A Day at the Races

After a gap of 34 years, the Ballyvaughan Horse and Pony Races were held on Sunday afternoon on the 'Lawn' in front of Newtown Castle.

The day had started grey and cool with a regular succession of heavy showers, but we drove to Ballyvaughan anyway - held up by the queue of traffic for the match-making festival at Lisdoonvarna (but thats another story).

During lunch at Logues Lodge we could still hear the rain beating on the roof but by the time we had parked the car and donned wellies for the walk across the cowfield, the sun was out and we were just in time for the start of the first race - although too late to place a bet with any of the nine bookmakers who were competing for our attention.

Only 2 runners in the second race but Linda managed to pick the winner - €4 back for a €10 stake - but it was downhill from there - we didn't pick another winner for the rest of the afternoon. It did show us just how seriously they take their racing though with regular reminders over the PA about the number of champion jockeys who had started in surroundings like these.

After 6 races we decided to call it a day - Linda spent her winnings on ice creams - and we made it back to the car just as the heavens opened.

Home Produce

In addition to the 28 eggs which the Hockey Girls produce each week, we have also managed to feast on cauliflowers, courgettes, beetroot, courgettes, red cabbage, and courgettes. Thankfully we have a long list of recipes which include courgette as our three plants are very productive.

I think we may have to accept that there is no point in trying to grow tomatoes outdoors in this climate. We planted 3 tomato plants at the end of May - two in the raised beds and one in an upside down container - and we have harvested a total of three ripe tomatoes and have just taken another two green tomatoes to ripen on the windowsill. It's definitely easier - and cheaper - to buy them in the supermarket.

Our neighbours have provided us with sweetcorn and potatoes and helping Keith with his poultry means that in addition to a couple of ducks we have also had all the duck livers and hearts (60 from the last batch) along with the lambs livers and kidneys from the first pair of lambs. Still 5 more lambs to go so plenty more liver and kidneys to come and we will have at least half a lamb for the freezer.

Have just confirmed the pigs appointment with the slaughterhouse for 4th November - all I have to do now is decide how we want the meat butchered. Have been gathering recipes for a variety of types of sausage (am open to any suggestions!) and am tempted to have a go at airdrying a whole ham - Serrano style of course. Should be busy for the second week of November and have plenty of meat to see us through the winter!

Autumn arrives

There may be many things which herald the end of summer and onset of autumn, but nothing is clearer than the departure of the swallows.

They arrived at Moyhill in mid-April as we returned from our travels and have been our constant companions over the spring and summer. Initially there were 6 or 8 individual birds who settled in their old nests in three of our sheds, their first broods were fledged surprisingly early and followed by a second and finally over the last couple of weeks we have watched their third broods fledging. On Monday morning there were about 50 swallows on our telephone wire watching the sunrise. I don't imagine that they will all survive their long journey south, but there must be a pretty good chance that we will see some of them back again next spring.

It has been great to see their aerobatics - even if we have both had to duck a few times as we encountered one of them coming out of a shed as we went in!. It was also wonderful to see the faces of the fledglings peeking from the nests and to see their first tentative flights round the roof spaces. We missed them as soon as we woke up this morning and realised that they had gone - although I won't miss the copious piles of droppings in the sheds and on the cars.

You can also tell it is autumn because our local schools all started their new term this week - and of course we have had clear blue skies and sunshine since Sunday afternoon. I thought that only happened in my rose-tinted memories of my schooldays.

We identified another indicator of the arrival of autumn on Monday afternoon. We had enjoyed a walk along the green road above Blackhead and had our picnic lunch at the ringfort on the side of Gleninagh mountain. As we headed home - watching a juvenile Hen Harrier being mobbed by a couple of crows - we promised ourselves coffee and cake at our favourite cafe in Fanore. Unfortunately when we arrived, we discovered that their summer season had ended and they are now only open at weekends.

You shouldn't name pigs if you are planning to eat them!

Our two pigs have now been with us for almost 4 weeks and they have settled in well and are putting on weight before our eyes. Only another 8-9 weeks and they will be off to the butcher! Hoping to get them to 50-55Kg by then and this looks very achievable.

They are great fun and despite my initial reservations have proved very easy to manage - they'll do anything for the hint of a bucket of feed and they learned about the electric fence very quickly.

Everyone says that you shouldn't name them as it will make it difficult when it comes time for the trip to the butcher, however you haveto have some way to identify them. My solution was to name them after a couple of people who I would happily slaughter if I had the chance so I am pleased to introduce Billy and Bruce.

Billy is the one with the thin face -and a passing resemblance to ET -and is named after an old colleague who some of you may remember, while Bruce is the fat greedy one who is just like his namesake - an old client from many years ago. It amuses me - childish, I know - that these two now spend their time together, sleeping in the same pen and eating from the same bowl while their namesakes couldn't abide each other!

The Michaelmas Goose

While most of our geese will be ready for the Christmas market, we will have quite a few ready for Thanksgiving. I am keen to see if I can have one ready for a Michaelmas dinner - 29th Sept - since this was when rural folk - admittedly mostly in eastern England - would kill the "green" goose which had been grazing on the pasture throughout the summer and for which they had no winter fodder when the grass finished. May have to resort to fattening one of the bigger candidates over the next few weeks to achieve this.

As you can see from the photo they are being pampered -the inflatable pool from Argos only lasted 4 weeks because they kept biting the air tubes. Managed to replace it with a hard plastic pool (sandpit) also from Argos. They are also a greedy lot and I have to move their 50m electric enclosure every night to give them fresh grass. In return they have done a great job of cleaning up the grass on the paddock - with a little help from weedkiller and fertilizer.

I'm sure the work will be worth it when we taste the first one fresh from the oven!

Say hello to the Hockey Girls

As soon as we got back to Moyhill after our trip to the UK in June, we finished the preparations for the hens and headed off to Loughrea on a wet afternoon to pick them up. Had hoped to buy them from a guy who lives about 5 miles away but for some reason he never answered his phone or returned my calls - perhaps too busy in the pub.

On the way home we were discussing names and it seemed like a good idea - to me anyway - to name them after some of Linda's hockey friends. Obviously we had to study them carefully to ensure that the names were appropriate, but after at least 10 mins consideration we are pleased to present Susan, Karen, Jinty and Ali T (from L-R):

I will leave it to those who know their namesakes to guess which of their traits we recognised but it is probably fair to say that Jinty was the first one out of the house wanting to make friends, while Susan always wants to be in charge!

They took to the henhouse immediately and Linda was delighted to find the first egg on their first morning with us.

Within no time at all, they were each producing an egg every day - a little on the small side to begin with - but they are now averaging 28 medium eggs a week. No consideration at all for my low-cholesterol diet! And the noise they make when they are announcing the arrival of an egg - no need for a rooster to wake us up!

Normal service to be resumed

With apologies for our lengthy absence - and thanks to all who enquired of our continued well being! Hope to bring everything up to date over the next week or so and then try to keep it current.

Life at Moyhill continues to be everything we could want. Looking after the geese, hens and pigs is keeping us busy, amused and fairly fit.

The morning routine starts around 7.00 am and takes an hour or so before breakfast. Then there are the daily maintenance checks, making sure the electric fences are clear and energised, and that the watering system is not blocked etc ; and the cleaning chores - clearing chicken shit daily, cleaning out the goose pen every 2-3 weeks, and likewise for the pigs. As we move from summer towards autumn there is also the issue of vermin - currently setting 5-6 traps for mice every day with chorizo still the most successful bait - luckily we have no evidence of rats in our sheds but have seen them next door.

After all this we can get on with the day until the evening chores which usually start around 6.00 pm and completed after dinner. We now understand why evening events here all start at 8.30pm or later - so that everyone has time to get all their jobs done!

I promise I will bring it all up to date over the next week or so - lots of stories to tell: e.g. who are the hens and pigs named after? how do you treat a poorly hen? where can you buy decent pasta in the West of Ireland without driving too far? What wine to serve with pigs tails and ears?

Sorry again for the long silence. You'll all be begging me to shutup again soon and this may be the only blog for a while which doesnt mention the weather!