Good Week, Bad Week

Time has zoomed on this year and I've not updated the blog. This week has been a mixture of highs and low. Firstly we started with good news that Western Power has agreed to remove three telegraph poles and all their spaghetti electricty wires and allow us to put all the cables underground, so the view across the yard won't have a network on hanging electricity cables and it means only one telegraph pole with trees for a back drop. So work has started on digging the trenches on the drive this week. The only losers will be the swallows in the spring who won't have any cables to sit on.
Then last Thursday (I was away on a first aid course), Rob went to let the Indian Runner ducks out onto the pond for the morning but to find a massacre. Two ducks dead, three badly injured and one in shock. He suddenly heard a sound turned round and saw a mink. Imagine my sadness when I returned that evening to hear what had happened. Talking to neighbours they said there had once been a mink farm next door, but that was fourty years ago and no sign of mink since. Trust our luck that this mink had got through a small gap in the drains. We tried to nurse the three injured ducks, but their necks were so bad we had to put them down, which left one on its own. After ringing around various breeders we located one lone white drake and quickly brought him home to keep my grey duck happy.
Well we thought everything was fine with a local gamekeeper coming along and to lay some traps incase the mink returned and yes he did today. This time he came along the leet from our neighbours into the small run where the two ducks had been put for the day, but Rob and my brother saw him and quickly trapped him under the stone slabs in the yard. So he was despatched with a 410. I just really hope the local gamekeeper is right and there will only be one and we do not have any further visits.
I am off to see a man in Okehampton who says he may have some suitable Indian Runner ducks for me so my two can have some more mates.

Snowy December

I thought we might be lucky and not get too much snow this winter, unlike the rest of the country but overnight on 21st we had five inches. It might look beautiful but it's tiring work having to look after animals in the snow. Spent ages shovelling snow to make it safe to walk the horses from the stables to the field. Now I just need to get to the shops!

Thatching the Ridge

This autumn we are having the ridge on the house repaired and rethatched, around one of the chimneys and in the valley at the back of the house.
Terry from Bishops Lydeard, nr Taunton is our thatcher and will be with us about 10 days. He will also clear the moss and debris on the existing thatch to hopefully allow the rain to run off the roof quickly. He does this with a hedge cutter and you can already see the difference. We hope that we will not have anymore major work to the thatch for another ten years, subject to no leaks!

Stone Barn Roof

We are now in the process of having the front part of the roof on the old stone barn replaced. The back half of the roof is covered in slates and the other half wascovered in old sheeting which was sagging and many of the timbers broken and full of wood worm. To aid light into the barn we are having some roof lights which should make it feel light and airy. PFG Fabrications from Bampton in Devon is doing the work for us, they also built our new modern agricultural barn. We will then have new wiring before the walls for the stables can be completed and the rubber flooring and walls put in place.

Painting the End Wall

The end wall of Burrow Farm House has been covered in Ivy, even climbing on to the roof and over the thatch, so we took the decision to take out all the shrubs growing along the wall of the house so that we could get to the Ivy. This weekend we stripped the walls ready for painting and in the autumn we will restore the grass verge and plant some new bushes beside the house as well as some spring bulbs. At least our guests should be able to find us now, even in the dark as the wall is so bright and they will no longer be fighting with a bush as the open the gate!

The Guinea Fowl

Whilst at Moonridge Farm in Crediton I bought four guinea fowl. Two hens and two cock birds. One male is a Lavender colour whilst the others are called Pearl. We kept them in the old chicken house for several weeks until they were settled before we allowed them free to wander. They are supposed to roost in the trees at night, but so far they prefer to go back into the chicken house when I feed them in the evening. They make very good guard 'dogs' as they make a terrible noise if anything disturbs them, so I hope if a fox does snoop around they will alert me.

New Indian Runner Ducks

Earlier in the year I lost two Indian Runner ducks to a fox, so this spring we have put up some electric fencing along the edge of the garden fence to hopefully stop any foxes preying on the ducks. I have bought two brown and white ducks from http://www.moonridgefar.co.uk/ near Crediton, Exeter who breed waterfowl and poultry.

At the moment the two young ducks and one of my drakes are residing in my brothers garden until they know each other well and I can move them to the garden with the other Indian Runner ducks and drake.