Farm-Sitting

So a friend of a friend was going on holiday for four weeks during August and was looking for someone to look after his smallholding whilst he was away. Somehow my name cropped up as an option and after a few phone calls I agreed. It was only fifteen minutes away and I had no plans to go anywhere, besides the kids would love it, feeding the cows and running around the fields.

The smallholding was thirty acres in total with twenty five of that being woodland and just five acres as pasture; perfect size for a novice like me to look after. There are three cows, one Highland and two Dexter that are really there to graze the hillside and act as conservation for the fauna that's found there.

Along with the cows were three beehives that were managed by a beekeeper that would visit every ten or so days. Although interested I left him too him to it rather than try and get involved at the risk of getting stung.

Each day we went up checked the cows water and made sure there was still enough grass in the field they were currently in. They always seemed so happy to see us and would come running down the field to the gate in the hope that we had some sort of treat in the form of food for them. Admittedly this did make me slightly worried that they were being under fed but on his return the owner assured me they are always like that and try to push their luck if they can.

Although we had a great time after four weeks of going out of the way I was rather glad to be back into the normal routine. We did stay up there a few times but with the chickens at home we would always have to be between the two which was bit of the pain.

Certainly something to aspire to in the future though, our first experience of having our own cows was definitely something that we would like to pursue further one day.