Nora was looking fairly pregnant by the Beginning of May, she was (if it was a baby bump) in her final trimester and looking pretty

“Nippleicious “

Andy loves his piggy ,so she gets quite pampered and well looked after.. if I’m  honest she’s actually a  bit spoiled …

I didn’t get breakfast in bed ! just sayin ..

Nora became our only pig on the farm after the Wild Boar finally agreed to load up and head off for their final adventure .. The load , trip and abattoir experience all went without hitch, and , within the week we were at Griersons learning about the different cuts and how skilled a job it actually is..

Our livestock numbers were’ yo yo ‘ ing like mad this month , lambs in , pigs out , wild birds in , farmed poultry out ..

Even Teal was included , we had come to realise that she was not really suited to farm life. German pointers are great gun  dogs , but on a farm with lots of small furry animals the temptation was all a bit too much and after about the third poultry casualty we had to admit that it was time to find her a more suitable home before one of the lambs or piglets became her breakfast.

A sad day came when I had to take her to her new home. My good friend Pat put me in touch with Dan and Amanda who had been looking for another Pointer to be a companion to their lovely Boris. Teal settled in well and now has a lovely new home..

Without cute furry temptations..

Other than stuff leaving us, the amount of new life here was phenomenal, Nancy and Mick had reported all sorts of stunning birdlife populating our fields and surrounding land but more obviously we had lots of House martins , swallows and swifts all looking for and building homes along with Whitethroat, Snipe, cuckoo, curlew, grouse, red kites and of course the Eagles ….Epic

The House martins were back building within our bedroom window recess , lovely to watch ..

Very speedy little house builders too !

Another thing to make our hearts sing was watching Laurens confidence build. For parents of an autistic teen that struggles with anxiety , watching her take on new challenges head on has been amazing.

 

 

 

(check out Isla’s proud smile here)

Horses have become quite a big part of our lives , riding lessons with the amazing Isla Foley at Barstobrick and volunteering with the R.D.A. also at Barstobrick have progressed Laurens ability with and riding horses massively.

Our ponies are living a lovely life at Grobdale but we wanted to branch out a little bit and ride further afield, so the offer of the use of the R.D.A. horse box was something we jumped at .

 

 

We took Lotte out to meet Nancy’s ponies one sunny sunday and hope to ride out into the forests over at Laurieston next month.

… ooh lovely trek photos coming ..

And finally the Herdy’s have come good, with a whole batch of beautiful baby lambs to complete our spring

picture . I couldn’t write a rural country farm life blog in spring without mentioning the lambs, they’ve been a worry , a learning curve but a complete joy..

This is a typical picture , me counting sheep and watching them for worries, ailments or missing lambs..

But the end result has been lovely x

 

So all we are waiting for now is our Nora , cant wait .. baby piglets are going to be sooooo cute..