Hay Hoe To The Sunshine

I have just come back from viewing our fields with Colin Jones our forage contractor, we call him Colin the Tractor as we also have a Colin Jones who is our hay merchant we call him Colin the Straw and then we also have another Colin (not Jones) who is one of our builders, yes, you've got it, Colin the Builder, well it makes life easier round here. Colin the Tractor also mends tractors and agricultural machinery in his spare time so I am sure he will be a frequent visitor to our blog!

We think we may be able to save our hay to make a rough hay as it has been a scorcher today but just as I write this there is a big black rain cloud hovering over the field (I would rather see Winnie the Pooh hanging on to his balloon). I am going to have to phone in to BBC Radio Wales and have a moan at Derek the Weatherman - it isn't meant to rain until Saturday!!!

If we have some more good weather next week Colin the Tractor reckons we may drop our three remaining fields and 'go for it' so to speak. It has been a real worry this year for all us farmers. We were hoping to have had three cuts during this summer and we are struggling to have one, only two fields will have been cut twice. What with that and the price going up for all our concentrates for the goats this is going to be a tough old year. Great, selling shows down and feed prices up and all because of the weather. But I musn't complain at least we haven't been flooded.

We made fudge today. Micheala came in and beavered away to make Plain, Chocolate, Chocolate Mint and Rum and Raisin, yum yum!! Well I have to try each batch to check that the graining is correct - quality control - if it isn't we have to start again.

Oh! I must tell you a funny thing that happened yesterday. Aneta took the quad bike to round up some of the milking goats for Wiktor (pronounced Victor) for afternoon milking. To save her time later she then decided to leave the quad bike in the field whilst she got on feeding milk to some of our baby kids. Well, the rest of the milking goats had a whale of a time as you can imagine. What was this object left in the field? Can we all have a go? Hey, is it good to eat? And yes, when Aneta came back she couldn't start the quad bike because they had chewed all the wires! The Quad Bike has today been collected by the garage so as to be re-wired!!!! Poor Aneta was mortified but I don't think she'll do that again, well I hope not!

I put a picture of Monty up today as I mentioned him in my last pennings. Isn't he beautiful? Well I think so. He has been eating stinging nettles all day with his friend Merlin and when I saw the pair of them just now their bottom lips were all floppy from the stings (that always happens) but they'll be fine in the morning - until they do it again.

Well I am off to check the forecast again. I was hopeing that we may be able to leave the hay for one more day before bailing but I will have to see. Keep smiling...

Loraine