Phew – at last, winter seems to have left us! The Beast from the East was followed by a mini-heatwave – one week I was breaking ice on water troughs, the following week I was tipping bucket after bucket of water into wallows for the pigs to cool down. Fun Fact: pigs can’t sweat so […]
The month of the Beast from the East – parts 1 and 2! I have been accused of obsessing about the weather, but I think this month, I am fully justified in my focus. It has been … interesting. Challenging, yes. Life-threatening, no. Hard work, definitely. First thing I realised – I have such respect […]
We are in the grip of the Beast from the East as I type this – howling gales and light fluffy snow! The good news is that this means there is no mud to contend with, the bad news is that all our outside water taps are frozen up! The month started much warmer – […]
There was rain, snow, frost, sun, wind … we had it all in January. So … at least we weren’t bored! The run-up to Christmas was a bit frenetic – but that’s not a complaint, just a comment! So, January is a delightful calm after the storm and we try to make the most of […]
Welcome to the Annual Round Up – a quick drive through some of the highlights of the year! December came and went in a flurry of activity – I was starting to see order spreadsheets and packs of bacon in my sleep! Christmas is the busiest time of the year for us for private […]
As winter closes in on us, time is of the essence to be ready. That means two things – fencing and pig moving. Firstly, having done this for a number of years now, we know which parts of the fields get VERY wet as soon as we get heavy rain – it is not always […]
The days are growing noticeably shorter – I know it happens every year but somehow, it is still a surprise. The short-lived delight when the clocks change meaning lighter mornings – for a few weeks at least! And some spectacular evening sunsets as I dash round feeding before it gets dark. We’ve moved a few […]
So, the kids are all back at school and we eagerly anticipated the late Summer hot spell … and we waited … and we waited! In vain! It hasn’t been a TERRIBLE month, just not good enough to redeem the performance in July and August – so, as we speak, I’ve got a heap of […]
August started as July finished – wet! After the incredibly dry spring, when everyone was hoping for rain, the weather is back to normal – lovely weather, rain, often both on the same day. Some of our fields are muddier now than they were in February or March – very odd. We can only hope […]
Well, just as June was perhaps one of the hottest months we have seen here on the farm, July has possibly been the dampest … despite some really warm days, we have been getting muddier by the day! But, not all was bad – we started the month with our first wedding on the farm […]