The Accidental Smallholder
Favourite Gardening Blogs & feeds (40)Country & Rural Garden News (13)
Newspapers (6)Other Gardening News (A-J) (29)Other Gardening News (K-Z) (30)6 Oct 09 Kittens mugged by hen No, you haven't reached the website of the "Daily Mail". I was in the kitchen yesterday with Dan's mum, when we heard the cat flaps rattle and both kittens ran into the house. We could hear something squeeking but by... 4 Oct 09 Broody no more The broody has given up. She decided yesterday that motherhood wasn't for her and, quite literally, flew the coop. She was pacing around and when Dan opened the end, she shot out in a flurry of feathers and rejoined the... 2 Oct 09 Ruby moves in I found Ruby on the kitchen table yesterday. I removed her then went to make my lunch, only to find that she had eaten half of all the tomatoes in a dish on the worktop - I mean she had...... 30 Sep 09 First kill One of the kittens (don't know which one) has made its first kill. OK, it was only an earthworm and Dan stood on it with bare feet this morning, but it's a start. I'm just so glad the kitten dropped..... 29 Sep 09 Broody update The broody is sitting tight but has ejected six eggs. I don't know if they are the six I put in later - if so, how did she know? Maybe I just put too many in but the eggs were...... 29 Sep 09 Ruby stows away I don't normally name hens but we have a particularly tame Warren, that I have named Ruby. Our hens usually aren't tame but Ruby will be stroked while eating out of my hand. She also makes regular forays into the... 28 Sep 09 Pickling shallots Dan spent hours last night peeling shallots for pickling. They are now in brine for 48 hours, before dousing in a mix of white wine and sherry vinegar. Even after two showers, he could still smell shallots on his hands... 28 Sep 09 Veggie kittens Cats are obligate carnivores - they MUST eat meat as their bodies cannot build all the essential proteins for life. Cassius had pretty catholic tastes in food - curry, chili, chips, crisps but vegetables? I don't think so... 28 Sep 09 Broody or not? I spent Saturday morning (and a bit of the afternoon) at Caledonian Mart in Stirling, at the sale of rare and traditional breeds and poultry. The mart has a regular poultry sale and has just started selling rare and traditional... 25 Sep 09 Lucy I'm pleased to report that Lucy has recovered from fly strike. She's now clean, dry and maggot free....... 25 Sep 09 Red Kites at Argaty I was doing a previsit for a forthcoming farm visit at a farm near Doune. The owners do an awful lot of conservation work and their site at Argaty is home to dozens of Red Kite. These birds were exterminated... 25 Sep 09 White when washed This is how my chum Claire describes my horse, Smokey. Given that the weather is on the turn, I decided to give him a bath while the sun was out. He suffers from sweet itch so tends to roll a...... 21 Sep 09 Sheep wormer 2 Well, as planned (unusually), we sorted out the sheep at the weekend. Wormed, fluked, dagged and feet trimmed. Unfortunately, Lucy had a wee bit of fly strike - fortunately, we caught it really early and gave her a spray of... 19 Sep 09 Contemplating pigs We had a visit the other evening from a friend of Dan's, along with two of his neighbours. They live in a small village and are hoping to rent some land and fatten some pigs. To convince them that it.... 18 Sep 09 Sheep wormer Until now, I've used a herbal wormer for the sheep. However, since a couple have dirty bums and I want to dose them for liver fluke anyway, I've decided to use a combination wormer and flukicide. But which to use?...
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