Hi Folks

We have been enjoying some beautiful sunshine over the past few weeks which has been lovely; very good for our visitors to the B&B and also our WWOOFers. It has also given us a chance to get a lot of outdoor work done as well as having a barbeque or two. The weather has broken now and we are getting some much needed rain in between sunny spells.

Since last time’s update we have completed the peat cutting and the peats have been set up ready to finish drying. We will bring them home when they are dry enough.

Felicity’s piglets are due to go off to new homes soon and Henrietta’s will be off three weeks later. So we will have less mouths to feed on the piggy front. The 2 piglets that we were rearing on goats milk are doing well and have caught their siblings up now.

Cinnamon our oldest milking nanny has been a bit under the weather lately and off her dry food, although she is still enjoying the hay and green stuff from the garden. The vet came and took a blood test and we await the results. He also wormed her and the other nanny Gust, who is fine.

We put our cattle out onto a friend’s croft at the end of May and they have been enjoying the new grass and the sunshine.

Because the days are so long now we don’t shut the chickens up at night and we find some of them wandering around the yard in the morning waiting for breakfast. They are very friendly and follow us about. They even had a go at Sheba our cat, which was very brave of them as she can be quite a madam at times.

The market garden area which is the basis for our new veg box scheme is now rabbit fenced and things are planted or in the process of being planted. We have potatoes, onions, leeks, peas, broad beans, beetroot, chard, and various brassicas in there. Our polytunnel has strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, veg and lots of salad leaves. The greenhouse is also still quite busy and we are watching the progress of the grapevine with great interest. The passion flower in the greenhouse is covered with beautiful blooms. In the garden we have peas, beans, carrots, parsnips, celery and lots of soft fruit. The apple trees have very small apples on them, we hope they stay there. Last year they blew away!

Until next time……

Dave and Jane