The greenhouse is coming !

Foundations being laid today - hurray!

Ducks Together

Sine we got 2 girls ducks last weekend we had too many boys, who were showing very little interest in the girls. Now we only have 1 boy (the other is in the fridge) he is showing some adolescent interest in the girls and they are bonding.

Feeling fruity

Last autumn we were lucky enough to be given some fruit canes; raspberries, blackcurrents, redcurrents and tayberries, and we knocked up some raised beds for them. Imagine our joy when we found them all in bud last week. Further advise from Monty Don was that wood ash is very good for increasing soft fruit yield, so we've weeded the beds, and topped them up with ash from the fire, and soil from last years leek beds.

Looks pretty neat now

Lord guinea fowl helping me garden

Hidden secrets

Such gorgeous weather today, and inspired by Monty Don on R2 yesterday, we went out to tidy up one of the raised beds, and plant some rocket. And look what lovely treat we found ! Garlic will appear in our roast dinner somehow this evening.

On top of the world

(or Moel Tryfan)

Refferendwm

Signs of spring

A crocus that survived the chickens

Happy St Davids Day

What a beautiful St Davids Day we are having. The sun is stunning. And best of all, baby lambs have just arrived down the hill.

Tonight we're having Welsh lamb kebabs (sorry babies), with parsnips and potatoes from Village Veg local farm, and our own leeks - mmmm. And if everyone gets there homework done, they'll be welsh cakes for afters.

Welsh cake recipe

Happy Christmas

Wishing you a joyful and peaceful Christmas

With love from us all at Cynlas.

(And apologies for lack of posting lately - camera turned up yesterday under a pile of detritus !)

House in snow

Sun and snow

Up the hill from Cynlas

Down the hill from Cynlas

Christmas dinner

Christmas cake


Doyle the not pregnant pig

Alfie in snow


Pigs inside

Pig house

Turkeys in snow

Hen house

Christmas Delivery next Saturday (11th)

This weather has been a really dramatic start to Advent. All well here, the animals are putting on a brave face, but its one of the few times I suspect they'd be happy to be a bit less free-range!

The maternity unit is coming on well for Doyle, our large black pig who is expecting her first litter on 15th December. Today a slate path is being laid to the woods, so we can get to her and piglets, whatever the weather.




We are delivering next Saturday, 11th December. Please see link to order form on the left of the screen as usual, please let us know if you would like to swap items, or order anything additional. We have already taken some Christmas orders for large hams and pork joints for entertaining, so if you would like something special, please let us know.

Enjoy the run-up to Christmas

Mary, Paul and all the animals x

Guinea Fowl in Snow

Here are the Guinea Fowl in the snow. Watch this space for news on Christmas deliveries soon.

Pig Maternity Unit

With our volunteer Chris we have been continuing the building of the Pig Maternity Unit

First Wall Up

Frame in place

With roof and internal cladding

Skylight

Inside

Halloween Chicks

We had some eggs in the incubator and on Halloween we had 5 new chicks. Here they are 5 days old on the sofa.

Chorizo

4 weeks ago with some spare pork I made some Chorizo sausage, which require some time to cure.

The mould is deliberate and is caused by the Acidophilus (A probiotic so its really a healthfood) which I added.

It tasted really good and the flavour intensified when cooked.

Cider

Having had a crop of apples not many of eating quality we decided the best thing to do was turn them into cider.

So we made a Cider Press



Crushed the apples in a bucket with a fence post



Wrapped the pulp in a muslin sheet



Pressed it to get the juice



And fermented it in a demijon it has about 2 weeks to go

Stupid Guinea Fowl

Our old guinea fowl has been roosting since his wife died on the short bit of fence between the house and barn, but unfortunately there in no protection from the elements. The other morning he looked miserable and soaked to his skin/downfeathers. So I devised a roof to go over his perch to keep the worst of the rain off.

Here it is just a simple upside down box over his perch, what could be simpler than to go under this when it rains.

Here is the guinea fowl last night in the rain.



I have taken the ladder away so fingers crossed for tonight.

Maternity Unit - Part 1

Doyle our prize winning pig is pregnant and due to hear the patter of tiny trotters in mid December, so we have set out to make a nice comfortable house in which she can farrow. If not just for her but to save us crawling around in the mud.



We put up some shuttering and a dpc membrane. The concrete lorry parked on the drive and used a conveyor to put it into the shuttering



Look the conveyor was the longest in the whole of Wales!



Slab all poured

Turkey on a cold slate roof

The turkeys (big) are enjoying wandering the farm but are very poor a remembering what to do at bedtime. The other night I was late putting the birds to bed, as I was doing homework with Harry, they found a new place to sleep. Nothing would get them to move so they spent a night out in the cold and damp. Hopefully they will go to bed when told!

Duck Pond

The ducks were getting rather fed up with the small bowl we gave them, it took two kicks to complete a length.



As they grow it would only get worse so after some major digging a pond was created, here is Mat with the completed pond



And here are the ducks enjoying it

Chick News

As the boy chickens around the farm were doing the business we put some eggs into the incubator to see if they were fertile. On Monday and Tuesday we had some eggs from our hens hatch a total of 5 chicks.



Also our Guinea fowl keet is 4 weeks old so we gave him/her some time outside in a run



Mr Guinea Fowl checking out the new arrival