Tag: ditch

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Snow

Almost an inch overnight, it didn’t last long in the sunshine although some has lingered in the shade. The donkeys were spooked by the sound of scrunching snow underfoot, it does have a peculiar sound so maybe they’d not heard it before, they had a couple of hours on the patch of grass by the stable before their daily cup of vitamin mix. The sheep carried on as usual, eating the hay and visiting their de-iced water trough after a couple of minutes at the mineral lick. The spring is running in to the ditch again, must decide how best to measure the flow rate. A cloudy end to the day with sleet showers.

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Meadow Strip

Gave the sheep the opportunity of fresh grazing in the meadow strip, herding them there was less straightforward, they missed the pen made of hurdles and headed up towards the top paddock gate, the idea was to allow them to graze grass without nibbling the new hedge. Managed to get round them while they grazed and they were soon in the allotted area but they didn’t settle and bleated and head butted each other until they were released and happily trotted back to their paddock. Moved a few barrowloads of compost from the heap; checked the ditch which needs more work to clear debris, spring still running. A cooler day with light winds and no rain.

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Ditch

Looked too full of water this morning, the paddocks all drain down into it so decided to clear a couple of downstream dams made of a few years of acorns, branches and brambles. Cleared the dams and then discovered a small trickle of water half way up the bank. Digging increased the water rate until a real gusher was cascading down into the ditch, hoped more digging of the bank under the fence would reveal a drainage pipe, but none discovered yet. There is a deep hole in the clay under the paddock out of which water is flowing, so maybe it’s a rising spring, had to clear the ditch several times to let clay and water run away into the lane. A two sets of waterproofs day with strong winds.