Frantic activity!

It's been a busy week so far and it's only Wednesday!!  Frantic activity on the hay-making front to make the most of the good weather.  I dread to think how many miles David has done in the tractor this week - up and down the road with trailer loads of hay and straw.

The hay barn is starting to look very healthy indeed and we have a rather large stack of gorgeous barley straw slowly appearing at the back of the goat shed - no space in the hay barn!

Yesterday:

Today:

And still 4 more trailer loads to come!

We have also taken back several fields immediately adjacent to the goats - having been rented out as arable land for years to a neighbouring farmer, they are now back with David's family.  The crop was harvested last week and the fields handed back.  This field is right next to the one which the goats use at the moment:

Early yesterday morning David's brother turned up with a rather large tractor and cultivator:

And he then spent the day working through all the fields for us.  Cultivation churns up the soil to quite a depth and throws up all the rubbish.  Leave for a short while and let the rubbish grow, then cultivate again to chop it all back into the soil.  Then you are ready to sow your seed.

All the fields will be turned back into grassland for the goats (and Gracie Moos, if they are very lucky!).  Some grazing and some for hay.  The field above will be mostly for grazing and so we have to decide what kind of grass seed we should sow.  So, this has been my bedtime reading for the past couple of nights:

Riveting stuff!!

Actually, it's pretty fascinating.  There are SO many different types of seed.  David and I have decided that we would like to sow a nice herbal ley for the goats .. problem is that it is the most expensive seed in the catalogue.  Hey ho.  Worth it though.  Has lots of lovely stuff in it like clover and chicory, sainfoin and timothy, meadow fescue and yarrow ... The goats will absolutely LOVE it!!

Some of the new hay has exciting crunchy sticky bits in it.  Here's a couple of the kids sharing a particularly tasty bit of nettle yesterday:

And, we have our final student of the year with us this week.  Beth is in her final year at school and is spending her summer getting loads of work experience ready to apply to veterinary college in September.  Haven't got a photo of her yet, but I will snap her before she leaves on Friday!  Poor girl gets her AS level exam results tomorrow morning.  Good luck Beth!!  She's pretty smart though so I am certain she will be absolutely fine.

And, just in case you were wondering what Ginger is up to this week ....

 
Bit tricky getting that udder over the gate!  Quick swing of the back legs and over it comes ...