Tag: gates

animals, Building work, Food and drink, Sustainability, Working the land

What’s doing??

Ellie

We have been busy as bees round the holding still, but since the start of lockdown in March we have not had any significant rainfall!!! 10 weeks!!

Things are tinder dry outside…. we are having to regularly water everywhere and currently just the other side of our nearest village there is a forestry and field fire that the forestry services and a helicopter have been battling since Sunday evening…

Thankfully there is some rain forecast tonight and for at least the morning tomorrow! The earth here will give a sigh of relief I expect when it starts to fall!!

In the meantime here a few snapshots of the past few weeks here! New fencing, shearing, turning out the horses, new chicks, new play stuff for the boys, elderflowers and a lot more!!

Food and drink, Fruit and vegetables, Garden, Life with a toddler, Livestock, News, Plans, Podcast, Wanderings, Wildlife, Woodland, Working the land

A few little videos

Ellie

I’ve added a few new videos to the YouTube Channel!!!

Some tours of the animals and I’m planning a weekly ish….. vlog about the happenings on the smallholding!!

Here is Episode one!!

Craftiness, Firewood, Forest schools, Life with a toddler, Woodland, Working the land

What a week!!

Ellie

Well this week has been a whirlwind after our usual more sedate pace round here!!

Monday we were at the hospital for another growth scan and clinic….

Not a great photo but he is a larger baby than his brother and running out of space!!! (7 weeks till due date!)

Tuesday we caught up on some jobs here…. James collecting wood, helping a neighbour who is unwell, me sorting house cleaning/laundry etc!!

Wednesday James had some more wood collecting time and I had to race through a metric crap tonne of paperwork ready for a meeting with the FUW to help me fill in claims forms and field maintenance sheets…. AND for ANOTHER farm inspection…. We have had our SAF and maintenance payments for Glastir held up by the Welsh Government, both because we have been included in their audit…. where the inspectors get inspected!!! Yes total bad luck on our first year!!!!! Joy and because they had questions about some satellite imagery which again is a new thing this year…. well done us getting the double whammy!!!

So Thursday I trooped off to Carmarthen with folders worth of paperwork and completed a capital works claim, a field maintenance new online thing to alter my field boundaries now we have added the new hedgerows!! Plus take advice on becoming VAT registered etc etc!!

Raced home to grab some lunch…. then back out to the midwife!! (Now at the we want to see you every other week stage!) who bless her was running a smidge Kate and then I hotfooted it back to holding for the inspectors!!!

Well thankfully they were late and wanted to look at activity diaries first!! So I had time to get togged up for the field portion of their trip!! Thankfully everything was all good and to quote one of them “if only all inspections were this simple and straightforward!” Phew!!!

William and I then had Forest School on Friday which we both love!!

Then after lunch we collected my car from the garage all mot’d and driving like a dream again!!!

So we have had a week of interrupted naps….. short naps….. naps in the car…… and only one nap in his big boy bed!!

So no real crafty time *sob*

Managed a bit of spinning and a bit of sewing earlier in the week…

But it’s been scarily productive paperwork wise and farm wise…..

Now to spend today and tomorrow catching up with all the other jobs we need to get sorted!!!

Woodland, Working the land

Fencing….. Fencing and more Fencing!!!

Ellie

Last week our fencing started in a big way!!! We have been fortunate to get into Glastir which is government woodland and land management scheme, which allows us to manage the land in a way that is more geared to the local wildlife and promoting that!! 

Last Monday our top field looked like this….

 

We already have lots of woodland…..


…..and in addition to the new woodland planting we did at the start of this year covering a probably just over an acre…..


…we now have new fencing ready for new hedgerows…..


new gates….. 


Well gates of out yard piles and into fields where they need to be!! We are awaiting the arrival of three new hardwood timber gates!

So next job hedge planting and a few more gates then the paperwork!!!!

Plans

Farthest rough pasture

Ellie

On our last drain clearing expedition we discovered a partly grown over old gate opening into the farthest part of the rough pasture!!

As yet there is no gator access here which means any wood haulage would be wheel barrowed over the pipe steam and then gatored onwards to the barn for splitting and storing….. Ugh…. We know how long that takes!!! So we may reopen this and gate it as it means a gator access directly onto the top of the furthest rough from the lane!!!

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And besides we have a ton of gates we have found about the place!!!

Working the land

The before and afters!!!

Ellie

So….. The path…

It took soooo much work and time and back ache I feel it deserves a before and after shot!!!!

Before…..

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After….

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So that’s two, no wait we dug one out… Three gates, a tonne of brambles and nettles, tyres, rocks, silage bags, mud, more rocks and rubble to give traction for the gator, digging, hedge cutting, strimming, digging, barrowing, gatoring, oh yes and a mound of cow poop!!!

BUT we can’t now get gator into the back field without running the sheep gauntlet!!