Clyro Hill Farm

January 2008 Diary

Hi everyone and Happy New Year to one and all. Thanks for all your letters and Christmas wishes. We had a lovely time and hope you did as well. Our gusets were very happy with the new log cabin and so it is now officially open and available for bookings.
It is very quiet here at the moment. Not much poultry about at all. The laying hens have nearly been washed away by all the rain and we think they are waiting for drier times before they start laying many eggs!
Our breeding geese are quite happy in this weather and paddle in every available puddle. Hopefully we will get our first eggs by 14th February this year.
Penry wanted to do the diary this month and tell you about his Christmas present. She is a working bearded collie puppy. Penry has named her Rosie. She is delightful and lives in the back kitchen at the moment. When she is older and the weather warmer, Penry will let her go and live with our other 2 dogs, Poppy and Charlie.
She is supposed to have shepherding genes in her, but we haven’t seen much of that yet. I have seen her round up a couple of chickens and play football with her nose, (not to mention the shoe chewing!) but not much interest in sheep as yet.
We have got a limited amount of mutton, hogget and lamb available if anyone wants to replenish their freezer stocks.

November 2007

Well according to my diary some of the temperatures in October were actually higher than July this year! So far there have been a couple of beautiful November days as well. It is a bit cooler today and more seasonal and so we have given in and lit the Rayburn again. It is a bit of consolation for the dark evenings. I don’t know about everybody else, but I still can’t get used to the short days, and never seem to get the outdoor jobs quite finished. I also feel really tired when it gets dark and is quite surprised it’s only 7pm when it feels much later!

It must have been really mild because 1 goose is still laying eggs and nesting and 2 of our foals still have summer coats. Penry’s pony Monty has already got his winter fluff and was pretty hot when we went for a family ride last Sunday in the sunshine and temperature was 17!
Our laying hens have finally started moulting and so the eggs have dropped off, and our young hens haven’t started laying yet. Hopefully production will rise again soon, as Penry keeps reminding me we need to bake Christmas cakes! Wow, where did the year go?
The tups have been at work, so to speak, for nearly 3 weeks now and so our lambs should start arriving around mid to end of March, which I believe will be in time for Easter.

We have had our first few lots of visitors to the log cabins and all has gone smoothly. We still have Christmas week available in one cabin and New Year in the other if anyone wants a break.

The turkeys are doing well and we are getting a steady flow of enquiries already. Time to start thinking of the soup and stew menu for the turkey pluckers! If you haven’t confirmed your turkey order for this year, could you let me know as soon as possible please?

September 2007

Hello everyone. Apologies for no news in August. When the dry weather finally arrived it got too busy for me to sit down and do the diary. We finally managed to get the hay made. After all the waiting it was worth it, as it is a nice crop. Unfortunately all the chickens and turkeys think so as well. We have a daily hunt for the eggs and there’s plenty of places for a nice cosy nest!
We took the horses to a couple of shows as well. The stallion Domino won a first prize at his debut for coloured horses and Ranger (Welsh Cob) won the Reserve Champion spot. Not to mention Penry having various wins in the young handler, prettiest pony and jumping. Well worth all the bathing, grooming and tack cleaning!
We have also been completing the log cabins. Penry’s cabin will be re-furbished and ready in about a week if anyone fancies a break while the weather is still good. The other cabin will be ready for Christmas and we are taking bookings. Of course there will be an organic turkey free with the Christmas rental!
We have beef hanging at the moment and so selection boxes will be available after 12th September. We also have plenty of lamb at the moment if anyone is thinking to stock up their freezer for the autumn.
Some of the vegetables have done quite well and others have perished in all the wet weather. It is the first time ever we are not over-run with courgettes!
The geese must think it isn’t a typical year as they have started laying again! We thought about having a few lambs at Christmas but not goslings!