Of Things Springlike on the Smallholding

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Welcome to Myshabbychicvintagefrugallife on the follower bar and Joanne and Kate Greenhalgh on Blog Lovin.
It's been a while since my last post but I really have been busy.
Spring has started to spring here on our Derbyshire Smallholding. - The pond in the orchard (posh word for an enclosure with fruit tress in it that also serves as the chicken run) is full of frog spawn, hens have started to go broody all over the place, three little piggies are ensconced in the barn and have been joined by three lambs - so it's bottle time again! Sucker for punishment aren't I ?- I was suppose to be taking it easier this year.
 The pigs are a cross between a Large English White and an Oxfordshire Sand and Black (or is it sandy-black?) anyway these boys look just like large whites as their sisters seem to have inherited the colours of the Oxford. They look exactly like each other so it is difficult to say who is who. I have noticed, however, that they have different voices, so I guess I will be able to tell soon as I get usd to them, plus the numbers in their ears help!
Here they are demolishing a Sprouting broccoli plant straight from the garden. So Bloggy friends meet - Pickle, Gregory and Mr Grey (Christian for short)

When I last posted about the pigs I discussed the strict rules re. what you can feed pigs nowadays, with nothing from a food room (kitchen) and nothing that has been near any meat products. "It's not that strict surely?" friends say and I reply that it certainly is. HOWEVER  Did anyone see the Countryfile programme that made a complete lie of this?! A woman, who kept pigs was going to make a cawl (welsh soup/stew) She stood next to the pig pen with her basket on her arm, in this basket were two chunks of fresh pork. Matt asked her if it was okay to be there with the meat and she replied that they didn't know what it was.  I guess that Matt meant the proximity of the meat with the pigs. However the programme then moved on to her kitchen where Matt was helping her to prepare the stew. He cut the tops off the carrots and asked where he should put them and she offered him her pig bucket, which was under the table. On this table was the makings of the stew including the two joints of pork. Now which bit of that is okay? and why wasn't there some sort of disclaimer from the BBC? or shall we all break all these rules (and goodness knows life would be easier) so that people can enjoy looking at this idyllic county life world that Countryfile is feeding the viewers
. I was minded of when we were taking a lamb to the  butchers for a given slot of time ( he is a very kind guy that only works with a few animals at a time) and the trailer broke down. We hurriedly put the lamb in the back of the Berlingo and raced to the butchers. He was VERY angry with us and said that the movement wasn't legal, but wouldn't stress the animal further, so accepted him. His parting shot was that Adam Henson had a lot to answer for! ( if you don't watch Countryfile, Adam Henson is a farmer on the programme, He throws sundry animals into the back of his Landrover and drives all over the place)

We picked up the three lambs yesterday. I love looking around other holdings and this one was deep into a wood in the middle of nowhere. The singleton is three days old and called biscuit, the twins are two days old and are called Baaaabarara and Biffy (boy) yet again, the grandchildren named them and obviously it is the letter "B" this year for lambs.
  Here they are, snug as bugs in rugs, under a heat lamp just for a couple of nights to get them off to a good start. They are feeding from their bottles really well and we are hopeful for them. It is likely that we will get two more yet if they are available.

I seem to be spending a lot of my time mucking out and moving things around this week. I'm hoping to get time to do some Civic Society work tomorrow as it is the AGM next week and there is much to do.
As always, at this time of year I am happy to see the back of Mother's Day, which I dislike more and more. When we were young we used to be given a little card at Sunday School, this we gave to our mothers, who would use it to mark their place in their bible or hymn book. We might also give them a little posy of primroses or violets  if we could find them, It was called Mothering Sunday then and was for young children and their mummies, not for grown ups to spend large amounts of money on goodness knows what on their mothers. I don't need a card or anything else from my children, they came for tea on Sunday, but then they come for tea EVERY Sunday.
 I'm not doing too well with my seeds this year. I keep looking at blogs where there are rows and rows of seedlings, looking strong and almost ready for the ground. I have a few up but most are still in the packet!
All for now, off to wash the smell of pig away.
Gillx
PS Does anyone know why I suddenly have a lot of views from Russia!?