I can share with you how a mare who is about to foal behaves in the few hours before foaling as she and I had one of the most sleepest nights of my life. Because of last year's tragedy with the colt being found dead, I watched the camera in the stable obsessively for two weeks before the due date (4 April) and almost two weeks afterwards. Shelley's udder filled up and the muscles slackened round her tail but still her behaviour did not change. Then, one night, I bent to look at her udder which although large was by no means excessively so, and there were the tell tale signs of 'wax' hanging from her teats. I've seen these appear as real candles but to be honest, with her, blink and you would miss it but they were there at last! I put her in the stable and resolved tiredly to be extra vigilent. Normally they foal within 24 hours of this appearing. Shelley went in the stable quietly as usual and starting eating her hay with gusto. But by the time I went to bed, the camera was revealing quite a different picture. She was roaring round her stable, kicking the door and stamping. She kept this up all night until about 4am when suddenly all went quiet and just for a few minutes I drifted off to sleep with a thought lurking at the back of my mind. Eventually the thought broke through and I jerked awake and looked at the screen. Shelley was on the floor, and from under her tail, there was a bag appearing. My first thought was to put a coat over my night clothes and run out but I made myself dress quickly and in the few minutes it took to do this and run outside, the bag had turned into a slippery grey sack and was wriggling. I swiftly opened the door and bent down to investigate, making out the shape of a head. I tore the bag (foals are born in a bag which they should break in the act of birth - sometimes a bag is especially tough and if the foal cannot break it and mother does not do it quickly, it can prevent them breathing or lead them to breath in fluids, thus causing death. I wondered if that was what happened last year to the colt?) The mare stood up and as she did so, the naval cord naturally broke and Shelley turned round to see her foal. I gently edged out and Shelley got to work cleaning her foal. I made myself go into the kitchen and make a cup of tea. It is very important that the mare and foal bond and I think they are best doing this without a human around - it was obvious that Shelley knew her stuff and the foal was breathing properly so safe to leave them for five minutes or so. (Our kitchen is only yards from the stables). When I came back I didn't go in but quietly watched them from the stable door. Everything was progressing absolutely normally. The foal began to try and stand and it had several attempts with its long, spidery type legs. There is a school of thought that says you should leave them to get on with it, but after it had hit the floor (albeit well covered with straw) several times, I couldn't stand back. I went in, spoke to Shelley and helped the foal to its feet, noting as I did so that it was a filly. She wobbled about while I supported her and I held her up for what seemed like several minutes but probably wasn't that long. Her back legs, that looked so splayed and delicate, gradually adapted to hold her weight and she managed to stand without my help. She tottered towards Shelley's udder and again it was my turn to leave as Shelley guided her with whickers and nudges to the right place. I thought about the colt that had died and although blissfully happy with the new filly, I did shed some tears for him. I stood there long enough to make sure she was 'plugged in' and then made another cup of tea and went back to bed with my cats for an hour or so. I could watch them on the camera without intefering. I had a meeting for Smallholder at 12 noon and I couldn't imagine being clean and awake but amazingly I did manage to be both!
We decided to call the foal 'Katie'after a lovely girl who used to keep her pony with us and was so full of life and vitality. Sadly, on one windy March day, a few years after she had grown up and moved on, we learnt that she had been kicked by a young horse she was schooling and had died at the scene. We thought she would be pleased if she knew about the foal and I hope, wherever she is, that she does.
The weather was bitter (Katie was foaled 16 April at 5.12 in the morning) so we didn't put her out for a few days and when we put her out on the Saturday we were astounded that she didn't follow her mother like all our other foals had. This was partly because she had been in the safe environment of a stable and had not learn to stick with her mother and partly because I had made a great effort to handle her (Exmoor foals, even those in domestication, can be alarmingly wild!) and of course, I had actually been the first thing she ever saw. A breeder friend said she would get the hang of following Mum when she'd been out in the pasture for a few days and he was right. At the time of writing she goes in and out quite well but it will soon be time to introduce a headcollar and leading lessons, though I don't want to leave it on her.
The day before Katie was born we found another hen with chicks. Luckily friend Julie heard the chicks cheaping as the hen had managed to hatch them in a place they could not leave so the whole family were grateful for food and water.
The following day I had a Parish Council meeting with our new Allotement Association. If more than 12 (I think it is, it could be slightly less) people in a village want to have an allotement, it becomes the responsibility of the Parish or Town Council to provide them. Under my gentle prompting, we had received a letter from residents which meant that we were obliged to look into establishing allotments in Wimblington. A year had rolled past and it was more complicated than we had all thought but on this evening a woman from the Allotment Regeneration Initiative had come to tell us the steps we now needed to take to make it finally happen. Although tired from the night before, it was an interesting discussion and put us much nearer the actual planting of the first vegetable by the end of it! She suggested too, having a communal garden and providing raised beds for disabled gardeners. There is funding for local food projects and if you are interested in getting involved then get some friends and approach your local council. In Smallholder we regularly feature news from allotment keepers and associations and it's interesting that this traditional method of increasing your home grown food, has surged back into popularity.
Finally, two swallows have now taken up residence so can I say that summer is finally on its way?

7 April 2008-04-07

Still no foal – and not much sleep either. It is so much better having a camera in the stable relaying to next to my bed than having to get up and check every two hours but I do still have to wake up regularly to check the (lack of) progress. It’s amazing what ponies get up to during the night. For all those books that tell you that very pregnant mares don’t like down, you’re wrong, they do. They lie down, they get up, they stare out the window, they eat and then they start the whole sequence again. Loudly and with snorting. I can see she is really fed up with being this big and cannot think what to do with herself. The only thing that totally distracts her is her feed (Happyhoof and sugar beet with a few carrots). She does prefer to be outside but I really cannot imagine searching round the field with a torch in the middle of the night to see what is happening so we have to compromise, stable at night and field from 8am until 8pm.

So tonight looks like another long night of checking the screen every hour or so and feeling totally wrecked in the morning. Oh and the other night was not improved by the addition of a spider’s web across the camera. Spiders do look quite large when they sit on small camera lenses and they obscure the view of everything else. I keep removing the web and the spider keeps respinning it. I’m very fond of spiders (and indeed most insects) and have no objection to her sharing the stable but I simply cannot see through her and her web so I have to keep removing it. My mother always said that you should not kill a spider as the webs are ‘hiding the cradle of the baby Jesus’. I’ve never heard that anywhere else and it might just be a convenient way to avoid housework. Has anyone else come across it?

Meanwhile we had some unexpected success with the Old English Game bantams. Mine are an exhibition strain and are very beautiful but useless at breeding. This spring (if you can describe the dismal weather as this), they have laid lots of eggs and had a go at sitting. Rather intermittently I have to say and last weekend I went through the eggs and was just removing them for being rotten much to the annoyance of the two hens co-sitting, when I realised that at the bottom of the pile were some good eggs. So I put them back and on Friday the grey hen hatched off a minute black chick. Because OEG bantam chicks are minute. They are like bumble bees. I have a Fornsham Cottage Ark and you can shut off the laying bit so I did this, excluding her co-sitter, a black OEG. She’s young and she’ll get another chance but in my experience whilst two might sit together quite happily, there can be only one mother and sadly for the black one, the grey hen had won the ‘hatching off chicks’ race. I made sure that the black hen couldn’t get into the house and it actually hasn’t taken her too long to stop being broody;she had lost body weight whilst sitting and I didn’t want a situation where she just carried on and on, getting poorer and poorer. I left the grey hen and the remaining eggs until Saturday evening with a small container of water (one from Regency Poultry that are designed for very small chicks so they cannot drown – you can read Terry Beebe’s final article on raising very small chicks in the June issue of Smallholder out soon), and a handful of wheat for the hen rather than the chicks (they are OK with their egg sacs for 24 hours or so). Both were within reach so she would not get off the eggs. Saturday early evening, I transferred the hen and by now, four small chicks, to a pen that I had got ready, an ark with a compartment that can be closed at night. One egg did not hatch so I disposed of it. By Sunday morning the tiny chicks and hen were in the run, eating the chick crumbs and drinking from the special drinker and they are progressing well. There are three stripy black chicks and a stripy red one. My OEG are grey (Blue), Furness and Spangled plus Black so we shall see what they turn out like.

Saturday saw Mick and I at the Huntingdonshire bee keeping course. This was the third part, hive products (that’s honey, wax and propolis) and bee diseases including varroa. You can read more about varroa in June Smallholder’s Bee Special. It is an increasing problem and requires continual monitoring and action at certain times of the year.

Mick was so carried away by the course that when I said I couldn’t attend the practical session next week, due to a family party, he said he would go. The entire course stared at him, as he had treated them to his views on bees previously, but he is still determined to go. One of the attractions is that the bee keepers are meeting at Monkswood and he’d like to take a look at it. If you go onto the website you will find the following;

CEH Monks Wood is situated in the intensively farmed arable region of East Anglia; and is next to the Monks Wood National Nature Reserve

As part of the ongoing restructuring of CEH, CEH Monks Wood will close on 30 January 2009. Project-based science activities will finish prior to this date. Transferring staff and continuing science will relocate to the retained CEH sites at Lancaster, Wallingford, Edinburgh and Bangor.

Science Focus

Research at CEH Monks Wood is part of the CEH-wide science programmes, covering the fields of Biodiversity, Water, Biogeochemistry, Environmental Informatics, Climate Change and Sustainable Economies.

A main focus at Monks Wood is understanding the processes that control biodiversity, so we can explain and predict how natural systems will be influenced by human activities - such as industry and agriculture

It just makes you wonder doesn’t it? Huge concern at the moment worldwide about pollination and the role of insects in agriculture and how does the UK respond? It closes (sorry restructures) sites that are producing relevant work. How did that happen? In the Summer issue of Smallholder we are going to take a look at the importance of insects, the role of bees and whether they are appreciated enough by the authorities. Life is not getting any easier for these creatures in times of climate change, chemicals, habitat loss and my all time favourite, indiscriminate use of garden pesticides and in particular slug pellets. In the June issue of Smallholder we investigate using beneficial pests in the garden which surely has to be the way ahead.

My own garden has had to take a huge back seat just lately. I’ve only just stopped feeling really ill and coughing and choking does not make you feel like spending time bent double in the greenhouse or garden. I noted tonight, while I was filling up the wild bird feeders, that last year’s wall flowers are in full bloom and the border seems to look very nice without any help from me. I was going to clear it last year for the winter and a gardener friend said to leave it as the foliage would protect the plants through the winter. As a result, it seems to have bloomed all over the place and just needs tidying up rather than ‘sorting’ and there are some nice gaps for bedding plants (er when I finally get round to putting some seeds in the greenhouse). My hanging baskets are legendary because I put all sorts of seeds into them and got the ‘take home’ message from Frosts Garden Centre course – plant them thickly. But as yet the seeds, the compost and the baskets are all in separate places which does not bode well for the summer. I must get on with it.

We haven’t even put our potatoes in yet (is there no end to our hopelessness?) and I was in hospital when I should have planted the peas and beans. I hope our gardening experts are right when they say crops can catch up because they are going to have to gallop along to get into flower and then produce vegetables before next winter. I will let you know.

Mick is now twitching about his hay making equipment – it’s not easy getting it ready round a full time job and as the total age of his tractor, cutter and wuffler is probably twice our combined age, it is a bit of a challenge. But it has been heaven to have so much hay to use this year and we should have some left over for once. It’s been lovely hay too and the ponies have loved it. Normally we have to soak hay to stop them coughing but this has been fine to feed dry, apart from to the Exmoor stallion who had a very bad start in life which means he has a horrendous dust allergy. Even so, only a light sprinkling with water keeps his breathing under control.

Did anyone see New Landowner on Countryfile on Saturday talking about getting started in smallholding?

You know, it’s difficult fitting in smallholding round full time jobs. Sometimes we get, well snappy with each other because there is simply so much to do. People are always coming to the house and saying ‘oh you are lucky’ and yes, we are, very lucky. Lucky to have bought at the right time and to be able to live our dream. But it is hard work especially at certain times of the year. Haymaking is especially stressful as is the middle of winter. I find mid winter difficult because of the short days. No sooner have you fed in the morning and it is time to do the evening round before the light goes. Thank goodness for the summer months ahead! And please let my foal come soon and be healthy!

I’ve never been a lot of use at keeping a diary but I have decided to be fashionable and start a blog. Although I do mention my smallholding and my family (and other animals) in the magazine, I thought readers might like to reflect on my own experiences in the world of smallholding. These days, the magazine does keep me rather busy, so I no longer keep goats or sheep. I was a fairly inspired lamber with a regular 200% lambing thanks to Andrew Eales’ marvellous book on lambing. I went on a lambing course first which helped a lot as the real thing, your first ewe lambing, is a pretty frightening experience. In the time I kept sheep I learnt a lot. There are many pearls of wisdom I could offer but one thing that was so true was the words, ‘ if something is going wrong, be it a difficult lambing or a lamb that won’t suck, it will only get worse if you leave it.’ Consequently my first couple of years did bring their share of vets bills but I learnt from each one and towards the end of my sheep keeping I only called the vet in situations that were beyond my skill such as truly bad mal-presentations. I miss the sheep but as my smallholding is four acres and I used to move them round the area using electric fencing (they were a ‘flying flock’ in every sense of the words, especially when they escaped), I really don’t have the time now to do this. We are still fortunate that we do have a small local abattoir, not as local as the first one we used but still quite close and there is still a livestock vet within 30 miles. Now I buy meat from other smallholders – and last week Maureen James, who writes the ‘Countryfolk’ in Smallholder, rang me to say my half a Gloucester Old Spot was ready and should she and her partner bring it round? Frantic scrabbling in the freezer ensued to clear the space necessary for this generous pig. The chops have quite a layer of fat on them and when you cook them they are unlike anything I have ever tasted – absolutely delicious. I have to get out my ‘how to use all bits of a pig’ book as we get through the obvious cuts of meat but I do refuse the head – I know I should get on and make pig’s head brawn but memories of my mother doing this do not make me feel that I want to. It was when the teeth floated to the top…. Ugh it still makes me squirm even now. The trotters go to a friend of mine who finds them a delicacy. I also had Golden Guernsey goats for many years and I was extremely upset when Faith, the oldest, finally had to be put down. I rehomed them to a City Farm a few years ago basically due to lack of time as the time needed to put together the magazine increased but perhaps I should have read Felicity Stockwell’s sensible article in our May issue on how to fit in 9-5 and goats. My other problem was that try as I would I could not get my foster children to drink goat’s milk, nor any other member of my family and I didn’t have time to turn it into cheese. I do love goats though and as dairy animals, for their size, they are higher yielding than cows and I hugely respect them for this.
So now what do I have? A new venture, bees. Mick (my partner) said that if one bee entered this smallholding he would buzz off. One morning I was diligently working away on smallholding and he was home on holiday. A van drew up and next I heard Mick shouting up to the office, ‘There’s a man here who says he has bees for you!’
It turned out that a casual conversation with a beekeeper some time ago had resulted in him remembering me when he had to give up bees partly due to an allergy developed to stings but mostly because he was emigrating to New Zealand. He had turned up with a hive and I had absolutely no idea it was coming. Honestly Mick, I didn’t. Mick has never ever believed me about this, thinking it was part of a big plan. I was going to have bees anyway (I knew he wouldn’t go) but I’d hoped to do it ‘the attending a course and getting a trial hive’ way (as you do when you join a beekeepers club). Luckily these bees came with my encouraging mentor, Chris, not only a thoughtful beekeeper but someone who shares my taste in music – anyone for a bit of prog rock? This year though I thought perhaps I really must learn to do this all on my own and signed up for a course with Huntingdonshire Beekeepers. I pleaded with Mick to come and eventually, if I swore to the fact he would never have to actually handle the bees, he said he would come. He found it absolutely fascinating when we looked at the colony and this week we did how the hive works. I’m hoping he will come for next week’s instalment, what to do with honey and how to produce wax. There is an exceptionally nice café at Hitchinbroke Country Park (follow the signs for the hospital in Huntingdon) and I buy him a toastie afterwards so maybe that has something to do with it. I do wish I had done this course first, it all makes much more sense now. And Mick? He still thinks the bee’s arrival was planned.
I also have poultry, hybrid hens and cross breds (where I haven’t found them sitting until they came back with chicks) and my beloved duckle who is one of four rescued ducks. They lay well too. My hens lay exceptionally well but I am careful to feed them correctly. The eggs are so yellow and the shells are all different colours and beautiful. I’ve always loved bowls of eggs, even as a child and I am inordinately proud of these birds. In the Juneissue we have an article about how to cope with feeding as the price of poultry food soars in line with the wheat price – don’t miss it! Kitchen scraps simply won’t do, hens need a balanced diet to lay to their best. Some of mine are completely free range from when I let them out in the morning while the hybrids are allowed out after lunch when they have eaten their balanced ration and the Old English Game bantams are allowed out of their huge pen (Mick has built the Snowdon Aviary in our yard) in the afternoon – if they promise to be good and not jump on everything, dig up everything and constantly get into the house if they can.
The ponies have always been part of my life and I have welsh cobs and exmoors since my lovely arab died last year aged 30. She’d been my friend for 29 and a bit years, longer than any relationship and most friendships. She’d seen me through my early twenties, my career choice, boyfriends, moving, marriage and divorce and it is still hard to think she is not coming back. I luckily have Jade who I have known but not owned all the time, since she was 4 and she is now 16. She’s a beautiful black welsh cob who has won loads of prizes but I love her because she is such a gentle yet strong person. I have an Exmoor Stallion, Odin, who is 23, who I have had for 19 years. He is one of nature’s real gentlemen. I used to jump him and I was terrified but he always looked after me and did well. He won a lot as well when he was younger and used to love going out in the trailer. We have some wonderful memories, riding in front of Windsor Castle, winning a major championship, galloping across the fen pretending to be Boudicia.
I’m waiting for Shelley (Knightoncoombe Dingy Shell) to foal, even as I write this. She is due Saturday and last year I found her foal born dead. It was one of the most upsetting things that has ever happened to me and it still makes me cry. This year, as well as regular checks, we have Shelley cam in the bedroom. Mick has put a camera in her stable and I can see her all night long without disturbing her. I am so anxious at the moment I can’t convey to you how much.
Finally I wanted to reflect on being ill. Last week I had the worst bronchitis I have had for ages. It came from out of the blue and hit me really hard. Amazingly Mick was home as I had a hospital appointment (I have arterial fibrillation – any other smallholders out there with this condition?) because for once in my life I really couldn’t get out of bed.
I never want to feel that ill again. I still feel rough (not great as we go to print at the weekend) but at least I can more or less breath and just about speak though still croaky and better still, manage to muck out the ponies and look after the poultry. I think the better weather is helping or maybe it is the ‘industrial strength’ antibiotics (my Doctor’s words not mine!) that I am now taking. But my heart goes out to anyone who has more stock than me and/or is on their own having to cope while feeling this appalling. That’s when you really need good friends. My good friend dropped round with some salmon, French bread and flowers and mucked out the ponies for me tonight. She knows who she is!
If anyone wants to comment on what I’ve said or ask me questions about my smallholding, just post them on the blog. I haven’t mentioned my garden yet or my obsession with bird feeding – one of my greatest pleasures.