7am Woken up by birdsong - I really should change that alarm on the iPad (other tablet devices are available), as when I snooze the alarm, all I hear is birdsong outside. 7:09 - see above. Move one leg out from under the duvet. 7:18 - cancel alarm and sit up. It's ... not raining! Classes as a beautiful day in recent weeks, as we have seen rather a lot of the wet stuff. 7:20 Release the Hounds - Tallie (big, grey, slightly wolf hound like), Dexter (Collie), Fred (German Sheph

So, what have we learnt in the first five months? Dave loves the gadgets, and the bigger the gadget the better! Smallholding is a fantastic excuse for buying big gadgets! Tractors work better with four wheels on the ground. The Pembrokeshire Promise. The Gregorian Calendar has passed Pembrokeshire by. If you ask local workies to commit to a date you will be given (as a minimum) three reasons why they cannot provide a date, and leave you with a vague assurance. Workies also

I'm still not entirely sure whether we have learnt a new technique, or been subjected to a very goaty wheeze! Meg and Damo invited us over to Moat Goats today as they were vaccinating and tagging a number of their herd, and offered us the opportunity to get some training and practice. Thanks so much to both of you for trusting two novices, as we have learnt far more in our few hours with you than any amount of reading has taught us. And on to the blog title!  They have a youn

Suddenly the pace has gathered somewhat and the diary is busy for the next few days! The Plan: Today: Take delivery of our quad bike & trailer. We are also expecting delivery of some fencing materials with which we will build three chicken enclosures within one of our new paddocks in The Uplands. Our 'egg' hens need to move to fresh ground from the orchard and we also want to buy some 'chunky chickens' for eating. Tomorrow: All being well we are off to see our new friends at

Yesterday we were very lucky to pay a visit to Meg and Damian at Moat Goats. This lovely young couple took time out from their own crazy busy lives to give us rookies the benefit of their experience. We learnt so much in the space of a few hours, every nugget invaluable... though I may come to regret the quad bike dealer recommendation - yeah - thanks for putting that in Dave's head Damian! Such a brilliant afternoon topped off with the treat of cuddling this precious little

But this time they should feed us back! Introducing Thelma & Louise, our 8-week old Oxford Sandy & Black x Berkshire piglets. Thelma has more white on face and ears. We carried them up to their paddock (probably the last time we will be able to do that!) and they are happily exploring their new home.

Fresh from this morning's successful mission to get a water supply to the 4 new paddocks in The Uplands, we were on a bit of a bacon roll (apologies if I ham this up a bit!) We bought a pig ark a number of weeks ago, the component parts of which have been residing in the garage. Being too big to fit in the tractor bucket it was a bit of a swine to carry them up to the big field, but we put our snouts to the grindstone and once transported to the chosen paddock, the actual con

Day 2 of the fencing work on the small field in our 'high lands' was greeted with much better weather than Day 1, and (miraculously) the workies arrived first thing to complete the job. Bolstered by a fresh batch of Welsh Cakes, the work on dividing the field into four paddocks was completed by lunchtime. A couple of pigs is the intention for one paddock, and we will rotate them round the field as and when a paddock gets demolished by said piggies. We are still working on pla

Getting workies round here to turn up and quote for fencing work takes patience and perseverance. But that is nothing compared to the fortitude required when waiting for said workies to actually turn up and do the erecting. It has taken us at least 3 months to get something done. The first chap, we can only assume, has been abducted by aliens, and we were beginning to think the second had suffered the same fate, until a surprise call yesterday announcing they were to be her

More shabby than chic but today we recycled old fence posts and corrugated sheeting to make a rain shelter for the hens - it can get wet in Pembrokeshire!