And so another year begins

Every time we start a new year we always promise that we will try and be more proactive this year, but within days we are already on the back foot. The list of essential jobs are endless but definitely hindered by the wet weather. A big job this year will be to try and repair the damage the pigs done to the field, which now the heavens have opened and no let up is in sight, has created a muddy mess that only the geese are enjoying. The chicken pens in the field need repairing and moving, the turkey's made sure they broke all the panels with their antics and Bruiser has eaten his house door. So it's going to be busy.

We welcomed four new furry arrivals. Old English Spot Rabbits from show stock, which don't make the grade. Two black coloured does.

And two Black and White spot bucks. This has meant that our rabbit population went from three to twelve and they haven't even started to breed like rabbits! So we need to get rid of some. The five babies have another 3 months to go before they are fat enough to eat. Jacko, our first buck has been re-homed to some friends and sadly Spot the mother of the babies had to be dispatched as she wasn't well. So now we are down to ten. In order for them not to breed like rabbits Diz has had to make and convert chicken houses into rabbit hutches. The orchard is now full of rabbit. I had a feeling this venture was going to get out of hand.

We have also been sorting out our flocks of chickens. We are running three pens this year, Light Sussex, Barnevelder and Indian Game. We have also re-homed some of the older hens and replaced with home grown youngsters.

The Barnevelders are our winter layers and the five hens have started to lay lovely dark brown eggs. If it wasn't for the Barney's we wouldn't get many eggs a day at all. We have gained two different hens which we hope to use as brooder hens. Golden Brahma, they are large docile birds and like nothing better than sitting on a large clutch of eggs at every opportunity. They are only 12 weeks old at the moment but should be 'working' in no time. Time will tell.

I was asked at short notice to produce a cake for a 16th birthday. So I finished work and got home at 20:00 and made two cakes for decorating and delivery the next afternoon. I had fun creating a 2 tier teddy bear cake, keeping it fairly simple otherwise I wouldn't have had time to finish it. I was feeling a little under pressure to have it finished on time, but I was very happy with the result. Thankfully the client was very happy as well.

That's all for now, another update in a bit.
Take care all.
Stell & Diz
xx

Count down to Christmas

We have been growing our Turkey's and Geese throughout the year carefully feeding them so they don't get too big, but are a decent size for peoples Christmas dinners. Quite difficult when we have very different breeds. We have a rare breed Bourbon Red Turkeys, then Wirral Black double breasted Turkeys which can grow quite large. Finally the geese which are a Pomeranian cross Emden, which have turned out to be large birds.
The Turkeys have caused a lot of damage this year, which is probably our fault for not cutting their wings to stop them from flying. They have broken several of the panelled fencing around the chicken pens. Their weight has been enough to snap the wood, especially when they launch themselves from the fences.

When they decided to use the polytunnel as a roost I had a slight sense of humour failure, especially when one used the side to scramble up. Plastic and sharp claws do not mix and I now have holes up the side and on top. Not a good mix.
We can honestly say it will be a pleasure to not have the Turkeys around any more.






So as the festive season approaches we make a plan of action and the hard work begins on the 17th December. We keep things as quiet and calm as possible so the birds don't get stressed. The only difference is the routine, feeding is later and birds are left shut in their houses for a little longer until we are ready.

With 11 turkeys to process we start the first day and get 5 plucked and hanging. It's cold, windy and wet so isn't the nicest of days for anyone.
They are much cleaner to pluck out this year, no broken breast feathers like last year. The fingers start to hurt by the end of the day and the muscles are screaming by the morning. Only another six to go. So three the next day and a goose and then the final three and a goose the last day. I leave Diz to pluck the final goose on his own while I work on my Christmas cake.

The geese have been quite friendly this year and were easy to pick up and take away without any commotion.
We always dread plucking the geese because it can take so long, but they were very good this year taking only a few hours instead of the 6!

So once Diz stopped looking like he had a pillow fight and lost he got on with preparing the birds for the oven.
Very impressed (and relieved) with the weights. The geese weighed 4.05kg or 9lb, which is the biggest we have ever had. So overall we are very pleased with our new gander, Bruiser and Spotless our faithful goose.

As for the two breeds of Turkeys, well the largest was 9.7kg or 21lb 4oz. Wow! I had to check with the receiver that she had a big enough oven! That was one of the Black Males, the Black females and Bourbon Red males weighed about 5 - 6kg or 11 - 12lb.
In the photo the single breasted Red male is on the left and the double breasted Black female is on the right. They weigh the same but the female has breasts to be proud of.
Once all the birds are prepared the fun job of matching the weights to the requests of the recipients. A lot of head scratching is involved.

The final part of the Christmas preparations is the cake. I take time to design and decorate our cake each year, taking pleasure in 'playing' in the evening and creating something I am proud of.
So here is 2013's cake. Two tier fruit cake (made in July), with Santa making his stop because we have been good this year.






Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Lots of love, hugs and kisses
Stell, Diz, Jes, Kip and the remaining critters at Cloghermore.
xxxxxxxxxxx

Welcome Visitors... at last

We were fortunate to have some good friends come to visit after several years of trying to get here, along with their daughter who became our little helper for the week. Jude and Matt flew in from Belgium, where they are currently living, with Alicia, who was 'bursting' to meet all the animals. It was dark when they arrived so the following morning she was eager to get started.

After she was shown the morning and evening routine, she was off and running with us in tow. Although she wasn't too sure about the Turkeys as they were nearly as tall as her and very inquisitive and the geese got a wide birth.

And egg collecting at the end of the night is always a magical time. She could only just reach into the boxes to carefully collect each precious egg and carefully put it into the bucket.

We took a trip to Carrick on Shannon to have a wonder round the town and the river, with Alicia keen to walk one of the dogs at every opportunity. Initially she wasn't too sure about the dogs but it was long before they were all good friends, running around and playing together. It was funny to watch Jes run past the window followed by Alicia and then Alicia run past with Jes and Kip closely behind. By the end of the week, Kip was being picked up and plonked on the sofa next to her to watch TV.

The following day a farmer neighbour and his son allowed us into the milking parlour to have a go. Jude and Alicia nearly got covered in cow poo, which would have made a very funny photo, but they dodged it.

And we got to meet the smallest (a new three week old calf)

And the largest of his livestock. This is Ed, one of his newest breeding bulls

Later that day a trip to Boyle to have a look at some standing stones in the middle of field and then playing 'poo' sticks in the river, which Diz championed and is looking forward to defending his title next year.

We took a trip to the seaside on the most rotten day of the week. While we sat squeezed into the car being battered by the wind and rain, which lashed against the car sideways I had flash backs of some 'summer holidays' enjoyed as a kid. Just as we were about to give up and head home, we ate our butties in the car and then the rain stopped and we could actually see out the window. This was our cue to have an explore along the sand dunes and beach. The dogs had an amazing time running through the dunes, followed as closely as possible by Alicia. Matt and I skimmed stones into the sea, while we waited for Diz to take photo's and Jude sat enjoying the sound of the waves.
Just as we got back into the car, the heavens opened and the weather closed in.

Sadly our visitors had to leave all too soon, but we are hoping they will be back again very soon. Kip and Jess missed our little helper just as much as we did.
Thank you Alicia for all your help and we look forward to seeing you again soon. PS Don't forget to bring your Mum and Dad 

All the best
Stell and Diz

Rabbit Kits

The baby bunnies are growing fast and are now 2 weeks old.

They have a full coat of fur, cute ears and adorable large back feet. There is two black, two black and white spotty and one grey and white spotty.

We are trying to handle them as much as possible so they aren't quite so skitty. In another few days they will start to move round their house more and start nibbling the rabbit biscuits and I am sure they will fall out the hutch and start to cause all sorts of trouble for us outside. It's only a matter of time before they read it on their job description.
Mummy rabbit has been brilliant and is quite happy for us to touch the babies and is even friendlier herself.
Take care
Stell n Diz

Bunny Surprise

Going about our normal feeding routine this morning, I got a pleasant surprise. I say a surprise, but should really have expected it. A month ago we mated Spot and Jacko and hoped for the best. Jacko is still quite young so we weren't sure if he was up to the job. He has proved himself though.

We have been debating for the past few days whether Spot was looking fatter than normal, but she looked no different to me.
We have been looking for signs of 'nesting', fur pulling and a nest being made, but there has been nothing..... until this morning.
When I walked to run to feed, there was clumps of white fur outside the house and when I lifted the lid....

There was another pile of fur tucked in the corner and it moved! I was a little taken aback initially. Both females are in this run and house so things are going to be a little cosy and the kits may get squashed. Diz has finished the other house and run so they will be separated today.

Once Diz got the camera we had a sneaky peak at our new arrivals. We think there is five kits, but didn't want to poke around too much. Spot wasn't bothered by us looking as we stuck to our normal routine so she wouldn't feel threatened.
Looking forward to seeing them running around in a couple of weeks.
Diz of course has already commented that by the time they are ready for the pot, the other ingredients will have grown!



Enjoy
Stell n Diz xx

Ginger and Spotty update

Last month we moved the pigs, Ginger and Spotty, to the old pig pen after they had completed their clearing duties of last years potato patch.

They have dug it and removed everything, but also outgrown their house. So time to move on. Normally when the fence is removed the pigs won't cross the line where the electric fence use to be for a while. But these boys were off almost as soon as the fence was turned off.

They weren't bothered by any of the other residence, only interested in what they could dig up next. While Diz put up the fence around the new pig pen I kept moving the boys on so they didn't dig up too much of the rest of the field. They can do a lot of damage in very short space of time.

Once the pen was ready it took some encouragement to get them into their new home. They were enjoying their new freedom and took some time to get them in the right place. And it took a few 'zaps' from the fence to keep them confined.

Once in they got down to the business of digging the new ground up and exploring.

And of course enjoying a good scratch.
We do enjoy having them in this pen, as we can watch them from the house. They can also see us more, which means feeding time is noisier than ever.
We have guests next week who are looking forward to meeting the boys, so we have delayed their departure. They have been booked in for their one way trip at the beginning of November and I have had to book some days off work in order to be able to help Diz with the butchering.

After the few days of recent rain, the pen has been turned into a mud pond, which the boys are enjoying. Well the two piggy boys are, Diz isn't so keen on fending off two large boars, very hungry fighting to get through him to get to the bucket while he is stuck in 2 foot of mud. It is a very funny sight each feeding time watching Diz trying to outsmart them and failing miserably. He gets covered in mud and pig snot every time!

We gave them a fresh bit of ground this morning, but as you can see they have turned it over already (5 hours to be precise) and are now looking very smug with themselves. They have also decided to start pulling their house apart. This will definitely be the last year for this pig house, if it survives another 13 days it will be a miracle. Spotty has been climbing up the side today and removing the roofing felt chomp by chomp. I think next years pigs will have to be gilts, the boars are just two troublesome!
They are so lovely and friendly though it will be sad to see them go.

Take care all
Stell n Diz xx

Proud Grandparents

On Wednesday 28th August 2013 we became the proud Grandparents of baby India Disley.

She was a little overdue arriving, but once she decided it was time for her grand entrance to the world it didn't take long. Mummy Dee had a C section within a couple of hours of arriving at the hospital.
And Daddy Ben still doesn't know what all the fuss is about, he believes giving birth is nothing compared to his experience of standing on a 3 pin plug!

Granddad Diz winged his way over to welcome the new arrival, but sadly I had to both work and animal sit so couldn't make the trip and had to make do with Skype.

Great Grandma Joyce was also on the trip (wild horses wouldn't have stopped her).

Congratulations to Ben and Dee.