Shearing / New queen / Topping / Calving
Posted: Monday 28 May, 2018
Monday 21 May
Weather still good – i.e. warm and dry. Woke up stressing about grass.
Ace seems fine in his pen. He can see the cows and they come round to touch noses every day. Still, we’re planning to make his pen a bit bigger.
Rosie’s calf is a bull – and has been named Rocky. She came down to the barn today at milking but didn’t come in. There’s no rush.
Went to register Rocky and discovered I’d made an error with the registrations. Two calves, two errors – not good. To be fair, the first error caused the second one but I’ve emailed BCMS and pled insanity.
Dan topped the rushes in two paddocks, ready for the grass to shoot up!
I made a cheesecake and a fruit loaf.
Tuesday 22 May
Another lovely day. We could really do with rain but there’s none forecast.
Rosie came into the barn today with Rocky, but I didn’t milk her.
Dan topped the remaining two paddocks; he’ll be putting the harrow back on now.
I popped down to check the steers at East Pitkerro; they were hugely underwhelmed by my visit. They didn’t even get up.
Shearer called to say he’s coming Friday afternoon.
Wednesday 23 May
Had a pottering day, tidying up round the place.
Winnie (Rosedean Windward), who we bred (and sold to friends of ours, along with Paddy the steer, as their first cattle), calved this morning. She’s Blizzard’s daughter from 2016 and this is her first calf - problem free delivery and a bouncing bull calf, now called Aubrey.
Delighted for Foster and Debs that all went well.
Winnie is proving to be a good mum and isn’t defensive of her calf.
Thursday 24 May
Basic chores today then off to Edinburgh.
Friday 25 May
Dan’s new queen arrived so he’s been in the bees checking how things are going. One hive is really calm; one is really aggressive. One of the two is on the way out. While he was working on them, I had to rush round and let the ponies out into the field as they were being hassled by bees. Better preparation required in future.
Dan and Tara finished mucking out the barn; pens built and sheep in, ready for Alistair.
Shearing went fine – no deaths and no stitches required. Two bags of fleece ready to go once I’ve got the deposit ready.
Saturday 26 May
Another glorious day. I’m sure Dan’s solar powered. He’s been doing wee bits of work in the outside WC this week, but today was the final push. It looks pretty good – just some beading, stain and the flooring to go down. Then he took the last load of manure to the local allotments.
I spent some time in the vegetable garden. Something has eaten my sprouts.
Milked Rosie for the first time this year. She was very good.
We’re doing a bit of decorating. We haven’t really done any since we moved in eight years ago, so we’re working our way through the house. Two bedrooms are done and the hall and stairs; now it’s the living room. We’ve bought two leather recliners so we can sleep more comfortably in front of the TV – but we’re not getting them delivered until the room’s done. So that’s the incentive. We’ve been doing bits and pieces for a couple of weeks – but the paint is now out!
Friends round for a meal tonight – lovely.
Sunday 27 May
Very warm again. Moved the sheep to a fresh paddock. Dan swapped the topper for the harrow, so John’s going to do Home, where the sheep have come out of, tomorrow. Andy came and cut wood.
Tom has adopted the back doorstep as “his spot”.
Dan put the new queen in her new home then went painting. Three walls done.
I spent most of the day in the veg garden, although I did a bit of weeding in the flower beds. Planted out some asters, cosmos, Shasta daisies that I’ve brought on for cut flowers.
Caught Rocky at milking time and tagged and ringed him. He’ll not like us now.
Phew, be glad when the recliners come.
