Just out , a walkin ma pig..

June has been a bonkers month here at Grobdale, the build started up again after the lock down precautions, turning our tranquil quiet space back into a drilling and banging cacophony ..

kinda missed our building gang actually, but had forgotten how much noise they can make.

CROFT PORCH 1The man of the house hadn’t been sat around idle either and an oak frame porch at the front of The croft soon began to take shape.

OAK PORCH 2

The entrance is starting to look amazing, we have such a clever kilted wonder.. ( kilt only  available for viewings in the hot weather).

We had a few new arrivals in June, first off POLLYwas Polly a beautiful Trakehner  (horse )came to Grobdale as a grass livery . 

A friend we made earlier in the year contacted us to see if we could house another horse…like we are going to say no !!

Polly arrived one blustery lunchtime and immediately settled in, her and Lotte have become quite an item and its lovely to watch them grooming each other.

Bliss when you have a buddy to scratch the bit on your back you cant reach …Thanks Dee for trusting us she’s gorgeous x 

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But not just one more addition to the family we had a few thousand arrive kind of middle of the month !… bees to be more precise.

I went on a course a few years ago at the IMG_2853advice of my lovely friend Paula ( who clearly knows what I need to do more than I do); and got a little insight into what was needed to keep bees, just in case in the future ….we had the opportunity .Well who knew huh , roll it forward a few years and we buy a farm and meet Gary Cook..

All of a sudden I’m shopping for a new outfit and more cedar than a girl would normally want ..

The days the bees arrived was quite exciting in a low key kind of relaxed way, unpacking them and settling them into the new cedar hive was Gary’s job I’m watching mostly and handing stuff over.. looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

PADDLING WITH NORA 1

What you can’t see from the above photos is how hot it was , the bees love it , but we were feeling the need for a dip ,

so of course you take the pig too , Nora loves a wander out , and a dip in the river was just what she needed.

PADDLING WITH NORA 2

 

Love making our pig happy ..

 

Porch Number two is taking shape, and slates are on order to complete them can’t wait to see what they look like ..

PORCH 2.2

 

The cottages are coming on now and its the final push to get them completed.

 

First fit electrics and plumbing is almost done , internal walls , insulation, plasterboard and in two of the three the plastering is done ! Here’s a wee little filmy thing to see whats occurring..

As you can see , the windows and doors are all now in place along with the larch cladding. The building team are doing amazingly well coping with the bonkers extremes in weather along with social distancing measures.

( not too bad when you have three buildings , everyone can almost have a cottage to themselves)

ducklings

 

End of the month brought us ducklings , finally one of the nests ( we have or had 4  sets of mums sat patiently waiting for babies to hatch !!) came good and Lauren noticed that…

two ducks sat on eggs inside the chicken house had tweeting bums 🙂 

Fab’uary, March and April’s madness- Its a hat trick !

The last few months have been very full on, what with the spectacular apocalytic, pandemic that has hit the world .then a drought.. then a moorland bush fire !! sounds biblical doesn’t it .

But not a mention here of the ‘C’ word I promise .

This is my catch up blog because it seems the whole world has conspired against me and my date with a laptop once a month…

They won 3 times it seems but now I need to empty my thoughts out online sorry .

Continue reading “Fab’uary, March and April’s madness- Its a hat trick !”

Do you need a bit o’ Scotland ?

        Imagine this title, in the voice of Joey Tribiani ..

Cos that’s how I heard it, when a very good friend ,said it should be our strap line..

img_5220Made me smile and made me think . We have a lot of very welcome visitors to our tiny piece of Scotland and just recently

(I blame current politics.. no I didn’t say the “B” word)

I have had a few friends, say a’ bit of Scotland’ is what they needed to ease stress..

August started with our lovely Helen and Damon adding a few giggles to the day , this is us taste testing gherkins vs cucumber .. does anyone know the difference ?

Continue reading “Do you need a bit o’ Scotland ?”

Ginger the best colour ever..

June is the best month as far as our favourite ginger   is concerned as it means all her favourite things .. Cake , friends , presents and chocolate . img_2110

We always celebrate a birthday and it generally lasts more than a day, shame the cake didn’t last as long .

A surprise visit from our besties also went down a treat too.. we love you guys.

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June 13th was  Nora’s due date , and we had planned for Andy to be home for the early days , we couldn’t have planned it better as he had only been home maybe  an hour when Noraimg_4137 went into labour !

We camped out in lambing shed to be rewarded in the early hours with the birth of

9 healthy happy piglets ..

 

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As first timers we were quite nervous , there was so much that could go wrong however Nora was a true  textbook    pig and did everything according to what we had read .

Thanks Google

 Nora has turned out to be a fabulous mum looking after her litter .. we clearly brought her up well .

Continue reading “Ginger the best colour ever..”

Bringing home the bacon !

 

 

 

 

Apparently it’s the year of the pig ,and February it seems is definitely the month of the pig here at a Grobdale !

DEC NORA PADDLINGWe had felt for a while that Nora needed some help on the fertility front,IMG_0356 she wasn’t showing any signs of coming into season so AI (artificial insemination) hasn’t been an option ,

We needed a real man ..

We have found Social media to be a powerful tool and I’ve used it to sell and source all kinds if things including this time ,a loan Tamworth boar .

It took just over a week of messages and phone calls  .. on the journey I found her brother and her parents !

 

Third time lucky I discovered “Boaris “ and no he doesn’t have a blonde unruly mop ..

Continue reading “Bringing home the bacon !”

Dry January my arse !or Bats in the Dairy ?

 

 

  January it seems is supposed to be when you stop eating and drinking  .. kind of detoxing.. well pish to that !

In this house we are still guzzling the Christmas leftovers, the animals get the leftover leftovers and so, nobody is doing without really 236c3600-de1d-4003-ad9f-f09ec776b4d5.

kind of keeps them happy anyway as we move them about.. We seem to be  doing a lot of that this month !

The pigs were first, their pen really was looking a bit bare , and they love to forage; they had even been breaking out every now and then so it was time to move them to pastures new.74489cf4-88eb-46f9-8273-cd1f6bfa2c23

When we arrived at Grobdale we inherited a pigloo in one of the smaller paddocks , it seemed the perfect time to give its proper tenants and evict the ram a8cac386-d6db-4e6b-a319-2fc3ee001a83lambs Henry and Harry , give them a grassier patch and move the bulldozers in ! Here’s the video Of us moving the lovelies . 

How happy are they ..

Continue reading “Dry January my arse !or Bats in the Dairy ?”

The world according to gin or maybe pigs !

 

So November’s here and the  pigs decided , between themselves one day 6182C95B-21D0-46EC-811B-339C3AE2DA3Ethat they needed a change of scenery ..

 

So one afternoon we decided to take them out down to the loch ,their  first walk out was hilarious they were just proper giddy pants.

The freedom caused them to work up a fair old appetite , as if they needed any encouragement and when they’re hungry the noise they generate is rather impressive compared to their size I can only compare it to

A hundred violins being played REALLY badly !

Continue reading “The world according to gin or maybe pigs !”