Doing the feed run

There’s a good reason why I changed the Defender’s suspension from County spec to pick-up spec and this is it. No, not the boy. I picked up half a tonne of livestock feed today and with the uprated suspension, the Defender barely notices the load. In fact, it actually handles better than it does empty. I’ve carried heavier loads but the handling starts to suffer so I tend to stick to 500-600kg in the back or use the trailer.

Weighing pigs

A pig weigher is well beyond our means at £400 plus for a good, used one, so how do we weigh our pigs? With this — a weighing band. It’s a tape measure with a weight scale that can be used to determine the live weight of cattle or the likely dead weight of pigs (although you measure the pig when it’s alive).

Preparing beds for planting

With the carrots lifted from the first bed and the straw burning, it was time for me to start digging. The triangular section of bed in the foreground is one of the garlic beds, while the square bed behind that holds a Victoria plum and strawberries (the Other Half started cleaning this up later in the day). Last year’s brassica beds are to the right, while I’m working on one of the carrot beds.

Lifting overwintered carrots

The Other Half and I did a long day’s work today, starting with the chores, then taking the Big Lad swimming, then shopping and then home to start on the jobs. The first task was to start clearing and preparing the vegetable beds, with the over-wintered carrots coming up first.