Delivery

Before

We need some hay for the winter to feed the sheep - the grass doesn't grow well enough in the reduced daylight to sustain them . 
The weather has been   dry here so  people have been making hay. We have a small amount (~90 bales) left over from last year and so it need topping up.
 And we got some delivered

During

After

|Its quite hard work climbing up the bales and stacking it to the roof !

Cuthbert and Cato

It's a bit  muddy everywhere . We've had 150% of the usual  Februaruy rainfall. At least its been dry ( and sunny) for the last 4 days and one of the fields no longer squelches when you walk on it.

So with Cato and Cuthbert running out of grass and not keen on hay  its time to move them.

A barrier in case they want to explore down the road

And then they follow a bucket !

And end up with the  others, including another ram. So they are going to have to sort themselves out over the next day or so .

A delivery

Grass needs a soil temperature of  about  5 degrees to grow .

its not going to get there for a while yet

 so we've had some haylage delivered .

They are a bit heavy to move by hand

 Good job Billy brought it with the tractor and put the bales in place to store .

The sun is back

at about this time of the year the sun comes just above the hill and hits the house.
And at 12.00 today , the sun came back, just catching the edge of the room 

and turning round and looking the other way , the sun is just high enough to come above the  ridge of the hill. So things can only get  better from now on .

• In  2014 it was  25th January  (with no snow around) 
• in 2016 is was the 20th January

There is quite a bit of snow around this time .

and the hens dont like the snow. They havent moved much  today

moving home

The hen house was at the bottom of the field - we thought it would encourage them to wander. But they don't need any encouragement .

Hen house at the bottom of the field 

(And some gratuitous views down the hill of the henhouse) 

There were disadvantages to having it located there - principally in the winter

 So its time to move it . We thought it  might be a bit of a struggle .

But after loading it onto my Mucktruck and some slow progress up the hill. It was relocated somewhere more convenient

And now its gone !

Repaired

Earlier in the winter we have a bit of a storm that  did some damage 

The weather hasn't been too bad  so bit of pottering around at weekends  ( its only now light enough to do stuff in the early evening ) Ive managed to repair it

And ive taken the opportunity to create a shortcut - a gap in the wall that we can step through.

The only problem is the mud on the slope -  it will get easier when it all dries out a bit but at the moment its too muddy and slippery to use.

So id better have think about putting some steps in .

Red Sky in the morning

Red Sky  in the morning

And a bit later

 and a bit later still , with a bit of snow and a view

 But then the wind  got up a bit ( Storm Gertrude , For what its worth)

And we have horizontal hail here

The Sun is back !

the sun goes behind the hill in the middle of december , so we get no direct sunlight on the house  until it reappears. 2015 was so wet and miserable that we didn't notice. And it came back on the  25th  January  in 2014  .

We can track it as it moved round to the West












And it hits the house as well

and it brightens up the inside of the house




And this time the sheep have noticed as well . The sun just catches the northern bit of the field

BEFORE 

AFTER