New Year

Yes I know, we are well into the new year and I haven't posted for ages. All my children and grand children came for Christmas and we all had too much fun to bore you with blog posts, so be glad of a rest from my waffle!
We now have our eldest daughter her with her two children as she needs rest and help with the children while she recovers from a recent bout of illness. Its been 18 years since I have had to worry about toddlers so I am trying to get back in my "Mr Mum" mode. Cooking the odd meal, mostly breakfast, reading bedtime stories (my favorite), washing more dishes, and having little helping hands tag along while doing chores.
The good thing is we are in a warm spell now with temps hovering around freezing but often in the pluses. That makes it easier for the children but does mean more mud about to get into!
It looks as though I will have to buy some hay as we will run out before green up. We sold down some ewes in the hope of not buying feed, but I refuse to sell any more as we now have a nice looking flock with no obvious culls to sell. Even feeding some barley didn't help as we will still need some hay. This will not happen again as with lower numbers we will be able to produce more hay. The good thing is it helped us in the decision making and we did not get soft hearted and keep ones that should be let go. Empty hay barns = Tough Love!
Our rabbit numbers increased by one after I spotted a small pet type Bunnie hopping around our yard. It went into the barn and let me pick it up, as it was a young female we popped into a pen and will breed it along with the others. It is very friendly and has been called Miss Whiskers, it will make a good addition to our petting area when we open in the spring.
I am now reading through seed catalogues deciding what to plant in our new market garden. We are some what limited as I wish to stick with Organic Heritage seed only. On our way back from returning our rented billy goat to his owners we stopped at the local machinery dealers and bought a rototiller. Although second hand it is in very good condition and an excellent make, a BCS from Italy powered by a Honda engine. It is a professional machine prized by market gardeners the world over. The tiller drops off and the tractor unit can power a huge list of attachments as well as run the plow that also came with it. I now cant wait till spring to play with it. Trouble is its still winter and there is a pile more paper work to do.
Our shearer is booked for the 3rd March and now I will have to get on and book the vet for pregnancy checking in mid February to make sure they are worth keeping and shearing. There is that Tough Love again!