The Lake has frozen over!

A lovely sunny today with temperatures soaring all the way up to minus 2ºC, positively balmy compared with the minus 11º we started off with this morning. I've only included these figures because our friends in Winnipeg scoffed somewhat at my efforts to suggest that things were cooling down in the Post "Clipping Clorin"! It may not be as cold as Winnipeg but it's still ear tinglingly cold!
With clear blue skies, frost in the trees and snow on the ground I headed off round the farm with the camera and got some more nice photos:

The house from a couple of fields away!

At the avenue gate.

 Two views of Bishop's Lough.

Bishop's Lough which is about ten acres in size has completely frozen over. It's only the second time we can remember this happening, the first being in February this year!

Snow!

It is unusual for us to get much snow this side of Christmas in Ireland, but we have made up for it this year. Westmeath has not been hit as hard as some parts of the country and we only have about three inches.

Knock Eyon with a light dusting of snow.

 Once the fields are covered with snow it is important to get feed out to the animals still outside.

Christopher puts out the round feeders and then places a bale of haylage in each for the ewes.

 Iota feeling very small in the snow!

  Iota and Smidgen following the quad tracks up to the bull.

McCabe and two weanling bullocks are still out, and quite happy as long as they have food and water.

Water does become a problem as all the troughs and pipes freeze. McCabe knows how to break through the ice and get to the water, however after a couple of days we have to break out all the ice and refill the trough. For the last fortnight the daytime temperature has not got above freezing, and at night our wall thermometer has read as low as minus 10 Centigrade.

The only outside tap still working is at the front of the house in this wall. Christopher has to bring a barrel in the quad trailer and fill it from this tap,

the water is then decanted by bucket into the various troughs. Alot of  extra work!

Some of the ewes being picturesque.

Knock Eyon, and the ewes eating their haylage.

The weather might be hard work, but it is really beautiful.

Grandma Sale's Mincemeat

Lots of cooking apples mean trying to think of lots of different ways to cook and store them.

We always make mincemeat, and at this time of year we are often polishing off the previous years jars before making some more.

Recipe:

3/4 lb currants, 1/2 lb sultanas, 1/2 lb raisins, 1/4 lb mixed peel, 2 oz flaked almonds, 2 oz glace cherries, 3/4 lb suet, 2 1/2 lb apples (grated), 14 oz demerara sugar, 1/4 of grated nutmeg, 1 lemon rind and juice, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp mixed spice, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/3 cup whiskey.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl, and cover. Leave in a cool place for two days, stir several times. We use vegetable suet now, but I'm sure Grandma would have used beef suet.

Pot and cover. Not sure what we'ld do without a certain brand of mayonnaise jars. They are a great size to recycle and use for pickles and mincemeat.

The mincemeat easily lasts twelve months but it is unusual to have very much left by the following year.

So, with some we'ld made earlier the mince pies are cooked, iced and quickly devoured and it's not even December!

The Farrier

The farrier has just left having trimmed the hooves on 3 Irish Draughts of various ages and re shoeing Clorin, who had a loose front shoe. Four years as an apprentice and a lot of practice makes it look very easy!
The farrier would come about every six weeks depending on how fast the hooves grow. It's particularly important for young stock that their hooves are trimmed regularly.

First of all the old shoe is removed.

Then excess hoof growth is taken off.

We had a query following our post about clipping Clorin, wondering how she stayed warm without her hair. In this photo you can see her in her outdoor rug which is wind proof, water proof and insulated, so no need to worry.

And then smoothed off with a file.

Still holding the hoof between his legs, the new shoe is beaten into shape.....

..... and nailed on. This is why they serve a 4 year apprenticeship!

He then curls over the end of the nail and crimps it down so that it won't come out.

All that's left then is to tidy up the front of the hoof....

.... and Bob's your Uncle!

Irish Moiled Cattle

Sweetheart calved last Monday morning, a lovely heifer calf. This really is a stroke of luck because firstly heifers are what we want, and secondly she is by our previous bull and is completely unrelated to our current bull Damhead McCabe. (but I'm getting slightly ahead of myself! She has a long way to go before that.)

Moile calves are quite small initially, making them relatively easy to calve. But their mothers have plenty of milk, so they grow on very quickly!

Only four days old and very photogenic, particularly without her ear tags.

By law she has to be tagged within 20 days of birth and then registered with The Department of Agriculture

We haven't come up with a name for her yet, any ideas?

She is out of Springfield Sweetheart and by Glassdrummond Iceberg.

Red Cabbage

The easiest pickle in the world has to be pickled red cabbage, and luckily it's one of our favourites too!

First find your cabbage! ...or buy one from Kevin!

Slice to a thickness of your choice. You do get beautifully stained thumbs doing this part of the job.

Sprinkle with salt and leave for a day, then rinse and dry.

Pack into clean jars and cover with distilled malt vinegar. The cabbage is quite sharp but is delicious with cold meats and fish.

Muck Spreading

With the 1st Nov rapidly approaching, it was time to get the farm yard manure spread on the haylage field.  In Westmeath you cannot spread dung or store it in a heap on the field between 1st Nov and 15th Jan, farming by strict calendar date makes no sense but 'thems the rules'!

In the organic farming system it is our most important way of replacing nutrients, and this has rotted down nicely over the summer.

Christopher is the tractor driver in this photo, and you can see the spreader throwing the manure out onto the field.

A section of field with manure spread on it, and behind a piece that has yet to be done.

Christopher unhitches the spreader and then fills it from the pile with the grab on the tractor. 

Imagine how long it would take to do this by hand!

The finished field. The well rotted manure will now disappear into the field over the winter and will hopefully give us better grass next spring.

Extracting Honey

We thought that a few quotes from 'Pooh's Little Instruction Book' might be appropriate:
"When you go after honey with a balloon, the great thing is not to let the bees know you're coming"
"When carrying a jar of honey to give to a friend, don't stop and eat it along the way."

We have been keeping bees now for about 5 years. It has been a very steep learning curve and indeed would not have been possible without the help of the Midland Beekeepers Association and Jim Donohoe in particular. Disease, weather conditions and man have all conspired to make it very difficult to keep bees. For the past number of years it has been a case of trying to keep colony numbers up, rather than trying to produce honey.
This year, however, we had about 2 'supers' of honey to extract. It is mostly clover honey, which would be our favourite!

A frame of honey ready for extraction. We uncap the frames using an electric paint stripper! sounds a bit vicious but it works and is much less messy than uncapping with a knife.

It works because our native bees leave an air space between the honey in the cell and the wax cap, so you can melt the cap off without damaging the honey!

We use National Supers which contain 10 frames. When the Super is on the hive there is a queen excluder underneath so that the queen cannot get in to lay, so that only honey is stored.

The extractor takes 3 frames which are spun around, in this case manually,

and centrifugal force flings the honey out of the cells.

The honey is then drawn off through the tap at the bottom.

It really should go though a strainer and be allowed to settle before being put into jars, but this is for our own consumption, and is delicious just as it is!

The colour and consistency of this honey would suggest to me that it is clover.

I'm sure Winnie-the-Pooh would approve. An essential part of anything to do with honey is regular sampling, just in case... and because...

"Always be aware of how many pots of honey you have in the cupboard; it's nice to be able to say, "I've got fourteen pots of honey left." Or fifteen as the case may be."

Clipping Clorin

We had the first decent frost last night with the temperature dropping to -0.4ºC. The first picture which has nothing to do with clipping, was taken this morning just before sunrise and Christopher thought it was worth including!

So...over to Helen, and Clorin, and clipping:

Early morning mist over Bishop's Lough with Knock Eyon in the backround.

As autumn progresses the horses all change their summer coats for something more substantial to see them through the winter.

Clorin was starting to get too hot for comfort when we were out, so here she is clean and fully coated ready for a change.

Starting to clip.

The clippers are electric and not too noisy, but some horses are not keen on the whole operation. Clorin, true to her Irish Draught pedigree was calm throughout.

Nearly finished.

Clorin, cool and composed ready for off.