Rush Hour Romanian Style

The pace of things move a bit slower in the Romanian country side, this is what held us up passing though a village as dusk was falling.



Yes that is a road way through a village, notice the severe lack of tarmac, not to mention the white lines. The cows were on their way back from grazing on the hills all day, each couple of cows going back to a different farmer. It seems one man stays with them all day as they graze and looks after all the villager’s cows. The geese just decided to go for a stroll, true free range/AWOL geese.

The EU is Class!

My 1st rant! The EU has to be one of the best political/economic projects ever launched. Last weekend I was able to jump into the car drive to Dublin airport, hop on a plane to Budapest, change to another plane flying to Targu Mures, a city located in the Transylvanian region of Romania. That’s a distance of 1600ish kilometres as the crow flies, crossing 7 to 8 different countries (give or take the odd short cut along a bog road here and there). No Visa needed! Its just like travelling the same distance across the USA or Australia. In 1989 Romania was behind the iron curtain, fair play to the freedom of movement the EU gives us.

Romania

Currently traveling in Romania, its one cool country, hope fully I will have a few friendly farmer related stories to tell when I get back. Its like going back in time out here....

Bart gets rudely awakened

No need for words on this one, he is one of the calmest animals I have ever had any dealings with.

Geese Celebrate

This evening the geese did not waste any time in celebrating their hard won concessions, the extra barley was sampled with gusto.



A spoke person for the geese said "we see this a just a stepping stone to our ultimate goal of cancelling Christmas, with the extra energy we get from the barley we will be able to up the militancy of our campaign"

During the interview a heckler was heard shouting "We shall overcome.................barley is class"

Temperamental Geese

Geese are naturally nervous creatures; they trust no one and getting them on camera takes work. The 1st take everything was going fine, until one of them mentioned image rights and copyright, they just balked, and ran back into the safety of their shed.

After round the table (feeding trough) negotiations we came to a deal that both sides were happy with, I got them to move from their original position of cancelling Christmas and they agreed to an increase feeding levels and prolonged access to the pool.

No geese were harmed in the making of this footage.

Sleeping on the job

We have a guest staying with us on the farm. 'Bart' our neighbours donkey is on a long term stay with us. He is a young jack ass and shares his paddock with the turkeys. I haved a theory that he may be of use in keeping the foxes away. However he is not taking his role too seriously.

Dont mention Ch"&*tmas

Its far too early for any talk of it, and especially around these fellas. This year I'm rearing up to 90 turkeys for the Christmas market. Again it is based on the 'pasture poultry' model, the turkeys roam and graze in a field beside the farm yard during the day. At night they are kept safe and sound inside, where they are on a straw bed and have ad lib grain. It is necessary to keep them inside at night, as the poor turkey is not the smartest member of the bird kingdom, and it would just be all to easy for Mr Fox.

the friendly farmers chicks

The main new enterprise on the farm is 'pasture poultry', basically the concept is raising chickens on a grass and grain diet. This leads to better tasting chicken as 30% of their diet consist of grass. Plus the chickens live to the older age of 10 weeks, which allows the birds to mature and reach a larger size. Finally the birds live outside 24 hours a day in a pen that allows them to make the most of natures natural elements, growing fit, strong and healthy. The pen is moved every morning, and the chickens walk on to fresh grass for the day. In this way they avail of fresh grass sprouts and naturally fertilize the ground.

Grubs up!

Feeding time for the little dudes, they feed about once every hour, they basically hassle Mom until she lies down and then jump on her for about 5 minutes, get their fill and then go about their business. Needless to say Sally needs serious TLC and nutrition to make sure she can keep a good supply of milk in place to keep these feckers happy.

Born Free

The 8 piglets are 3 weeks old today and have been moved to their outdoor run, as you can see they are going to make the most of their new found space.

Pig Paradise

Below is a clip of the type of housing we provide for our pigs. They are reared out doors with their own pig hut and area to roam in. This is a stress free environment where they can dig in the soil and do what pigs are supposed to do. The two in video are boars, the large one is hopefully going to act as the boar on the farm and the 2nd one is getting ready for the Christmas table.