The weather is still wet, windy and cold, but I am starting to notice that spring is well and truly in the air.

There is a good stretch at both ends of the day, and the birds seem to be more active and tuneful, though there are no signs of any nest building yet.

The rooks outside my bedroom window are starting to get noisy, and the bare Ash Tree in which they build their rookery each year looks very bare, with no remnants of last year’s nests.

I quite like these big black birds, but Daddy gets a bit frustrated with them, as they like to eat out of the horses feed pots in the field at the back of the house.

“We have the fattest rooks in the country,” he says frequently.

He also moans about all the twigs that fall on the lawn during the nest-building season.

Good trade in Leitrim

This week, we had three lorry loads of lime delivered to us.

As organic farmers, this is one of the only “artificial fertiliser” we are allowed to use.

The lime helps raise the pH of the soil (i.e. makes the soil less acidic), which in turn helps the grass absorb more nutrients from the soil.

The last of our cattle for beef left the farm last week, and we were happy enough with the prices we got for them.

The organic feed is twice the price of conventional feed, so it can get quite expensive to finish the cattle at this time of the year.

At least that leaves fewer mouths to feed for the next while, so it will give daddy a little less work as he prepares himself for the calving and lambing which starts in less than six weeks.

Daddy went to an organic cattle mart in Drumshambo, Co Leitrim, last weekend.

He brought a weanling with him to sell, which he did… and came home with five new ones. He said the trade was good, and there was no point travelling that far and coming home with an empty trailer.

Plenty of work on mid-term break

I am on my mid-term break from school this week, and was looking forward to putting my feet up and relaxing for a few days.

Unfortunately, this does not look likely, and my mum has already started spring-cleaning inside the house, and is planning on moving onto the garden quite soon.

My dad is lining me up to help weight some hoggets this week.

He also wants me to mow the lawn if it stays dry enough, and this will be a first for me.

I’d better watch out for any daffodil shoots and crocuses coming up through the grass – Mummy would not be happy if I mowed them all off.

At least I have no nest twigs to avoid… just yet!

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, which 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.

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