End Of The Year 2021

 Well that’s another year flown by, 

a wet and windy end to this one, up to our knees in mud, 

Once the rain and drizzle stops we do dry out underfoot fairly quickly, thank goodness.

Christmas Day was quiet and relaxed we headed down the beach with the dogs a friend joined us with her dogs too

Paige and Mia were happy running around making new friends catching up with old ones, Poppy was very scared it’s only been her second trip off the farm and everything is so scary for her.

We took a flask of hot chocolate, some sausage rolls mince pies and this year’s Christmas cake. Newfoundland Cherry cake.

Day after Boxing Day I did spend a little time in the Polytunnel sowing some onion seeds, I did read it was traditional to sow the Boxing Day but I wasn’t feeling up to it, I am sure one day won’t make a difference.

This week we also got the young goats seperated,  the two young bucks needed moving into a new paddock were they will be joined by Elvis in a few days, then the two young does that I plan to breed from next winter will be moved up to the big goat house. Sloshing around in mud is not the best environment to try cleaning down goat houses bringing in fresh straw and hay but we got there. 

The was a bit of verbal objections but they soon settled down.

Last night in a my quest to get rid of one of the freezers, I pulled out 10 pints of stock meat and fish stocks and got them canned up

I had recently bought a cast iron gas ring that I can run off bottled gas, specifically for canning, gives it more control over the temperatures.

So what does 2022 bring.

I will do another post on that as we have a life changing announcement to make.

Hope you all have a good one stay safe and well.

‘‘Twas The Week Before Christmas

 And all is fine, life continues on the smallholding animals still need feeding, feeding changes in winter they need more carbs and calories to help keep them warm, and with the Buffalo shut in there winter quarters we add chopped fodder beet to there daily feed

Martin went and collected a lorry load at the week end , we will proberbly need another two to see us through until they go back out to graze in the spring.

The Buffalo go through two large haylage bales every five days so it’s an expensive time of year feed wise for us along with all the straw for bedding. 

The others all get treats too.

Thanks to a lovely friend .

I have had a couple of rough weeks health wise and it’s put the Christmas preps back a bit, but I did get a bit of a catch up the other day.

In the new year we will be announcing some big changes that are taking place on our smallholding, it’s going to be an exciting 2022 for us.

We have had some lovely weather this past week and took the opportunity while out delivering some Buffalo meat boxes to take Poppy to the beach for the first time, she was very scared but after a while she relaxed a bit but is not ready to be let off her lead.

We have had some fantastic sun rises as well, helps you forget the storms we went through the power cuts and torrential rain.

Got some present wrapping to go and finish, Martin is cooking fish chowder for dinner, fire is lit and the dogs are snoozing all is well in our little world hope all is in yours too.

December Rolls In That Means …….

It’s time to get some Christmas preparations on the way,  

My wreath is up

The dogs have there advent calenders

Christmas is a very low key affair here and we don’t buy into the commercial side of it. It is more of spending some relaxed time together enjoying a few treats that we only have at Christmas, hopefully a picnic on the beach with the dogs and we should have a friend joying us this year.

I didn’t get mice meat made this year so I bought a jar of cheap mincemeat think it cost 37p and turned it into a luxury mincemeat.

There is a video showing how I have done it.

Next up was a favourite that brings back childhood memories and something that has always been associated with Christmas for me. 

Over the coming weeks there are more preparations I have planned, 

Involving luxury Christmas coloured cherries

Christmas coloured chillies 

Straw flowers from the garden.

A tiny bottle of honey flavouring

Along with other projects, Christmas sausages, Christmas trees, sweet treats, cookies, keepsake gift tags and lots more, if you want to follow us along with our seasonal preparations pop on to our YouTube channel and click the subscribe button, you won’t miss any of the videos then. There is a link to the channel up the top right hand side of the blog. 

Here is another video link for you Our 40 hour power cut after storm Arwen hit us. 

Thanks everyone for the well wishes, I am still plodding on there is no change and still waiting to meet with the neurosurgeon .

Selling The Buffalo

 I have mentioned a few times that there are big changes afoot at Stickle Tarn

Our first big change involves the Water Buffalo, 

December 2017 we ventured into keeping Water Buffalo, it’s been a great adventure with lots of highs and lows, these big beasts have become part of the Stickle Tarn Family.

They are placid easy to handle and a great talking point.

So why are we selling.

We have had many discussions and decided as much as we have enjoyed having them around and welcoming new calves seeing them grow and establish themselves in the herd, we cannot continue on this route.

We want to concentrate on rearing for meat so it’s time to find a new home for the breeding side.

Frazier our breeding bull

Petunia in calf along with her young daughter Rosie

Lavender in calf

Lily in calf

Are now looking for a new home.

They will make a great starter herd for some one wanting to get into Water Buffalo they are all used to being handled and friendly and the Mamas are from a original milking herd .

Here is a video showing them all.

We are going to keep the young bulls who are raised for the meat market and our plan is to buy in week old male calves each year and raise them to slaughter weight at 2 years old.

The breeding side takes up land that we need for raising the calves and we only have a limited amount of land we don’t want to intensively rear keeping them shut in, we want the calves to have the best life possible grazing and playing in the fields. We have to winter the buffalo under cover because of there size they do poach the land and it takes time to recover, calves we can leave out in the fields being smaller and lighter at foot. 

If you would like to know more and are interested in a starter herd get in touch, come and meet them. 

This is the first of our exciting changes that we have planned.