8th March 2009

A busy week on our wee farm. We planted our orchard, dug our hops bed and took delivery of our first livestock (well in my book chickens are livestock).


I’d like to thank Pat and Pauline for their help with the tree planting; it makes the hard work of digging that much easier when you have someone to help.

Another day was devoted to creating a bed for the hops. This is a bit of an experiment, an expensive one at that but I’m confident that if we can’t actually sell the hops we can certainly use the hops.

This bed took the best part of a day to dig, I know you are all thinking ‘I could’a done that in an hour’ and all I can say is I’m getting better. All day long while I was learning an object lesson in the value of mechanical assistance, the local farming community were traipsing up and down the road in their John Dears and Massey Fergusons. They were taunting me I swear.
Finally on Saturday we took delivery of our chickens. Six Rhode Island Red / leghorn hybrids.




I’m amazed at how good natured and placid they are. If I’d been unceremoniously shoved in a cardboard box and driven across the bumpy roads of South Tipperary I think there would be allot more complaining. Maybe they were in shock but they went into the chicken coop without any bother and no one made a break for freedom. All that remains for us to do now is sit back and wait for the first eggs and hope we haven’t been sold a load of old cock.

Finally I'm delighted to report that our other livestock is thriving....bless