Do you see the little left hoof of the middle piglet? Yes, he is thinking about climbing through. I better fatten him up quick so he cannot fit.
They are getting harder to take photos of, as the moment they see me they race over to see what I have got. Every morning I cut down a few stalks of heritage sweet corn for each animal and chop it up for them so there is no waste.
This old fashioned corn is higher in protein and lower in acids.
You know that i pull and feed the weeds to the chickens and pigs well we also practice Permaculture on the farmy. As in returning the waste to the land, via the stomach of an animal.
I am very slowly pruning this forsythia hedge. I do this every year as the flowers (one of the first flowers for the bees in the spring) come on first year wood. This year I am cutting it very low and I feed everything I cut to the animals. The animals love to eat the prunings and it gives them great variety in their diet. They need to nibble on bark and sticks to maintain their stomach health. But I only prune as much as they will eat that day so as not to waste the resource so this will take a few more weeks.
Good morning. Shortly I shall go out and cut another two forsythia plants and collect about twenty corn stalks and a couple of buckets of windfall apples and lambs quarters then throw them over the fences to the animals. I do this twice a day. The corn is only a few days away from being perfect eating for us too. But don’t worry I have hundreds and hundreds of GM free sweetcorn plants. This crop is for people and animals. And not one leaf will be wasted. In the end I will be bringing the last of it in dry and storing it in the barn for winter feed.
Next year the Farmy Fellowship Forest will have willows growing and these will join the summer feed programme too! Willows are excellent for moving worms out of ruminant bellies.
This morning I am alone for almost the whole day for the first time since Christmas. The 7am builders have gone, the painter is finished and the cabinet maker is busy with another job for a while. And being of a solitary nature I have been longing for this day. I am the kind of person who needs a lot of time to myself. I have always thought I would be a perfect hermit if I could only find the right cave!
Today is Thistle day. I will take out my sharpest favourite spade and dig out any thistles in the fields. There are a few out there too. It might take me a while. I shall take Sheila with me, she enjoys the wander.
Have a lovely day.
your friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
62 responses to “An escape waiting to happen.”
I am a recluse also! I could spend time by myself for days on end…me and the land and the animals. Now my husband is a different creature and needs lots of people.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
lucky for me, john is even more of a recluse than I am!! c
Enjoy your alone time today C!
Those little piggies – such rascals. Enjoy the day
Good afternoon by the time I have read this. Love reading your journeys, have a good day!
I adore your photos; I always read your blog, and I am so impressed – you are wondrous – the world benefits from people like you! hooray
I bet those little pigs are getting as naughty as their mum and auntie were 😉
I’m getting started into the permaculture methodology as well. We combine it with our Back To Eden gardening method. I can’t wait until we have chickens so we can start giving them the scrapes from the table and weeds from the garden. We aren’t allowed any pigs where I live but maybe I’ll get the covenant changed one day or I’ll just move to a bigger farm!
Just get a pig and tell them it is a fat dog.. a pigoranium!! , hope you find somewhere bigger and freer.. c
So what will you do with the thistles – which animal/bird get’s to eat those? I have a few on my plot that you are welcome too – I can’t get my spade in the ground easily at the moment as we have had blissfully hot dry and sunny weather.
Know what you mean about being alone, kind of wonderful! Mind you, you have us lot to contend with as well…..
the thistles are banished from the property, these ones shoot their roots out and pop up all over, destroying the pasture, I will never get rid of them all, but what i do get up i burn.. c
Why are the pigs’ ears so lacy? I’m trying to remember. I know Charlotte and Sheila have lacy ears too. Is this to identify them?
They are the equivalent of tags, so we know who is who.. c
Hello, Celi!
We loved your pictures of the peachick and the piglets. Thank you for planting my apple tree. Tanti saluti e baci. Love, your Zia.
Oh my darling Zia, i love it when you get to pop in, the pea chick was just sighted toddling along beside his mother, still alive and well.. what a little miracle, have a lovely evening.. c
🙂
Can’t believe how fast those piglets have grown: glad you have found buyers for most! The Murphies, last I saw them, also looked pretty grownup – daresay their leaving the farmy is closing in. Personally as a city gal I find it fascinating how you have learned to use every available bit of edible stuff to raise all your brood! But just cannot believe hard plant stems are so good for their health 🙂 ! Oh, Down Under of course we have had our own ‘baby news’ with that big baby Prince appearing overrnight: Monarchist or Republican, methinks everyone was on baby watch 😀 !
all babies are good babies! that’s what i think! yes the Murphies will be off in a couple of weeks, a bit late actually but I lost track of time!! ah well.. sometimes we are a lazy farmy! c
Very funny . . . sleep well, Milady 🙂 !
will do chick! c
A perfect hermit as long a that cave has wifi as your wee conversations with self include us. I cannot image a not started with you. No matter the grief or excitement around, we do need our Miss C fix.
should have included ‘I cannot imagine a day started without you.
Hello! I really appreciate that you use everything to the full and try to have no waste. What a benevolent way to live!
It is really is very gentle and sensible way to live.. c
What pleasure to have a day to yourself! I love solitude too. It’s wonderful to see how every little bit gets used on the farmy. What lucky animals to have such variety.
Now that little sculpture which is hiding behind the yellow lilies looks so much like a popular Kiwi sculpture, beloved of various Retreat Centres. Can it be? or is it a US version?