Blogs become out of date so quickly - a walk down the yard and everything changes and I have to start again. But I will tell you how it has been this last four weeks and finish on the highs of the last few days.
Easter was a very slow affair, apart from celebrating the risen Lord everything else was on survival mode. The four dutiful pet lambs soon got used to being fed by crowds of children all at once. When I had to do the less popular shifts on my own they would go off in search of children.
The lambs who had Mums, were sheltering anywhere, even a tree stump helped them survive the winds and rain.
Those born first definitely had the best chances of survival, with a head start on size and milk.
The flowers were yet again covered in heaps of snow, while Harry, hardly noticed a drift that landed on his back and the Highland cows sheltered in the best spots, the broodie hen sat tight on her eggs, and the children all waited for piglets, chicks, calves and action generally!
Then with the quick thawing snow, the rivers streaked down the hills.
And finally out popped 10 piglets from Gilty (no longer the gilt), followed a day later by 8 piglets from Auntie!
Luckily in time for the Easter holiday makers to enjoy. The Highland cows however, waited until every last child had returned to their studies before the next arrival arrived. Fortunately next to the Yurt wood so those holiday makers have had a treat.
A lone swallow arrived to check out the garage, luckily there were no cats this year so plans should go well for him. Flowers tried once again to bloom, not sure how many more dumps of snow they can put up with.
There are no shortages of volunteers to collect Doris ,the now de-horned Pygmy goat, everyone wants a chance to talk to 80 other gorgeous Pygmy goats and their kids. My sister took her daughter and 3 grandchildren to collect Doris and managed to spin it out for most of the day, luckily they remembered why they were there and Doris was popped in the boot, with a purple head from the antiseptic spray.
We will hopefully have a baby Doris, kid, this Summer.
On a Wintery farm tour a young man called Miles sidled up to me and asked if I remembered giving him an egg last summer. I hoped he had eaten it if it got home safely and he said he did better then that and hatched it! It is now a full blown Cockerel and has a happy life crowing on an allotment. I love happy endings, especially as I have failed to hatch a single egg this year!
Sadly, Mango has died. She was getting quite stiff and no one can remember how old she was. She was an unusual member of the Berry’s team as I had not had her since birth, she arrived with a feisty nature but a huge character and had the most wonderful face and vocabulary.
We are hoping to be getting her pedigree daughter back and if she isn’t too horrified by Sherlock and his spots we hope to breed some pretty stripy piglets in Mango’s memory.
Every year, as soon as the evenings get lighter Adrian leaps on his quad to start work in the woods, invariably it isn’t long before the injuries start. At our age you can’t just throw lumps of wood about and lift gates like before. He has a shoulder, wrist and neck injury. The only good thing is it gets one Springer Spaniel out of my hair, leaving me with two.
To celebrate a birthday, both of us set off for an away break to West Witton, it was a real treat and the bath looked liked something out of Star Wars.
I thought we had done well to offer hot tubs to customers!
Even better, when we came to pay after breakfast it had been settled for us. A great present and a lovely surprise from the children.
I am trying to cut down on the crisps and white wine (they always help when writing a blog), so I can creep into my size 12 ½ wedding outfit, and hopefully by the next blog I should have a chick to crow about.