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So long Wilma, Julia, and Marcia. You guys did an excellent job digging up a rush infested, hard to get to with the tractor area. You have enjoyed munching the grass, the rooting, the stone turning, the sun lounging, and now my girls, you are off to your forever home.

Which means, we’ll soon be back to having pork on the meat menu. After chatting to the lovely butcher we should have soon:

Roasts (shoulders, legs), sized for 4-6 people

Sausages (two options: Plain and Honey and Mustard)

Burgers (Pork and Apple)

Boneless loin steaks

Chops

Gluten free sausages

So, if anyone is wanting it fresh please get in touch ASAP so we can keep contact about the pick up date. Otherwise it will be frozen, pre-booking is welcome to reserve orders. Prices will be up soon once calculations on feed, labour, butchery costs have been calculated.

P.S., all three pigs are getting butchered together so you will not be able to specify which pig you want. Julia and Marcia were difficult anyway to identify with both being pure black. Spots and stripes really do help.

A long, long, time ago (aka June), the process of cutting grass for hay was started. It was a very hot time, great for making hay, not great when you are suffering the consequences of having a Micro-Crofter on board while still having to watch the Mini-Crofter. Yes, there lies the major reason why no blogs have gone up recently. Any chance of sleep had been sought, getting through a day felt like a marathon had been completed and sickness wasn’t helping either. So the Crofter ended up having to mow and bale the hay himself. I did try one day, however 20 mins in the hot sun (hot for us, it was high 20s) resulted in needing to lie flat on a sofa for nearly an hour afterwards. Decided that wasn’t such a good idea.

Crofting is so much better when the work is shared and having to admit that you can’t do all the work you would like to do isn’t easy. At least for me, it’s a stage that should pass (maybe not the day Micro Crofter is born, but hopefully soon after). Others can suffer health wise and have to give it up. It has been a struggle to watch people who have the ability to do work that I would like to be doing, but that they just don’t do it. Agriculture and pregnancy can really throw some curve balls at you.

Anyway, good weather (at the time, lack of rain since hasn’t been as good), along with the Crofter being home for a lengthy spell meant all the grass we wanted to cut for hay, was done. Having a neighbour who came to help collect it up was incredibly helpful so that I didn’t have to. So yes, I may be the main Crofter half the time, there are times I will take all the help I can get.

And for anyone asking, no, hay is not made in a day (at least not around here). Yes, it took multiple days of cutting, turning (to dry the grass out), baling, and collecting it in. It will not be enough bales for our livestock over winter so we still have to get some in. And the dry, hot weather has affected grass growth so hay is pricey. I’m sure the cows will enjoy it though.

P.S., If you are still singing the tune, we have no dog called Spot! Or any dog that goes ‘woof’ for that matter.

Over the past few months, two local farmers have come and helped us out in two different circumstances. Both never indicated how much of their time was taken away from their own jobs, both offering their time and knowledge which was great for getting a job done and also for finding out little, gleaned gems of info.

Murdo was the man first up back when our cattle food (on a pallet, don’t be thinking a Tesco’s delivery) got delivered to an estate several miles away. I faced the challenge of having to go and load 25kg sacks onto our trailer and then offloading them at our end. In stepped Murdo, Robert, and a John Deere tractor (with front loader- very important factor) and trailer.

The only problem we then faced was the pallet tipped on the drive back, meaning Murdo couldn’t just use the tractor to off load, but the two of us had to. Doing your back in over your own work is one thing, doing it for the sake of helping someone else is another. However, it gave the opportunity for chat: lambing, calving, etc.

The next up, was Ian. I called Ian the morning I had a run in with Breena, a very hormonal cow who I was concerned about the newborn calf (I had met the man once before when we went to look at his shed before designing our cattle shed; don’t be thinking I was phoning people I knew, and more likely be very pleased that I RANG someone). Just watching Ian around the cattle was useful and I learned a new trick for dealing with a fiesty cow. However, as much as I wish that was the end of our problems, it was not… Ian and Jeannette had to deal with me on the phone several times. Two weeks later and major incident number two of the year was declared. An hour with a vet and calf number two needed tube fed, which meant I preferred the idea of seeing it before performing it. Then, when we had to get an orphan calf, Ian was back giving us the lesson in getting the skin from the dead calf onto the new calf. Not a pleasant experience, something you can read in a book but seeing it in real life is what you need. That meant Ian lost quite a lot of his own time helping us out and we are indebted to him.

It also makes it hard to show them how thankful you are, there is little we could do to help them but if the chance was there I would love to (so if anyone knows of things that farmers and their families struggle with and could use some help with, let me know). They are the unsung heroes, the local heroes that never appear in the press or turn up on honour lists. They put in so much time, not just in their own work, but for others (pulling cars out of flooded roads, snow ploughing in winter when people get stuck, etc). Could someone whisper to the Queen to add them to next year’s honours list?

A while back I was asked the question of ‘who would you invite for dinner if you could invite anyone?’ Not a question I had previously thought about. However, when you compared my answer to the others I realised I live in a parallel universe to normal people. Why? The four names I listed are all people in agriculture, ones that I have met but would love to chat more to. The names that the others listed were mostly people I had never heard of (such as musicians, authors, people on TV), or the one I did recognise, David Attenborough. Hmm, no thanks, I still want to talk more to my ‘real life, full of knowledge, stories and experiences of working the land’ people. They are all people I could have a conversation with (I really have no idea what I would chat about to celebrities so why would I want to join them for dinner?).

So, who were my four? Hmm, not sure I should confess…but two are farmers (Murdo/Ian), one is a retired farmer (Watson), and the fourth is a leader of promoting agriculture/smallholdings, milks her own cows, has them halter trained and has time to set up all kinds of websites and seminars to help others (Rosemary -she’s also the only one of these four to be reading this so debated whether I should confess this where she may find out). My list is a potential reality, I don’t think anyone else had a single plausible invite. Which, why dream of inviting people who can’t or won’t come?

My brain just seems to work in the reality field, rather than reality TV, and maybe that comes about from having no TV. A shock to a lot of people but I don’t have time. Nor do I need to watch Hollyoaks when I have my own holly and oaks to watch and keep an eye on from pests; why watch Neighbours when I can watch my own neighbours (stray cow on the council road last night, got the community Facebook Page buzzing). News bulletins: go catch up over the fence. Rom com: our bull trying to jump a gate. ER: in the byre, feed tubing a calf, clock ticking on its survival. Nature documentaries: binoculars work fine. Six Nations Rugby: there is no substitute, go to local pub…but with people you can chat to.