The English Paysanne

In order for the steer to go off calmly next Wednesday he is being trained to go into the trailer where he has breakfast and tea. Next Wednesday while eating his breakfast the gates will be closed and tailgate lifted. In order for this to happen a change of fields of the other animals was needed. The herd of cows were moved into the top of the field with entrance to the hanger with the gate open to our side hay field where they can munch away on the grass that is still growing but be close to hand. But before the cows were moved the donkeys had to be evicted (they rather like the hanger) which meant the sheep had to be relocated to Gorgon's field so Vanllie and Bambo are now in with the meat chickens and growing ducks. Lastly the piglets had to be moved up the hill, split into two groups of five they are now up the top with the big pigs in enclosures that have been left to rest. A bit of a lengthy process of individual piglet being carried up the hill,

This week was suppose to be a bit more restful but it didn't seem that way as there is always something that needs doing.  Sandy's piglets reached the time to be separated from mum.  So Sandy moved back to her  enclosure where the weeds had grown well since it has been left for three months while she moved to the maternity suite. It took her a few days to get over leaving her babes going off her food but now seems to be eating again while munching on a bit of greenery. The cows moved to the top field where there was a fair amount of grass even though they had to finish off last years hay possibly for a sympathy vote from passers by. Farmer J was only saying how lucky they are seeing the amount of scrappy grass some of the herds around here are on. Franklin had a outing to the vets for the day to have his blood sugar levels checked again after a few accident's at the beginning of the week after stealing half a loaf of bread. Wednesday

A moment from the week at La Singlarie Having overcome their fear of leaving the barn Maude and Mabel are now the first ones out and last ones back to the barn of an evening enjoying their days exploring around the farm.

The veggie patch has gone a bit wild, left to it's own devices and with wet weather most things have grown well including weeds last week, sadly not the brassicas which are still being eaten by the rabbits and flea beetles Swiss and rainbow chard are going to be the new cabbage! I must put a bit of time in weeding and getting it back into shape this week. The fruit that is growing is rather on the large side, best year for the rhubarb with huge raspberries and although the apple tree only has around five apples on it they are BIG ones, so I think I count them as two apples for one meaning there are 10 apples on it - the most ever counted. Not prolific but next year it will be a year older and a year bigger.

I made my first sour dough loaf of bread, although it smelt and tasted really good it was a little on the dense side due to my inability to wait for the sponge dough allotted resting time and not enough time in the day to kneed, kneed and re kneed. The starter is now dormant in the fridge as this week has been too busy to care for it and make more loaves. The last field of hay has been cut and bailed for this year. Remember the vicious broody hen, well she had a chick that hatched which were both about on Thursday but sadly I think she squashed after returning to the clutch of eggs that she had left for the day. She is still sitting on those eggs and pecking when I tried to move her to see if I could find the chick. I will give her next week before getting those thick gloves out to move her ( and the gone off eggs) The piglets will be 8 weeks old next week, time to split them from Sandy who is beginning to be wound up by them especially when they try to steal her

A moment from the week at La Singlarie Walking with cows

Yesterday a friend called round with a jar of sour dough starter and rye flour to feed it that she had started 6 days ago. I have been making bread at La Singlarie for around nine years now ever since the 30 minute round trip to the bakers before lunch started to take up valuable time which I could of been sanding, painting, holding up crucial pieces of timber or passing tools to the proper workman (farmer J) when we were building the gites. On the whole I make a batch of white organic wheat flour loaves to last the week for us and if gite guests want them. The flour comes from an organic farm outside of Albi in the Tarn where it is growen and milled. Brought in sacs of 25kg it lasts well along with a 5 kg sac of wholemeal which I sometimes add to the white or make rotis with or add to Hovis malt flour to make it last a little bit longer (cant buy it here). Sometimes sunflower, pumpkin, poppy and linseed's are added sometimes nuts and even more occasionally brioche

The ducklings have now been with us three weeks in that time they have grown a lot. Now they are starting to get proper feathers  it was time to move them out of their small day run into somewhere bigger. I did contemplate putting a run in Gorgon's field but firstly as they would have their food in with them Gorgon being the bull in a china shop kind of pig would of trashed the pen to get to the food, he is after all a pig (we have many panels of chicken wired enclosures and fencing that has had a 110kg's of a thick set (he would say big boned) Gorgon's work of needing to get to the other side of an enclosure/ fence and letting the occupants out at the same time). Also secondly with a pair of buzzards setting up home close by circling the sky for tasty treats for their chicks I didn't think they would be in the safest place, a bit like sitting targets. So they were boxed up and wheel barrowed to safer grounds. The last lot of table birds had lef

Its been a bit wet here this week, showers and cloudy with just a little bit of sunshine has meant everywhere is looking very green. The veggies are growing well (apart from the brassicas which have been severely nibbled by the pesky rabbits) which also means the weeds are coming along nicely as well. Today is suppose to be the last day of rain for a while which will be good news for our gite guests. The first big bunch of beetroot was pulled up. This year I have managed to grow white and yellow as well as purple (last year pulled up the yellow thinking they were weeds) Mabel and Maude seem to think their role at La Singlarie is watch ducks. At last they are coming outside on their own, jumping up on the wall where they spend their time surveying the chickens and pigs. If only they could do something about those rabbits ....    Gorgon and the girls were getting a bit over whelmed with their task of keeping the grass eaten so farmer J put the giro on the tr