Was a busy day for me today. Dug holes and planted over 50 cloves of garlic. Every single one of them had better grow into a head of garlic as big as my head !! It was a lot of work, and then I covered the whole bed with a foot deep layer of old hay as a mulch. Anni and Lisa were lying on the other side of the fence, while Maddie settled down in the gateway to the pasture while I worked. Threw all the huge clumps of weed roots over the fence where Anni was catching them. She always 'helps' me with my outside work. Had to stop Lisa from digging another hole. When I say no, she flops down on top of the hole, hiding it, then gives me that "didn't do nuttin, mum" look :). Rosco was running around too. The weather was cool and cloudy, but even although the ground was wet from the last few days rain, I was able to get it all done, just getting dirty, or rather, earthy, not wet.

Tomorrow I plan on planting the various bulbs I bought, as well as the blueberry bushes, fruit trees and the flowering shrubs that have survived Lisas' attentions !

i also picked up all the branches out of the sheeps' enclosure, gave them a protein / mineral block, put out a mineral block for the cows after putting a protein / mineral and salt block for the Jerseys yesterday.

The girls gave me just over 4 gallons this morning. Would have loved them to have done that yesterday so that Teri could get some ! I actually finished all the milk I had in the fridge for Maddie too. Today I gave her a little still-warm, fresh fresh milk - she was surprised, but loved it. I've always given her cold-from-the-fridge milk after melting the feeding bottle and coagulating the first few lots of colostrum I tried to give her when she just arrived on the farm early May. She used to shiver like crazy after each feeding :).

Didn't tie Lisa up last night, a little frustrated with all the mayhem she does in the garage. And this morning, Hershey had blood around his neck again, so think she is actually biting him as he protects his girls. So fixing sheep fencing is also on the agenda for tomorrow, plus I have to order corn from the feed-mill and fo fetch it after Herb gets home from work. Think he also wants to go get the deer-hole in the truck looked at after the insurance guy looked at it.

I just called for the cows while I was in the berry patch finishing up the garlic - and they came ! Running ! At least the Scottish Highlands did. The Jerseys not so eager. Then to get them out the pastures, I went and fetched the grain bucket, mainly with sunflower seeds as the corn level is really low.

Well, busy day tomorrow too, so goodnight :)

It's started :(. The cold, white stuff is falling. The sheep and cows aren't happy, bawling at me.

Turned the heat up in the house by 5 degrees to 69 F, eating pizza I made yesterday - onions, green pepper, mushrooms, marinated artichokes, calamata olives and anchovies, with the cheese, blue and parmesan, added after taking it out the oven.

So this is what I'm doing :)
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Made Herbie his own pizza, my own-made Sweet Italian Sausage bits, with onions, green pepper and mushrooms, one of his favourites.

Maddie has tucked herself up against the house behind one of the butterfly bushes. Invited her into the garage, so she came and ate some dog food, but then chose to return to her new spot outside. Her first encounter with snow. Wish I had my phone with me outside to snap her with snow on her head and back, looking rather dashing with her luminous orange bandana.

Yesterday, when Manda came to collect their milk, she and Miriam helped me deworm the sheep. Or rather, they handed me the syringe and meds once I'd caught the targeted sheep, and had a good laugh :). But I couldn't have done it without them. Thanks girls :). Hershey has had something going on around his ears, and although I chucked some pour-on on him over a week ago, and later added some of the sheep meds to a grain bucket which they all had some, it wasn't enough for his 200lbs odd weight. Had to catch him and administer it with the drenching bulb syringe 2 of the sheep didn't need meds, and I couldn't catch 2, Rose and Ruthie, although neither look as if their body condition is compromised. I'll keep an eye on them. Hershey has lost a bit of weight, so hopefully this gets rid of his excess parasite load. But I don't know if some of his head issues are being caused by Lisa. She goes into their enclosure whenever she's not supervised and torments the sheep, and he stands protection between her and his girls. The little ewe lamb has a tender back leg, think Hershey hurt her in trying to mount her. Bloody ram. She is too little, and his daughter, but being the only little one, I don't want to separate her out by herself, although I have considered it. Maybe put Maddie with her in the lower barn enclosure, but the deer can pass additional parasites to the sheep, so I'm hesitant. Gave her meds last week as I could catch her, and she's starting to put a little weight on the leg, that's a good sign.

Daisy May and Eleanor are being pretty good at coming up to the barn every evening, then I either milk them in the morning, or just take them back to their calves in the pasture if I don't need the milk. Dolly has accepted that she can't come up to the barn. I'm starting to look at dates to take her to butcher. Taxes, her 1/2 Scottish Highland boy calf is nearly 6-months old, so doesn't need to nurse anymore. I would like a little more meat on her. Maybe I should bring her up to the barn with the others and give her a beet with molasses ration, but no grain to up her milk production.

See we we are having a mole / vole issue again. There are earth mounds popping up on the back lawn, and Lisa is digging holes trying to get at them. I shout at her as we don't need anymore damage to the little grass we have left. She knows she's not supposed to dig, I've been stopping her doing it in the pasture for a few months already, and she drops down on top of the hole effectively covering all the evidence when I do catch her. Border Collies are such clever dogs.

The new chickens have seemingly integrated well with the rest of mine, although the little fluffy white silkie has partnered up with one of my Buff Brahma roosters who's 3 x her size. Suppose nature calls for her to find the largest, strongest male to be her chickie daddy.

Looking at all my weather forecasts, I'll be planting the garlic on Wednesday. I ran out of time yesterday, there was enough to actually plant the garlic, but not enough to mulch it, and with the coming snow, I didn't think I should do the one without the other. Did get a bit of deep house cleaning done, including the kitchen counter and the vacuuming. Had to schlepp the vacuum cleaner upstairs to get the grain on our bedroom floor. Have (had?) a rather determined mouse trying to store grain in the laundry baskets in the basement. First with the clean laundry, therefore the grain in our bedroom, and then in with the dirty laundry. Hopefully the poison trap I put out sorted that problem. Haven't seen recent signs of mouse activity in the kitchen, so maybe they moved to the basement where they found my veggie seed stash.

The wind howled last night, all night. Didn't want to leave my warm bed this morning. The sun sets just after 5pm these days, so I need to watch for when the cows come up so that I can move the milking girls to the barn enclosure.

It's crisp this morning, but no frost. 1st snow is forecast in the next few days, but it's moved from tomorrow to Monday in the last one I saw.

The berry garden is weedy whacked and roto-tilled !!! Now to plant the garlic and potatoes and mulch them with that pile of old hay in the back yard. Counted 22 asparagus plants, so 7 are missing, and only 4 blueberries, but found some hard stalks close to the ground so may have weedy whacked up to 3 :(. I thought I marked them all before starting, but maybe not. There weren't any lavenders, and only 1 of the 2 berry bushes I planted made it. Think the Jostaberry. The other one had a burrow hole so think some critter got it. I whacked the strawberry patch down too. Still need to re-string the grape supports, clear around them and check for shape. Didn't pick any grapes, but then as Maddie chose the berry garden as her refuge, I didn't go into it much and it was overgrown. Also want to put the chicken shit on the asparagus and around the blueberries. While I was busy on the tractor, Gabriel attacked the 1 large blackberry stem that was reaching into the veggie garden and snapped it off, then tried to eat it ! OK, time for a fresh hay bale.

Gabriel is being a pain. He's making a huge racket again, and when I delivered a new hay bale to him yesterday, he waited until my back was turned before attacking it. Can see him breaking the other bale holder before I've fixed the previous one he took apart. Seems only the one without the side bars may last with him. It may stem back to when he broke his horn tip fighting with one when he was young. He does stop when I shout at him and run towards him. Maybe he just likes my reaction.

Well, off to milk, feed beasties, get the first load of washing in, etc etc, lots to do today.

It came a day later than I thought, but woke to our first frost this morning. Also cows on the back lawn ! Damn Taylor, the black pure-bred Scottish Highland calf. She sees the electric fences as obstacle courses to tackle and get through. I opened the gate for her and Seasaidh, but she chose to go through the fence instead. Can't blame her for being very wary of me, she was the one with the flystrike when she was a few days old, and I had to put the meds on her, which involved a bit of chasing and creeping up on her, and as we've learnt, cows have elephant-like memories.

Last night I managed to separate Gabriel from the cows, except Daisy May who was on heat, so Oliver had the other girls to himself. Gabriel probably nailed her, but still hoping that she'll have a pure Jersey calf instead of a mix, and if it's a mix, please be a boy. At sunset I took the bell grain bucket out, dragged the feed bunk from the chicken yard back to the main pasture, then went towards the cows ringing the bell. JuneBug was nursing on Daisy May far out in the field, so I had to ring and call, ring and call for her, meanwhile fending off all the others from attacking the grain bucket :) especially Dolly. With Gabriel bellowing in the other pasture, keeping up with the girls. A little different from this morning, crunching through the ice covered grass, calling the girls to follow me to the other side of the hayfield. Should of taken the bucket this morning, but thought they'd follow. Think I need to separate the 2 boy calves, Taxes and IRS, from the girls too, put them in with Gabriel. But then I'll have to milk every day, whilst I much prefer this 3-days a week schedule. Once Daisy May is not on heat anymore, put him in with the other boys as well. Then, when Seasaidh comes on heat again, bring Gabriel back in with the girls, then when Daisy May comes on heat, put Oliver in with them. That's the plan, in any case :).

I managed to harvest and dehydrate all the herbs before the frost, had to string up some of the nettles in the dining room as both dehydrators were full. Did basil, sage, parsley, comfrey and the stinging nettles. Wore my leather gloves to handle them, believe they don't sting anymore once they're dried, but I'm cagey about it. Looking forward to my first mug of nettle tea though. Getting back into doing my aromatherapy and herbal tinctures and potions.

Need some help in administering a dewormer to Hershey as he's too big for me to handle by myself. I did some pour-on a week or so ago as he seemed to have a infestation of sorts but think I'll do a general sheep dewormer now. His ears still look a little ratty but his neck seems better.

Got a few more chickens and roosters earlier this week, a friend of "Soup" Amy needed to rehome them as she's just been diagnosed with cancer. And she's soo young :(. I didn't realise that there were so many, Lori held the torch while I caught the birds off their roosts and put them in the dog crate - my hospital :). It was so heavy that I couldn't lift it by myself, so Lori helped. Put them in the back of the truck and while driving home in the dark, realised I wouldn't be able to lift them out by myself. No problem, I just opened the cage and carried them 3 at a time to the chicken house until there were about 6 left which I could manage. They included 3 white silkies, think 2 boys and a girl :) nice to have silkies on the farm again, and maybe one of the boys will fertilise the little Serema banty too. Good to introduce new chickens at night, but I've still seen some pecking order tussles between the new and old roosters. At night they are all in the chicken house, huddled together. Now they just need to learn the call for feeding time. Seeing that the cows are back in the pasture, I think I should get the ducks and geese back to sleeping in the chicken yard at night. The pond will freeze soon, so they need to be back up here.

Lisa has been terrorising the sheep, and I can't seem to patch the holes in the fence quicker than she makes them, so I've been tieing her up in the garage at night. She's adapted to it rather well, comes when I call her. Just still working on her chewing things. So far, she's destroyed the cold-hardy fig tree, the red raspberry, a few lavenders, both hostas, chewed the mallet, took some seed packets apart, chewed the brand new polystyrene tap protector into pieces, had a go at the fire extinguisher in it's box, covered the garage floor in egg carton pieces, unfortunately mainly ones that had my farm label :(. And today I found a broken temporary fence post I was keeping to mark the position of the asparagus down by the lower barn enclosure. Don't know what she did with the 2nd one and still haven't found the wooden ladle I used to mix Dollys' ration. I've since been using a weeding fork.

Rosco has been eating a deer in the woods, seen him going past the window with a leg in his mouth. Today he brought the head / neck up to the house, a 6-point buck ! Wonder who shot him and didn't get him. Must say, hunting season is always good to Rosco. But he won't eat raw meat that I put in his bowl ! Anni and Lisa clean up after he abandons it.

Slowly but surely I've been working through my to-do lists. Need to fix the auto waterer the cows ripped off the one water trough last night. Always something new to add to the list. It's never ending.

Put a fresh bale of hay in the lower barn enclosure this evening, but couldn't get Daisy May and Eleanor to follow me to it. I eventually gave up, they'll have to find it on their own. They'd better give me at least 2-gallons tomorrow morning. It was fairly easy as I cut the branches back, including the one that broke my nose. Used the pole saw :). Fairly proud of myself.

The brownies that Jackie made for dessert, were absolutely scrumptious. Thank you Jackie :)

I was a little late in completing lunch, even although I started at 9am ! Cut the veggies and popped it all into the oven before I went down to milk. Herbie came home from work and fed the dogs, cats, poultry and gave grain to the sheep, so I just had to give the sheep their hay, and feed Dolly and Taxes while JuneBug, IRS and Saffron nursed after milking. Once the milk was poured and put in the fridge, I went to open the hayfield to the cows. Double checked that the fencer light was flashing, check - the deer hadn't broken any fences out back, then walked to the barbed-wire pasture where the Jerseys and Seasaidh and their calves were eating, and called them to follow me. Dolly was right behind me, with all the rest trailing us, even Saffron. There was some slow-down going through the back pasture which had been closed for a few weeks, but when they realised I was going into the hayfield, there was a rush. Only JuneBug and Saffron missed the gate, and started down the back pasture. The Scottish Highlands weren't that keen to cross into the higher grass ! Gabriel went first, with Little Red close behind but when I looked again, Gabriel was back in the main pasture with the 2 heifer calves while Immanuelle and Oliver (our Jersey bull) were munching in the hayfield. I crossed into the back pasture to shoo the 2 calves into the hayfield, and turned to see Little Red running down to join the other cows ! Damn, she'd run through my temporary fence ! I'd spent the last 3 days checking the perimeter fence, fixing it where the deer had pulled it down, removing the grass and weeds growing over the bottom wire, and setting up a center dividing fence so that the Jerseys and Scottish Highlands would still be separate but all being able to graze the hayfield.

I walked the line to see where it was broken, had to walk it 3 times as the far end gate handle was pulled loose, so had to return to the other end to disattach that handle so that I could handle the electric wire, then walked back to reattach the far end, which didn't reach so had to return to move the handle to give me more length, and then walk back again ! So got all my walking in today. Tried to chase Gabriel and his 2 daughters, Coco and Taylor, into the hayfield, but nope, they weren't crossing into the deeper grass. I was hot and sweaty, but returned to the house to peel the potatoes, clear the dining room table, set the table. The Philips arrived before I was finished, although the chicken was smelling good having been in the oven for 1½ hours already. Jackie helped make the salad, I put peas on to cook and made the gravy after putting the potatoes through the ricer and finishing the mashed potatoes, and then we cleared and set the table. Called "soup" and the guys came in from the lounge. Lunch was good, think we all ate too much, and after a little sit and chat in the lounge, decided to go look at the cows as a bit of a walk after lunch. Well, Gabriel was still in the main pasture, bellowing for the other cows, although his girls weren't there with him anymore. But all the cows were together on the far side of the Jerseys' side ! I took them out there during the day so that they could see where the fence was, and Immanuelle, Oliver and the 2 calves had run through to join Little Red and the other cows. Herbie stayed by the trailer waiting for Gary while Jackie walked out with me to fix the fence. They'd actually snapped 2 fence posts at ground level ! So a few more times walking the fence for me, to check if / where they'd broken it. Only snapped the electric line in one place, so tied it back together, found the broken stakes in the ground. All the cows, calves and the Jersey bull together, with the Scottish Highland bull on his own. Oh well, when I bring the calves into the chicken yard for the evening, I'll re-sort them into the correct pastures.

As Gary and Jackie were leaving, I called for Maddie and she came to see us. Gary enjoyed scratching her and Jackie tried to take a photo of Maddie licking my neck, but bu the time she had her phone ready, Maddie was finished licking me and didn't want to anymore. Gary was amazed that Maddie let him scratch her, Herbie laughed and said anyone could touch her, but only I could feed her :). True dat :).

Later, when I went out to the pasture to fetch the cows, Dolly followed and they all came behind her. Love that about them. Wonder which cow will take the head-cow position when Dolly goes to butcher in December. I had the feed bucket with the bell, but it took a good half hour to get Dolly, Taxes, IRS and JuneBug into the chicken yard, Seasaidh and Saffron, Little Red and Taylor and Immanuelle and Coco into the main pasture with Gabriel, while keeping Daisy May and Eleanor with Oliver in their own pasture. Think Daisy May is on heat as Gabriel is not happy and Oliver is trying to jump her. I put Eleanor in with him early August, so now in November it's 3 months later so time for Daisy May to be knocked up.

10pm - can hear much bellowing outside, so just went to check. Saffron ran through the one gate to get away from me, and broke it. So she hopped under the fence and was with Daisy May and Oliver instead of being with her mum and the other Scottish Highlands. They and Eleanor were nowhere to be seen, so I presume they're out in the hayfield, hopefully in the two separate sides, but I'll see tomorrow. Eleanor should be about 3 months pregnant, so I'm not worried about her being with Gabriel, but she still needs to come up for milking, and it'll be easier if she's not with the SHs'.

That was my day today - wow. No wonder I'm exhausted. Goodnight.

What a beautiful day today :). Herbie came home earlier than usual, so our weekend, or rather, our day and a half, started earlier than usual.

Then he took my hand and led me upstairs, to the back bedroom and the massage table ! Over an hour with aromatherapy oils, a candle and spa music. He thought I fell asleep on the table. Nope, just enjoyed it. Love you, Herbie, and your large, capable hands.

Maddie came around so I went out to feed her as she didn't come this morning when I called. Then I sat outside in the sunshine with her, the dogs and the cats until I got so hot I had to come inside.

Tonight, when it was time to bring the cows in, I went down and put grain in the 2 milking stalls for Daisy May and Eleanor, with some in a scoop to pour into the feeder in the lower barn for Seasaidh. Opened the door and then went up the ladder to call them in. Saw Daisy May pass on her way down, so went looking for Eleanor. Nowhere, but saw Seasaidh and the calves. Went back into the shed, down the ladder to find Dolly in the stall with Eleanor milling around behind her, while Daisy May was calmly munching in her stall. Chased Dolly out, so Eleanor left too. Damn cows. Seasaidh had come down too, so I had 3 cows in the lower barn. Eventually, got Eleanor back into her stall and shoo'd Dolly out. She was not a happy cow and stood in the water outside the door, not wanting to move further no matter hom much I threatened her with the plunger :). So I had the wade in behind her to move her up the hill. Once I was outside the chicken yard, I picked up the bucket of grain so she perked up and followed me happily. Closed the gate behind her and the calves, although I did have to chase Seasaidh out first. Only had 2 small plops to clean up in the milk parlour from Eleanor, she has such a flighty tummy when things are topsy-turvy.

All this running around, my fleece pants pulled out my boots and dragged in the muck, and I was overheated and sweaty. You'd think after all this time, the cows would go where they were supposed to without me playing screaming human behind them.

Making roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and veggies for lunch on Monday as Gary and Jackie are coming over. It'll be the first one of those I butchered last week. Jackie is bringing dessert - chocolate brownies, yum. Hope Herbie gets home from his one delivery early enough to join us.

Got the temporary line run down the hayfield, now tomorrow I just need to clear the bottom line around the small "L" part, switch the gate opening to the main pasture, check that the electricity is running around the hayfield and can then let the 2 lots cows out to graze before the snow comes. The weather forecast is nice for the next week, so I'm hoping to still plant the garlic this week too. Want to get the chicken house cleaned out too. So much to still do.