore, the gates were always in plan to be replaced. They were corrugated sheets placed onto a steel frame painted black and had certainly seen better days. Every time they were opened something would fall off or you would loose skin, or trap fingers. They didn't fit together, had to be blocked with large boulders and I am surprised they have lasted this long. The wind has tried to dispose of them on a couple of occasions, lifting them off their hinges and depositing them in the field opposite, but they have continued to do the job.
A few years ago Diz asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said 'new gates'. My mistake was I never specified which Christmas! Needless to say I never got them for that Christmas or any of the following.
Eighteen months ago, Diz got the steel for the frames and a neighbour welded them together. Twelve months ago I managed to paint one side, as we also got the wooden planks to go over them, which I also stained.
These gates have caused a great deal of amusement between us and our neighbour who has been waiting for a couple of years to have the right weather to get the remainder of his driveway and yard concreted. They have joked between them that he will get his concreting done before the gates were put up and visa versa. Before Diz went back to the UK in May this year, I made an effort to get the other gate painted as we had some dry weather, but it didn't happen. Too many other dry weather jobs to be completed first.
Then suddenly our neighbour started to make Diz aware that he would be completing his concreting in the next few months as he was getting ear ache from his household and the mickey taking increased between them. Then while Diz was away the neighbour told me he was hoping to get his concreting done at the end of May and would we be able to give him a hand. I won't repeat what name Diz called the neighbour, but he was rude (all in good fun of course). The neighbour said he would help hang the gates, much to my delight, but that he would have his concreting done before we put our gates up. And he was right.
Diz spent the day helping him tamper the lorryloads of concrete down and I raked it into position. There is always a bit left over, so Diz said to the lorry driver that we could put the remainder in our gateway opening, which would fill in the dip left from when the road was done last year. The first I knew was when Diz and the driver appeared. I told Diz that the old gates would have to be taken off otherwise we wouldn't be able to get them closed and they would get cemented into place, something I definitely didn't want. 'It will be fine', he said and when the mix was sloshed into the opening it was very obvious it wouldn't be.

The mix had been made very wet so it would go where it needed to go to fill holes. Which also meant it went into places we also didn't want it. Rocks were moved, and anything else which we didn't want to be a permanent feature.








The old gates were thrown to one side and we now had a big opening filled with concrete. Keeping the chickens and dogs off it was going to be a challenge. The chickens always escape at the first opportunity of an open gate and the dogs would find it equally enticing. Jes was first, but not sure about the grey stuff stuck to her paws up to her ankles and was less impressed with water being sloshed all over her legs to wash it off. But at least the concrete had been christened.
The neighbour said he would be over the following week to hang the gates for us, so I made sure it was painted and Diz welded the hinges on ready. Diz was going to be working, but the neighbour said he was fine to do them himself.

There was a lot of swearing and cursing as he found the pillars fell in opposite directions and were different heights, which was only to be expected from an old property.
Diz had also made the gates slightly smaller than we had expected, but it all worked out in the end.
Once the frames were up the neighbour asked for the wood, which we were not expecting him to do and after a very short argument I allowed him to fit the wood. Glad I did because it wasn't straight forward and he knew what he was doing.

Diz returned home just as he was finishing and what an amazing job he had done. We were both delighted they had turned out far better than either of us had expected them to.
This is the inside, with a level driveway.

 

And this is how they look from the road side. They are lovely to open and close, no fighting with them, no scrapes or cuts, they glide and lock open or closed, bliss. They certainly put a smile on my face.
The two of them now comment 'nice gates' and 'nice concrete'.

Cheers
Stell & Diz

More new arrivals

This time it's the Turkey's, Bourbon Red's. After last years experience of double breasted bronze turkey's we decided to try something different. These are a pure breed and slow growing which I am led to believe makes a better tasting bird. We had 18 eggs delivered a month ago and 17 were fertile after candling, all we had to do was get them through hatching. After 28 days there were a few small cracks and a lot of wobbling eggs, but nothing had hatched. By 28 days there should at least have been one out, so we thought 'here we go, difficult birds'. Finally one made a bit more of an effort, but needed a bit of assistance to finally burst out of the shell. Then the next few made it on their own, probably encouraged by it's noisy mate.

After three days and only 7 hatched we were beginning to think that the rest will have died in the shells or if they do make it out there will be problems with them. I checked the eggs and found two to be making noise, so the rest were removed and the two were left to see what happened.
One started cracking and after seven hours, I assisted its escape. There is always a risk with doing this and no guarantee the bird will survive. Thankfully all was well and it has continued to develop fine. The second one cracked and again assistance was provided. This time the poor thing had been wrapped up in it's shell for a lot longer than normal for hatching and it's legs were just not able to straighten and hold it's body weight. Therefore it was dispatched. Sad and very annoying, but the risk taken with hatching eggs.

The remaining eight were transferred to the brooder run in the shed for their continuing development.

They have already developed little characters and I love watching these birds grow, I can't wait until they are running around outside and the boys start to display and strut their stuff. It will be a fun 6 months.
Eight birds will probably not be enough for our Christmas orders so we have managed to source some Norfolk Black day old Turkey Poults. These will be delivered next week and will be added to our brood.

We'll keep you updated with their progress.
Take care
Stella xx

Can you make me a cake???

A friend was going to be celebrating her 60th birthday, so I asked her partner if he would like me to make the cake, which he agreed. 'Can you do a cat theme?' Thinking I had loads of time to make it and ice it, suddenly it was ten days before the event and I hadn't even baked it. Once the cake was made I 'played' with it each night until it was finished.

I was delighted with how it turned out and had great fun making it. And it tasted superb (if I do say so myself). The birthday girl was very moved when she was presented with her cake and didn't want to cut into it. She was soon persuaded by the crowd, but did save the cats.
Cheers
Stella