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.
After 4-5 weeks of work and about £1500 of parts and paint, the tractor is finished and ready to go. Its looking great and now runs without leaking, steers and (most importantly) brakes. Brian took it for a test drive down the field with no problems, other than attracting a couple of curious ponies who thought he might be delivering food. The next job is to put it to work, starting with fixing up the transport box so we can move stuff about and then progressing to harrowing and topping.
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).
Trigger gave us a bit of a scare yesterday morning, he broke through the fence and decided to have a play with some 10 year old bales of straw in the barn. This triggered his dust allergy badly and he was pretty ill for several hours, necessitating a visit and injection from the vet. The vet was lovely, but warned me beforehand that he wasn't a horse vet - i.e. he only treats horses whose owners can catch them and get them to stand still. I was able to reassure him this isn't a problem with Trigger! He seems fully recovered now. The offending straw was duly removed and Brian carried on and cleared out the barn more fully. This allowed as to take a better look at the two tractor trailers parked under the hayloft. I think it is fair to say that one of them has had a previous life (probably several). The marriage of a pony trap and the axle and wheels from a Morris Minor is certainly novel. Sadly I think this is beyond rescue, but we hope to be able to do something with the other trailer.
Finally it was Freya's last day at pre-school summer camp, which she has absolutely adored. The lady who runs it turned out to be a neighbour and has been lovely and very helpful. We are spending the night at the Cong youth hostel to get a shower and a good nights sleep. We paid over the odds booking the room online, but luckily the lady who runs it felt guilty about this and has said we can use her coin-op laundry, showers and cooking facilities whenever we want whilst we get the house sorted - so it was well worth it! All the moving is now done, including Trigger who arrived yesterday afternoon. It got a bit stressful because the lorry driver got lost and scratched his lorry, in the end I had to walk Trigger 1.5 miles to his new home. He was a very good boy though, and I think the walk actually helped settle him down. Huge thanks to Anna and Bev who got him on the lorry in Somerset at 2am, complete with plaited mane and tail. He is currently relaxing in what will be the garden. We've already started emptying the house, made more urgent by the decided whiff of smoke (both from the fireplace / range and cigarettes I suspect) which seems to hang around all the old furnishings. The process left me with the question - exactly how many crucifixes can you get per room? We even had one inside a light bulb. Very little of the furniture is worth keeping so we're getting ready for a big bonfire! Since we are spending as much time as possible outside at the moment, I bought myself an early birthday present (although I think Freya is using it more). Dad and Freya were both fast asleep on this the first night I got it (whilst I blew up the inflatable double bed). As I mentioned earlier all of the neighbours have been really welcoming. Everyone has been around to say hello, and bought cards and presents. I took a picture of all the cards and presents (below) but we've had even more since then. Our closest neighbour is a scotsman and he very kindly gave me a lift back to the lorry to pick up my stuff after the long walk with Trigger.
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Laura Nash and Brian Brett's blog about our move to Ireland. Archives
December 2020
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