week 4 spring

I'm sitting here typing with one hand as my horse Manny managed to 'knee me' on my eyebrow by mistake today!  I'm holding a bag of peas on it whilst typing!

Back to this week...Lambing has taken off full tilt so, David, Hilary, Helen (who is now doing Monday mornings instead of Wednesdays, and I collected loads of Ivy first thing - Ivy is an anticeptic, and sheep love eating it - it's especially good after they've lambed, for healing, but also for bringing their milk through.  William and Ben spent the morning doing some running repairs to a wheelbarrow.  There were lots of tasks to do in the lambing sheds, feeding & watering, and then the best bit - giving two lambs a 'bottle' - this is done every four hours or so, as their mother got mastitus (an udder infection) and so has no milk of her own.  PM, Coln House School arrived, with some lovely red onion plants for us - they've gone into some of our 'tyre' planters outside.  They really enjoyed seeing all the lambs, and we all  walked round the field to check for any new arrivals, before we finished for theday.

Wednesday, we had another busy day, mainly based around the lambing shed, and PM, Simon (who's not that keen on parts of the 'lambing',  planted lots more raspberries, in our - soon to be covered with a cage, soft fruit area!

The yurt where Helen & Dave
do their rural skills courses

Thursday - we have been given our first big 'donation'- from Gloucestershire Constabulory...! So, we went off to spend some of it, buying a lovely selection of local fruit trees, from Day's Cottage.  (See link opposite)

Sorry this is sideways...it's a 300 year old Perry Tree
at Helen & Dave Casper's Orchards!

It was lovely to be shown round some of their orchards, and to see how to plant each tree - we now have 2 Pear trees, 7 Apples, and a Damson tree to plant out - these will not start fruiting for another two years or so, but will really add structure to our site - and something to really look after & forward to!  The rest of the donation is going towards our fruit cage for the soft fruit area.  Lots of digging and preparation has been put into this area behind the poly tunnel - so it will be great to see Raspberries in the Autumn (and hopefully Strawberries too) - the other Gooseberries, Blackcurrants, Redcurrants & Wineberries will be another year, as they can't be moved till the autumn (having taken cuttings last year & overwintered them)

All in all a lovely week's work - especially with our beautiful Spring weather! Let's hope it continues...