Heading into March, and it finally feels like the farm is coming back to life. Spring may have finally arrived. The perpetual rain of February lessened a little, and the farm lakes started to recede. The ground is starting to firm up, allowing more access to work the land. Slowly, a busyness starts to return to daily farming life.
Not covered in this article;
- I purchased something rather oversized that I can’t afford.
- Climbing to the roof with full gear to remove the old aerial.
- Cutting holes through the couch to get the cats in and mice out.
Husbandry
As the weather dries out, the cats are spending much more time outside. Typically, this means they are becoming a little bit nocturnal. Out hunting at night and sleeping all day. While the pigs are becoming more active during the day, between breaks in the rain.
Porcine
The four Kune Kune pigs continue to grow at a fantastic rate. The ground has been a little bit too wet to feed them directly on the ground, which is our preference, so they’ve been given some feeding trays.
These work really well until they’re snuffled into the electric fence, at which point the girls get especially irritated and demand we attend to them. I don’t think the trays will be a regular feeding mechanism, but for now, they work. As the grass starts to grow, the pigs are grazing more, so over the month, their pelleted feed is reduced slightly.
Although we have now bought a whole pallet of ‘Sow Pencils’, we can’t ease off the manual feeding too much. The balance of grazing and feed, against productive growth, is something we’re likely to get a little wrong. We won’t really know which way we’ve gone, too lean or too rich, until we get them back from the butchers. For now, the focus is towards welfare rather than pork returns.
The piggies are also still enjoying the last of some of the windfall from the orchard. Possibly more alcohol than apple at this point, which might explain their insatiable appetite for more!
Felis Catus
In March, the cats really excelled themselves. Our youngest has a forever-messy bedroom and needs a LOT of motivation to get it tidied up. One weekend morning, we told him that if he didn’t keep it clean, he’d end up with mice or worse living in there.
The following night, probably at 3 in the morning, there were some unusual noises in the corridor that we’ve become accustomed to. Typically, the cats are playing with a small hand-sized mammal they’ve found. And it’s not unusual for the squeaking to suddenly silence as the ‘toy’ escapes.
However, in this instance, those pesky once-kittens have excelled themselves. They managed to get a fair-sized rabbit in through the cat flap, which ultimately fled to the youngest’s bedroom. Sometime in the afternoon, our youngest burst out with a deathly scream while the eldest nearly stopped breathing from laughing. The rabbit, alive and well, was having a little nap on his pillow.
The poor little fellow was mortified and vowed to tidy his room and never leave it messy again. Used clothes were immediately brought to the kitchen for washing, and washed laundry was immediately filed. This lasted for nearly a week. The rabbit was caught and released back to the wild, but clearly failed to hide as the following day the cats brought the rabbit back, with a mouse, and laid their ‘sleeping’ tributes at our bedroom door.
Megashed 2.0
Ridge Fillers, or not
The work on some of the minor trim elements of the newly built ‘shed’ was continued as the rain subsided. In this case, the ridge was lifted to install some of the ridge filler foam pieces. This went rather smoothly until I realised the ‘additional’ fillers I had bought were completely the wrong size for the profile we had.
Since I was up on the roof, I continued installing the last of the fixings to the roof sheets. This made a huge difference to the sheets ‘banging’ in the wind. Unfortunately, once again the rain stopped play so there’s still a fair few screw to go.
Coat Rack
Another small addition to the interior was a small coat rack. With my motorbiking gear increasing, I needed somewhere to hang it. While the majority might be second-hand from Vinted, that doesn’t change its weight!
The armour and reinforcement in motorbiking clothes make a simple pair of jeans rather heavy. So rather than attaching a coat rack to the plasterboard, something a bit heavier-duty was required. And for load rating, I thought the best check was with a hanging weight, fortunately a small child was ideal for the task.
Suffice to say, this ‘structural component’ is more than sufficient for the current rack of gear, with a little bit of spare capacity for the future 😉
The Arcade
Nearly all the feedback from last month’s write-up was around the 2p pusher machine, so here’s a quick Q&A for you.
- Q – Is it a ‘real’ arcade machine?
A – As real as it gets, made some time in the late 70s, early 80s, although we’ve not been able to date it yet. Incredibly heavy with ‘traditional’ electronics. It’s the real deal. - Q – Is it only single player?
A – This machine is a four-player (two on each side), which has a swinging arm to aim the coins rather than the classic three slots, allowing the machine to be a lot more compact.
- Q – Does everything work?
A – The important bits all work. There was a little work to get the lighting working. The original design had a coin scoop connected to a payout tube, which we will try to revive at some point. - Q – What is the ‘house drawer’
A – All arcade machines are designed to take money from the player. Hidden on both sides of the ‘drop off’ are holes that allow some coins to get pushed not off the edge to the payout drawer, but down to a hidden ‘House Drawer’. This machine has two house drawers which can take around £500 in 2p. The house has an edge of approximately 70:30.
- Q – Will you buy more machines?
A– ABSOLUTELY! Traditional seaside arcades seem to be falling out of favour, and traditional machines are being replaced by more electronic, screen-based games. This means older machines are easier to find and generally cheaper, although some classics like Time Crisis are incredibly sought after. - Q – How far will you take the Arcade?
A – Perhaps because I’ve watched TRON too many times, and spent many hours in arcades, I have a fairly specific idea of how far I’d take the arcade. However, like most things, I’m a firm believer that they should be used rather than just put on show. Arcade machines suffer greatly from non-use. And then there’s the gambling license issue!
Farm House Restoration
Although the farmhouse was inhabitable when we bought the farm, little modernisation or decoration had taken place since the 70’s. Rather than move in for a year and move straight out, we’ve been living in a static caravan. And after nine months, we finally have the planning permission to get on with restoring this old family home for generations to come.
To really understand the fabric of the house, we’ve needed to pull some things apart to understand where historical changes have been made, and what needs repairing. Fortunately, I’ve had a very useful assistant who I might have to rename ‘smashy’ as every weekend, he asks if he can smash something, and he’s surprisingly good at it!
There will be plenty more farmhouse tales as the months go on, and some will likely get their own ‘side quest’ blogs.
With the weather starting to really improve, I’m expecting a lot more varied content in the next few months. A lot of this will be about preparing for the farmhouse work to start and, hopefully, bringing in the hay. And since I finally passed my motorbike test, which is the subject of its own blog, I’ll have a lot more time on the weekends to work on the farm, assuming I haven’t gone off on a ride!