I noticed a big change in the farm when I came home from school this week.

It was as if the week’s heavy rain had washed all the green away and left a variety of different shades of red, yellows and browns. There were plenty of puddles on the driveway, and Daddy’s boots looked muddier than usual at the back door.

In the vegetable garden my Mum had been busy weeding and getting it all closed up for winter, with some well rotted horse manure covering most of the now empty beds. Some of the apple trees look quite unusual, with red apples still attached to bare branches, devoid of leaves. We collect the windfalls for the cattle, who seem to relish the sweetness and crunch. One of the last things we harvested from the garden were the pumpkins. We carved a couple for Halloween, and made pumpkin pies, cakes and soups with the orange flesh. I think I’ve had my fill of pumpkins for this year now.

There is nothing nicer than a fresh egg from your own hens

As the days have shortened, our eight hens are producing fewer and fewer eggs, and Daddy is annoyed that we have to now buy eggs after having a plentiful supply all summer and autumn. Whether they stop completely, time will tell, but there is nothing nicer than a fresh egg from your own hens.

Scanning

The cows have been housed for about a month now, and they were scanned during the week. Mummy and Daddy were very pleased, as the results were good, with 50 out of 52 scanned in calf, including one with twins - we can’t wait to see them once they’re born. The yearling stock came indoors this week, with heifers on one side of the shed and the steers/bullocks on the other side. They love playing around in the straw and they look very happy.

The Romney have lovely woolly fleeces to keep them nice and warm during the winter

We usually leave the weanlings out over the winter. They stay healthier, and as they are smaller, they have less of an impact on the land. The rams went out with the ewes in the last week, and they will be due to lamb on April Fool’s Day. They are Romney, and have lovely woolly fleeces to keep them nice and warm during the winter.

Diverse range of enterprises on one farm

Daddy was telling me that he went on an organic farm walk to Menton’s Organic Farm in Banagher, Co Offaly this week. He said that it was great to see how a small farm can be so successful. They had such a diverse range of enterprises from cattle, sheep and pigs, to eggs, turkeys and geese - it definitely wasn’t a case of having all their eggs in the one basket! He even bought a big oven ready organic chicken for a special dinner…some time soon I hope!

Charlie Hackett is a 13-year-old boy from Geashill in Co Offaly, where he lives with his two younger sisters Poppy and Heidi, and his younger brother George. His parents Mark and Pippa both work on the farm, produces organic beef and sheep, and along with a few horses, chickens, dogs and cats is a busy family farm. He is a first year student at Kilkenny College, and boards there during the week.

Read Charlie's letter to the Irish Farmers Journal here.