Yet again, the goats had found a way through the fence onto the small embankment beside our livestock allotment. More heavy duty wire netting was applied to the problem. The goats took a close interest in the repair work.
Wednesday, 4 January 2017
Fence repairs
Yet again, the goats had found a way through the fence onto the small embankment beside our livestock allotment. More heavy duty wire netting was applied to the problem. The goats took a close interest in the repair work.
And then there were 7
The egg recovery continues . Yesterday 7 were laid (6 of them in the photo above). There were only 5 today. We've been back to our handful of friends who bought the eggs regularly last year. They each agreed to buy more.
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
Self-Sufficient in Suburbia Autumn 2016
This video covers September to November 2016 and has a historical theme to it, covering 2 of my periods of greatest historical interest: the medieval period and the Second World War. We can learn a great deal on how to use our food more effectively and efficiently, avoiding waste and making great meals at the same time.
Monday, 2 January 2017
Bark eating goats
The goats happily eat leaves and twigs during the summer. In the winter however they turn their attention to the bark on the branches from which they had eaten the greenery in previous months. The bark is quite nutritious and the goats are natural experts are stripping it from the branches, as shown in this video I filmed in November (but only got round to editing tonight).
Sunday, 1 January 2017
Our plans for 2017
Having written previously about 2016 being a disappointing year, it is now time to look ahead to our plans for 2017. So here goes.
Pinkie and Georgina, our two nanny goats, will be mated. Assuming this goes well, the kids will be born in the late spring. Spot, the nanny born in June 2016, will not be mated until she is fully grown. She may be ready by the end of the year but 2018 will be the year we expect her to have babies. At that point, she will be used as a milker. Kids from Pinkie and Georgina will be for slaughter. Pinkie is our main milking goat but Georgina is not suitable for milking. We are also planning to get a Saanen nanny as a mate for Spotless and another Golden Guernsey nanny. The aim is to build up a small herd providing both meat and milk. Getting registered with the Food Standards Agency and being inspected is now a priority so that we can sell our dairy produce.
We will be ordering hen, duck and quail eggs to be hatched in the spring. We aren't allowed to keep cockerels so renewing the flock of chickens has to be done by buying hatching eggs and point of lay hens. The quails are now onto the third generation hatched from our own eggs so we will get eggs from a different source to widen the gene pool. We will do the same with the ducks.
Our 3 allotments are undergoing significant changes. Our main plot is to be used entirely for livestock except for the fruitcage, the greenhouse and a soon-to-be-built raised bed. Our second plot at the Whinnies has been left unused for decades. We took it on 3 years ago with plans to house the goats there. This plan never happened but we kept paying the rent on this allotment. The plan now is to use it for fruit-growing. We have already made a start. Part of the site has been cleared and 5 beds created. Many of the soft fruit bushes have been moved there from the main (livestock) allotment. We will be buying more bushes to plant over the coming weeks.
Our 3rd plot, at Marley Hill, is our smallest and will be used to grow vegetables. A great deal of work needs to be done to get it fully into operation and the old shed on it needs replacing.
We have a large quantity of firewood from the branches we feed to the goats from spring to autumn. We still have a large number of branches to chop up. At the moment however we have fuel but no heating system on which to burn the wood. We will be getting quotes soon to have a wood-fired stove installed in the house. We will also be asking for quotes on a boiler for heating water. But we want the fuel for cooking as well. So we will be getting quotes for a wood-fired outdoor oven.
We currently run a land rover and a small car but we will be adding bikes to this fleet. I will be pedalling rather than driving to local meetings and events.
We will also be doing some brewing. We did make wine 3 years ago and will have a go again this year. We will also have a go at brewing beer. I've bought the kit already but I want to try out historic recipes, especially ones that use whey from our goats milk.
So, that's it, our plans for 2017. We will of course be reporting regularly on the blog and we will be filming the year as well. Watch this space.
Pinkie and Georgina, our two nanny goats, will be mated. Assuming this goes well, the kids will be born in the late spring. Spot, the nanny born in June 2016, will not be mated until she is fully grown. She may be ready by the end of the year but 2018 will be the year we expect her to have babies. At that point, she will be used as a milker. Kids from Pinkie and Georgina will be for slaughter. Pinkie is our main milking goat but Georgina is not suitable for milking. We are also planning to get a Saanen nanny as a mate for Spotless and another Golden Guernsey nanny. The aim is to build up a small herd providing both meat and milk. Getting registered with the Food Standards Agency and being inspected is now a priority so that we can sell our dairy produce.
We will be ordering hen, duck and quail eggs to be hatched in the spring. We aren't allowed to keep cockerels so renewing the flock of chickens has to be done by buying hatching eggs and point of lay hens. The quails are now onto the third generation hatched from our own eggs so we will get eggs from a different source to widen the gene pool. We will do the same with the ducks.
Our 3 allotments are undergoing significant changes. Our main plot is to be used entirely for livestock except for the fruitcage, the greenhouse and a soon-to-be-built raised bed. Our second plot at the Whinnies has been left unused for decades. We took it on 3 years ago with plans to house the goats there. This plan never happened but we kept paying the rent on this allotment. The plan now is to use it for fruit-growing. We have already made a start. Part of the site has been cleared and 5 beds created. Many of the soft fruit bushes have been moved there from the main (livestock) allotment. We will be buying more bushes to plant over the coming weeks.
Our 3rd plot, at Marley Hill, is our smallest and will be used to grow vegetables. A great deal of work needs to be done to get it fully into operation and the old shed on it needs replacing.
We have a large quantity of firewood from the branches we feed to the goats from spring to autumn. We still have a large number of branches to chop up. At the moment however we have fuel but no heating system on which to burn the wood. We will be getting quotes soon to have a wood-fired stove installed in the house. We will also be asking for quotes on a boiler for heating water. But we want the fuel for cooking as well. So we will be getting quotes for a wood-fired outdoor oven.
We currently run a land rover and a small car but we will be adding bikes to this fleet. I will be pedalling rather than driving to local meetings and events.
We will also be doing some brewing. We did make wine 3 years ago and will have a go again this year. We will also have a go at brewing beer. I've bought the kit already but I want to try out historic recipes, especially ones that use whey from our goats milk.
So, that's it, our plans for 2017. We will of course be reporting regularly on the blog and we will be filming the year as well. Watch this space.
Propping up the roosting bar
The new roosting bar we put in the hen house kept giving way under the weight of hens. So, while chopping up branches this afternoon, I found a suitable Y-shaped one which could prop up the bar. It has worked rather well. There were 9 birds on the bar tonight when I locked up the hen house. I think we will install another similar roosting bar. The hens certainly appreciate them.
Goodbye 2016
2016 was not a good year for us. Topping the list of setbacks was the death of Geraldine, one of our goats, while giving birth. She died before the kids were born so we lost them as well. And although Pinkie gave birth, her one kid, who we called Milkie, died after a couple of days. Georgina, on the other hand, produced 2 babies. This was the first time for her and she performed superbly. She's been a great mum and we have decided to keep both kids. Spot, the nanny kid, replaces Geraldine. Spotless is a billy. He was bred for meat but he is such a beautiful animal that we decided to keep him. We hope to get him a mate in 2017. The photo above was taken last night. The three were asleep together on the milking stand.
Talking of which, Pinkie produced a vast amount of milk for us, up to 3.5 litres a day at her peak. Most of it was made into ricotta cheese. What we failed to do however was register with the Food Standards Agency. Until we have done that and had an inspection, we cannot sell our dairy produce.
Also worrying me about the goats is that none of them have yet come into heat. They are leaving it a bit late.
And the bees were also a setback for us in 2016. We had no honey crop. This put back lots of our plans and left us reliant on sugar which we have to buy in.
Egg production has also been a problem. The spring started well with record numbers of eggs but in the summer the numbers fell off far quicker than in previous years. We have to endure an outbreak of fowl pox in August and in December we lost a number of birds to foxes, the first time in 3 years. Laying stopped in October but I'm pleased to report that some of the hens have started laying again after we moved all the chickens to a goat house in December which is bigger and easier to clean than the 5 small hen houses we were previously using.
To add to our woes, the goats managed to eat their way through a large part of our soft fruit crop and we ran out of time to plant some of our vegetable crops.
But there are some good news stories from 2016. Obviously Spot and Spotless fall into that category. We also have 3 freezers full of food, including lots of game which we get in food swaps. The quail laid a huge number of eggs and when we did have hen eggs in abundance, we were able to sell them through a farm shop near to where we live. And we have a vast amount of firewood stored up for future use, the byproduct of feeding branches to the goats - we have managed to get through most of the year without having to buy prepared feed for them.
So, 2016, lots went wrong. But we are ready for 2017, and in my eternally optimistic approach, we have lots of plans and lots to do. Hopefully we will put the setbacks of 2016 behind us, learn the lessons and move on in the year ahead.
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