Photos - Yay!!

I have had a play around and fingers crossed my pictures are working!!

Here is a picture of our cat run from the front

 and one from the side

The cat run was originally on the other side of the garden but we moved it when we took down the summer house and DH then extended his shed to include where the cat run was.
We purchased the shed and then DH had a vision of what a cat run should look like and then went and got the wood and after a few days of banging and sawing this is what he created.
People who have seen it thought we had bought it in kit form and just screwed it together. I am not sure how he does it, he doesnt even write anything down.

I am very pleased with the cat run and so are the cats!!


Here is a picture of the top of the garden

As you can see it is very overgrown, the grey patch in the middle is where we had small bonfires until the neighbours behind us complained. The tree in the middle is an apple tree that DH and DD planted from an apple pip 4 years ago, it had been kept in a pot all that time and this year we planted it out and for the first time it blossomed. I guess we have a bit of a wait for apples.

The chicken hut is one we have had a while and DH tarted it up last year for the meat birds. I am not sure where we will move it to yet as we will need it for when our turkeys get bigger but not big enough to go up to the field. We were thinking of dividing the top in to 6 patches for veg growing but the other option is 4 patches for veg and 2 for the hut and turkeys.

I have not managed any more digging tonight, after work I did tea and then we had to collect bread for the geese and pies for the feral cats we have and now I am ready for bed. I am going to read my Alan Titchmarsh book.

Not sure I have mentioned the feral cats before - about 4 years ago DH noticed some tiny kittens up on our field but I was convinced he was seeing things as some days they were there and some days not. After a few weeks they got bigger and appeared more and we realised they also had a mother cat with them. We didn't know where they came from but fed them with the pies from the bakery.

A few days later we went behind our storage shed to move a spare chicken hut and when we opened it up there was loads of cat toys - now these are the first cats I have ever known who left home and brought toys with them!! Clearly they had been dumped but the people must have known we would care for them otherwise why go to such lengths as to bring their favourite things?!

Over time more kittens have been born and as they got older they disappeared and the cycle has continued ever since - we have 4 at the moment and this is also the same number we started with.

At times we fed them proper cat food but not only did this cost a lot of money but it meant more survived and we were over run so we have gone back to feeding them pies/sausage rolls etc and the numbers have kept down with natural selection.

It also means they have to hunt and we have not had rats for over 2 years - they also keep the rabbit population down!

I know the RSPCA would come and get them but too be honest they do a great job and all appear quite healthy. One day I know they will disappear one by one, I assume the fox will get them as they are not tame enough to seek out human company (the only cat that we know that got ill had a huge scab across his eye and a few days later he had disappeared, he had obviously died but how would anyone have been able to handle him if we managed to catch him and take him to a vet?).

No eggs sold today as we did not have enough to put out. 



Plans

Sorry I have been missing in action - Friday night I had a meal out after work and by the time I got home I was shattered and yesterday afternoon I felt awful with a pain in my stomach which was only better when I laid down so I spent most of the afternoon and evening reading in bed.

I am much better today though so thought I had better post.

Not much smallholding going on here - yesterdays rain meant we couldn't do much outside but I did pop into the library to pay off some fines as my card had been barred (in Suffolk if you owe more than £15 your card gets barred!). My local library is lovely and lets me pay off what I want, I know Ipswich make you pay it all off before you can borrow again. I paid off £10 so I can have books again!

When I got to the library I could not find my card but gave the lady my number - for some strange reason I have memorised it! My account came up to say that I had left my card behind the last time I was in - luckily they keep all these cards safe in a drawer. My card is one of the old style white ones, my signature has faded now but it was in my maiden name and I have been married for 13 years so I was pleased to get it back - I didn't want a new purple one!!

Anyway while I was in the library I had a look in the gardening section - I had tried to reserve a book a few days ago that someone had read and posted on their blog about but it wouldnt let me as I was barred! I have found the updated James Herriott biography (They had no.1, 2 and 4 so I took 1 and 2 and will order 3 when I get to the end of 1) and also an Alan Titchmarsh book.

We are attempting to grow our own veg this year - we did potatoes about 4 years ago and haven't bothered really since but this year we are doing it seriously.

I thought the book would give me some handy tips although too be honest I have learnt a lot from reading other blogs.

So today DH had his eye test (I love the fact that Specsavers opens on a Sunday) so this afternoon we have been in the garden.

DH has been building a wall - he loves anything like this and is really very good. We had some conifers taken down at the side of the house and of course we are left with stumps so he is building a brick raised bed where the stumps are and then we will put in some bushes from the front garden ready to remove the raised flower beds that are there now (they are rotten, they have been there about 7 years) and we will sprinkle some flower seed in to the ground and hopefully have an abundance of flowers!

I have caught up on the washing and then the neighbour called over the fence to tell us she had some veg plants for us! So I popped round and she gave me 2 cucumber plants, a runner bean plant, a dwarf runner bean plant, a pumpkin plant and a pot of aubergine plants (there are about 10 in a pot just coming through so I will seperate them soon). She is such a lovely neighbour!

DH and daughter planted some seeds last Monday and the sunflowers are just starting to poke through so the plants the neighbour gave have gone in the greenhouse.

Then I started to panic about where the pumpkin plant will go - we have a fenced area at the top of the garden that used to have the potatoes in, and at various times it has been the chicken run but we have not done much for a while. DH and I agreed the pumpkin plant can go at the top but of course it all needs digging over. So today I have made a start and done an area 1.5m x 1.5m!! I will try harder in future otherwise it will take me ages! I have tried to post a picture but it comes out upside down - even though I have corrected it in my saved pictures it won't load properly.

I had some other pictures as well but will try again tomorrow.

We have also decided to buy some more chickens - we are going to get 20. I will ring the man tomorrow and hopefully we can get them next Sunday.

We counted out our egg money and we have £99.50 so that can go towards the new chickens.

On Friday we sold hens eggs and goose eggs and made £5.00 and today we sold half a dozen chicken eggs and 9 goose eggs and made £6.50.

Our chicken eggs are in such high demand we can't keep up hence buying some more as we only have 8.



Cat No.3

Let me intriduce you to my final cat - Cat No.3.

Her name is Madeleine - she was called Maddie but last year next door got 2 rescue dogs and one is called Maddie so it was difficult to call our cat without the dog thinking we were calling her. So now she has a posher name!!

We got Madeleine in about 2009 - my sister-in-laws sister had rescued a mummy cat and 7 kittens from a lady who could not afford to feed them. We were offered the chance to have mummy and a few kittens which we agreed to.

When we got there we were told that despite her having 3 cats of her own she had decided she wanted to keep all 7 kittens for herself but we could have mummy cat - of course we agreed (we were a bit dubious because she had kept them in the bathroom and they had not mixed with her other cats).

This is her not long after we got her

 As you can see she was very skinny.

Not long after we got her she developed an ulcer on her eye but this has left some scarring over one eye but she manages really well.

We are not sure what sort of life she had before us but it can't have been good as she appears to be agoraphobic!!

Ever since we have got her she cannot bear to be in a room with the door closed or locked in the cat run. When she has been locked in the cat run overnight by the morning she is out and we were never sure how she did it until one day my husband watched her - even though she is now really fat she manages to squeeze between the bars on the cat run (these bars are about 1inch x 3 inches) to escape.

In the summer she sleeps on the trampoline and in the winter she sleeps in our neighbours open sided shed.

This is a picture of her taken recently - she is reading a book with my daughter!!

She loves my daughter the most and spends all day asleep on her bed. Recently my daughter went to her Nannies for the night (which she has not done for 6mths) and poor Madeleine was all confused in the morning and was pacing the house looking for her!!

Sorry forgot to say that we think Madeleine is about 8 yrs old.

So we have quite a gap in ages with our cats but we are not getting any more as we want dogs. Don't get me started on the cat that my husband agreed to rehome last year even though we agreed no more cats!!! 

Food Parcels - Helping The Needy

I have been at work all day so not much smallholding work has happened today.

I did let the animals out this morning and fed and watered them before work and then tonight they have been put to bed.

I really love my job and I am not sure when I would ever be able to give it up - I just love helping people and my job allows me to do that.

I help people with benefits and debt and one of my jobs is to assess people for food parcels and help with gas and electricity.

I know food parcels are a hot subject at the moment so thought I would share my views on them.

Up until last April if people did not get their benefits paid on time or they were waiting for a new claim or some other crisis had happened people could apply for a crisis loan. This was a small amount of money to see them through until they received their benefit entitlement which had to be paid back - this was done by weekly deductions until it had all been paid back.

Crisis loans and budgeting loans (to help people buy furniture or pay essential travel costs) cost the Government approx £178million per year.

In April 2013 they were abolished and county councils were given a pot of money for them to spend to help people in hardship - this pot of money was not ring fenced and could be spent on what the county council wanted. Of course the amount given out to councils was much less than the Government had been spending.

County councils did not want the administration costs of a scheme - lets not forget that the £178million would be paid back over time so the pot was always being filled - so a lot of them give people what they need as grants so eventually the pot will be empty and then it is up to each county council to fund this out of their own pocket.

County councils do not give money and instead give food parcels - this is why there has been a rise because everyone who needs food has a food parcel whereas under the old scheme they were given money and spent that money in the supermarket (we hope) and never went near a food bank.

Of course there will be people who abuse the system but in the year it has been running in Suffolk it has only been abused a handful of times, nobody likes to come with the begging bowl to ask for a handout but what other choice do they have.

The Government is setting people up to fail - take my client today.
He was released from prison last week with no benefits or accomodation - he has a number of medical conditions which require medication and has addictions. So what better way to help him than just release him on to the streets with the only way of surviving being crime.
He has now been housed in a hostel but until his benefits are sorted what will he live on, in the past he would have had a crisis loan but now they don't exist I have got him a food parcel.
He has tried to claim benefits but the Jobcentre have hindered him, surely if you don't have a phone or computer this is the place to go to claim benefits. No you are wrong, the phones are now only for people with a query on an exisiting claim or to chase a new claim but not to make a new claim!!!
So how does someone make a new claim?
I have to agree with the client, the more they fob him off the longer he has no benefits and it is one less person on the stats.
I will be seeing him again tomorrow to help him claim the right benefits but what if he didn't have this support??

This is why I love my job, I know I can make a difference to people and as I know the benefits system inside out I can help people who would otherwise be stranded.

I see this kind of story so often and the majority of people who need help with food are in this situation because of a benefit issue caused by the DWP.

Don't even get me started on sanctions!!

Cat No. 2

Let me introduce you to Cat no.2 - Elgin.

Yes, he is named after the Farm Manager from The Green Green Grass (spin off from Only Fools and Horses)!! This was my husbands idea!!

We had Elgin's mum, Elvina and unfortunately did not get her spayed early enough and she had a few kittens - we opted to keep Elgin.

Elgin is about 4 yrs old and he is a bit of a terror!

When Elgin was about 18months old he came home with a limp, we thought he might have been bitten by another cat but could see no bite marks. A few days later he was still limping so we took him to the vet who also could not find anything wrong but decided to give him antibiotics anyway.
Later that week he was still limping so the vet decided he needed an x-ray and this showed that his hip joint had disintegrated - he had not been hit by a car but they thought he had Legg-Perthes.

Legg-Perthes is where the blood supply does not reach the hip joint and so the hip joint dies. Humans can also get this (I happen to know 2 people who are clients at work who have this).

We agreed that we would pay for an operation and he was booked in the next day at a sister surgery as the vets there were more qualified. During the operation they removed his hip joint and tidied up the area.
This operation confirmed he had Legg-Perthes and the vet (who was 60) said he had never seen a cat with this condition before but had seen it in small dogs so I guess we have a rare cat.
I was worried that he would not be able to get about but actually the leg muscle has taken the place of the hip joint and to look at you would not know he has lost a hip joint.
In the winter and when he has run about too much he often has a slight limp. He also cannot jump very high - as he is so young he loves to climb and often we hear him miaowing to get down from the shed roof.

This is him a few weeks ago when he got on to the utility room roof

We know that eventually his other hip joint will go the same way so we always watch him closely as he will need a further operation.

Even though he has cost us a lot of money we love him loads!!

He loves Daisy as well but she does not love him, he tries to steal her warm spot and often thinks she can play chase but of course she cannot as she is so old.

What A Boring Day!!

This blogging lark is seriously confusing - I did a post last night and scheduled it to post at 11am but 11am came and went and despite trying to force it to post it wouldn't. Then I realised that the timing of my posts was way out and I realised that blogger is set 7hrs different. I eventually managed to find where I could change to GMT London but it still did not post.
Anyway I am back on here now and it posted at 7pm so I must remember that for when I attempt to be all technologically minded and attempt to schedule a post again.

At least the post has appeared and you know all about Daisy. I will follow in the next few days with my other cats.

So today has been rather boring - normally Tuesday is work but I had booked today off work so I had an extra long weekend. My son had to go to college so he had to catch the bus from the next village and my daughter had a PD day. So knowing that I have so much to do before I go back to work I managed not a lot!!

I have managed to tidy the bedroom - it always gets messy, when visitors come things from the lounge get shoved up there and never come down again and then as the week passes the washing hangs about waiting to be put away and before you know it weeks have passed - the chest of drawers are all empty and the washing sits on the ottoman waiting to be sorted!!

I have also read some blogs - the problem is when I find a new blog I have to start from the start so it takes me a while to get round to the most recent posts. I have so many new blogs to read but I feel I should finish the one I am one before I move on.
I think I need some my holiday so I can sit reading blogs all day.

My daughter and husband have been planting seeds today - we have not done fruit and veg for a good few years now but we were given a greenhouse for free so decided to put it to good use. That kept her busy all morning and then in the afternoon she watched TV and just relaxed - she told me she had no homework as she did it before they broke up and handed it in!!

In the afternoon we took some dirt up to our field to try and fill in the tracks where the truck has been and on the way up there saw the Polish car wash workers who were trying to cut their grass with shears!! We offered to mow it for them in exchange for a car wash - bartering at its best!!

So we did that and then this evening we went and tidied the edges of our meadow - one of the egdes has a hedgerow along a footpath (our gardener trims it once a year)  and the dirt and weeds creep over the footpath so we have edged it all neatly and it looks amazing.

Then this evening my brother popped in - he is having a court battle with his ex for access to his children and we had to file a statement so he came to pick up a couple of copies as they need to be served tomorrow.
Luckily as I deal with courts a lot in my job I knew what we had to do and what they were looking for in terms of layout etc. I bet his ex has not done hers.

So I am off to bed shortly as I will be up nice and early ready to go back to work.

Today we sold:

6 chicken eggs = £1.00

Cat No. 1

I thought I would introduce you to some of the animal family.

Cat No1 is Daisy:

All of our animals seem to come with a story attached - we never seem to acquire our animals the way others do (ie. by deciding they want a cat and then going to visit breeders etc).

My Auntie had a friend who got a cat from a rescue centre only to find out she was allergic to her; we are a bit soft when it comes to sob stories and agreed to rehome her with us. She was about 3yrs old at this point.

We had her for a year when my M-i-L got herself some kittens, she was disabled at the time and could not look after them so we did a swop - she had Daisy and we had the kittens.

In 2005 my M-i-L had a stroke and went in to a home so we had Daisy back!!

So she is about 16yrs old now.

She is a funny old lady - she does not really like women and is very cantankerous - everything is on her terms. The one thing she loves is my husband - she spends hours grooming him!!

She does really well with still getting about - although her days are spent asleep on the bed in winter and in the sunshine in the garden in summer. Her nights are spent in the specially made cat run asleep. She manages to eat her biscuits still and keeps herself out of trouble.

I must post a picture of our cat run - it really is lovely.

Turkeys Plus The Stag Who Went To Stud

Yesterday I mentioned that we keep Turkeys - we started off a few years ago and used to buy in our poults (chicks) and then rear them on and then we would kill them for Christmas and sell to friends and family.

Then we started keeping a few back and breeding from our own stock, we would then rear them as usual and instead of killing all the Turkeys we would keep some to breed from.

My husband decided that we should keep Narragansett‎ Turkeys as the are a rare breed so we purchased eggs from ebay and hatchd some ourselves - we have a few other breeds as well but mainly stick to Narragansett‎.

We now only sell to family and we don't rear as many - the rules around slaughter of poultry are getting stricter and the cost of rearing is getting higher so we now sell off the poults (so we don't have the expense of rearing them) and keep some for us to have at Christmas.

We have a friend through Suffolk Smallholders who had a Turkey Stag from us a few years ago but she was not sure if he was doing his job this year so she has borrowed one of ours so she can try to get some chicks hatched. We took the stag over in the back of the car - we do have a large bird carrying box but as he is so big we thought he would more comfortable in the back of the car with some tarpaulin and straw!!

Here is a picture of 2 of our stags

The darker one is the Narragansett and the lighter one is a Crollwitzer.

We have some Turkeys eggs in the incubator at the moment - here is a picture of some of our chicks from last year

Turkey poults are very difficult to rear - their main aim in life is to die!! They do all sorts of stupid things that a chicken would not do such as laying in the water to drown or staying away from the heat lamp so they die from the cold.

But for all my moaning - the meat tastes amazing. We rear ours for at least 7months before they are killed so they are very slow growing plus we have a 1 acre field that they have the run of so their quality of life is so much better than a commercially reared bird. 

I thought I would copy a few other smallholders and list what we have sold from the gate:

Today we sold:

9 Goose Eggs = £5.00 (we sell for 50p each but someone paid extra)

Welcome!!

I have been readings blogs on a variety of subjects for ages and the more I read the more inspired I am to start my own blog.

I am not ready to out myself at the moment so just call me MSM.

I live in a village in Mid Suffolk with my husband and my two children; I have a son who is 17yrs old and a daughter who is 11yrs old.

We have kept chickens for many years in our back garden and then this extended to a meadow in the village and this is where we have our smallholding.

At the moment we have chickens, turkeys, geese and goats and soon we will have some lambs.

Our smallholding is just for fun really but in the future we hope to buy a smallholding and make our living from that - ideally we will run a smallholding where people can come to do voluntary work and gain skills. (We do not wish to be involved in care farming as such as this involves people using their budgets to be able to come to your farm, we want to give people such as ex-offenders the chance to be involved even if they don't have a personal budget).

We also have 3 cats and one day we hope to get some dogs.

So over the course of the next week or so I will introduce you to my animal family and the stories behind them.

Thanks for following