And yet more pictures..

Here are our chickens, they are the ones saved from our good friends free range farm (commercially rotated yearly) and the only 2 left out of our four.  This breed is bred for high burn out, so sadly don't live long and don't give eggs very well as they age but we like that we have saved them.  They are great chucks, Catherine is able to pick them up.

Also, Alan's shelter for the pigs.  There is, sadly, no natural shad on the field so we've built a shelter on legs, corrugated tin from last years pig house on four posts.  Job done.  In the summer months we will rely on this as well as giving them a mud pit for sunscreen.

Our soon to be adopted piggies..

These will join us end of May... Saddleback/Large Black crosses.. 

It's been an busy week!!

So much has been done, the arc was put up last Thursday, Alan has some finishing touches to that and the first four pigs are now at home.  They are cute and lovely, and lively.  Alan went to get them last Friday (before Easter) with his mum, dad, and Catherine.  I assisted at the final leg to help get them out of the back of the truck.  The two landracers were quite large, they are a few weeks older than the Black crosses but still tiny and adorable.

The two chickens have been moved over (you can see their green wire fence in front of the pig enclosure) and are enjoying their massive space.  They will be joined by 6 Orpingtons in 6 weeks time.  Alan is getting the 6 chicks this weekend, and we need to keep them inside for 4 weeks under a heat lamp (raised slowly over time) and then 2 weeks outside during the day and inside at night.  They can move over to the field after that.  Those are the eating birds, but that depends on one of us learning how to kill them.  Hmmm...

Our seeds have arrived, and now that the veg patch has been measured out, Alan can get on with the tilling and preparing the land ready for planting.  Our seed potatoes are readying themselves in the conservatory, ready to bring out for planting.  

In other words, things are moving right along and very very busy.  

The countdown to our first arrivals...

Easter weekend marks the arrival of our first four pigs.  Alan has been busy this past weekend readying the field.  The pictures below were before his work started.  He's added barbed wire to the fence and gate in the front by the road.  Also, started the two enclosures for the pigs.  We are starting two spaces ready for rotation.  The pig arc is coming this week, hopefully Thursday or Friday.  Our arc is from Solway Recycling (http://www.solwayrecycling.co.uk/products/shelters-pig-arcs.asp) and is 8x8, we've gone for the one with a small entrance.  Alan is thrilled as he doesn't have to build one!  

Our last batch of pigs were housed in a straw bale house with a corrugated iron roof which did the job nicely but as we hope this is a long term project we need something more flexible.  Also, something that won't take Alan a whole day to build and 27 straw bales that are useless for anything when you are done.  A waste, basically.  But it did the job perfectly for 10 months, and would have lasted another season had we stayed on our friends land and let the land recover.

More pictures and updates as this labour intensive week progresses!

Pictures!

Completion

April Fools Day brought completion on the land.  Now off to do mundane things, get a padlock and chain.  Our pig ark is coming next Thursday, with the first four pigs (Landracers and 2 Gloucester Old Spot X's) arriving on Easter weekend.  Lots to do..