As a result last year Brian built me a new shelter in the small field behind the house, which can give access to either or both of the bigger bottom fields. So far its mostly been used by the horses, but it can also be used by the cows as needed. We clad the two sides that get the weather with metal sheeting.
I have the barn I can use for the horses in bad weather, with the yard area around it, but that doesn't connect to any of the fields so its not so good for longer periods of changeable weather (and changeable describes a lot of our weather!) or for providing a bit of shade in the summer. As a result last year Brian built me a new shelter in the small field behind the house, which can give access to either or both of the bigger bottom fields. So far its mostly been used by the horses, but it can also be used by the cows as needed. We clad the two sides that get the weather with metal sheeting. The small field we built it in is already very stony and well drained, it used to be a haggard apparently, but there was a layer of mud that had built up and a pile of waste material from when the septic tank was put in. Brian created a "scraper" tractor tool from an RSJ to scrape this off and get back down to the stony layer. Finally he topped it off with most of a lorry load of gravel and stone dust from the local quarry, all ready for next winter.
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I hope everyone is safe and well. All the humans are safe and well here, but we've had a bit of a turbulent few weeks with the animals. Sadly we had to make the hard decision to say goodbye to Sully three weeks ago. He was a very sweet pony, one of the gentlest I've ever met, and had such a cheeky character once he came out of his shell. He will be much missed. Trigger was NOT happy about being alone so we sourced a new pony for Freya rather quickly. Meet Meg (formerly named Missy May) from Boskill Equestrian Centre near Limerick. Although young she is very quiet and had been working in the riding school, including disabled rider work. She looks just like a mini Trigger! The photo below was taken a few hours after she arrived, I had intended to keep them apart for a few days to get used to each other but the next morning we found she'd hopped the wall and was happily grazing with Trigger. The day after we lost Sully one of our two cats, the calico named Shelly, disappeared. She was gone for eight days so we were starting to fear the worst by the time she re-appeared at the back door. She wasn't injured but had lost a lot of weight and was very hungry, we suspect she may have got herself shut in somewhere. So she's now happily re-united with her brother enjoying the sun and being spoiled with nice food. Finally the cows gave us a bit of a surprise when Brian checked on them one lunchtime and discovered a new born calf! It seems Bonny had managed to get herself back in calf before she came to us and then got through the pregnancy and birth with no fuss or assistance. Sadly the calf is another male, but nevertheless he is very cute. They are all getting on very well and there has been no trouble with either Chestnut (who is still entire) or the calf's full brother Hazelnut (who wasn't fully weaned when the calf was born). In fact he gets on very well with both his brothers who are protective of him and can sometimes be found watching over him while he sleeps when his mother is grazing on the other side of the field.
I don't think I ever posted any pictures of the back gable. We decided to slate it, both for looks and weather protection, and it turned out really well. Also the back porch is in, just in time for winter. The weather all comes up in that direction so being able to open the back door without having a gale blow in (particularly when carrying a tray of ash) will make a big difference. The only downside is that the chickens have decided this is a perfect shelter for them whilst they moult so it is currently full of feathers. A lot of the other work has revolved around the cows. Ear tagging our calf made us realise that our old race, even with the refurbishments Brian did before our inspection, simply wasn't going to be up to the job of containing a frightened or angry cow. So we've now put in a completely new one, including a head gate, which has already done the job for our first herd TB test and calf castration. Brian's done quite a lot of additional work in the bottom field with additional fencing and gates, including the new post and rail around the septic tank you can see in the picture below. We're now officially Dexter herd owners and properly registered with the breed society with a herd prefix. The cows have properly settled in and filled out, and have grown quite attached to Brian now (mostly since he's the one who feeds them and they really love their food).
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Laura Nash and Brian Brett's blog about our move to Ireland. Archives
December 2020
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