Caution Wide Load....

This is the sign that should be put on the rear of quite a few of the ewes at the moment. They are certainly very wide. Missy is the first ewe due on the 14th March (which is 2 weeks on Wednesday), isn't looking too wide, so I suspect she is just having a single lamb, where as Frea (due 19th March) is very wide. I'm hoping it's because of the way the lamb(s) are laying, and not more than twins. Next week we will have to start and set up the lambing pens as the following week Missy, one of the Scotties and Frea will be penned up in readiness for them to lamb.
On Friday we finally collected our Mazda Bongo Camper van. It's everything we hoped for, the conversion is so professional and the 7 hour ride home was very comfortable. I can't wait to try it out.

Snow, flooding, cocktail party and a walk on the beech

It's been quite a week. We have had some snow, but nothing like what we had last winter and what some parts of the country have had this week. We've had about an inch of snow, if that, and the coldest we've been is -3.5, though the wind chill has made it feel a lot cooler.
On Saturday our friends Frayalyn and Mark, along with their dogs Lunil & Bill, came for the weekend. We had just sat down to Freyalyn's amazing currys, and I had popped back into the kitchen to retrieve some more naan breads, when I heard running water, and was faced with water running from the shower room into the passage and quickly spreading in the direction of the office and utility room. The tap connector to the sink had blown apart, hence all the water. Thankfully Tim has fitted all the sinks, bath and loos with water shut off valves, so he was able to turn off the water to this sink and we all left our curry's and armed with mops and towels, spent the next 15 minutes or so mopping up the water. Once most of the water had been mopped up we returned to the dining room to our curry's. Tim was first into the dining room and all we heard was him shout HOLLY!!!!!
She was helping herself to 3 plates of lamb curry!!!! Thankfully Freyalyn had made plenty so there was still plenty for the rest of us to eat. In our haste, and panic, we forgot that Holly is a rescue dog and despite being with us for the last 8 years, any unguarded food is fair game as far as Holly is concerned.
After the excitement of the flooding and curry eating dog, Freyalyn and I were invited to a Cocktail Party, one of my knitting club friends, Carol's birthday party, and of course we all had to take our knitting! It was a pleasant evening in good company and not too much alcohol was consumed, though it transpired that we were not the only ones who had, had to deal with a flooding, Carol too had to deal with a flood that morning.
This morning we woke up to a thaw, what ever snow we had, had gone, though where the snow had been walked on and had formed ice, the melting snow had made some of the yard into a skating ring, with Lunil & Deefa doing very good impersonations of Bambi on ice.
After our usual hearty breakfast of bacon, sausage, egg, black pudding and toast, we went for a walk on the beech at Runswick Bay, low tide being mid-day, so we were able to have a good long walk. After the snow and ice we have had it was interesting to see how many new boulders there were on the beech, you could see where they had hit the sand and bounced down the beech.
Here are a couple of photos of a recent cliff fall, the seaweed, debris from the recent high tide. The dogs all seemed to enjoy their time on the beech, though Deefa did disgrace himself by having a go at Lunil. He really doesn't like the idea of any dog not walking close to their owners. He's a typical sheepdog, we should all be rounded up and walking nicely!!!!!
It's been a good week and hopefully next week we should be picking up the Camper Van.

Sheep pre-natal check up

As the first of our sheep is due to lamb on the 14th March, just over 5 weeks away. Now is the time we give the pregnant ewes their final pedicure, wormer and pre-natal check up. Thankfully, due to the mild weather we've been having recently, the ewes are in good condition, which considering their ages, ranging from 3 to 7+ years, is a good thing to see. Now is the time to start giving the ewes some feed concentrate, we give them one that is high is glucose to help against twin lamb disease, and by the time the majority of the ewes lamb at the end of March, they will be given a 1lb of feed each. We have been giving them some feed concentrate since we put the tup in. We always do, as it gives us a good chance to watch the ewes come to the feed troughs and we can quickly spot any problems as well as who's been covered by the tup. Now the feed troughs have been moved into the lambing barn to get the ewes used to being in the barn again as well as us moving amongst them, though as far as Allium is concerned, there is no way she is coming into the barn whilst we are there. She is like this every year, when she's in lamb!

The Camper van

On Thursday we did a 600 mile round trip to Wokingham, via the M1 and M25, to visit 321 Away, who import Mazda Bongos and convert them to camper vans. Well after a good look round and a test drive, we've bought this Mazda Bongo....

It has to be registered with the DVLA and once that happens we will have a registrations number so we can sort out some insurance

Inside the front of the Bongo

We are having a side kitchen fitted, with extra seats to that we can carry 6 people.

These are the extra seats at the rear, and you can also see the wardrobe/storage space at the side of the fridge

Once the back seat is removed and the middle seat turned round, this is the space it creates, bearing in mind the side kitchen still needs to be fitted. But I think I will have plenty of room to pack all my fibre in to.
It's going to take 321 Away a couple of weeks to refit the Bongo out and get the registration details from DVLA. Once that's all done we will take the train to Wokingham to pick up our Mazda Bongo Friendee Camper van, and drive it all the way home. I can't wait.....

Keeping New Year Resolutions

I don't normally make New Year Resolutions, but this year I've decided to list one or two things that I wanted to achieve at the start of this year. One of those things to do is to list all of the fibre that I have for sale on my Folksy and Etsy sites. Well I'm half way there to getting this achieved. All the photos are taken and all the Alpaca, Plant Fibre and some of the Merino Blended fibres are listed on both sites. So it may be worth taking a look. www.folksy.com/shops/willofibre
My other resolution is to find more Farmer's Markets to attend and so far things are looking promising, though I won't know for certain for another couple of months, so fingers crossed that it all works out.
On the smallholding things are just ticking over, the hens are starting to lay and one of the young cockerels that I hatched is starting to get aggressive, so he will have to go. The sheep are looking well and we start lambing (Missy) on the 14th March, which isn't too far away and in another couple of weeks we will have to start upping the amount of feed concentrate we give them, which seems strange when there is so much grass around, but it's not very nutritious for a pregnant ewe.
We've also had a couple of house viewings this week, but not heard anything back. We know that if the couple who came in July can sell their house, then we are on the move, but until then we will keep showing people round. It's tiring as we like to keep everything neat and tidy, just in case we have a viewing. So if we start a job we have to get if finished as quickly as possible.

What a difference a year makes

We've been out delivering Yellow Pages again this year, and how different the weather is this year compare to last. High winds and mild days, where as last year we were battling through the snow. The high winds made for some interesting waves at Sandsend at high tide on Thursday as we sat in the truck having lunch, and some difficult walking conditions the rest of the week. But today was calm and warm and after we had finished delivering the last of the Yellow Pages this morning, I spent the afternoon in the garden replanting some strawberry plants and rescuing a gooseberry bush that we found when our next door neighbour demolished their shed in readiness to build a new one. I had Holly and Deefa with me, so they had a great time running around and just getting rid of some pent up energy.
I had one piece of good news this week, My application for a stall at Wonder Wool in Wales has been accepted, so along with my stall at Fiber East in July, I'm now just waiting to see if I get a stall at Woolfest in June to make it a hat trick of fibre events for me this year. Looks like I'm going to have a busy summer.

The start of 2012

And on the 1st day of the New Year one of my Maran Chickens has started to lay, and today when I checked the nest boxes, there were 2 more eggs, one from the Marans and one from the Cream Legbars, now I know the days are getting longer.
So far this winter has, for us, has been very mild but with some very strong winds and the occasional days of rain. We could do with the rain and we've not know a winter without being at least ankle deep in mud. The sheep have hardly touched any of the winter straw or spent much time in the barn, though with lambing only 10 weeks away, we are feeding the sheep in the barn as it will be easier to catch any of them should we need to and they get used to the barn for when they are penned up for the 24 to 48 hours before they are due to lamb.
For us Christmas and New Year has, as usual, been a quiet affair. Though we went to the village barn dance between Christmas and New Year. A good time was had by all.
So what are our plans for 2012.... Well hopefully we will move, though not before we lamb, so until we know what is happening with our smallholding we will just continue to maintain the land, hedges, fences and house until we hand it all over. On the fibre front, I'm hoping to increase the markets I attend as well as be more proactive with selling on line via Folksy etc. But what ever this new year brings, I hope it brings good things. A Happy New Year to you all.