It's full steam ahead in our household as the house purchase is coming to its exciting conclusion in time for the Easter weekend. We have much to do, a house to clean a garden to tidy, the removals are booked and we somehow need to fit the contents of a big house into a smaller house!
While we waited for the purchase to unfold the fair weather over the last week has given us the break we have been waiting for for the last four months, a week of dry, high pressure weather, chilly with a keen breeze, perfect for drying the land out. Woody managed to harrow the 2.5ac of untouched summer paddocks last weekend although it proved too wet to tackle the old meadow that the horses have occupied all winter.
The horses and ponies are still on hay and haylage, the 2 horses are are looking well coming out of a long and horrible winter, Easter has been hunting and hacking with the odd competition so is fit for the coming show season. Frank and I are finally forming a bond and he is turning into a lovely chap to have around and is a very promising ride.
A fun day out with the Farmers Bloodhounds, chasing a human quarry!
The ponies however have some unwelcome visitors; lice and worms, a legacy from their poor start in life. Frosty and Tan were treated as soon as they arrived last March and joined a program with the other horses. I can only think that their thick coats and weakened immune system harbored a few remaining nasties that took hold over the winter. So this weekend all four will be getting wormed with a fairly strong wormer and a treatment of lice/fly killer and repellent.
We are working under a bit of a time pressure at the moment as Woody will start his new job in May and we have to try and get the Lime and Calcium treatment into the land as soon as possible but for that we need a dry day just before some light showers so that the products get washed in rather than washed or blown away, it's the usual juggling act! You can read my post from May 2015 Soil Analysis for more details.
The horses have wreaked the meadow over the winter, it is scuffed up and poached, however considering there was very little grass, mainly moss, bracken and brambles, it has opened up the soil and "cultivated" it ready for sowing something more suitable for grazing.
Moss..
Woody should be able to harrow the meadow soon to rake up the remaining moss and aerate the soil. Lime, Calcium, seed, rolling and rest should see the meadow come back for late summer, and give grazing for next winter. For the moment it is SPRING and we will be out there enjoying it!
(until we have to think about plumbing, plastering, new windows, carpets....)
Spring at last!!! Jetfire Narssisi planted last October.
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