Plans for 2010

Looking at the list of projects we had planned for 2009 it struck me how much we have changed course without realising it,
We planned to continue to raise Mutton, increase the flock size and train our own sheep dog.
Well we have increased the flock but have also decided to switch breeds fro the lowland Lleyns to the Hill Radnor Sheep which are a local breed and very rare (about 900 registered ewes). I did buy a sheep dog and her training is ongoing as we speak, she will be 12 months old on the 2 Feb 2010.
I anticipate that we will continue to buy in more Hill Radnor Sheep and gradually reduce the Lleyns.
We sold some of our meat to a local butcher as opposed to selling direct on the markets, this worked reasonably well. Less money but also a lot less preparation time and costs.

The straw bale barn planned for last year has not been completed but planning permission has been obtained and we are still hoping to complete this year.

Training courses were a big part of our plan last year, but we have found them complicated to set up and are still deciding what to do in 2010.

Increasing the bee colonies to more than 100 was in our plan but we had another poor year (3rd in a row) so have stabalised at around 80, am undecided what expansion to go for this year but we are hoping to buy in some different stock of bees with hopefully more ability to cope with our conditions.

One more possible venture for this year is starting a small care farm helping people with rehabilitation and training.