Down on the farm

Poor George, he's not been well, every morning he and his twin brother Charlie are waiting outside the door for there breakfast, Thursday Charlie was alone, I went down to the goat field and poor George was in his house looking very sorry for himself, I thought he was ill so telephoned Val the Woolly Shepard http://smallholdinginsomerset.blogspot.com/2007/12/our-ouessant-sheep-or-rather-moutons.html I explained what was happening and told her that his parents were ignoring him and that I had seen George and Charlie rearing and butting each other, I assumed it was there normal playing, but Val thinks at there age they are now trying to get dominance over the other, more expense now, off to the vets for castration.
The chicken in this picture is now in the fridge and is Sunday lunch, we bought her at La Gacilly market and in just 5 months had grown very large, she's the only chicken we had that couldn't get out of this run, when the chicken van returns next year we will buy a few more of these but will breed some of our own from them.

Pigs

I've been offered a pig house for €30, so even though I haven't got the electric fence or even the pigs, we will buy it. I think our first pigs are going to be standard white pigs, giving the type of pork you buy in the super markets, cheap to buy and I can give a couple of pigs a better life than they would get normally, once I have a little more experience I will buy one of the English breeds either the the Tamworth or the Gloucestershire. There's a few set ups here in Brittany dealing in rare English breeds, I've joined this, http://www.labpif.com/ The l'association was having a bad time, but now has a new commitee so hopefully will start to go places, from here I will be able to source my weaners and get advice on pig keeping.
The pig in this photo is called Squeaky, he had a very narrow escape read his story here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-474684/Squeaky-piglet-makes-miracle-escape-lorry-way-slaughterhouse.html you will need to copy and paste the address into your browser.

Some pics

Sixt sur Aff farmers Fete, as usual the busiest place was one of the bars dotted around.

Christmas is coming.

We've put our tree up, a bit early I know, but the trees were on promo so I bought one, then couldn't resist putting it up. Tree and all the baubles €30, bargain.

22 November 2008

Been a couple of weeks since I've posted, so what's new? Look below, Violaine's had another scan, we had hoped to see if it was boy or girl, but no, the next scan is in January we hope we can find out then.
Two of the Geese are now in the freezer, Paul and Mike did the deed, but I had to pick up the ones that were for the chop and hand them to them, I have my favourites. Paul and Mike would have killed the first one they caught, the Geese don't like Mike (wonder why). Franck our neighbour came to choose his Goose, they attacked him, but he now has his in his freezer, the Dutch people next door are given the feathers Olaf and Joker are making pillows, even though Paul and Mike tried to put all the feathers in a black bag it still looked like it had been snowing when they had finished.

New baby scans

We've no idea yet if its a boy or girl.

Grandchild pictures

More Family Photos

Round the table from left to right, Violaine, Michael, Enric, Nadette, Franck, Paul, Dan, Me and Veronique.

The day the vet visited, poor Justin, not for the squeamish

While asleep, wash, nail trim, and cut.



































































































Vet wanted to know if I wanted to eat these, I said, no thanks, but if he wanted them he was welcome. Then I had to grab them as the chickens decided they looked tasty, they were still warm, yack.

More Photos and video

The long and not so windy road

















Our guard dogs, only 4 left now.

















The neighbours

















Larry, miss him.















Our first home produced chucks

















Noisey Video. Ugly Bettys first egg.