Here’s a problem!

Three and a half months ago there was a big bad storm that blew in the big door at the West Barn. When I got to the barn the following morning Manu (Hereford Boar) was in with Molly and Tahiti(Hereford gilts) .  Do you remember? As soon as I could I separated them back out and I am positive I saw Tahiti in heat three weeks later – though I never did see Molly in heat.  Not ever.

But  the fates collided and now I THINK I have two very pregnant too young gilts. Tahiti is ballooning and I actually felt piglets in Mollys belly. And so did Amanda so I have corroboration. This has all become apparent in the last few days leading me to believe we have only a few weeks up our sleeves to prepare an extra pen for Molly. 

Because, the problem is,  I have only one birthing chamber where the mothers and babies live for the first few weeks. One.  I had planned for these two to farrow (in late August) in the field but last week they began taking the rat house apart, piece by piece so they are back in the barn. Now, there’s a problem! A very surmountable problem though.

The little beef herd (plus one heifer who is too young to be near a bull) are happy in the Chicory Fields  over at the White Barn. No signs of bloat or scours. So the pasture mix is balanced which  is good. It has lots of flowers it is a pity my dairy girls cannot get to it.

And here at the home farm are the breeding herd. Carlos the Tiny has Naomi, and Alex (with her baby Txiki) in tow and everyone is very happy. 

Carlos is taking his work very seriously, but is being very gentle with his girls.

My two milking girls are in the heavier dairy fields by themselves.  And baby (Talia) is still laying about in the big pen in the barn. My plan is to sell her when she is weaned so I will be advertising her soon.

This week we ramp up another gear.. Our first farm to table dinner party (Jake and I are collaborating on this as he is a chef as well as a market gardener) is at the Farmhouse.

It is a family dinner for The Matriarch so we have even more people coming to stay at this house and in the cottage. So as well as farming and feeding even bigger groups, (entire families are coming),  we will be cooking for the dinner party this weekend. PLUS possible piglets and the man knocking a hole in the kitchen wall.

The hole in the kitchen wall is the long awaited walk-through from the kitchen to my big store room. So from now on we should be able to walk through the pantry and right out the other side into the dry store room basically extending the kitchen. So ALL the dry store room goods and their shelves have been relocated into the lounge while he works in the store room. I  have made sure that everything is stacked tidily so we can still function efficiently. However it is not pretty and it will get worse. Hopefully the building job only takes the two days we have set aside for it because everyone starts arriving on Friday. I have NEVER had a building job go according to plan and there are many variables in this one.

And I will be building in the barn sorting the extended maternity ward.

But short term stress is OK. This is just a couple of weeks where I will have to be in top form.

Oh! AND. Congratulations to you – the blog with its Fellowship of the Farmy has just passed its FIFTH year anniversary.

Have a great day. My crew come back this evening and will hit the ground running so this is my last hard day and I had better get up and at it!

Much love

celi