Orchard

‘In the midst of life we are in death’ 07/05/2026
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‘In the midst of life we are in death’ 07/05/2026

I suppose I should say ‘Happy New Year’ – maybe I am just wishing we’d had one.

Too many things have happened between my last post here and now to write about. The most important thing is that my mum died a few weeks ago.

I have yet to resume either writing or gardening or anything else I was doing before Christmas 2025. I have not yet regrouped.

All I can say is that I can plant the vegetable garden. That the stories are where I left them, so I can write on when I want to. The grass is growing, so I guess we will be silaging soon.

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May 31st to August 31st 2023. Ups and Downs of Farm Life.

Downs First:

Following a fundamental mistake by a vet in a routine task, Phoenix male goat suffered an overwhelming infection. The vets provided medication for him, but the little guy was clearly damaged, so he and his twin Pirate were PTS. I brought forward culling three of the others, so it was all done at once by the vets. These other animals could not go into the food chain due to recent worming nor be rehomed due to the failed CLA test two years ago.

It’s been a miserable summer with heavy-duty nursing of this very poorly goat, and that has overshadowed everything this year. It was a difficult decision, but it was the right thing to do in all the circumstances.

Ups:

It rained 🙂 After the whole farm was turned into haylage, they may even get a second cut! Post script 07/09/23 Just cutting it now…

The rain also made the garden grow; we have veg on our plates and flowers gracing the table.

The soft fruit crop looks good, and the orchard has a fair few trees that are laden to counterbalance the few that seemed to get caught out by ‘something’ late at blossom time.

I’ve been learning to manage to feed round-bale hay to the goats – I’ve still had to have small bales around for the days when it has been too windy or wet, or both, to lift the bale cover, but it’s been lovely hay and I have managed with dumpy bags to shift the stuff to the racks without it blowing over the village 🙂

Looking Forward:

I am really looking forward to piles of runner beans 🙂

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Jan to Dec 1st 2022.

Jan to Dec 1st 2022.
 
I suspended all Blogging, unconsciously really. We lived through my Mum’s dementia hitting crisis and her needing to be taken into residential care. This was not planned. 
 
The first part of this year was always going to be tough, as I was dealing with acting on the decisions we had to take, when the goats failed a CLA test, back in Sept 2021. I had to get them to a point where they were ‘dried off’ and the herd hadn’t increased in over all size. This was never what anyone wanted. In order to ‘get through’ those activities, I had planned to increase my art-for-something-to-do practise.
 
As it turned out the art activity also gave my Mum something she could do when everything else around her became out of step for her. It was something we clung to, and shared for several months, till even that could hold us all together no more.
 
Mum is now settled in a home local to us.
 
We are picking up the pieces of our lives and sorting ourselves out. 
 
As part of that, I am reviewing the Blogs and what they mean to me and deciding whether I will renew the hosting etc or not come Autumn when these things fall due.
 
I am also looking at what I will be doing with fiction writing. The non-fiction book, about domestic dairy goats, is not happening. I could not, in good conscience, encourage anyone, here in the UK, to invest in garden dairy goats today.
 
The goats are now being kept for the hell of it/fun of it as ‘retirees’/’pets’. All 22 of them. Stopping the numbers increasing will be a challenge as 5 are entire males. They are also CLA carriers. CLA is a non-notifiable and zoonotic disease, and we are keeping them against Vet’ advice to cull. This is a risk to ourselves and other livestock. At the moment we do not have neighbours who keep livestock that might be at risk. It’s a situation that is monitored responsibly. Responsible decisions will be taken if circumstances change. Not one of them has clinical CLA. This is not a ‘re-homing’ situation. Meanwhile, they are happy goats on a Dorset hillside and we are enjoying having them around and Rufus enjoys their antics too.
 
The ‘riding’ section of my website is defunct as I am not riding – though Rufus is still here as only-pony retiree and I have no plans to ever ride again or keep any other equines here.
 
It may be that I will ride through my writing but I just don’t know yet…
 
Art has become part of my life and that may be something that I will want to Blog about…
 
I have had new stories kicking around in my head and the re-write of Luckshill Riders can still be done but, right now, I am taking a break.