Baking Weekend

No not the weather, although it has been reasonably warm the last few days.  A couple of weekends ago the weather wasn't so good and I had still not made my Christmas cake, I also had lots of recipes I had been collecting to try out, here they are;

Christmas Cake
I have been making this Christmas cake for about six years, it is very moist and very easy. Taken from BBC GoodFood Magazine, December 2006.

Ingredients;
200ml/7 fl oz hot, strong black tea
3 tbsp whiskey
3 tbsp orange marmalade
700g/1 lb 9 oz mixed dried fruit
100g/4 oz mixed peel
100g/4 oz glace cherries
225g/8 oz butter
225g/8 oz golden caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten
225g/8 oz plain flour
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tsp caster sugar
50ml/2 fl oz hot black tea
1 tbsp whiskey

1. Mix the hot tea, whiskey and marmalade in a large bowl until the marmalade melts.  Stir in all of the dried fruit, peel and cherries, then cover and leave to soak overnight.
2. Next day, heat the oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3 and grease and double-line a 20cm round, deep cake tin with non-stick baking paper (or use a silicon mould). Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition, then fold in the flour and spices, followed by the lemon zest and soaked fruit.  Add any liquid that hasn't been absorbed by the fruit. Spoon into prepared tin, level the top, then back for 1 1/2 hrs. Turn the oven down to 140C/fan 120C/gas 1 and bake for another 1 1/2 hrs or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack in the tin.
3. While the cake is still warm, use the skewer to pepper the cake with holes, poking it in all the way down.  Dissolve the sugar in the tea, add the whisky then spoon over the surface.  If you're making the cake ahead of time, feed it with fresh hot toddy or whiskey each week, but take care not to make it too soggy.  Can be kept for a month well-wrapped in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.  If short on time, the cake can be made the same day that you decorate it. (I think this is what encouraged me to make it in the first place, I am always short of time!

Picture to follow when I have decorated the cake.

Rum and Raisin Muffins
These have got to be the easiest muffins ever, and they rise well, even in my oven.  Based on a recipe for Blueberry and White Chocolate Muffins taken from the BBC GoodFood website.

Ingredients;
150g plain flour
50g golden caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg, beaten
50g butter, melted and cooled
90ml milk
10ml rum flavouring
140g raisins

1. Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6 and line a 6-hole muffin tin with paper cases, or use silicone muffin cases.
2. Mix the flour, caster sugar, baking powder and salt together.
3. Mix the egg, melted butter, milk and rum flavouring into the dry ingredients with the raisins.
4. Divide between thecases and bake for 25 mins until risen and golden.

The Three Little Pigs

Once upon a time there was a pig called Whitney, she was moved to a new home with her sister Wrinkles.  The two sisters were very frightened, they didn't know these new people and they wanted to be back in their own home with their usual humans.  So they escaped and ran away....they managed to run about a kilometre away from their new home, but then the track ran out and they didn't know which way to go.  

They decided to build their home near the end of the track, they made it from bracken.  For the first 3-4 weeks they enjoyed their freedom, the sun was shining, there was lots to eat, they could wallow in the mud pools that collected at the side of the track.  Then Wrinkles lost her sister, she couldn't find her anywhere, she got very lonely. The humans kept going past on the track in their car, often they would throw her food; cakes and pig nuts.  After a week or two of being on her own Wrinkles decided that the new humans weren't so bad, they seemed quite kind, she started following them down the track when they threw food for her.  She couldn't understand why she was always so hungry, no matter how much she ate.  One day she followed the human called Kim halfway down the track and into a small area with stone walls, Kim poured a bucket of pig nuts onto the floor...she was too hungry, it was too tempting.  Before Wrinkles knew what was happening Kim had closed the big wooden gate on her and she was trapped. Wrinkles was quite relieved, she was tired of running away from the human's pet dogs, she was hungry all the time and lonely without Whitney.  Over the next few weeks Wrinkles got very settled in her new home. Kim brought her food and water at least twice a day, she had a paddling pool to wallow in.

A couple of weeks later Whitney found her way back to their bracken home near the top of the track, she had disappeared because she had to find somewhere safe to have her piglets, somewhere the human's pet dogs wouldn't bother her.  Whitney arrived back with her three little piglets, but Wrinkles was nowhere to be seen.  For weeks the family stayed around the top of the track hoping that Wrinkles would return. Whitney wanted to search for her sister but she knew the little piglets weren't strong enough, so she waited.  Eventually as the piglets grew stronger they started to venture down the track and they found Wrinkles trapped in a pen half way down the track.  A couple of weeks after Whitney started visiting her sister in the pen, she arrived to find that she was now an aunty to seven little piglets. Every day Whitney and her family would visit, Wrinkles told them that the new people were ok, that they looked after her well.  Kim started leaving food for Wrinkles and the three little pigs, but still they were a bit scared of her and they hated it when the dogs discovered them, they chased them all the way back to the top of the track.  

One day Kim heard the dogs barking near the pen, she shouted the dogs back to the house because she guessed they were bothering Whitney and the piglets. Once the dogs were tied up she went off to take the pigs their food. As Kim rounded the corner and the pen came into view she could see Whitney waiting for her dinner, but then she spotted Wrinkles outside the pen, she nearly dropped the buckets with shock, how did she get out?  Kims initial reaction was that the two of them plus the three little pigs would run off, the gate to the pen was wide open and the seven tiny piglets were wiggling around just inside the gate, trying to find their mum. Kim walked slowly into the pen with the buckets of food and waited for what seemed like ages, hoping that Wrinkles wouldn't run off and leave her babies. Slowly she tipped the buckets of food onto the floor in the middle of the pen, Wrinkles made up her mind and dashed back into the pen followed quickly by Whitney. Kim slowly moved to the gate and closed it, the two sisters were now in the pen with Wrinkles seven piglets, but what about the three little pigs?

Kim knew they had hidden in the bracken opposite the pen, she also knew that there was no way she would be able to catch them, what would happen now, would Whitney try to escape from the pen to be with her piglets?  Kim had noticed that Whitney had a bite mark on her thigh and guessed that one of the dogs had done this, no wonder the poor pig had surrendered and decided to join her sister, but it was a shock that she had left her piglets behind.  Kim assumed that Wrinkles had stormed the gate of the pen to help her sister when she was being attacked by the dogs.

Kim didn't sleep much that night, worried about the dogs chasing the three little pigs, worried about how they would survive, wondering how she could reunite them with their mum.  The next morning she went up to the pen expecting the gate to be broken and the pigs gone, and what a surprise, all twelve of the pigs were in the pen, the three little pigs had managed to squeeze through a gap in the chicken wire and then through the pig mesh and were safe and sound and happily reunited with their mum, aunty and cousins.

Whitney looking extremely skinny but reunited with her piglets, nephews and nieces

Update; I am very pleased to say that Whitney has put on weight since being in the pen and looks much healthier, latest picture below, she is the pig on the right.

Births, Deaths and Marriages...

It has been a month since I last wrote my blog, I have discovered in that time that life on a farm is a roller coaster!  It has been a month of highs and lows.  We have had births, deaths and marriages!

Deaths
About three weeks ago I found one of the lambs laying down on its side in the field, this is most unusual, sheep lie down on their tummies with their legs tucked under them.  I went down to check and he didn't move, I thought he was dead but then noticed his eyes moving.  I picked him up and moved him into another field away from the others, gave him hay and water but I realised he was a gonna, he couldn't hold his head up, was scouring (diarrhea) - if you are squeamish move on to the next paragraph.  I tried cleaning him up and then discovered thousands of maggots crawling about his back end, he had blow fly, probably the worst sickness a sheep can get.  I rang our friend Don and asked him what to do, he didn't think he would last until the morning and I had to agree that he was probably right.  Next morning he was dead.  I gave all the goats and sheep an oral dose of Cydectine, which is for internal parasites. 

A day or so later I noticed that one of the goats was scouring and had lost a lot of weight.  My friend Denise was coming over to give the goats their annual injection of Coglavax, which is for the prevention of Clostridial infections. Clostridial diseases are caused by anaerobic bacteria that are in the environment, particularly in soil, the disease is quite often fatal. I have never given injections before, I am terrified of injections, but I knew that I had to get over my fear if I was to keep animals, I managed to do one injection.

 I contacted the vet to see if I needed to do anything else.  The vet diagnosed Liver Fluke based on the fact that the diarrhea was green and the animals were on damp pasture.  All my animals were brought to our farm within six weeks of each other and we didn't have a history of vaccinations for some of them.  I now know that I should have dosed them with everything immediately and it would have been sensible to keep them all separate for at least a month after each arrival, in effect keeping each set in isolation, however even if I had known this I didn't have the facilities available to do this.  The vet wrote a list of various vaccines available to combat Liver Fluke and suggested I contact a neighbour with sheep to ask to buy some from him, this is because he sells the vaccine with enough for 60 sheep, I only had 6 plus the 5 goats.  The vet also wrote out the dose to give each animal based on their weight (more of that later).  My neighbour with the sheep wasn't in so I contacted my good friends Doug and Rhoda at La vie à la petite ferme, they had a vaccine called Oestrocur and Doug kindly offered to come and help me vaccinate the goats and sheep.  I would not have been able to do the vaccinations without Dougs help, it is definitely a two man job. I was shaking like a leaf as I gave the injections, but we managed to do the sheep and then moved on to the goats.  Two bits of advice here;

1. For adult standard size goats you need somebody strong to keep hold of them, they tend to move as soon as the injection goes in, pulling the needle out or bending it.  The best way to keep them still is to straddle them and hold onto their horns.
2. Make sure with sheep that you have an animal marker to mark the ones you have done, not so much a problem with goats as they are usually quite distinctive. My sheep are all the same breed and there were three that looked very similar

Unfortunately my inexperience caused another problem. The vet had written down quantities of treatment, although he hadn't written down Oestrocur as one of the treatments.  Doug commented that the amount we were giving was much more than they had given and more than it said in the instructions, I assumed this was because the animals already had the disease rather than the treatment being preventative.  Wrong, I overdosed them.  Another lamb died a few days later and I will never know if this was because of the overdose of treatment or because she had already succumbed to the disease.  Well life has to go on, the remaining sheep were moved to new pasture and seem to be thriving. I am no longer putting them directly on the pasture the goats have been on.  Henry the goat also had the illness but has made a great recovery, he is very skinny but I am tether grazing him on fresh land each day and hopefully he will soon gain back the weight he lost.

Births

Well as I have said, there is never a dull moment. Within a week of the lambs dying, our sow Wrinkles finally gave birth to seven healthy piglets, unfortunately there was one stillborn, but the seven seem happy and healthy.  Within hours of their birth the piglets were up and about, slightly wobbly on their feet but moving around much more than I thought they would be.  I had to dash off to buy chicken wire to put on top of the pig wire because they are so small they can fit through the gaps in the pen fencing.  

Wrinkles feeding the piglets a few hours after their birth

They were born two weeks ago, and it is amazing how much they have grown!  Here is a photo of them a few days ago with their cousins 'The Three Little Pigs'...more on them later.

The ten piglets playing together 29th September 2013

Marriages

Well all I can say on this subject is that Bandit the goat has eyes only for Maisy....they are acting like a pair of newly weds, lets hope we will hear the patter of tiny goat feet in the spring.

Next blog....The Tale of the Three Little Pigs!

To Catch A Pig

Finally after almost three weeks on the run, I have managed to recapture one of our AWOL pigs, Wrinkles is in the pig pen...

Since the pigs ran off I have spent a lot of time considering pigs, here are some of my thoughts;

• you can lead a pig to a pen, but you can't make them go in
• pigs don't look very aerodynamic but they move very fast when they want to
• don't underestimate the power, strength, intelligence and sheer bloody mindedness of pigs!  
• it is almost impossible to get a pig to go somewhere it doesn't want to go, our pigs weight about 70- 80 kilos each, and that is muscle, don't expect to throw a rope around them and drag them, you don't stand a chance
• pigs have no neck and nothing much to get hold of to grab them, they are also likely to get aggressive if you try
• wear leather gloves, if they panic they may bite and they have very sharp little teeth

I have also spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way to catch them, so here are my tips on pig catching;

• you will need lots of patience and time
• make sure you have lots of food (no surprise there) cake* works best, preferably chocolate cake. In fact, home made cake would probably do the job quicker, but I spent so much time chasing/bribing/chatting to the pig that I didn't have time to make cakes.
• Pig nuts are also good but it takes ages to lead a pig that is trying to find every last pig nut you have thrown for them
• you have to build up trust, it will be very slow
• don't make sudden movements
• start by feeding them were they prefer to be, then over days start to move a little further away until they start to follow you. You will find they will go a little further each time and there will be places they don't like (usually because they smell something unfamiliar). Once you know where these places are the next time you get to that place distract them by throwing extra food
• have the pen/place you want to get them to ready and put some food, water, bedding in it before you get the pig into it
• make sure the pen you are trying to get them into is pig proof, solid wood fence posts, pig netting (don't use sheep or chicken netting, it isn't strong enough)
• Put large heavy tree branches or rocks/bricks around the bottom of the fencing on the pig side to discourage them from trying to dig their way out
• don't use electric fencing on its own unless the pigs are very use to it. I read that you can keep a pig fenced with one or two strands of electric fencing, that is what we had, they went through that and straight through the goats pen which has four strands of electric fencing, they didn't even feel it

Well I would like to say that is the last you will hear from my on the subject of pigs for a while, but I still have another pig to catch and her four piglets, any advice I missed out any pig experts out there?

*I was concerned about feeding Wrinkles sweet unhealthy food, particularly when she needs her vitamins and is definitely fat enough (but that could be something to do with the piglets she is carrying), however when I tried tomatoes and other vegetables she turned her nose up at them.  so my advice is stick to cake.

In A Jam!

Last year Steve and I spent hours one Sunday picking blackberries,  then I discovered I didn't have enough sugar to make jam so I left them until the next day when the shops were open, by Monday they were all moldy.  I learnt from that mistake, this year I bought loads of sugar in advance.

Yesterday I spent about an hour-and-a-half picking blackberries, it amounted to 400 grms, not a lot for over an hours picking. Nonetheless I set too making blackberry jam today, actually it is really a jelly as I sieve all the bits out of the liquid puree, I hate getting gritty bits in my teeth.

My 400 grms of blackberries made only two jars of jelly, but I will be out again in a few days collecting more. Blackberry jelly is my favourite conserve.

This recipe is delicious, and I have included a number of tips, including some to help you reach that all elusive setting point!

JAM MAKING TIPS

• Use methylated spirits to determine whether fruit has a high or a low pectin content - put 3 teaspoons of methylated spirits in a glass container, after cooking the fruit add a teaspoon of the fruit syrup to the spirits, if there is a nice thick blob of jelly the fruit has lots of pectin, if there are a few blobs then the pectin content is medium, if there are lots of separate pieces than there is very little pectin
• Vary the amount of sugar you use per litre of syrup depending on the pectin content, use less sugar if there is not a lot of pectin, use these figures as a guideline;

                      High pectin content - 675 grms sugar for every 600 mls of syrup

                      Medium pectin content - 450 grms sugar for every 600 mls of syrup

                      Low pectin content - 350 grms sugar for every 600 mls of syrup

• In France you can buy special sugar for jam making that includes pectin, if not you can buy pectin from the pharmacy
• If you can get a sugar thermometer it takes the guess work out of working out when the elusive setting point has been reached, setting point is general reached at 105C or 220F
• If you haven't got a sugar thermometer use the good old fashioned cold plate method - stick a couple of side plates in the freezer when you start cooking, after the syrup has boiled with the sugar in it for 5-8 minutes pull if off the boil, take a teaspoon of the syrup out and drop it onto the cold plate. If the setting point has been reached you will be able to run a spoon through the blob and it will be quite jelly like, not runny. If it is still runny, put the pan of syrup back on and try for another 5-8 minutes with the gas/electric up as high as it will go, then do the plate test again

Sugar thermometer

• Be careful of spitting syrup, it hurts like hell
• Never do what I did a few years ago, the telephone rang, I went off to answer it and came back to a cauldron of bubbling over jam, I must have scrapped at least two jars worth off the top of the hob, and it stayed sticky for evermore, no matter what I used to clean it!
• The easiest way to sterilise jam jars is to stick them in a very hot oven whilst you are making the jam, pop the lids into a pan of boiling water
• The easiest way to fill jam jars with hot jam is to ladle it into a measuring jug and pour it into the jars. Ensure the ladle and jug have been sterilised with boiling hot water

BLACKBERRY JELLY RECIPE

Ingredients;  Blackberries, sugar

Method; 

1. Tip the blackberries into a colander and pick out any non-fruit bits, rinse quickly so you don't loose too much of that lovely juice
2. Tip the blackberries into a large saucepan, cover and bring to the boil slowly.  Once boiling  reduce heat to low for 15 minutes
3. Tip the berries into a sieve over a bowl or another large saucepan and press with the back of a wooden spoon. I find that if you leave them then come back every five minutes and press through again you get more juice and it gets thicker, I usually do this for 30 minutes to an hour.
4. Measure the syrup so you can estimate how much sugar you need to add (see tips above for the amount of sugar to add depending on the pectin content test), if you didn't do the pectin content test you should work on medium pectin content.  So for medium pectin content you need to add 450 grms of sugar per 600 mls of syrup.
5. Put the sugar in a very low temperature oven whilst you prepare the syrup, I also pop my jam jars in now and turn the temperature up to high once I remove the sugar from the oven
6. Heat the syrup to boiling point, remove from the heat and add the sugar, put back on a low heat, stirring all the time until all the sugar is melted. Remember to turn up the temperature on your oven to high to sterilise the jam jars
7. Bring the jam to the boil and boil rapidly until setting point is reached (see Tips above)
8. Once setting point has been reached pour the jam straight into the hot jars and put the lid on finger tight, do not tighten it completely for about 5 minutes, otherwise the pressure from the jam might brake the jam jar
9. When you have all the jars filled, go back and tighten the lids, then add your personalised label.

Scotch (Quails) Eggs

Last year we held a garden party and I made Scotch Eggs, our French friends loved them.  A few weeks ago the same friends were visiting and I made them again, this time with quails eggs provided by our good friends Doug and Rhoda.  This recipe is for standard size eggs as I realise that quails eggs are not always that easy to come by.  Sorry no photos, we scoffed them before I remembered to take a pic!  If you would like a copy of the recipe in French please add a message to the contact box.

SCOTCH EGGS

6 eggs
1 good quality sausage per egg plus 1-2 extra, skinned or 400grms sausage meat*
2-3 tablespoons herbs, finely chopped
1 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoons of mustard
45grms flour
70 - 100grms breadcrumbs

1.Place 4 eggs in a large saucepan. Cover with cold water and bring to boil. Boil for 5 minutes. When 5 minutes is over, quickly lift the eggs and plunge into a bowl of cold water.

2. Put the sausage meat, herbs, Worcestershire sauce and mustard in a bowl with plenty of seasoning. Break in one of the remaining eggs and mix well.

3. Break another egg into a bowl, beat with a fork. Put the flour on a plate and season well. Finally, tip the bread crumbs onto a third plate.

4. Peel the eggs. Now finish coating eggs. Set up the ingredients along your worktop in the following order; eggs, flour, beaten egg and the breadcrumbs, put a greased oven tray at the end to put the finished scotch eggs in.

5. Roll the egg in flour, shaking off excess. Sit egg on meat and mold around the egg to cover. Dip in egg, then roll in breadcrumbs to coat, and transfer them to your tray. Repeat to cover all the eggs.

6. Preheat oven to 220 and bake for 30 minutes. Traditionally Scotch Eggs are deep-fried in oil, but I cannot bring myself to do this, it just seems too unhealthy, also they are much less greasy if cooked in the oven, so long as they are at a high temperature they cook just as well.

* if you do use quails eggs you will need half a sausage for each

Enjoy quickly because they won't last long!

What They Don't Tell You About Electric Fencing...

The goats will be out of vegetation to eat in their compound within the next few days, which means they will start to think of breaking out!  This means moving the electric fence, easy...no not easy when the vegetation around the compound is taller than I am!  This photo is taken with the camera held above my head.  Our pasture (not sure I should be calling it that at the moment, I will call it our jungle) hasn't had animals on it or been touched by human hands or machine for over five years.

Before

After

Yesterday early morning before the sun got too high in the sky, I went out to start hacking through 100 metres x 1 meter wide of vegetation with a machete (the strimmer is broken). I was quite pleased that I managed to get half of it done before it got too hot and despite the hideous yellow and black spiders that seem to like making their webs in blackberry bushes, urgh!

After I have finished hacking through the undergrowth I will then start to make post holes with this gadget (sorry I don't know the technical term for it, anyone reading know it?  I just call it the fence post holer), this is it;   

Then I will start to cut 2 meter lengths of 3-4" diameter posts (these are sapling trees that we have cut from our woods).  I will then screw 4 isolators into each post.  

After that I usually have to remove the electric fence wire from the old compound whilst hoping that the goats won't run off, however this time I have ordered some more wire as we will need it when we separate the males and females next month -this is to stop them mating too early and having kids in January/February when it is too cold.

Next job is to move the solar panel, battery and energiser, set it all up and test it to make sure it is working.

Electric fencing is great from a flexibility point-of-view but I didn't realise it would take a day or two of work each time we need to move it.  Of course, this will get easier in time, the vegetation will hopefully not be as high once the goats and sheep have been on it, and the posts will already been in place. 

I have been saved from more hacking by the awful weather we have had today, but I think the respite might be a temporary one, back to it tomorrow.

Wanted Dead or Alive...

The Pigs are on Death Row!

This evening the head of the local hunt called down to the house to say that we have to catch the pigs within the next week or they will shoot them, they don't want the local Sanglier (wild boar) stock contaminated by our pigs!

We finally finished the pig pen yesterday...

It doesn't show in the picture but there is pig netting on the inside of the gate and fence. I hope it will be strong enough to keep the pigs in, but we have to catch them first! Any volunteers?

Training a Goat to Stay Put

I have five goats fenced with 4-5 strands of electric fencing (I have some pigmy goats and some normal size so need more strands for the varying sizes) they tend to try to go through the fence at just below their own head height.  

It takes them a day or two to get use to the fencing, and often when they arrive they are disorientated having been moved from their previous home.  I tether them for a couple of days, until I feel they know where there home is, then if they run off at least they have a good chance of finding their way back.  I then undo the tether whilst I am in their paddock, then I step out of the electric fenced area and usually they follow and get zapped.  This happens a couple of times before they associate going through the fence with pain (it isn't really horrendous just uncomfortable).  If they are really stubborn then they have to have a bucket of water poured over their head and be pushed against the fence, a horrid thing to do but it does work, after a couple of times they stop going near the fence and you have lovely goats that stay put.  

I have five that have now been trained for the electric fence, none of them came from place that used electric fencing, so it was all new to them.  

I pop down a couple of times a day and go and do stuff in their paddock or chuck them some corn or other treats so they are use to people being about and associate me with treats, this makes it easier to get them back if they do escape.  

I think at the moment they would only try to escape if they didn't have enough food in their paddock.  I will let you know what happens when I more their paddock and I also need to move the females away from the males in September so they don't end up pregnant too early, that should be an interesting one!

Feeling Sheepish

Well today was the day the lambs were being released from their pen-itentiary. All started off well,  I took one out every five/ten minutes and they just hung around the pen until I let the last one out, then they edged away to nibble some grass and the goats did a charge attack at them, off they went straight through the fence.  Rounded them up got them back in and set about lowering fence wires, whilst I was doing that they went through the fence on the other side (it was off because I was working on it).  Rounded them up again and tried to get them back in the pen, managed to catch one and that escaped whilst I was trying to get the others, all this was not helped by Bandit (the goat) being in a stroppy mood and snorting in my face all the time. 

Came back to house for a quick cuppa, then went back an hour later and all the sheep were on the track nibbling the grass, which is fine so long as they don't wonder off our land and the dogs don't find them!

By this afternoon they had moved onto the old goat enclosure, which has got electric fence around it so I know the dogs won't get in there (famous last words).  I have now re-arranged netting fence in the hope I can lure them in with hay and trap them in there, there is plenty of grass there which will give me time to work out plan C.

The pigs were on the track again up at the old ruin, so I have plotted another master plan to get them back. Part of the ruin is still standing on three sides so if we build a big sturdy fence/gate with pig wire at the bottom, and I can lure them in there with pig nuts (already started putting some there to see if they will fall for it) and then I will quickly shut the gate, sounds so simple doesn't it? But of course it won't be.  For one thing, that means I have to hide somewhere in close enough proximity to pounce out and shut the gate as soon as they go in, I don't think that is going to happen.  For such large and cumbersome animals they move very quickly when they want to.  

Well it has been an exhausting day, just off back down to try to lure the lambs into the new fenced off bit, wish me luck.

Photos will be posted on Facebook of my successful capture of escapees, hopefully.

Do you have a story about capturing and keeping farm animals where they are suppose to be?  Would love to hear it, use the comment box or post on my Facebook page; 

 https://www.facebook.com/AnEnglishFarmerInFrance

Wannabe Farmer!

Ok, the title of my blog is slightly misleading, but I am thinking big....the title of the blog should be 'An English Wannabe Farmer in France'....

Follow my trials and tribulations whilst trying to register as a farmer in France, but please keep in mind that it might not actually happen, because that is the way things are in France. It might not happen for a number of reasons, not least because I have absolutely no farming qualifications and I have no experience of farming, but why should that hold me back?  In the UK I would be considered a 'smallholder', but they don't seem to have the same concept in France, so I am told, but I will be doing more research, and will report back on progress.

Earlier this year my partner and I bought 12.5 hectares of previously agricultural land, but now in a sad and sorry state, with the land came a grange (barn) converted into a house without planning permission, oh and did I mention it has no mains electricity? There are also two ruins and another grange that is so inaccessible that even the animals groan when I mention popping down to it!

Just to give you an insight into the current situation, I have very recently, as in within the last 4 weeks acquired the following livestock;

5 goats
5 sheep
2 pigs

These are in addition to the 4 chickens, 2 dogs, 1 cat and too numerous to mention mice that we already have, I should just let you know that the mice came with the house, part of the deal so to speak ;-)

Do you have experience of working as a smallholder/farmer in France? I would love to hear about your experiences.