First egg of the year

 

Our hens normally stop laying by the start of October and then start again around new year. This time they started laying again only in the past few days. So after a disappointing start, hopefully egg numbers will soar.

Grape vodka

 

Last year I was given some grapes grown by a friend in his greenhouse. They were rather soft, still on their stalks and full of pips. Instead of eating them, I put them into a jar along with 200g of sugar and 70ml of vodka. We recently tested the result. Very pleasant.

Pigeon and duck casserole

 

We have a glut of pigeon breasts in our freezers waiting to be used. Some of them are from a friend who bagged about 40 on our farm recently. Some of the meat found its way into this rather pleasant casserole.

Building the goat shed

 

We have friends who run gardening and building businesses and they often give us pallets and old fence panels. These are ideal materials for building shelters and sheds for our animals. All we have to buy are the nails and screws used to hold the structures together. We also have a rather snazzy tool for prising off planks from fence panels which we then use to clad the new animal sheds. No waste and quite sustainable.

Check out the video above for more on building the new goat shed.

What we do with your Christmas tree

People have been dropping off Christmas trees for us to feed to the goats.  Dealing with the trees is normally our biggest task to carry out each January. This video shows what happens to the trees.

Unwell over new year

 

Ant, one of our Saanen billy goats was a bit unwell over new year. We was off his food for a few days. He had the runs but for only one day only. The runs can sometimes we  sigh that an animal has worms so we gave him and the other two goats in the paddock with him the parasite treatment. He made a slow and gradual recovery and is now fine and dandy.

And the winner is....

Last autumn we asked people to come up with suggestions for the name of our new ram. About 150 sent us their suggestions. The final result is that he is called Rambo! Thanks to everyone who took part.