What a busy few days, however it is back to ‘normal’ now. Mum and Dad were here last week for a few days, and as they left, Rob, Nikki, Jessica and Naomi were on their way up for the weekend. I was teaching J & N how to knit and crochet, and I think that given another day or so we could all have been looking foward to scarfs of differing shapes and sizes for Christmas!
So, what has been happening here…
Well, Evie has been put outside now and the cellar is empty (except for the ducks who still go to bed here). She joined the others last week in the field for the day and then we put them all into the stable together, the next day though I noticed that they were bullying her, and as she is still recouperating, if they are bullying her away from her food then she might get put off eating again, so we have moved her into the stable with the rabbits. She seems quite happy in here, and the rabbits are a bit of company – of the non bullying kind. We still have the two rams in the end stable, today I will check outside and see if we can let them out yet.
Last week I went to retrieve our Herdwicks from the other side of the stream. By shaking the feed bucket I managed to get three of them to follow me back into our field. I could have got the others to come back too, however as that would have entailed me crossing the stream again, I had a horrible feeling that the ones who had followed me would follow me back again. Interestingly, the next morning when I went out there were 7 herdies waiting at the other side of the fence, waiting for their food! This is the first time they had been fed by us for 4 (?) months, yet there they are by the gate waiting for the next! They seem quite happy to come to the bucket and we will encourage this as it makes it easier to control them.
We are getting more eggs over the last few days and for the first time for a couple of months we have a pile of eggs in the kitchen. Thinking about it, I think it was this time last year that we had our first eggs, so it would make sense that they start laying again now, once their moult has finished. We dfinately have one from a new chicken as well, as there is an egg we don’t recognise (a brown one, not anything particulary strange).
We had severe cold weather weekend before last, apparently the temperature was over -10 (is it over or under – well colder than…). It only lasted a couple of days and last week was quite mild. Yesterday their was a frost, and we even saw snow on Sunday – albeit over the fells outside of Garrigill.
I was at two craft fares this weekend, Newcastle and Garrigill. And at Newcastle each Saturday before Christmas, so Ian can look forward to more soap flavoured tea!