Busy, Busy, Busy

It’s been lots of work here on the farm. The ploughing is slowly progressing. On the whole it looks good but there are large patches where the plough just skims the surface, which roughly corresponds to the damp/clay areas.

The weekend was forecast dry with Sunday being 30°C, ideal for haymaking now that the hay cutter had been repaired. So Saturday dawned and I waited for the dew to dry and went to set up the cutter. It wouldn’t lift the cutters plus the hydraulic connection was leaking. G came out to have a look and see if anything was moving at all when I operated the hydraulics. The ram had opened to the full extent but the chain was still loose – not right as the repaired chain had only had a link changed. While looking at the cutter G said, “what’s that for’? He was pointing at pulley, a pulley that really should have had a chain wrapped round it but didn’t.

We then proceeded to spend the next few hours taking the mechanism apart, and putting it back together correctly. It took a couple of goes, partially because we didn’t have the right tools and partly because it was trial and error until we got the adjustment right.

Eventually we were successful. I stood in awe of G’s strength when he heaved the cutters off the floor so we could get some working slack in the chain; something I would never have been able to do by myself.

It was now well into the afternoon so I didn’t finish cutting until after it was dark.

Sunday was warm and bright and I was able to set down the hay cutter without breaking the chain this time. I then filled the tractor with fuel and went to hitch on the tedder. It didn’t take too long to attach the side arms and adjust the lift arm and attach it so all that was left was the drive shaft to the PTO. Would it go on, would it h**k; I squeezed the release catch, I pushed the universal joint but it just wouldn’t lock on. Eventually I got G out – his treat for the week was a lie-in, but even he couldn’t’ get it on. Eventually I got the lump hammer and a piece of wood; G held the release catch and I applied the persuasion – it worked.

OK so I was running about an hour late but I thought there would still be time so I started on turning the grass. What I was expecting to take about an hour took nearly 4.

I remember the neighbour who cut the hay last year mention something about it being ‘mur’ (better). Turns out it was my lack of understanding his accent; he was talking about ‘mure’ (blackberries). There were long strands of blackberries running through the grass and these tendrils wound themselves tightly round the tedder until it was completely jammed. This of course happened when I was as far away from the house as I can be on the farm and no I didn’t have my knife.

This happened a couple more times although I stopped before the tedder was anywhere as completely jammed as the first time.

I didn’t have my camera during the first pass but took this picture when I went down to do the second pass. It shows a bit of the problem although this was nowhere near enough to jam the machine and only took a few minutes to pull clear.

I finally finished the first pass with the tedder around the time I was expecting to start the second pass after leaving the grass for an hour or so to dry.

I did get another pass in but the grass still has some wet leaves in it so baling wasn’t possible. I now have to hope that the forecast for tomorrow is wrong and that we don’t have rain but I think I will be drying the grass starting Wednesday and hopefully baling by Friday.

One hay field.

Chick Update 2

Cheep Cheep, short for Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, - well it was either that or Kiev and we though the chick might have a bit of problem with the though of being chicken Kiev, - is doing well. He’s now regained complete use of his leg and foot and is scratching around happily on the grass in the run that G made for him.

Cheep Cheep has adopted G as his surrogate mum, calling out whenever he hears G’s voice and jumping onto G’s lap if given a chance. We now have the challenge of integrating Cheep Cheep back into the flock. Cheep Cheep knows he’s a chicken and runs up and down his enclosure chirping madly if the other hens walk past. At least one of them has been up and wondered what to do as though some memory is kicking back in that the chick needs looking after but it’s nothing to do with her.

Since Cheep Cheep is getting a bit big for the box that’s his current home I think he will have to go into the segregated area of the chicken shed. Although he can get out of that area, the other hens and chick are all too big to get in so he will have some security, but I am worried about how well they will accept him.

Has anyone else had experience of integrating one chick back into a flock?

Ploughing Time

It doesn’t take long to say, “Just got to plough the 5.5 hectare field’, but it takes ages to do, so that’s my excuse today for the lack of blogs.

I had one of those revelation moments the other day, it’s August and I’ve promised Regis the loan of my tractor for 4-6 weeks for the duration of the harvest. If the tractor is away for that long then I have to get all the tractor work done before it goes so I have a maximum of 2 weeks to plough the wheat field, top the new alpaca fields to cut down the thistles and give the grass a chance to grow and to cut my hay. Yes, the chain on the hay cutter has finally been fixed so hay is again a priority.

It doesn’t help that the temperature is in the high thirties and sitting in a glass cab tractor, even with the doors open is rather hot. G and I are ploughing in shifts; G is coping far worse with the heat than I am, (legacy of too many days spent in front of his computer screen barely seeing the light of day :-)), so he’s taking the cooler shifts. Each time we change over we take water from the fridge, the water we bring back isn’t warm, it’s hot, but we are both making sure we keep drinking.

I’ve been trying night ploughing, not too successfully, I now know which of the tractor lights work and which don’t. Needless to say, enough don’t, to make it difficult. The headlights are working interminably, a problem with connections I think. There is no lighting at the back but I think that’s because the wire to the rear spots has been cut. There is rather a lot of ‘odd’ wiring round the cab where things have been added and removed by previous owners so sorting that is another thing to add to the To Do list. The main problem with the night ploughing is the mosquitoes, midges, moths and beetles that swarm around the tractor once the lights are on. They make it really difficult to concentrate on watching where you are going despite covering myself with mossie repellent and shutting the door isn’t an option even at 10 pm. The spider in the top right hand corner of the cab is having a wonderful time and races round frantically repairing its web after all the insects have flown into it.

Picture below is the start of the ploughing; the field is an odd shape with a triangular piece at one side. Ploughing here entails a lot of turning the tractor round. I think we’re getting the hang of it, the field is looking good where we’ve ploughed and we are even getting the tractor up the field without it grinding to a halt too often. The soil across the field is very changeable, from shallow on top of clay to sandy. The weed/grass growth also stops the plough but we are learning very quickly to change the tractor speed, draft pressure and lift to get through the difficult bits. Still it takes time, as my plough is only 2 shears wide so really only ploughs a metre wide strip at a time.

Chick Update 1

I'm pleased to say that the little chick is still alive and cheeping away in a box in my study. For the first day he didn't use his leg at all but I was able to feel it and there wasn't anything obviously wrong, but I'm no vet and neither am I an expert in chickens. When I massaged the leg I thought I saw a little movement in the foot but wasn't sure.

Today I took the chick out onto the lawn, put it down and it hobbled about a bit in order to get some grass and it was obvious that although it was using the good leg primarily, it was using the bad leg too and moving the toes that had previously been limp. It also gave its wings a really good preen too so I think it is feeling a lot happier and I'm more hopeful that it will make a full recovery.

The Wheat Harvest

The last three weeks has also seen my wheat being harvested and it’s been a very poor crop. The wheat itself is excellent but there wasn’t much of it. I’d not sprayed the field with herbicides and relied on turning the soil and also used an organic fertiliser. My yield is about a fifth to a seventh what I think it should have been with a high level of other matter in it. There was a very high germination of last years sunflower crop, helped by the mild weather earlier this year resulting in the field being generally yellow rather than golden at harvest time and as can be seen from the photograph the wheat was quite sparse and stunted. I’m wondering if the winter and spring deluges washed the fertiliser from the field before it had time to do its job.

So I now need to think very carefully about what to grow next and whether I can afford to keep with the organic/permaculture idea or whether I will have to grow the cereal conventionally as I will be making a loss on this harvest, the question is how big a loss.

Endless Days that Pass to Fast

The last three weeks has had some long hot summer days that feel endless but at the same time the three weeks that my daughter spent here have passed in the blink of an eye. We had a wonderful time and I can’t wait for her return.
My elder son is here with his girlfriend for another 5 weeks which sounds ages now but I guess will pass far too quickly as well.

As well as days out to places like Rocamadour – my daughter needed to get some more of the room spray that she got there last year! We had time for a visit to the Gouffre de Padirac, which I love, that provided a lovely cool interlude to a hot day– there were frequent shopping trips with a very successful clothing trip to Sarlat market. We’ve also got nearly one field of posts in. The heat has not only made it very difficult for us to be out in the field for long periods but has also made the clay/soil too hard to ram in successfully so we need a decent shower of rain to wet the ground again.

Another highlight of her stay was the water pump failing again leaving us without water for a week. The probable cause of the failure was the pump being partially submerged every time it deluged with rain. Over the next few weeks, while it’s still dry, I have to figure a way to raise the pump; the hose from the well stops about 15 cm (6 inches) above ground level and the pump house is a tight fit around the pressure vessel with the pump situated near the back, requiring anyone trying to work on the pump to be a contortionist. So the hunt is now on for suitable above ground, drinking water grade, rainwater tanks here in France. The below ground ones are easy to find but not the above ground ones of reasonable size – I’m thinking of around 15 000 – 20 000 litres split between 2 or 3 tanks. The lack of water had one positive benefit as it meant a trip to the local swimming lake happened, we meant to do it last year but never got round to it and as well as a small monitored beach and snack bar there were also showers.

The latest batch of chicks has not been very successful with only one chick remaining from the 8 eggs. The two broody hens fought over the eggs and I think that resulted in eggs being left uncovered as well as one of the eggs being crushed and one of the chicks being squashed. I tried separating the hens, there is a divider in the hen house, once I realised they were stealing the eggs from each others nest and also both trying to nest in the same place but the hen that was moved abandoned her eggs and spent all her time trying to get back to the other nest site. Next time I’ll move the hen as soon as one gets broody.

The first set of chicks are doing well and now about half the size of mum and are now out and about with mum leading them round the garden. Two of them are the same size while the third is noticeably smaller. I’ve seen the two larger ones chest up against each other so I guess that they are likely to be males (chicken dinner) while the smaller one may be female. Whist the silver laced Wyandottes are very pretty I’m not so convinced about their egg production, I’ve had no eggs for around 5 weeks now. Mum number one was my best layer so I’m hoping she will start again soon and then the next two to go broody were my intermittent layers. The remaining hen doesn’t lay at all so I think I will have to get some different hens, but not the bare necked variety, in order to ensure a good egg supply.

Edit: When I went up to feed the hens the remaining chick could barely walk and I thought it had a broken leg. The poor thing was being trodden on by it's two mums, which left me with the dilemma - do I take it away from the other chickens and risk it dying because it hasn't got other hens around it or do I leave it and risk it being killed by the hens. One of them was taking the occasionally peck at the chick if it was in the way. In the end I've brought it into the house and have rigged up a small box with a light over it for warmth, and am hoping it will survive the night.

Fireworks and Edith Piaf

Yesterday was Bastille Day, France’s National day. We treated ourselves to a day of doing nothing but relaxing. In the evening we set off for Villeneuve as we’d been told there was a free firework display.

We got to Villeneuve for about 8.15 pm and headed for the river where the display was happening. Thankfully we’d heeded the instruction to go early and found a place to park relatively easily. The town centre was heaving with people, roads had been closed, café seating spilt out onto the pavements and roads and live music was on offer at many of the cafes.

Not knowing where to go, we wended our way over the river to where the boats moor and struck lucky. We were on the other side from the entertainment – a band that played well-known middle of the road 70’s and 80’s pop music for the two hours that we were there. Although we’d come totally unprepared we managed to find some firewood logs to sit on right next to the place serving hot dogs, frites and drinks. Next year I now know to take a picnic and chairs, as did many of the people round us.

The sun finally set and the swallows darting up and down the river gave way to bats swooping and diving above our heads for the midges. We must have smelt wonderful to anyone standing near us having all covered ourselves in the various anti-mosquito sprays and lotions we had. It worked though as no one was bitten The band sang their encore at around 10.15 and we all waited in anticipation.

One rocket took to the sky, then nothing for a while, and then it was followed by a second one. Again a pause, we wondered what was meant to happen and then the music started and the bridge to our left erupted in fountains of fireworks. The musical accompaniment was Edith Piaf, which I loved, and the firework display was breathtaking. We watched, entranced, to a display of about an hour, the colours exploding over us, and the explosions echoing off the buildings that line the riverbank.

Then it was over; the explosions gave way to applause and then the murmur of hundreds of people wending their way back to the narrow steps leading up from the riverbank. It had been a delightful evening, one to be thoroughly recommended to anyone in France on Bastille night.