visitors – Tyddyn Bryn

baby, Day tripping, Fruit and vegetables, Garden, Life with a toddler, Livestock, News, Wanderings, Working the land

Farm update

April 24, 2018April 30, 2018 Ellie

Soooo in lieu of a podcast which I may not have time to do or enough content for, for a few weeks…. here is the farm update for recent weeks!!!

Sooo…. back at the end of March on his due date we became a family of four when baby Mathew put in an appearance!!

All 7lb 15 of him and the birth itself went that well I should have been in and out in the one day…. but I decided tone dramatic and have a rather nasty PPH which saw me lose nigh on 3 pints of blood… so overnight obs… what a joy…. opposite the nursing station…. and at one point I’d just gotten the baby to sleep and in they came to do his obs…. ugh!!!

Anyway he is now a gorgeous chunky 11lbs!! (He didn’t have to wait for milk to come in as I still feed William) and he is four weeks old!!! Not sure how that has happened!!

Soooo we have had LOTS of visitations from family, but whilst the female portion of the family cooed over the small people and helped me to keep on top of washing and housework and William in the early days… the menfolk fought through the tiredness and….

Helped lambs in the barn…. being born…. putting them into separate quarters to bond with mums…. etc

Skinned the Polytunnel!!!

Hurrah!! On with the planting!!!

Moving and placing and cutting tractor tyres for the kiddos play area!! And planting potatoes we have had chitting for an age it seems!! Both in tubs and bags and out in a large potato bed James prepared!

Sorted the chickens who are now huge and ready for their new accommodations!! More about that another time!!

Made teeny fires to cook over!!

Then we as a group have been…..

Wrangling sheep to get them into the right field!! Te he!!!

Charging round the fields and feeding Wanda!

We’ve been to the botanical gardens for Welly Wednesday!!

We have tidied up the front garden and planted seeds both for flowers and for the Polytunnel !!

Plus we found a worm!! Fascinating!!!

And the other big news!!!

Young man turned TWO!!! I have a two year old!!!! More about how that feels in another post but look how happy he is with his digger!!

And I made my first attempt at icing a cake other than slapping a small bit of buttercream in or on!!

So busy times!!! Hopefully things are starting to settle…. and will improve further when we all kick this latest cold that has struck myself and the boys!! Ugh!!

Hope to at least write more soon and maybe I’ll squeeze in a podcast at some point!!

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

What a week!!

February 3, 2018 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!!!

baby, Food and drink, Life with a toddler

A busy few days baking and making!!

December 7, 2017 Ellie

We’ve been in the throes of Christmas baking here getting cake baked and frozen for when we have visitors,

making pastry

and now mince pies

and so the wild birds don’t feel forgotten we have made them some seed decorations

for a tree near the patio doors so we can watch them from the lounge!

These pictures portray a lovely sense of domestic bliss!!! Ha ha!!! What they fail to show you is the flour covered spaniel, the flour covered floor, the cake mix in Sir’s ear and up his nostril!! The fact that whilst making jumbly cakes he got hold of and ate a sugar cube!!! All totally fab though….. and I’m totally thankful he didn’t try to eat the bird seed!!! Apart from the dog that shook and sent a cloud of flour over the kitchen!! Oh poo I’ll have to dust!!!

Working the land

Slave labour!!!!

June 9, 2014June 3, 2014 Ellie

Saturday and Sunday over half term we had Mister Moo and Little Miss Zoo, my niece and nephew staying at the farm with my sister Mouse and my Parents!!! We worked hard and played hard!!! But the slave labour contribution was amazing!!! They moved stones, dug the earth, conducted a plant life biodiversity study, slept in a tent and were just fantastic!!!

And one of my favourite shots!!! morning campers!!!

Wanderings

More visitors!!

June 8, 2014June 3, 2014 Ellie

Friday during the day we continued tree felling and slate clearing and we had a quote visit early on in the day from a joiner. Friday afternoon my parents, my sister (Mouse) and her children little Miss Zoo and Mister Moo arrived!!!!! Mum and Dad arrived with a trailer in tow and it was a bit like Christmas!!!! He brought a garden shredder from my Granny, a pair of benches he has made using the wood from Granny’s old pool house, a selection of new versions of power tools, a charcoal BBQ, charcoal, and a variety of other items for the tin hut and the farm in general!!!!!

Friday night started with an unpacking of the trailer and the building of the benches, by all the others, whilst I met with the other two quotes people we had arrive, another plumber and a joiner and showed my sister and the kids around the place a little!!! Brain was fried by the end of Friday talking to different people!!! Then the BBQ got lit and the tent was built by Mouse and I. That was a bit of a trial as the ground immediately inside the gate by the tin hut is extremely stony!!!