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 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).
The problem of what to do with all this grass has been an issue since we moved in, and came to a head this year when the grass growth has been crazy plus I had to take the ponies right off the grass to slim them down. Hopefully we have a solution. It took a bit longer than we hoped, but we are now the proud owners of two pedigree Dexter cows and their calves. The Dexter is a native Irish breed, descended from the original little, black cows of the Celts. They are supposed to be hardy and easy to keep, well able to live out all year around. A dual purpose cow, their milk is as good as a Jersey's and they produce a lot of good beef for their size. So far we've been very impressed with the temperament of our two, who have settled right in and appear unfazed with the change from the mountain near Ballina they came from. There was just one problem with putting cows in the bottom field and that was a length of the top wall. Calling it a wall is perhaps an over-statement, a low pile of stones being a better description. I've been relying on electric fencing for that stretch when the ponies were in the field, but now was the time to sort it out properly. We had plenty of stone from earlier wall changes and general clearance so Brian shifted all the stone down in the tractor and rebuilt the wall properly with a double skin and wire along the top. It was quite an undertaking, but we've had plenty of compliments on our new wall. Cows come with a lot of paperwork! Sorting out our herd number was fairly stressful and not exactly straightforward - everyone was lovely and helpful but the process seems to rely heavily on leaving paper files on peoples desks and hoping they notice them. We also had to be inspected for suitability as regards disease control, including suitable handling facilities. Luckily we already had a cattle race, though it did require a bit of renovation. As well as fencing we have begun the process of putting in gates where required, two done two more to go, one of the finished ones being this little one which is part of the race "complex" and was previously an old pallet leant against the wall. Field maintenance has been taking up quite a bit of time recently, in particular Brian has sprayed large area's of thistles. It would have been very helpful to have been able to harrow the fields that were used over winter, so we decided it was time to take another look at the tractor. The aim is to get it to a functional state so we can use it, so Brian has been cleaning it up so we can see what we actually have. We already knew the brakes didn't work at all, so he's also taken them apart and identified the seized component responsible - we're just waiting for the new shoes etc to arrive. The list of new parts required is ever-increasing, so it will definitely be a phased refurbishment. We had suspected one of our chickens of developing an egg eating habit, but they have now been absolved and the culprit identified as a magpie. Also a lot of the local jackdaws have got wise to the chicken feed and have been nicking any leftovers. Finally, we needed to separate them more effectively from the ponies who have also been a bit too interested in their feed (particularly Sully who finds chicken feed delicious). So they have now been moved into a completely enclosed dog run. Hopefully this will keep the thieves out! Brian has constructed a nifty little tunnel so they can be given access to the main enclosure whenever we want. This is the view from our garden, looking out over the lake. We knew when we bought the house that we were quite close to a turlough (a lake that dries out in summer), but this winter it has come even closer than normal. The common is now part of the lake, including a few of our smaller and unfenced fields around its edge. The lake attracts a lot of birds, geese and swans particularly.
Meanwhile the plumbing is now complete on the stove meaning we have central heating and a constant supply of hot water, and a much lower electricity bill! We have a wood store (a converted old animal trailer) full of sycamore that Brian cut down when we first moved in so its practically free. One of the problems with this property is the odd arrangement of the plot and the fields. After a chat with our neighbour last night, we have agreed to a field swap to make our plot a more sensible shape. We are going to give him two fields (outlined in blue) in return for the one at the back of our house (outlined in orange).
We're holding off on getting it sorted legally though, as we want to talk to the owner of the small piece of ground by our garden (in green) and if he is willing to sell it see if we can get that sorted out at the same time. Those two changes would make the plot around the house a much more normal shape. With my parents down for the week, I have finally got around to taking a forage sample for testing. This is a fairly drawn out process involving taking samples of grass from all around the fields, drying them out by the fire (in the absence of a low heat oven) and then posting them off. This should mean I can now tailor the horses mineral supplement to give them exactly what they are missing from the grass and hay, so I am now eagerly awaiting the results. Since we're on limestone I'm hopeful I will need to give them less. Of course in the long term it might even be possible to apply any low minerals to the fields themselves to reduce the supplements even more, but that's definately a future plan (and will require a fully working tractor).
Now the hay has been cut my parents and I took the chance for a walk around our fields with the map from our deeds, and discovered we had a few extra fields we didn't know about. We knew the four individual ones dotted about, as we have been using those. There is the one behind the house, the flat one on the corner I am planning on schooling in, the long thin one we are hoping to use as an allotment-type area (where we have put the muck heap and compost heap) and the small one Trigger is currently in. Then there is the three good ones that had been rented to a neighbour which were where most of the hay was cut from. We had only seen those from the road up to this point. What we found though was behind those three there was a well-kept field that couldn't be cut due to exposed bedrock, followed by another small field that had obviously been rented recently and was also cut. Finally, and unexpectedly, there were a further four small fields around the edge of the turlough. These have obviously not been touched in years, but they are quite pretty and also don't have anything poisonous growing and could be very useful for horse grazing at times to avoid spring grass problems.
Thanks to yet more friendly neighbours, the long grass in the un-grazed fields is now cut and I can use the corner field (in particular) for lunging and riding. They were out yesterday evening till 10:30pm getting in the hay bales before the rain today. In return for the hay they made they've given us a trailer load of the hay (about 25 bales) delivered straight into the hayloft and €200.
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Laura Nash and Brian Brett's blog about our move to Ireland. Archives
December 2020
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