The Ups and Downs at Nunnery Farm in 2011

Now as those that have been following me in my attempts at moving ever closer to partial self sufficiency, which is to grow fruit and vegetables to accompany the free range meat I already produce, will already know that Dave the Lamb lost the plot last year and thwarted my attempts good and proper.

 For those that don't, Dave the Lamb was one of last year's lambs that I hand reared in the house after his mother died after giving birth to him and his twin Poppy who sadly I didn't manage to save. Dave was one of the porliest lambs I have ever dealt with and I fully expected to lose him too. Dave, however, had other ideas and is alive and well on Nunnery Farm. In fact Dave has become somewhat of a local celebrity as he always comes with me on the dog walks around the valley and has been known from time to time to accompany me in the Landrover! Dave's problem is he has no idea he is a lamb!

Dave would go out in the garden as he was slowly getting better and would always be with me during the day outside developing the veg patch and all was well. I imagined chutneys and fruit wines. Dave however had other plans which included eating everything in site and if he didn't like the taste of something he would make his bed in it. Dave the Lamb went berserk. It was so late on in the year when he did this (just as everything was getting ready to be eaten by ME!) that I actually thought I would have very little to show for my efforts at the end of the year. I am happy to say I was totally wrong!

The plants grew back in no time, my strawberries and raspberries grew in abundance, I couldn't move for blackberries, the hens laid plenty of eggs, in fact we got so much out of the veg patch that I couldn't have been more pleased.

This year I have already started outside and will tell you about that again but I intend to leave out the things I didn't make much use of and replace them with more of what I did. When the year ended I had made so much fruit vodka I thought it would last me a lifetime  and I was certain that Christmas would be a very merry one indeed.

        

The meat I produced on the farm last year meant that I did not buy a single piece of lamb, pork or beef. The sausages were split into 3 flavours pork/leek, pork and spicy pork which unfortunately other people have now discovered and my stocks have depleted!! 

I made lots of chutney and I still have lots left so at last I have a little home produce larder and have a small pile just aging nicely.. Unfortunately I didn't manage to save any of the vodka and considering the amount I produced is a little bit of a concern - I will simply have to make more this year!

 Dave the Lamb was forgiven and still spends his days playing with the dogs and joins in chasing the cats and he still gets into bother. The dogs are ok, the cats are still going and Kyle who is 2 now is having the time of his life and becoming quite the farmer!

This year I will produce twice as many vegetables and twice as much to drink - well, that's the plan!

It's Nearly Time

Sadly it is almost time to say goodbye to the two Saddleback pigs I have on the farm at the moment. I have to organise a trailer and get my paperwork in order for tomorrow.

I have just brought the next set of weaners on to the farm which makes taking the older two a little bit easier to deal with because while I am looking after the little ones I am not thinking about the two that have gone. It works for me anyway but it is never something that I look forward to, enjoy or find easy to deal with.

I have never really been comfortable with the killing of animals for any reason and drifted in and out of vegetarian phases in my younger days. I think the first attempt at becoming a vegetarian was after buying The Smiths album and listening to Meat is Murder. Upon hearing Morrisey confirm the killing of an animal was death for no reason and death for no reason was murder my life as a vegetarian had begun to take shape .... unfortunately after many months struggling to find vegetable curry and breakfast without bacon tasty I decided that a vegetarian life was not really for me and so I started to think about how I could eat meat without the guilt trip it carried with it for me personally. This came about by me thinking of raising my own meat as strange as it sounds because that way I could ensure that the life any animal I raised for meat would be controlled by me and I could thereby ensure their life would be the best it could possibly be. In knowing that my pigs are raised the way nature intended without any growth hormones or cruel practices that routinely take place with indoor intensively farmed pigs I reached a place where I was happy to eat that meat.

This aside, the weeks leading up to the date that I take the animals to slaughter I still find terribly upsetting and I find it hard to think about anything else. I consle myself with the fact that they have had a great life that is not offered to many animals destined for the food chain. The first time I took animals to slaughter I realised just how much respect is required for the animal that in the end gives you everything.

So here I am at the saddest point in the journey that is home grown meat. I now need to get the papers and pigs ready so they can be transported.

I need to complete the BPEX forms (these are avilable online at the BPEX site) and email these to the Abattoir. The pigs will need to arrive no later than 10am in the morning. I will load the pigs on the trailer then ear tag them. I have always got someone else to do this for me just because I am a softy but I am going to try and do this myself this time ... lets see!! I will set off at 6.00am to get there before 7am which is the earliest I can unload them and then get them settled into their pen.

So it is a sad day but it is also makes me happy because I am standing for what I believe in and by doing what I do I am making a difference.