In early spring 2012 we planted about 60 apple trees as the first part of our orchard. The orchard is also home to our laying flocks of hens - about 80 hens in all, split into two flocks - the idea being that we get double use from the l...

I think I have said before that managing grass causes me more headaches than any other part of smallholding. All I can say is “nothing’s changed”. Last year (2012) was pretty awful for our grazing. Grass doesn’...

Well, that’s lambing over for another year. We didn’t see the vet at all this year, which is good. We had a C section and two other visits last year. :-( We put eight ewes and three gimmers to the tup; of the 11, nine scan...