Where Did That Horse Come From

Run Forest Run

She Who Must Be Obeyed Getting Involved

Dave The Horse Whisperer

Come Here Boy

Hi Everyone

A strange thing happened at the weekend. I have always fancied having a horse but I dont really know anything about keeping a horse so it has never been a real goer plus I suspect they cost a fortune to keep, anyway back to the plot.

My daughter Hannah and her boyfriend Dave came to stay for the weekend and we had a few beers Friday night and had a lazy Saturday morning. Dinner time came and Dave & I had a few glasses of wine, we were just chatting when I happened to go into the conservatory and was astonished to see a horse in the back garden quite casually noshing away on my back lawn.

Bloody Hell theres a horse in the garden I shouted, where said Hannah the back garden. We all rushed out and there was this small horse chomping the grass with not a care in the world. "How did it get in here she who must be obeyed asked", "how the hell should I know" was the reply. "You better take it back to Petes" (our nieghbour who breeds these horses) said Sharon.

I rushed round to Petes but he was out so back to plan 1 try and catch it. No chance me & Dave tried every bribe we could think of but the horse wasnt having any of it. I then inspected the fencing to see if I could see where the horse had got through but I really couldnt see anywhere it could have got in.

Plan B then, I got my wire cutters and cut the wire on the fence. Now all that remained was for the duvet sharer and Dave to round the horse up & drive it through the gap back into Petes field, easier said than done, I joined the fray and after about half an hour we finally managed to get it back to its own field.

A quick repair job on the fence and panic over, wait till I see Pete. Life is never dull here at the smallholding me & Dave gracefully retired to the house to finish of the wine, thankfully no horses to interupt proceedings

Chickens For Sale (Sales Are Growing)

Hi Everyone


Last October Sharon started a little Chicken Business. This came about because our chicken field borders the main A16 and people kept coming in asking have you got any chickens for sale or do you sell chickens, but we explained that we didnt and our chickens were just for egg laying, we then sell the eggs which pay for the feed (just). We have got a few rare & pure breeds and Sharon breeds these as a hobby during the spring/summer.


Anyhow Sharon had been working down at the local rest home part time for the past 3/4 years but left in September last year after it was taken over by a big national company who made everyones life unbearable so Sharon left.


The downside was she was going to miss her own bit of money. As she is quite knowledgable about keeping chickens and people had been asking for them I suggested she start her own poultry business, she thought it was a good idea so I set about converting some of the old pig pens which had a large outside run. This was the easy bit as finding a supplier was a devils own job and after about 50 phone calls we found a supplier of top quality Hybrid Hens consisting of 12 different sorts and many different colours. The idea was to give people something different from the ordinary ISA Brown type.


The chap turned up with our first batch of 100 chickens at 8-30 pm and it was pouring down with rain. With all the hens safely in their new quarters we settled up and went in to ponder on what we had let ourselves in for.


By the end of the month Pete turned up with another 100 and we were reasonably happy as we only had 17 left from the previous batch. Things quietened down over December & the early part of January and Pete is coming with 60 more birds tomorrow 2/2/2010 the trouble was we still had 36 left from before.


Anyhow luck has smiled on us as a lady who own a local chinese restaurant called and asked if we had any chickens for sale as she wanted 50 to supply eggs to her restaurants, I said we only had 36 but had some more coming. I gave her my best price and she decided she would have 30 today and 20 more later, she asked if I could deliver them so I said I would.


We got our big wire dog cage and a few boxes together and boxed all 30 hens up ready for delivery. When we arrived everything was ready they had converted a big mobile home and fenced off a nice big area around it. Just so you know they have about half an acre at the back of the restaurant. The birds were unloaded and seemed happy in their new surroundings.


We went over to the restaurant to get paid for the hens and as a joke I said "any chance of some fried rice" the lady said no problem and the chef returned 5 mins later with 2 fried rice 2 sweet & sour prawns and 2 "chicken" chown mein, it was very nice and it saved Sharon cooking when we got back.


So all in all a good day long may it continue.


We now have a website if anyone wants anymore information then please take a look it can be found at http://www.chickens-for-sale.com/

Frozen Chicken

The photos above show the main snow covered chicken area where Sharon keeps her Rare & Pure Breeds

I dont know about you but I've well & truly had enough of this snow, it has been extremly hard work looking after the chickens in this weather, so Sharon & myself decided to have a break and go down to the snow covered chicken field and make our very own Frozen Chicken for a bit of fun.

As you can see from the pictures above it didnt turn out fantastic but I think you can just about make out what its suppose to be and we had a bit of fun doing it, quite a few cars peeped their horn as they went by they must have thought we were mad (which of course we are), but not as mad as the people driving their cars in this weather its no wonder there are so many accidents.

I have made a bit of a resolution to myself this year and that is to post more often on the Smallholding Tips Blog so lets see if I can follow it through, watch this space. I have allready been told off by my Auntie Dot for not posting more often as she said she liked reading the goings on down on the smallholding and as she is a retired school teacher I dont want to run the risk of getting 6 of the best, so I better keep her happy.

Getting back to the snow, it has been a nighmare looking after all the chickens, just simple things like sorting out the frozen drinkers every morning takes over an hour carrying watering cans of warm water back and forwards from the house no easy task as its 100 metres each way. (I really sympathise with farmers with livestock to tend to must be very hard indeed)

Of course the chickens hate the snow and could very well end up as a frozen chicken if they did go out for to long. The trouble is by staying inside creates another problem because they need cleaning out more often all the straw becomes wet & matted and heavy to lift so She who must be obeyed passes that particular job onto yours truly.

Well thats the first post of 2010 done lets hope the weather improves soon and Frozen Chicken becomes just a distant memory.

Smallholding Self Sufficient Meal

Just a short post to let you all know that today we enjoyed our first self sufficient meal of the season.

We know that we are never going to be totally self sufficient here but we do try to grow as much as we can to keep what we have to buy to an absolute minimum.

On todays menu Sharon cooked up our own raised very free range chicken accompanied by cabbage, carrots & new potatoes all from our polytunnel the gravy was made from the vegetable water.

Hopefully there will be many more self sufficient meals to come from our smallholding, I will keep you posted.

Putting The Ducks To Bed

Its been quite a while since my last post, I have been trying in vain to get the house renovations finished but to no avail.
Something always seems to get in the way, I have been very busy with my busioness which has been taking up most of my time and so I could go on.

Anyway I have decided life is to short to go worrying about such things and I am going to aproach things in a more relaxed fashion and not always like a bull at a gate. I am also going to make time in my life to enjoy it & do some of the things I enjoy.

Since I last wrote our duck population has grown and we now have 8 white ducks who live hapily with the 2 geese on our top pond, there is a trio of young adults and 5 of their youngsters.
Initially it was a major task every night trying to get them off the pond and locked up in their shed, but after a lot of persistance we now have it down to a fine art.

Ive made a short video for you showing my nightly exploits

As you can see they know whos boss (sometimes)

How To Get A Mud Bath

The Warrior Returns

When you think of a mud bath you might conjure up thoughts of a fantastic weekend away at some health farm.

Well let me strip those thoughts from your mind and let me tell you that you dont need to visit a health farm you can easily get a free mud bath just by trying to lock the Geese up here at Smallholding Tips.

Let me begin. A couple of nights ago I was a little late locking the animals up, it was about 11-15 and I said to Sharon I am just going out to lock up the animals and put the birds to bed, wont be long.

I went down the drive and into the paddock where the Geese are as I got to their shed I thought something isnt right.

As I shone the torch into the shed I started to panic when I noticed the Geese were not in there.

I immediately thought the fox had been as the geese always go in the shed when its dark. As panic set in I started looking everywhere for them, then after about 10 minutes I heard a noice coming from the pond.

The pond edges have been left to grow wild to encourage wildlife so the pond is somewhat hidden. Anyway I shone the torch onto the pond after fighting my way through the rushes and there was the 2 Geese.

I tried to move them with a stick but no joy, and after chasing them round and round the edge, still no luck. I was beginning to lose patience and as I got somewhere near them I tried to jump on a little island but slipped and went straight into the muddy water which was like quicksand.

After a lot of choice words and much huffing & puffing I managed to climb out the pond and headed back to the house.

My wife and son came out to see what was going on and just burst out laughing. I then had to strip off naked in the freezing cold before She Who Must Be Obeyed let me in for a bath.

After a good scrub I then went back out and with the aid of a long pole I managed finally to get the Geese off the pond and into bed.

I then did the rest of the animals & birds then headed up to the house for a much needed beer.

Christmas is Coming

Christmas is coming but the lead up to it for me is not going to be pleasant.

She Who Must Be Obeyed has laid down the law and said she wants the house renovations completely finished by Christmas. She has only been waiting for 6 years so i thought surely 1 more year wont hurt, but Sharon does not see it that way and says she is fed up of living in a cave.

If Im honest I want to get the house finished as much as Sharon does, but dont tell her that.

When we moved to our Smallholding 6 years ago the house was in need of complete renovation and initially I took all the walls back to the bare brickwork, had all the damproofing done and also had the whole house completely rewired.

On taking down the kitchen and lounge ceilings (of which there was 2 plasterboard ones and a lathe and plaster one) I revealed the original wooden beams which were in great condition. Inside a crevice I found some old newspapers dating back to 1847 so that gave us some indication of how old the house was.

On seeing the beams Sharon said she wanted to see them exposed so I could JUST PLASTERBOARD INBETWEEN THEM.

I have had several plasterers come to give me a quote for this but none of them have wanted to take the job on. Sharon says I am a carpenter I should be able to do it myself. She is right I can do it, so that is part of my Christmas list, which is as follows

Board inbetween beams and skim in lounge & kitchen ceilings
Fit skirting in lounge
finish fitting log burner properly
box in pipes in lounge
repaint lounge
completely refit bathroom including new suite, shower, tiling etc
finish painting upstairs
strip paint off stairwell & wax
fit lounge & bathroom doors
carpet upstairs when work is finished (stone floor downstairs)
finish refitting kitchen including making canopy for extractor
Several other minor jobs and also some Ive forgot.

As you can see Im going to be a busy boy and my life will be a misery if I dont finish all the jobs.

Roll on Christmas