Strange things happen in the world of smallholding so today when all Ryelands reported for duty at first light it was one of those great moments when you just knew the day could go as planned. Goats vacated stables, sheep took up their positions and waited for Defra who arrived right on time, didn't get flattened by enthusiastic Berners and set about obtaining the right amount of blood from all the lady sheep for testing.
As we had goats they were tested too and the nice lady from Defra went up mightily in our estimation as when introduced to our compact herd let out a cry of "Nubes!" which is code for Anglo Nubians and waxed lyrical about our choice of breed as she herself used to keep Nubes until hers exploded from old age. In five minutes she gave us more useful advice about keeping the beasts from self detonating that we have managed to gather in five years. The goat herd book we keep is a sad reminder of those that went with a bang.
Sheep and goats looked over she had a good old look at Chester who is a spring chicken compared to her 28 year old Arab. She also commented on the handsome pigs in the pen, they being the pig club crosses, and thought they were coming on nicely. We were very surprised with how nice the Defra lady was and how helpful, not like how we imagined at all really. Her role was to monitor how small farms were doing, this includes the likes of us. Ours was the last blood survey of some 300 across Wales. The fact that it was supposed to have been finished in May is neither here nor there, we were the last ones and she was happy with that. So were we.
Little t kept himself entertained by trying on my cycling helmet. After much concentrated effort he managed the buckle too.
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