Jig Saw Jog

Well, yesterday was busy as you can imagine. Spring though sunless seems to be on it’s way. My life is consumed by the weather. I remember my life when I lived in the city each day was a surprise I never looked at a weather forecast or even bothered with wind direction. Now it is all about the weather.

I hit a wall last night with my metaphorical head and had a massive teenagers catch up sleep.  Finally, my brain has arrived, it must have taken a later flight and got lost in transit! 

While I am writing by the open bedroom window watching for the sunrise I can hear the coyotes again.  Howling and squabbling.  All winter they have been so loud and so close.  So far they have not bothered me or the animals – no cats missing or anything. So they must be a tight pack – no rogues. The dogs spend a lot of time barking at the coyotes in the night keeping our boundaries tight and we walk the border twice a day to keep all the fence posts freshly scented.  There will definitely be no night calving in the fields this year, (though I never have) when the girls are close they will be brought into the barn every night.  My coyote pack has been well behaved so far but there is no point in making it  easy for a wild dog.

Above you can see that I am  hardening off the spring crops (the dark greens) IN the chicken tractor so the peacocks and turkeys and chickens have no chance of eating them while they are still in their pots! This has happened before and this is why the peacocks will go into their peacock palace in the top of the barn when  little plants are planted out, summer hits and it is too hot for the plants to stay under the cloches.  

Above is my work for today. I will get out the tractor and scoop the yards clean – all the manure and dirty straw goes down the back by the asparagus patch and becomes an enormous compost pile. This years pile will be for next years gardens. I have NEVER had enough compost. Never ever.

The day after today which I guess is tomorrow I will begin to scoop out the cows wintering pens. This will take a long time without help. They will be cleaned and prepared for calving and milking time.  Unless the weather gets really bad again (and it might) the cows are officially out of the barn so I can prepare it for summer.

I looked back at the old posts for the 12th of march over the years  to see what the weather was like and how far along the plants were.  Documenting the farm like this is very useful like that. But I should be noting the weather details more often. Yesterday was in the high 50’s windows open!

2015

2014

2013

2012

In July we will have five years worth of blog posts to look back over, 

I have bought a juicer. When I was in Melbourne I became very excited about the freshly made juices that we could buy in the cafes and restaurants. They would come to the table frothy and freshly squeezed and quite divine.  A real natural pick-me-up and often a good deep green.  Green drinks are the best for health! I have a lot of kale coming through in the glass house, so after finding a cheap juicer on Amazon,  (we will see if it can keep up with me), I have begun making juices for my breakfast. Three interesting tips: keep your fruit and vegetables in the fridge so the juice is pre chilled, wash the parts of the juicer immediately while your juice settles so clean up is easy, make two batches at a time and freeze one in cubes for the afternoon smoothie, make your juice  from left overs save all your cauliflower stalks and broccoli stalks etc, from last nights dinner prep and juice those as well.   Sheila could not believe her eyes when her dinner was mixed with the pulp of oranges and grapefruit.  (Usually oranges and grapefruit and lemons are a pretty hard sell with the pigs.)

I can’t wait for the beetroot now, I will be drinking beetroot juice like crazy! And my restaurant friends tell me it freezes very well for the winter.   A juicer will be a great addition to my mealtimes and cocktail hours. And a perfect snack too.

Nothing is ever wasted here.

The cows and kunekune are settling in to their new living arrangements but I am still waiting for my driver to transport Aunty Del over to the home farm and swap Poppy with the twins. I wonder if I should bring that little bull Carlos the Tiny back to the home farm too – there is no reason why he cannot hang out with all the pregnant ladies. What do you think? ( I like to let the West fields grow in high and thick  for mid summer grazing so he may as well be here.    Then I can leave the electric fences off over there too. Save on energy. There will be a few head butts to begin with though I think he can deal with it. Lady Astor will go about establishing her authority as head cow.  Cow politics are pretty straight forward, there are no votes.

Hmm.  I am writing thoughts. Wasting time. Time to get moving. I will mull Carlos over today and look at the idea from every angle. The early summer jig saw is still jogging about the board.

I did not quite get the focus on Sheila’s moving eye but you can see how different her eyes are from any of the others. All the other pigs have black eyes. Sheila has golden eyes. Once those twins are gone across the way she can get out and about more which will be good for her. Poppy will take over the barn and Sheila will go to live outside in her pig house with a gate to the bank – it is a favourite grazing place.  Although she and the twins hang out together, it is still an uneasy truce – Sheila still chooses to sleep alone – she will be happy to move to her spring house.

Well, time to get going, the sun will be up soon though it looks like once again it will rise behind cloud.

I hope you have a lovely day.

celi