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Grobdale of Girthon

Ooh the chilly months !

Starting with

November the big wet soggy kiss..

Rain didn’t stop the new branding or the final touches to the cottages our final mission for the last part of 2020 . Stronger colour logo artwork was needed to make our brand stand out a little more. Navy and stars for the dark skies park, antlers to reference our wildlife and copper because two thirds of us are Ginger in fact Andy is almost a ginger too ( his beard was more copper than silver once you know x

Andy has always been better up a ladder and so the new look to Grobdale began.

Other final touches were the frosting at the cottage doors to name each one officially .

Frosted vinyl to finish off each doorway was carefully drawn up, cut and applied . The finished product worked ok we think ( lovely when the idea in your head actually works )

The grounds have been on my mind since day one of the build but I knew that I wouldnt get to plant anything until the last minute.. oh how right that was, November is not usually great gardening weather !

But garden we did , picking the dryer days became a neccesity as the weather as we all know was flipping wet ! 

 

I had been hoarding plants since spring and before lockdown 1 , covid put a halt to the build earlier in the year and all the plants had to be molly coddled all summer , but now finally they could go in .. This was one of my favourite bits , I could do this , I didn’t need to research it , at last something I knew how to do already ..

The cottages are one huge project , but the animals are a big part of what we are trying to do here too. The Herdwicks are wonderful to watch and spend time with , I cant say I have a favourite species here but I do love them

tea and homework..

The sheep are a joy, watching the ewes out in the field, then the lambs come and now it was time to see if what we were rearing was good for the plate !

A cull was required , both to start the ball rolling on our Herdwick meat sales and also to cleanse the flock .. only keeping the best breeding stock.

Two ewe lambs were selected, and booked into the abattoir and with Tom at Griersons for processing.

A cutting list was decided on and before we knew it we had our first Grobdale lamb to try .

 

Yummy..

The polytunnel , magically .. gotta be because I’ve not been near it in ages ..produced a bucketful of the most delicious chill’s .. clever thing huh .

And Boom , November was warm again .. 🙂 

December was a fast one and before we knew it the year was almost over.. A strange year, but still productive and positive. Never been one for a gloomy

outlook despite the weather! So the final month had us Riding with Isla at Barstobrick .. A dream come true , me and my favourite girl out on out own on ponies enjoying the weather ( finally dry)  on horseback .. awesome

Nora was due her third litter of piglets on the 18th so we got busy making sure the farrowing pen was super clean and ready to house our most precious piggy and her new babies. 

Nora was feeling the bloat

Nora true to form had read the manual so at 5.25 on her due date ( 114 days after bonking day ) she popped or rather slurped out the first little piggy.. Piglets are amazing, in that within seconds of clearing any mucus they are scrabbling to get to mum and her milk .. INCREDIBLE ..

By the time we got to 11pm Our beautiful pig had managed 8 happy little wrigglers.

The month ended as we all know with a new level of Covid restrictions so we curtailed our usual Christmas shenanigans and settled down to a very chilled very small but wonderful mini family holidy.. much needed

A wonderful crisp early morning with the Herdys x

See you all on the other side for a better year 2021 x

By the way , apologies for the lack of layout imagination, WordPress have conspired against me and souped up the software … and its sooooo hard x I’ll master it eventually x