Baba Marta Day

Happy Baba Marta Day! This is a 'Martenitsi'

A long time ago in the early years of our togetherness, when we were a bit younger and fitter than now, we were mad keen on ski-ing and went for a few years to Borovets in Bulgaria to get at some real snow in between the dry-slope training sessions in the Medway Towns. Out there we got quite friendly with our instructor (Oggi) and eventually his wife (Zana) and family. We are still in touch with Zana (Hi Zana!) through social media and today we learned of a nice Bulgarian/Balkan tradition, Baba Marta Day, the 1st March. This is another pagan one unrelated to St David, where they celebrate the mythical figure of Baba Marta, or "Grandma March" who comes round bringing the end to a cold Winter and the start of Spring. People exchange and wear cords, wrist bands and little figurines made of red and white twine called 'martenitsi'. More of this later.

The last post brought you the arrival of our own latest signs of Spring, the birth of Polly's twins. These were both ram-lambs, one black and one white, so have been named Ebony and Ivory at the suggestion of one of our internet friends - (Thank you, Ianthe C). These last week's days have been sunny and dry, if a bit chilly, but that gave us a chance to put all 4 lambs onto the front lawn and get some lovely cute pictures. We did not expect the third ewe, Myfanwy to do anything just yet as she was not, from what I could see, 'bagging up' or showing any of our other 'pet' symptoms.

2 more twins, these for Myfanwy. We are now all lambed out.

Well, that just shows how much I know, doesn't it?! We chugged through leap year day half expecting the biggest news to come in human form, with two of our unmarried chums (no names no pack drill) hinting that the lady might do the Leap Year thing of proposing to her man but to no avail this time. Maybe in 2020, you guys? We woke up to a lovely surprise this morning at the end of a very wet, rainy night, the sight of our 3rd ewe, Myfanwy lying down contentedly at one end of the field shelter with a little lamb curled up next to her on either side.

My quick check told me that these were both females, both warm and dry and with nicely full bellies - the contentment was apparently due to an comfortable birth in the dry straw and some quick and efficient suckling of the vital early milk, colostrum. Clever girl(s). Myfanwy had presumably also passed the afterbirth because there was no sign of any hanging around her back end. The lambs are, once again, one dark and one light - we do not seem to be able to do 'proper' white lambs.

Hi-rise nesting for these two chooks, who are
currently laying their eggs 5 feet up my straw
stack. At least they are safe from sheep hooves

I quickly nipped back indoors to wake poor Lizzie with a rather early cup of tea and presented my news. She'd want to know but could then easily drift off back to sleep till a sensible time. How she suffers!

So, we now have 3 ewes and 3 sets of twins - two sets of ewes and one of ram lambs. 9 sheep. It is beginning to look like a flock. We are fortunate that it is not any bigger as we are decidedly short of grass so we are having to supplement feed with the lamb 'crunch' (a mix of grains and molasses) and hay. This has led us to a decision to bring the whole operation round a few months LATER next winter. We will not get the ram in till November, so that we can lamb in April/May rather than Feb/March, by which time, we hope, the grass will have started to move.

Mini-horse Bob

In honour of the day, these two babies have been named Baba and Marta (Baba is the lighter one). My sheep news is, though, not all as happy or good. Remember the small infection which Lily 'caught' after her lambing due, we think, to some small ammount of retained afterbirth? We thought we had cured it with various injections from Vet Aoife and Lily had been as right as rain since, always baa-ing the loudest for food and leading the charge.

Good vigorous ferment still going in the 'hedgerow' wine.

Well this morning she was back in the Doldrums, refusing breakfast and looking downright miserable. She walked OK to the front lawn field with her thriving babies but then spent the day standing, shifting her weight from foot to foot and looking a bit hunched up and not grazing. There was nothing for it but to get back onto the vet who confirmed that Lily still apparently has a bit of that infection and had better receive 2 more doses of the antibiotic, one today and one Friday. Although these are intra-muscular, I now do these myself after Aoife showed me how, so she only has to leave the meds out for me and I collect them.

 (Half) Leg of Dylan

So, this evening, we had a bit of a marathon job shepherding; by our own standards, obviously, not compared to the 'real' shepherds. The weather is forecast to be a bit wild, windy, wet and cold. We had to gather Myfanwy and the new babies up into the hurdle-pen and Polly and her recent twins into the Tígín. All 4 of those babies are still too small to be safe outside. Lily's babies are over 2 weeks old and should, normally, be outside now but with Lily being sick and needing a jab, it was easier to round her up too into the Tígín where Liz could get a firm hold on her shoulders while I stuck a needle into her thigh muscle. I will keep you posted as to how these various dramas play out.

Six inches of good compost goes over the potatoes in the
poly-tunnel raised beds. Feed the soil and the soil will.....

Meanwhile in other news we are suddenly over-run with eggs. We went through early Feb with the girls laying sometimes 1 or two, even no eggs a day. Our poorest week was only 7 eggs. Lots of different chickens, but only one egg each that week. Suddenly everybody came back into lay all at once, often laying in bizarre new places. Some lay on top of a stack of straw bales 5 feet up, one in the pig ark (currently Billy goat house), some in straw down under my tool boxes and workbench and one in the rabbit 'Maternity Unit' (as was).

A batch of 'hedgerow' wine we started was coming up as possibly finished ferment after 3 weeks but must have been chilled because although it is fermenting vigorously now, it is still way too full of sugar to think about 'killing' (stabilizing) it. We will leave that for a few more weeks before we check again. Liz has been asked to help out with another village 'project' but I have been sworn to secrecy as the calling may or may not be the result of someone possibly dropping out. More on this when we know more and when the press 'gag' is lifted.

I have now made contact with the local archery club (Roscommon Archers) and have signed up for a ten week beginner's training course. I am very much looking forward to it, my appetite whetted by pictures in Facebook of the Silverwoods getting on so well down in their club that they have all been out taking part in an outdoor competition and, in some case, have come back with medals for class wins and thirds. More on this, too, when it happens.

Ah well, wish Lily a 'get well soon' and happy thriving growth to all the little kindergarten members. Health too, to the Mums.

Henry and Min Re-United

In a recent post I might have worried you by finishing with a story that one of Henry or Min had gone AWOL at 'bed time' and we'd been out hunting with torches. Well, next morning  the pair were happily and noisily reunited. The missing bird had run for cover into the collection of bikes, cement mixer and other junk in the goose end of that building and kept his/her head down and kept quiet. That explains why the other bird was so contented to be up on the perch alone and also stayed quiet - he/she was presumably well aware of where the hidden bird was keeping quiet. In the morning they just had to each find their separate way to the yard and give each other a load of telling off. Not so silly after all.

Haggis mixture

In the kitchen we wind steadily on towards Christmas and even beyond. Liz converts a huge quantity of lamb "trimmings" (bits like the breast meat which the butcher would normally cut away and discard) and offal (including this year the lung which we specifically asked Ignatius to keep for us for this purpose), into home made haggis mixture. We love our haggis in this family and last year Liz found a recipe where you bake the mix in a baking tray instead of stuffing it into a piece of gut or sheep's stomach, or some kind of plastic 'cover' and it was easily the best haggis we had ever eaten. This probably because it was made with real ingredients instead of 'commercial' heaven knows what, so it is bagless haggis for us in 2014 too.

Hubbard hen at 19 weeks

Our two remaining 'Hubbard' chickens have amazed us over the last month by filling out from the rangey, gangly, big-legged adolescent shaped birds of October, to squared off, filled out, solid chicken-shaped birds now. They are 19 weeks old at this stage so they are approaching the standard 'Point of Lay' age where you'd normally buy them if you wanted them as laying birds, but these ladies are of a fast growing meat breed which the commercial boys would normally be 'finishing' at 100 days or so. Mentor Anne is keeping 2 of hers round to a fully mature age and is going to try a bit of breeding with a La Bresse rooster.

White Hubbard hen

Ours are still here for looser and more "happy chance" reasons. We had gone through a phase of 'harvesting' them, especially the roosters which were getting troublesome, and were finding them dead easy to catch because of their habit of gathering round my feet as I scooped feed from the feed bins, especially if it was raining outside. With just 2 to go, I wanted to 'do' these on the same day so that neither would be left lonely. I never got that chance and then the weather dried up and they stopped doing the under-foot thing. Also, we now had 4 birds in the freezer and needed the space for the lambs, so these two got a stay of execution and are still with us. A living larder, maybe, or perhaps we will see how they do as egg laying birds.

We've now done the run down to Silverwoods, so the lamb is all distributed to its final users. The Silverwoods have pronounced it excellent and, being as loopy as we are, found this lovely piece of lamb based 'tat' during their recent holiday in Bulgaria and thought of us. Fine, elegant tableware, I think you will agree, fit to grace the most elegant Christmas table. We have no idea why the lambs depicted are cuddling tiny teddy bears. Our lambs never had them. Perhaps it is an animal welfare thing?

Castlerea prize draw sign

We finally came to the point here where there was no longer any escaping a job which I'd been putting off and rather dreading, that of slaughtering the young geese for the Christmas table. These geese are now 6 months old and full adult size. Well, we girded our loins and got on with the job this morning with Liz, for her first time, actually getting involved and in (watching) at the kill. It went well, better than I had feared, and the boys (we are sure both these are ganders) met their end quickly, cleanly and with as much respect and as little distress as we like to ensure and they are now hanging in the Tígín awaiting the plucking and dressing job tomorrow. The relief is immense - we are now pretty much through the autumn slaughtering 'campaign' which we appreciate we have to do but cannot claim to enjoy.

There is just the one more goose to 'go', but this is our current parent bird 'Gander', he of the genetic wry-tail abnormality which he is sadly too able to pass on to his sons and daughters, so the plan is to swap him out with an unrelated gander called George who currently lives down the lane with Carolyn of the mini-horses. We get George and we deliver Gander to them but we are currently not sure whether we need to deliver him alive or whether he will be collected and despatched by K-Dub.

Finally today, we loved this Prize Draw sign seen in Castlerea (picture above) where 1st Prize is a Charolais heifer. She looks a lovely big girl from the pictures we have seen and is worth about €1000. You have the option of taking her home if you win, or immediately selling her at the Mart and going home with your money. We were laughing about what we'd do if suddenly presented with a strapping young female beef-cow. We'd have to give it to John Deere Bob to look after. We are not set up for cows' we don't even have a cattle herd number.