Danni & Jessica

Here is a minutes worth of video that I took on my phone a few months back of our two cows, Danni & Jessica. You will also notice Buster the goat trying to get in on the action.

Goat Walking

The goats have pretty much eaten everything they can inside the farm so we took them for a walk around the outside of the farm. They love all the ivy that is growing around the nearby trees and as ivy is a real pest it's a great way to get rid of it.

Jethro & Katie

Jethro

Jethro & Katie

Our latest new additions to the farm are Jethro & Katie. Jethro is a Gloucester Old Spot boar and Katie is a Gloucester Old Spot sow. They are the parents of the piglets and Katie is due to give birth again in May. They are absolutely massive and look quite scary close up although they are both fairly friendly. We have had to put up an electric fence just to ensure that they don't escape, although they seem very happy with their new home.

More sausages on the way.

We currently have six piglets that we are fattening up to be sent to slaughter. They were born in October and will be going off to slaughter mid April. Expect a fresh range of Kadesh pork products early May. We haven't named any of these although that is more down to not being able to tell them apart than sentimental reasons.

Polytunnel

It's been up for a while now and so far has only been used as storage for the animal food, but we now have a polytunnel greenhouse. The plan is that we will soon have an abundance of vegetables on the go ready for later in the year.

Buster & Twist

Twist

Buster

Buster & Twist (the goats) will be two years old next month. It's hard to believe that they are the same goats that I used to pick up with one in each hand. They are both very well and healthy although Twist has got a little fat so is now on a bit of a diet. They are both comedy gold and very mischievous.

Wilbur

Lula

Wilbur

A few months back when Bailey arrived with us he needed a companion. Strictly speaking it is illegal to keep a pig on its own, certainly in a farm environment, so I'm not sure how people are even allowed to keep them individually in their homes but that's another story.

We bought 'Wilbur' who is a Kune Kune pig so that Bailey wouldn't be too lonely. Now that Bailey has gone to pig heaven we didn't want Wilbur to be lonely so last week we added 'Lula' to the crew. Lula is also a Kune Kune. Wilbur is a male but let's just say he won't be having any children after a visit to the vet. Lula is female.

Bailey the 'micro pig'.

Several months ago Bailey the 'micro' pig came to us. He was sold as a micro pig and the previous owners were told that he would only grow to 12 inches tall. This is becoming an all too familiar story. He grew and grew and started wrecking their house. There are several companies that sell these 'micro' pigs but any vet or pretty much anyone who knows anything about pigs will tell you that there is no such thing as a 'micro' pig, it is all a big con. Pigs don't reach their full size until they are three years old. Bailey was only two years old and was already huge.

Bailey enjoyed his time at Kadesh farm and always looked very happy and would roll over to have his tummy tickled. Unfortunately last week it became necessary to have Bailey put to sleep. It is suspected that he had a brain tumour but without an expensive post mortem we will never know for sure. Over the last couple of weeks he had become very aggressive and started to attack the other animals and me. The vet was excellent and put him to sleep without fuss and he died doing what he loved in life - eating!

If you or anyone you know is considering getting a 'micro' pig then give me a call and I'll soon change your mind. DON'T DO IT! PIGS ARE OUTDOOR ANIMALS!!!!

Danni & Jessica

Danni the cow has had a calf which we have named Jessica. Both cows have gone for a visit to our friends Gerald & Sarah who have a much larger farm as they were churning up the grass during the wet weather. They will return to us in the summer and if 'The Colonel' has done his job then Danni will be back in calf. This picture was taken a few days after Jessica was born at the start of the summer. She is almost as big as Danni now.

Evan the goat.

Two weeks ago Evan arrived with us. He is a pygmy goat and has come to live with us because he used to live with another goat who sadly died a couple of months ago leaving Evan very lonely. We are hoping that he is going to bond well with Buster & Twist although at the moment they seem to be bullying the new boy when it comes to feeding time. Evan is very good natured and super friendly, he loves people and comes to the gate when you go to leave as if to see if he can come with you.

Massive update incoming!!!

Apologies that we haven't update the blog for so long. A lot has happened in the last few months so this afternoon I went out with my camera and took a load of pictures, which as they say are worth a thousand words. Rather than write one massive update I am going to break it down and do a post for each thing.

Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink.

Last week we had our old bore hole checked out to see if we could get it working. Unfortunately the verdict is that it would be cheaper just to drill a new one but this is quite expensive and out of the question for now. Thankfully at the beginning of the summer we had a trailer purpose built to carry water from home to the farm. It's quite a large tank which means that we only need to do it about once a week. I have already managed to drive off with the lid laying on the back and lose it!