Stardate 27th May – 1st June

The grass was green, the sun shining and dry weather promised for a week so it was time to make the hay.
I then found out what happens when long grass gets wrapped around the PTO


The cleaning kit


And an hour or so later with help from the chickens


Cutting continued followed by the tedding and ….


By the next day it was drying well and didn’t clog the tedder.


Another day of tedding and it was ready to bale.


The next day it was time to start bringing the bales in. I’d had lots of people who had said they would help with the haymaking but, the week of good weather, coincided with the week everyone was unavailable - sod’s law really. So off I set to the field.


The set of steps is essential as I’m too short to get onto the trailer without it. I could only lift the bales as high as the base level of the trailer, so I had to leave a gap at that level to place the bales onto the trailer and to get on and off the trailer. Added to that, the planks on the floor of the trailer are pretty rotten so I had to be really careful not to fall through. It took about 4 days but eventually I got all the bales, 250 or more (I lost count), into the hay loft – and only fell through that floor once.


It was hard work but I had a real sense of achievement at the end; the hay looked and smelt lovely and best of all, the alpacas loved it.

Elderflower Time Again

Stardate 25th May 2009


It was that time of year again; I really like the syrup, it;s great as a cordial, wonderful over ice cream and other puddings, and makes a wonderful kir royal.

Instructions here on previous post.

Help In The Garden

Stardate 18th and 23rd May 2009

It was time to plant the petit pois so I went out to the big veg patch and made the trough for the seeds; I was then joined by Cid and Snowy. As ever, they thought that the best place to lie was in the trough.



Patches on the other hand decided to chill.

Sunrise This Morning

When I went out this morning to let out the chickens I was greeted by this wonderful sky.


The picture really doesn't do it justice, it was much more ethereal and vast; beauty glimpsed for a few seconds before it faded away.

Stardate 8th - 17th May 2009

I’ve been trying to leave some areas around the farm to naturalise a bit and was pleased to find a trio of orchids flowering beside the pond.



I was then overjoyed to find this bee orchid that flowered under the cherry tree that had been blown over in the January 2009 storm.



I then went down to where I’ve been protecting some orchids that were growing in a ditch by the road and was really pleased that so many more had flowered this year. From 5 the first year, I counted 25 this year. I think I managed to get 6 in this shot:-


The commune cut the verges and went round most of the orchids but I did find the following that had been cut.

Shearing Time

Stardate 30th April 2009

The end of April is when Colin the shearer visits France and undertakes a whirlwind tour of a large part of the country shearing herds of alpacas. I was down for the 30th of April. Colin would be brought to me by the people he’d sheared for in the day and after he’d done my 5 I was to take him to the next people on the list. It’s a bit like pass the parcel.

I’d remembered to get them into the barn the day before so that I was sure that their fleece would be dry as you can’t shear wet fleece. I’d put in a couple of rings so that Colin could stretch out the alpacas and shear then. I was also very grateful to Sandy who came over for the day to help out; a very needed and appreciated extra pair of hands.



After an hour or so the alpacas had their summer cut.

New Year – New Attempt at Blog

A new year and a new attempt at my blog, last year just sped past and was over before I knew it. Summer passed so quickly with friends and family; then it was harvest time, followed by a car crash and a computer crash.

So New Year resolution is to use new computer and along with current posts try to catch up on those from last year.