Well we have had rain and what was parched and dry is now back to green. The grass is growing which is good to see, as we needed it, but it is definitely a case that it is now Autumn, this is particularly noticeable first thing in the morning or in the evening when we go upto the yard for the evening feeding of the animals.

The temperatures is still warm/ mild during the day and with the added rain we are starting to see things return to good and healthy countryside. There is however a lack of acorns from the oak trees, which suggests that the long dry summer put the trees into a survival mode. The increase in grass also means that the Horses (Rosie and Willow) are back into grazing muzzles to restrict the rate that they can graze and hopefully that will reduce the chances of Laminitis.

The cooler temperatures also means that the sheep are out more grazing as they are less bothered by flys and only retreating to the shade of the big shed when it gets warmer and the flys and midges start to become more active.

So what is on the cards now that we are onto this time of the year?

Well firstly we have the chance to do muck spreading onto several of our fields. We don’t use chemical fertilisers but what we do use is us well rotted down horse poo and straw and also from where we muck out the big shed, When we muck out we stock pile and then give the muck a good 12 months at least to rot/ compost down fully. what this means is that when we put it onto the field it will be break down quicker and allow the nutrients to get into the soil faster.

The second task will be the mucking out of the big shed, it wasn’t done last year, so it is important to get it done this year. What we do is that what we clear from the building will go into the space that was cleared for the muck spreading.

The third and biggest task is Hedge Management. It seems that the one thing that wasn’t dormant during the dry weather has been the bramble bushes which seem to be far more vigorous this year, so it looks like the little tractor with the hedge cutter will be out and busy for a fair amount of the month – so long as the ground conditions allow for it.

So plenty to get on with and hopefully we’ll get the chance to put up posts to cover each of the tasks.