Gavin's early demise

Sorry to report that Gavin met an early grave. Despite the valiant group effort in making him, he just didn’t quite cut it as a scarecrow. We tried to attach him to some poles at the field – but he was just too floppy after getting soaked by rain. Looked like a very sad crucifixion – dropping off his cross pathetically, bedraggled before he’d even been exposed to any further elements. We didn’t think he’d make it (let alone scare any birds) so we put him out of his misery. Sorry, Gavin.



Until Gavin Mach 2, made from straw, appears we have a ream of twirling CDs which seem to be pretty effective as bird scarers. Apart from a few beans we haven’t had too much damage so far - fingers crossed, touching wood and all of that. Our broad beans have really come on and the potatoes are looking fantastic (I would hope so after 3 back breaking hours of weeding at the weekend!). We also rotavated quite a large area and put in all the pumpkins and squashes that we have been lovingly growing under glass in the back garden. Delighted that there has been a torrential downpour this morning which will give them a good watering in. Shock horror - we have a gooseberry bush showing its first gooseberry. Let's hope we get to eat it before the birds do... where's Gavin when we need him?



The sheep are settling in well to their new home. They are getting more and more used to us and they now run up to the gate when we arrive (on the look out for food, of course). They had been booked in for a haircut on Friday and we were looking forward to seeing sheep getting sheared but sadly this was cancelled at the last minute due to the sheep shearer’s generator breaking down. Secretly quite glad about that as it gives us a little longer to work out what to do with the wool from seven sheep. Haven’t quite got to grips with the idea of drop spinning or weaving just yet. A friend is going to be teaching us the art of worming the sheep on the 12th June ( I think the biggest part of that is being able to round them up in a pen - should be a complete laugh!). Once they are in the pen they'll need to be fed the wormer, I can just imagine what an orderly queue they'll form for that...

In about 2 weeks the bacon from our "pig share" should be ready. It will be fantastic to have our own bacon as a permanent fixture on the menu. In fact the whole "meat share" thing has grown out of control (in a very positive way)...but that is a long story and deserves a post of its own...watch this space for details.

I'll also do my best to get a few pictures of progress across all fronts on here in the next few days.

Right...off to battle the weeds, see the sheep and feed the chickens...