Farm Life, July 2020

As predicted, July on the farm has been mainly abut field work. It’s not been cut and dry though, literally. You need a good dry period with hot sunshine to make hay and the sun, when it does make an appearance, doesn’t seem to be very hot.

Nevertheless, hay and haylage has been made and we are now waiting for the next dry spot for more field work and straw too. All at the mercy of mother nature.

Summer is a fairly quiet time for the sheep. The lambs are not yet weaned and are happily frolicking around the fields, playing with their friends and eating grass while still going back to the ewe for reassurance and a bit of milk.

The Ryeland sheep are in a field on their own with the pet lambs and they are much tamer than the commercial flock, mainly thanks to the mini farmers who hug them quite a lot.

The hens are laying well most of the time-they just slow down if the rain is torrential.

The vegetable patch has exploded with flowers and food.

The first thing you spot are the sunflowers but they are not the only things to ripen. In the last month, we have enjoyed potatoes, broad beans, sugar snap peas, herbs and salad. I am hoping by the August Farm Life we will have tomatoes but I can but hope at the moment. Will they ripen? Won’t they ripen?

I have also loved picking my late sweet peas for vases and I think I might expand the flower growing next year. They really do make me smile.

I learnt my lesson from last year about growing pumpkins in a raised bed. They just did not have enough room so we dug a little patch over by the pond and planted them there and they are all flowering and growing so I am taking that to be a good sign. I just hope the pond creatures don’t eat them.

So schools are officially closed (even though two out of three of the children will have been off six months by the time September comes) and we are hoping for a summer of sunshine at the farm.

One thing is for sure though, rain or shine, life is never dull around here.

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