North Down Farm Newsletter

News from North Down Farm
17 August 2008 Our ten-month old pedigree Patrick Gloucester Old Spot boar was sold today and we're pleased to say that he's gone off to a good home near Dartmoor. He's a very sociable and chatty pig and he'll be very happy with his new harem. We did a charity Cider'n'Sausage Tasting evening last Friday in Hittisleigh. The cider was provided by a local producer Barney Butterfield from Sandford Orchards and we provided the sausages and everyone had to guess what was in them. (Honey with root ginger, spring onion, apricot, and sun-dried tomato with basil in case you're wondering). It was lots of fun and these flavours were so popular that we will be adding them to our regular repertoire. The recent unseasonable weather brought down most of our rather large peach tree. I had been mulling over how to prune it as it was cascading into the courtyard garden in a rather opulent way. But I didn't get round to it and now it is out of my hands which will teach me. Two pairs of Shetland breeding ewes have also just left us for new homes in a neighbouring village and further afield in Somerset. 12 August 2008 The glorious 12th indeed for us! Persephone Pig had her first litter of piglets early this morning with no fuss. Then Elsie Pig had her first litter of piglets in the middle of the afternoon. Mothers and children are all well tucked up in a lot of straw away from these torrential summer showers. Then Generous Cow had her calf at the same time as Elsie was farrowing. So I mid-wived the pig while Jim mid-wived (mid-husbanded?) the cow. We've named the new bull calf Mustard and he is the last of this year's calves. So all is very well on the farm today. The sheep in the orchard are scoffing up all the windfall apples which they regard as a great treat. They eat them whole, very delicately, and then dribble a lot. The pigs love apples too and eat them in much the same way as sheep only with more vigour, or fewer manners depending on how you look at it. The cattle also get very excited about their apple treats which come in the form of pulp; the by-product of our autumn apple pressing for juice and cider. 11 August 2008 We had a visiting Sparrowhawk in the cider barn who couldn't seem to find his way out. We rang a falconer for advice, duly given but with the cavil that when one got lost in the Barnstaple pannier market recently it took two weeks for it to come down from the apex and find the door. Ours took two days and we enticed him out using bright lights in the dark. The first night we tried this he ignored us completely, asleep on a beam with his head under his wing and wouldn't wake up even for my banging about. He was very handsome indeed and I am glad that he is safely back in the wild. 4 August 2008 We have a pedigree Gloucester Old Spot boar for sale at £150 who was born on the farm in October 2007. He's very friendly and has nice markings and is ready to work. He's a Patrick out of a Star Antoinette sow. We also have some old oak cider barrels for sale at £50 each. 1 August 2008 Marigold Calf made her entrance on the 30 July early in the morning, all wobbly legs and fluffy tail. Only one more cow to calve now and several litters of piglets due any day. Just to prove that it is a small and circular world today we delivered ten Shetland ewes to their new home which is just down the road from where they were born on our old farm on Exmoor. So we know they will thrive there. They are forming a new Shetland flock and will help to renovate some fields that have been long neglected. Shetlands are great foragers and ideally suited to this delicious task. Two little wethers have also just gone to a new home as pet lawn mowers for a hilly paddock. Wethers can be exceptionally friendly and good company if you are looking for pet sheep and don't want to do any breeding. These little chaps were very pretty and their new owner fell in love with them when he came to help us move our hen house. 25 July 2008 We have been making hay this week while the sun shines! First it's cut which makes furrows, then turned several times over the next four days, and finally baled. Farmers are always anxiously watching the sky when harvesting or hay-making. Or in our case glued to the five day weather forecast and satellite pictures on the BBC website. Mind you we are keen weather watchers anyway. I have been keeping a weather diary for years noting not just the weather of the day but which birds are about, or which plants are flowering. We've just got our new second-hand tractor which is proving to be a much better beast for hay making than our old one. 9 July 2008 A little group of pedigree black and brown ewes have just left us to join their new flock in Somerset and one of our young rams, Lysander, will be going to join them at the end of this month. Their nice new owners say that they have settled into their orchard and are munching happily away. I thought I'd mention some of the things we are doing on the farm to recycle, reduce and reuse because we put a lot of effort into it and it is worth while. We now get all our pig feed and bedding straw from a neighbouring farmer who grows it all on his farm. He delivers feed to us in bulk, using reusable one tonne bags, and this has dramatically reduced our plastic feed bag usage to nothing! It also means that our pig feed miles are zero too. We reuse all the livestock mineral lick buckets as water or carrying buckets. We are about to implement a big rain water collection project so that we can divert clean rain water away from the farm yard and muck heap and reuse it. This will also help prevent run-off into the roads and ditches and from there into the rivers which all helps the local wildlife. I have even found a wonderful woman who recycles old woollies into stylish new garments. So my old unworn grey crew neck has been turned into a fabulous silk trimmed cardi. Considering how much time I spend dressed in dirty old farmyard clothes you can understand the lure of a revamped cashmere cardi. Her website says: 'where the lost souls of old jumpers are saved to be reborn into stylish new clothing', a sentiment which I can only agree with. See www.magpieheaven.net I even recycle our breakfast coffee grounds onto my roses! 3 July 2008 We have added two more breeding sows to our expanding herd. Elsie and Petronella were born here on the farm last September. We are able to keep a closed herd and not have to buy in any pigs because we have two unrelated boars. This allows us to have two pig family dynasties and maintain our biosecurity. The next litters will be born in August to Elsie and Persephone, both first time mothers-to-be. They are very different characters. Elsie is the noisiest pig we have ever had and Persephone insists on a pat every time we go past her paddock. I was much entertained last week when I gently blew on Ella Pig's nose from a distance and she blew back much harder! The pigs also have another nose joke involving the water troughs. When not slurping up a drink they like to stick their noses in as far as possible and blow bubbles. 23 June 2008 Busy busy here with shearing the sheep and vaccinating to prevent blue tongue. The sheep all look very elegant and small without their four inch thick fleeces. They are always a much darker colour underneath, so the gingery brown girls now look the colour of cocoa powder and the pale grey ones are now a dark dove grey. I will hand shear a small group in the next week, to keep in practice and because I really enjoy it. The flock is too large for me to do all of them that way. The rams rather enjoy being hand shorn too and Pepperpot, the senior ram, has been known to politely lift his leg when I get to the shoulder socket. 5 June 2008 The twelfth calf of the year was born yesterday afternoon. He's called Walnut and was on his feet and sucking lustily within an hour of his arrival. He's spent most of today dozing in the sunshine among the buttercups. We've been fencing off some more pig paddocks to cater for the growing mob, I mean herd, and also for the fact that our two old ladies, Pris and Evadne, who should know better, decided to tunnel under a fence and eat a hole in the hedge next to the road. They now reside in a paddock where they can't repeat such mischief. We are now producing smoked bacon, ham and gammon as well as the traditional dry-cured varieties. We have been getting a lot of compliments from customers about the fact that it doesn't shrink in the pan! 19 May 2008 We have been weaning piglets and moving pig families into new paddocks. Always a job that requires a lot of planning as little piglets run in every possible direction except the one you want them to, given half a chance. Everything is so exciting to them that they want to experience it all at once. Pigs have no concept of patience and love novelty. George Pig is now in with Ella and Prudence and Pedro Pig has Esmerelda and Persephone for company so the next litters are due in August. Pris and Evadne are having a rest and Esther and Elvira are looking after their recent broods. Jim is growing vegetables in some of the old pig paddocks, nicely dug about by the pigs and then rotovated by Jim. If I could only get the pigs to dig in straight rows I'd make a fortune! Busy doing soil nutrient planning at the moment - the science of making the grass grow as well as possible by using our naturally produced farmyard muck in the right amounts at the right time of year. I started by having a soil analysis done on each field. Then I input these results into formulas and tables to calculate what each field needs. Then I work out what nutrients are in the muck heap and thus I know how much to spread and where next spring. Nature is a wonderful thing. The cows provide the content of the muck heap from being over wintered in the barns. This rots down and gets spread on the fields which helps the grass grow to feed the cows all summer and for cutting hay for winter. Voila! 26 April 2008 Spring is here at last. The orchard is full of apple blossom, the first swallows arrived three days ago, the grass is finally growing and we have turned the cattle out and Elvira Pig had twelve incredibly spotty piglets this morning. 18 April 2008 We have just had our annual RSPCA Freedom Food inspection which we all passed, bipeds and quadrupeds, with flying colours. The inspector was particularly taken with how relaxed our animals are and praised their good condition. Two more calves were born last weekend, Maple and Marmalade who is already licking my hand. 3 April 2008 A busy twelve hour period last night with the arrival of Esther Pig's nine piglets and Blossom Cow's bull calf Chestnut 2. He is the third calf of the year; only eleven more to go. Us midwives are very happy. 26 March 2008 Ginger the Calf was born early this morning; the second of this year's calves. This means that Pablo, the Singlet Piglet, is no longer the youngest animal on the farm, although he is still the smallest, at least for now. Ginger's mum Rowan is a very relaxed and experienced mother so he is getting an excellent start in life. 24 March 2008 We have just waved good-bye to a group of 25 of our Shetland breeding ewes who have gone to their new home in Dorset to form a new flock. We are always pleased that they go to a good home. Quite often the new owners keep in touch and let me know how the girls are doing which I always appreciate. Recent bulletins have been about how friendly the ewes become once they settle into their new farm, and how high one of them in particular can jump! Our neighbours have been telling us how entertained they are by a group of our sheep who have taken to bouncing about on an earth bank which can be seen from the road. Shetlands are just full of pizzazz and character. 15 March 2008 We are introducing a range of delicious ready-meals using our own beef, pork and lamb. These dishes are prepared by hand by us in small batches using the best ingredients to complement our meat. Our first batch of Steak & Ale Pies sold extremely well at this Saturday's market. We used an old recipe with Jim making the beef filling and me making the short crust pastry. Watch out for the forth-coming Beef Curry, Shepherd's Pie, Pork & Apple Casserole and many more. The three week old piglets are growing very quickly and becoming quite cheeky. They get iron and minerals from digging in the soil but this litter has decided that it is more fun to chew the mud off my wellies and get their iron rations that way. 13 March 2008 I was just getting used to the pleasure of some frosty sunrises when the weather changed direction and the storms arrived. There hasn't been much damage to the orchard and those branches that fell off will become a good habitat for insects and fungi. We also leave some decaying wood on the live trees to try and encourage the Noble Chafer Beetle. This rare beetle is very much associated with traditional orchards like ours as they particularly like fruit trees aged between fifty and eighty. We manage the orchard in such a way that we keep the trees healthy while still leaving places for the wildlife. So that heap of rotting logs is meant to be there! 21 February 2008 Prudence Pig had a litter of seven piglets this afternoon; a very civilised time to be born. This is her first litter and she is a very attentive mother and doesn't mind them wobbling over her nose as they explore. One or two of them are already quite adventurous and Prudence calls them back if they go too far. The piglets' ears will take about a week to flop forward into the traditional lop ear position and it takes about five days for their tails to curl up. Pickle the Calf has discovered he has vocal chords, but he is too little to moo properly yet, so he makes a sort of basso profundo bark instead. He's a very bouncy baby. 6 February 2008 There is a new baby at North Down. Duchess Cow had a little bull calf at 9pm last night - the first of the 2008 calves. He's very gangly and pretty and we've named him Pickle. All his aunties took a great interest in the proceedings. But his dad, Erik the Red, just sat in the corner of the barn in a lordly way, unruffled by his newest offspring bumping into him. Much cooing from the bipeds on the farm, I can tell you. I've more or less finished making this year's marmalade to go in out Pork & Marmalade Sausages, unless I can get some more Seville oranges from somewhere. They have been in short supply. Making marmalade is great fun. The whole house becomes steamy and fragrant while a batch is on the go. 31 January 2008 The snowdrops and primroses are flowering. The local peregrine falcon has been perched on a tall tree in the orchard. The sunrises have been spectacular. And so has the rain! This has been a busy but quiet month, mostly spent taking hay and feed to the livestock, with lots of mucking out, and tidying and making plans for when the days are longer and drier. 19 January 2008 We now have a stall at Tedburn St Mary's produce market on the 3rd Saturday of every month. It's a bustling market with lots of different producers and you can get a breakfast buttie and tea, which is always very welcome. The calves are now weaned. There was yelling for a day or two while they all got used to the idea and then they settled down again. We are due to start calving in a couple of weeks with Duchess Cow about to be the first mum of the year. She's a grand old lady of fourteen and she suits her name. 31 December 2007 We are doing practical outdoor jobs this week, like more concreting in the farmyard. I used to say that a Girl Can't Have Too Much Velvet (well, I still do), but now I say a Girl Can't Have Too Much Concrete. It just makes farmyard life so much easier. Happy New Year to one and all! 22 December 2007 The Christmas mail order meat boxes have all arrived safely at their various destinations and we finish the last local meat deliveries tomorrow. So all that remains is wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas from all bipeds and quadrupeds at North Down and maybe scoff a mince pie or two. 18 December 2007 Two of our ten week old Gloucester Old Spot gilts went to their new home in North Somerset this morning where they are going to be kept for breeding. Their pedigree names are Northdown Star Antoinette 26 and 27. In true pig fashion they undid the shoelaces of their new owner, Tracey, before we loaded them for their journey. 16 December 2007 At last I have found time to add the new Apple Juice page to the website. We have been beavering away pressing and bottling. People are being very complimentary about it and then ordering it by the case! These short December days are always busy with outdoor jobs as we cram everything in before the daylight goes; including taking hay and clean bedding to the housed cattle, feeding the pigs and doing the daily rounds of checking on the sheep etc. Mucking out the cattle barn is completely different to putting new straw into the pig arks. We move the cows to one side of the barn and muck that out with the tractor and the cows all stand still and watch. Then we repeat on the other side. Taking clean straw to the pigs involves bribery because as soon as they see you going into one of their arks they want to come in with you and see what you are up to and maybe help out. Piglets help out by chewing my trousers. The big pigs help out by trying to spread straw for me before I've emptied it out of the carrying sack. This can be very entertaining but it gets a bit crowded with several bustling housekeeping pigs helping to make their duvets. I have found that the answer is to give them a swede each, or a handful of apples, to keep them occupied until I have finished. Then they can make as many changes to their domestic arrangements as they like without tripping me up or blocking the doorway. 27 November 2007 Christmas is coming and we've been doing some seasonal markets which are always good fun. We are making free local deliveries of meat on 22-23 December for orders taken before then. Why not try a Whole Ham or a roasted Gammon Joint glazed with honey and cloves as an alternative to turkey. And if you do want a traditional turkey then why not try wrapping our Christmas chipolatas in our dry-cured bacon as an accompaniment or make stuffing with our sausage meat. I've updated all the meat price lists and added some new serving suggestions. I am often asked why I haven't any meat recipes on the website - lack of space really. But I will be happy to send you some if you email me. The cows and calves are now housed in the barn for the winter. We did a big re-design of the hay racks which gives the cattle more space. I know I say this every year but working in the barn with the cattle is always a very enjoyable experience. The cows are very peaceful and the mixture of the smell of hay and cattle breath is wonderful. 14 November 2007 We sold six more Shetland breeding ewes today, all with very pretty markings and colours. They have gone to the same farm that recently bought one of our pedigree Shetland rams. Their new owner also has some Jacob ewes and was wondering if the lambs from a Shetland ram and a Jacob ewe would be Shacobs or Jetlands! The apple juice sold very well at last week's market which was very good. We will be pressing for a batch of cider in the next few days. And I have finally found the hole in our leaking pond. Typically, it was very near the bottom just to make doing the repair simple, haha. The fish have been temporarily housed in an unused long cattle trough, not near any cattle I hasten to add. Having said that, it is common for farmers to put goldfish into cattle drinking troughs to keep them clean. I have never tried this but apparently the cows don't eat them! 8 November 2007 Another little group of Shetland ewes has gone off to their new home today where they will join some goats and pigs on a North Somerset small holding and be very well looked after, from the sound of things. Spent the afternoon designing labels for the apple juice bottles which is harder than you might think. Just when is a design finished, that's what I want to know. 6 November 2007 A busy week so far and it's only Tuesday. Jim has been on a sausage making course and we've done our first autumn pressing and bottling of apple juice for sale from the farm and at markets. There are several stages to this starting with gathering and washing the apples. Then we pulp them and press them and pour the resulting juice into large containers to settle. Next we tap the juice off into bottles which we then pasteurise with our whizzy new machine. Our old orchard is proving to be very productive this year. Its bumper crop is being shared by us and a flock of fieldfares who have arrived for the winter from Scandinavia. They are large, colourful birds, both noisy and gregarious, and great fun to watch in the apple trees. The orchard is also feeding some grey squirrels who have been bouncing across my lawn clutching whole apples to their chests. The farm cat has just decided to insert her purry self between me and the keyboard so any speeling mistakes are hers.	Patrick, our young pedigree boar, has now gone to father piglets at his new home Elsie Pig's eight new daughters play under their heat lamp Persephone Pig has just had her first litter Flying Sparrowhawk courtesy of the RSPB website Northdown Patrick 25 - who is for sale as a pedigree breeding boar
	Furrows from the first stage of hay making Recycling wool in the most stylish way at Magpie Heaven Before shearing After shearing Clover gives Walnut a quick bath Walnut Calf at 14 hours of age
	Prudence in her new paddock Elvira's 12 piglets catching some rays
	This was meant to be a photo of the two newest calves, Maple and Marmalade, but their mums had other ideas. Jack the Hat, father of some the ewes who have just moved to Dorset
	Kandinsky Sheep thinks the pigs' breakfast shouldn't just be for pigs
	Early morning on the farm
	Prudence Pig with her seven new piglets Duchess and her day old calf, Pickle
	January primroses
	Merry Christmas from us First we help make the bed..... .....And then we lie in it
	Breakfast in the barn
	100% apple juice from our orchard A fieldfare - drawing courtesy of the RSPB website
21 October 2007 We will be producing Gloucester Old Spot BACON, HAM & GAMMON from the beginning of November. We are now taking meat orders for Christmas. We moved family groups of pigs around today which is always an amusing mixture of chaos and order. The old saying about herding cats should really be about herding piglets. They all go in different directions at once with their ears flapping, are impossible to keep up with, stop to eat grass and then to greet neighbouring pigs through the fence etc etc. The thing about moving piglets is to plan properly before you move them. With a race made of fencing and gates we can at least keep them in a corridor that eventually leads to their new paddock, when they decide they are finally ready to go into it. Their mothers are much easier to move and will follow a bucket of barley to the ends of the earth. Having got to the ends of the earth, ie. their new paddock, they will suddenly remember that they have piglets and call for them, eat a bit of barley, call again, eat some more, and then come looking for their wayward offspring. By that time we have usually got them all in with mum and order is restored. 14 October 2007 We have now sold our handsome grey pedigree ram and he has gone to his new home on the edge of the Blackdown Hills, together with a pair of twin breeding ewes. We still have two brown pedigree Shetland rams for sale (price £70 each) as well as three Shetland rams we are keeping; Pepperpot who is retired and Benson and Jack the Hat who are still working. 7 October 2007 Two more little ewe lambs, (brown ones this time, called Sugar and Spice), went to join Marilyn and Gloria as pet lawn mowers across the valley. Their new home comes with very kind bipeds who are already lavishing affection and a daily handful of sheep nut treats on their new flock of four. Guaranteed to get a Shetland Sheep to eat out of your hand! 6 October 2007 A busy day today. In the morning we had a stall at Yeoford's first local produce market, held at The Mare & Foal, outside in the glorious autumn sunshine. There were lots of yummy things to buy and it was very well attended. Late in the evening Elvira Pig farrowed nine piglets; her largest litter yet. Falling asleep over a cup of tea at one in the morning we felt we'd had a very good day.	Bruno and Lysander. Our two pedigree, Moorit-coloured Shetland rams who are for sale as breeding rams Eating out of your hand or possibly your hoof
25 September 2007 Lots of new photos on the Photos page. 20 September 2007 Our next lot of Devon Ruby Beef is now ready, after being hung for three weeks. You can buy it direct from the farm, at various produce markets and by mail order. Please see the How To Buy page for details of this and the Beef page for a price list. The lambs have been weaned and with remarkably little yelling for their mothers. I think this shows they are now past the naughty teenager stage and are ready for their gap-year independence. Two of the little black ewe lambs, Marilyn and Gloria, are soon going to move to a new home across the valley where they will be spoiled rotten in return for becoming pet lawn mowers. The swallows left for the sunnier south on the 17th but the house martins are still here zipping about like little spitfire planes. We're having another bumper apple crop this autumn, despite the peculiar summer weather. Cider and apple juice making here we come.... 9 September 2007 The pigs in the most recent litter on the farm are always known as The Littlest Pigs. So this means that the group previously known as that needs a new collective name. Well, they provided themselves with that today when they decided to push over another fence post and go walkabout for the second time. They are now affectionately known as The Seven Pigs of the Apocalypse and I've added some very affectionate photos of them on them to the Photos Page - including one of them giving me an unexpected kiss. Our new farm signs have arrived and been put up outside the gate and on the back of the car. We based the design on the website font and colours and we like the results. 1 September 2007 Esther Pig had her piglets at 1am this morning: three boys and two girls. They are the most vociferous litter we have ever had and were incredibly squeaky as they tottered off to explore the farrowing sty. Esther grunted back at them so they could navigate back to her (with a bit of human help). One of the reasons our sows come indoors to farrow is because very new piglets can wander off into the outside darkness and not find their way back to mum. This is Esther's first litter and she's a very proud mother. We're very proud of her too. We are helping to set up a new local produce market in our village of Yeoford. It will start on the first Saturday of October and then every first Saturday of the month after that, from 10am to 12 noon, at the Mare & Foal. There will be all sorts of produce stalls, including our beef, pork and lamb, locally grown vegetables and plants, locally produced milk, cheese and eggs, fish, bread, home made cakes and ready meals. You will also be able to get the newspapers, tea, coffee, a bacon buttie and a chat. We hope to see you there! All the winter hay and straw is stacked in the barn now. What a relief! It's been a race against time and the poor weather this year to get everything cut and baled before the days become short and wet again. We are very grateful to our good neighbours the Burrows for providing the machinery and doing all the hard work.	We're looking forward to making some cider and apple juice One of the new farm signs Four of the new piglets. The fifth one was chewing my foot at the time of the photo
18 August 2007 This is a relatively quiet time for us in the farming calendar. The next major livestock job will be weaning the lambs at the end of the month and then things won't be quiet either literally or figuratively! We are preparing for the autumn and winter, getting in all the winter hay and bedding straw, cleaning the barns, repairing guttering and getting all the gates and feed racks in the right place for when the cows come in. We've done some remedial fencing in The Littlest Pigs' paddock because they were trying to burrow under into the four biggest pigs' paddock and pop up to say hello. And there would have been Big Trouble if that had happened. Evadne Pig is old and short sighted and doesn't want to be pestered by the equivalent of other people's children. The littlest pigs rolled Jim's fence posts away and one made off with his hammer. So no change there. Esther Pig is due to farrow in just over a week and is beginning to demonstrate a beautiful low-slung undercarriage. She will come indoors into her farrowing sty next week so that she can bustle about undisturbed and make her nest and get settled before the piglets arrive.	I know China is down there somewhere
27 July 2007 We have a breed society approved pedigree Shetland Ram for sale. He's a 4 year old, friendly, handsome Grey Katmoget with an excellent fleece and a proven track record of siring good lambs. We're selling him only because he is now too closely related to our flock. His price is £75. We also have some pedigree ewes and lambs for sale. 18 July 2007 Our mail order service is now up and running and we've just sent off several orders to London and Canterbury. Mail order costs £8.00 for up to 15kg, or free if your order is over £100, and our courier does next day delivery. You can choose what to have in your meat box and you can mix and match from our Beef, Lamb & Mutton and Pork. 6 July 2007 Our Devon Ruby Beef will be available from 12/7/07 and we are taking advance orders. Please see our Beef Price List on our Beef Page and email or telephone us if you are interested. We are also setting up mail order so that's quite exciting. All the animals are fine if a bit fed up with this windy, rainy weather. They sensibly tuck themselves into the hedges. The new hens finally came out of the hen house after about a week of peeping away quietly to themselves inside. They are growing well but still too little to lay eggs. It took them a while to realise that sheep are inherently friendly and not hide away every time they saw one. They aren't so sure about humans though and think I am deeply scary. We've taken up bell ringing. One minute you're at your yoga class and the next your teacher has got you into a bell tower. It's huge fun and much, much harder than it looks - not so much in the exertion involved but in the control of the rope and sally. Amazingly it is true that the rope can take you upwards and onwards if you aren't careful.	Our handsome grey Katmoget-patterned ram, who has won approved status from the Shetland Sheep Society Sensimilia Sheep looking pretty under a hedge among the cow parsley
28 June 2007 Bran, the 11th and last of this year's calves arrived in the early hours this morning. He's not sure what all this rain is for but Marigold, his mum, is keeping a protective weather eye out for him and he's doing very well. Our young bull, Erik the Red, is 'in with his wimmin' now and is happily squiring his girls around the field. He has been bellowing with joy and the cows are just as happy. Cows really like being pregnant and having a family. 11 June 2007 Today we brought home a little flock of Welsummer hens that were bred at the Devon Traditional Breed Centre in Crediton. Welsummers are beautiful, golden-brown birds that originated in the Dutch village of Welsum over 100 years ago. We really like these neat, alert, active hens and not just because they lay dark brown speckled eggs. They peep and warble away to themselves. I always think a hen looks like a stately galleon under full sail. 3 June 2007 Fancy Cow calved a pretty heifer last Friday evening. We've named her Brioche (see 21 May) and she's gorgeous. Her mum is booming proudly at her like a soft foghorn. We weaned Elvira's piglets yesterday. They don't seem to mind not having their mum about but Elvira is very grumpy and will be for another day or so until she gets over it. Some of these boar piglets are for sale as weaners or breeding stock. 1 June 2007 I have finished the farm website revamp and here it is.	One of our Welsummer hens calculates her flight path
26 May 2007 Our second time at Bow Farmers Market. We made a new sausage this month - Pork with Breakfast Marmalade (with our home-made marmalade) which went down very well. 25 May 2007 With the help of a friend we sheared 110 of the sheep today. They got the red carpet treatment. This protects them from the ground while they are being shorn. This is always an enjoyable job because the fleeces smell so nice and the sheep are usually very happy to be cooler without a 4-inch deep coat of wool. The lanolin in the wool also makes your hands very soft. 21 May 2007 Nine of the eleven calves have been born to date: Bruin, Brimstone, Bracken, Brandy Brightness, Branstone, Briar, Bramble and Brinjal. I am giving all of this year's calves red/brown names that begin with the letters 'Br'. Well, Brightness might be stretching it a bit, but it was a very sunny day when she was born and it is a very old and traditional name for a Devon Ruby cow. Last year all the calves got red/brown names that could begin with anything and the year before that they all began with 'Sp'. So you can see how my mind is working. 1 May 2007 Lambing has now finished with the last twins born at the end of April. We have 47 very bouncy little squeakers running about. The glorious sunny weather has given them all a great start in life and they are already getting up to mischief. Pulling down the zip of my jacket is the latest new game closely followed by pulling pieces of paper out of my notebook....	The shearing pen Brimstone Calf
April 2007 Elvira Pig had her third litter of piglets on Easter Monday - seven boys. They are growing very fast. Sometimes I look at them during the evening rounds and think 'you weren't that big this morning'. They still like to do everything together in a tangle of spots and tails. We have just bought two more pedigree gilts that we've named Ella and Prudence and they are from a pedigree herd in Gloucestershire. That gives us four young breeding sows, plus Evadne and Pris, our old girls who are now enjoying a happy retirement. This is a very busy time of year with lambing and calving and mucking out and feeding etc. Things will start to calm down a bit once all the babies have been born. An important element of my lambing kit is home-made cake - essential for when you come back indoors at odd times of the day or night.	The Easter Monday piglets
March 2007 We've started calving. Blossom Cow was the first to become a mum in the early hours of 5 March. She is an old hand at motherhood and produces very relaxed and friendly calves who like a pat and the chance to give you a lick. We've named the baby Bruin and he's has just discovered that he can go backwards as well as forwards but he hasn't quite got the hang of not doing them both together. The pregnant ewes are now barrel-shaped and the first timers are wondering what happened to their waistlines. We are expecting the patter of tiny hooves from the last week in March onwards. We have just got a new digital camera and every single animal that we photographed tried to eat it.	Miss-Moss tries to eat the camera
February 2007 We are having an unusually mild winter - the blackthorn is already flowering in one of our most sheltered fields - 4 months early! The woodpeckers are drumming in the oak trees and I've been greatly enjoying the huge flocks of starlings and field fares that have been sitting about in the orchard, chattering away. The cattle are still housed in the barns as the ground is too wet for them, although the yearlings will be turned out to pasture by the end of the month. The cows are very peaceful in the barns. They like to watch us working. Although Bruno Cow took this to extremes and decided to walk down the middle of the hay feeder to see what was going on and then decided that he had forgotten how to go backwards. As the hay feeder is 15 feet long, made of metal and very heavy, a weight vastly increased by Bruno's own half tonne weight, you can imagine that getting him out wasn't simple. I had to take the hay feeder to bits! Once he was back on terra firma, none the worse for his experience, he completely ignored my lecture on bovine behaviour and tried to eat my jacket.	A mild winter sunrise at the farm
January 2007 We had a peaceful Christmas at North Down if you don't count 15 ewes escaping through a hedge on Boxing Day and legging it down the road as far as the village pub, no doubt in search of some festive eggnog. The ringleader was Cumin, who is one of the 'usual suspects' when it comes to pushing the boundaries........Fortunately, we have very nice neighbours who not only told us where they had seen our sheepy revellers but helped us herd them safely back home.	The usual suspects misbehaving
December 2006 The cows and calves are now housed in the barn for the winter. Working in the barn when the cows are in is always a very peaceful experience. They are very gentle company and the smells of their hay and breath is lovely. The calves were weaned in early December. They are separated from their mums by a metal rail which allows the mothers to still see and smell them. And in some cases lean over the rail and give them a quick wash behind the ears with a rough tongue.	The usual suspects misbehaving
November 2006 I saw a stoat in our car park the other day. This was quite exciting as they tend to be very elusive. They are very curious animals but dive for cover if startled. When it saw me it shot under my car. I'm told that if you stay still and quiet they will soon come out again for a better look at you. It's quite hard to tell a stoat from a weasel. The difference is that stoats are slightly larger than weasels and have black tips on their tails. But you have to be quick to spot this because they move so fast. My sister says it's easy - "weasels are weasely recognised and stoats are stoatally different"!	North Down Farm wildlife - only joking!
October 2006 We have taken a stall at Hittisleigh farmers market (2nd Saturday of every month). It's a very sociable market where you can get a breakfast bacon buttie as well as veg, home made cakes, cheese, not to mention our meat and sausage. We produced our first ever mutton which we sold to a 3 rosette restaurant called 'Andrews on the Weir' in North Devon. All the quadrupeds of North Down Farm, except for the pigs, have just learned how to cross the road. Some of our livestock have never even seen a road before let alone had to cross one to reach a new field. Moving livestock when you don't have a dog is all a question of thinking like a cow or a sheep and bribing them with an edible treat.	Just as well you don't have to move us across the road
September 2006 We moved to North Down Farm from a hill farm on Exmoor, with all of our sheep, pigs and cattle. They all settled in very quickly but we're still unpacking! Elvira Pig had her second litter of piglets a week after we arrived, giving us plenty of time to get her farrowing sty all ready and comfortable. When the piglets are a little bigger and a bit braver the new family will be moved to a larger outdoor area. The piglets are eating and sleeping a lot and scuffling about in a higgledy-piggledy heap of spots, ears and tails.	We're settling in