Spring has sprung early..

Well, technically we still have another week to go but babies are everywhere here at the moment. Luke bonded pretty well to Chloe our little goat kid, but it isn't the same as having a sheepy friend. I knew another local Wiltshire breeder and asked her to keep me any poddy lambs that became available. Low behold she had a little ewe-lamb that she was ready to get rid of. She has been christened Princess Leia (god knows how that is spelt all you star wars fans) by Emily with pretty heavy persuasion by Felix. We have the pair now...Luke and Leia - Luke is very pleased with her, they sleep cuddled up and quickly became inseparable.

Meanwhile Dora was looking bigger and bigger and I was convinced she was carrying triplets, however she very calmly delivered the above enormous twins yesterday and is her usual lovely self. It is nice to have a calm and friendly mum who is happy for me and the (human) kids to come and stroke the babies and she hasn't forgotten the milking routine as she is so full of milk
I have had to take some off her so the babies can actually latch on. They are both boys which means that theoretically they will end up in the freezer... Maggie is starting to sway and waddle and I am crossing my fingers for a girl from her. Leanne our teenage pig mum (disgraceful behaviour has been going on in the weaner paddock) after all our worry over her had 11 piglets that are very small but seem to be doing okay, and much to our surprise one of the other young Berkshires who was in with Dennis has also farrowed with 3 piglets. Not surprisingly Dennis has been very disgruntled as he hasn't had a chance to show us what he can do yet - I am pretty sure that the piglets are the work of Dale the ginger handraised piglet - his act of revenge for us sending him off for bacon.

Angelina has started laying her lovely blue eggs and Brad is quite taken with her (following their namesakes). They strut around the yard together (again, like their namesakes) and Brad still takes any opportunity to jump on the big hens when they least expect it. Sonny (son of Brad) is indeed a rooster, as he showed me today by attempting his first strangled crow. Despite being soft hearted and keeping everything I can I think he is going to have to go. I will leave it to James to carry out the deed, however I think all he will do is provide a meal for Jessie.

We are in the middle of a market break, with this weekend being a 5 week month (markets only on the first 4) and we are moving things around a little which gives us 2 weeks off. Fencing is underway as is the redoing of the stockyards with concrete runs after James attempted vaccinating the sows the other week and they lifted up the entire metal run and just threw it aside and calmly walked out of them with a glint in their eye.

Felix turns Five..

I can hardly believe it, however I can also hardly forget it as I am sitting in the middle of face-painting instructions, a 'how to make balloon animals' kit and am paper-machaeing (spelling?) a pinyata pig in readiness for the birthday party this Sunday. This year Felix has very specific instructions as to how he wanted his birthday to pan out. Despite my best efforts to have a party at the local McDonalds/indoor play area/park I was shot down very quickly as he told me he had discussed it at length with his friends and it was to be at home. He then outlined the general run through of the day and showed me a picture of a Harry Potter castle cake that he had decided on. Make sure you keep checking to see how that little beauty turns out (based on my previous efforts I think you can probably guess it may look more like a Harry Potter cave but lets wait and see).

Anyway, after a week of 'how many more sleeps' questions and 5 late night toilet trips during the night the big day dawned. At 6.30 the house was woken up and great excitement followed. Emily as you can see received a hoop and a fairy costume as let's face it, sibling birthdays can be hard. She coped pretty well and enjoyed the fact that when Felix went to pre-school that day she could play with all his toys without him knowing. He had cakes at school and then we organised to take him to a local Thai restaurant (his choice) with his friend Sam for dinner. He was amazed that they brought a cake out at the end and played Happy Birthday over the speakers - 'how on earth did they know it was my birthday?'. The night before James and I went to the orientation day at the local primary, Mudgee Public. Between that and his birthday the next day I spent the day in dark glasses in case as every time I thought of him being five I got quite stupidly emotional.

A lamb by any other name

As I type this our newest addition to the farm, the above lamb, is sleeping peacefully on the verandah. He has chosen to lie about 1/2 a metre away from Woody who is eyeing him with the tenancity that only a young sheepdog can muster. It seems that Woody is convinced that it is only his unblinking stare that is keeping the lamb in his place, where is the lamb is completely at ease and totally oblivious to the whole process. Woody seems put out. Anyway, we have been busy as usual and freezing cold at the same time. Although we have had some welcome rain, the days are mostly clear skied with a good frost each morning. Last week after getting back from Dubbo we got a call to say that an orphaned lamb was looking for a home... our merino girls need a meat ram and I have always been taken with the Wiltshire Horn sheep. We have been putting everything into the pigs for the moment so buying any of them was out of the question - however we were lucky with Luke. The naming of the lamb took place, Felix was very excited because it was a boy, he must be feeling a little emasculated with all the breeding females that we keep and wondering why none of the boys get to stay. Anyway, although little and cute we thought it was important that he had a strong and manly name for the future. We all put in our ideas but Felix stood firm. "His full name is Luke Skywalker the Jedi Knight" he told us "but you can call him Luke for short". My suggestion of Sean fell on deaf ears and so Luke it has stayed. He bleats incessently at me and is drinking with great gusto from his bottle. So far he has been to a kids party and to pre-school with Felix. He has had his tail ringed and is probably the only sheep in Australia who had this done with a local anaesthetic.

Beccie's spotty piglets have ventured out and we bought in 10 berkshire piglets to boost up numbers who have promptly joined Kimmy and Lil's litters and proved once again how complex the maternal behaviour is in pigs as they have been adopted pretty readily. This means we have to wean all over again but at least everyone is settled and happy.

We have had a flurry of interest in the farm recently, an article in a Sydney newspaper (Manly Daily) http://www.manlydaily.com.au/article/2008/08/01/11372_news_feature.html will hopefully boost Sydney sales. Also in the media have been the latest campaign by Animals Australia to stop sow stalls (which have been illegal in the UK for a long time) http://www.animalsaustralia.org/lucy_speaks/. Lots of orders are coming in and the upshot of it all is that our numbers are starting to look small. It is all good but with lots of our income tied up in hams waiting for Christmas and demand that is getting hard to meet we are up against it a bit. We both want to stay loyal to the farmers market customers and always make sure that we have meat to sell at the markets, but on the other hand wholesale sales will always be vitally important to keeping us running. James has been fencing the next phase over the last week and we will be changing markets around to give us 2 weeks off sending any pigs off at the end of the month. It is hard to believe that it is almost one year since the first pigs came on to the property. Bacon and ham is still our next hurdle.

James' shooting abilities are improving - he managed to bring home a hare this week. It was then cleaned, cooked very slowly and turned into a sort of rilette or terrine (above) with some pork belly and eaten on crusty bread. I was initially dubious however admit it was delicious, I was surprised at how dark the meat was but it wasn't as gamey as I was expecting.

Orange markets tomorrow in the (forecast) snow, and poor James will then get back and head straight to Sydney for the Balmoral Mudgee Food Festival. We are selling our pork and porcini sausages in a roll on Balmoral Beach. I am staying home to look after the pigs...it's a good excuse.