Sunday 25 November 2007

Tim takes early retirement.....

Well from paid employment that is. He finished working at the cafe in Whitby, where he's been for the past 3 years, working part time. He was finding that as the days get shorter, he was not able to get a lot done on our smallholding, he was leaving home at 10.00 and not getting back until 15.00. The light has virtually gone by then. So I'm compiling a list of jobs for him to do so he doesn't get bored!!!!!!
This weekend we seemed to get quite a lot done. On Saturday, which was cold and wet, Tim got a whole load more wood cut and as the new log splitter has arrived, he was able to test it out fully. The old log splitter has given up the ghost, well the on/off button has. We bought it not long after we moved here, after a very "cartoon moment" when I tried to lift the axe above my head to split some wood and ended up falling over backwards with the weight!!!! The new log splitter is impressive with an 8 tonne ram, and can split a log up to 3ft in length, hopefully it will give us several years useful service. I did the VAT, not a difficult job, but we've moved onto a new accounting system, so I'm been extra careful to ensure that the VAT is correct. Great way to spend a wet afternoon!!!!
Today has been much milder, so it's been a day of topping up the hay racks, putting straw down in the shelters and changing water troughs. We also weighed the fat lambs to see how much weight they have put on over the week, they averaged between 2 - 5 lbs. It will be interesting to see the weight gain next year as we will not be castrating any of our lambs. One thing we have done in reading the weights for the lambs is to get the kgs and Ibs mixed up, so though we thought we were reading the number correctly it was the kgs/lbs bit we got wrong!!! Tim is taking them to the abattoir on Monday, it will be interesting to see what weight we get back. It's reckoned that the weight we get back will be a 2/3 of it's live weight. We wait and see.
Tim fitted the final post of the fencing in the veg plot and moved the old horse box into the barn ready for the arrival of the resident vandal. I managed to clear an area in the new veg plot to put one of the compost bins back in place, the other bin will fit behind it when I get the rasp canes cleared away. Guess what I will be doing over the winter? Digging over the veg plot!!
The resident vandal and partner, along with Kiera dog arrive on Wednesday for a few days. Holly and Deefa are catching up on their sleep in readiness for a hectic few days playing tag. Fencing up to the barn is one of the jobs to be done along with wrecking the old horsebox and work on the old Jeep. It will keep Tim and the resident vandal out of trouble for a few days.
After a week of inactivity Hector is back working, it looks like the last few ewes had cycled just before we put them to Hector, so hopefully he will cover the remaining ones this week. Charlie only having 6 ewes to look after, covered them all in a week. Next week he will be introduced to his new ladies. More about that next week

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