Month: February 2008

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webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number six. We don’t have a lot more photographs to put on the Photo Page.

Another part of Clumber Park. You can walk for miles here or else take you bikes. Elsie.

This was bought for the Great Tits the Squirrel had other ideas! It took it two days to demolish it and they are now buried all over the garden.Lindsay

We always pass this field on our way to Bristol Airport, it is in the Cheddar/Burrington Coombe area.We have no idea what the Sheep are climbing on??? Rose W’canton.

Amazing pictures… watching a panda bear grow! Elsie. Sent to Elsie by a friend.

For the past few weeks we have been having our hedges cut. We do not cut them every year, some times thay are left for three years. Others we have never cut since we came to Denbury. If they were not cut a lot of the Hedges would grow into trees, they would thin out in the bottoms, allowing the animals to walk through them. From the 1st of March until July there is a ban on hedge cutting and trimming, this is so that the Birds are able to nest in the hedge rows with out them and their nests being wiped out with the hedge cutters.

We have put Lady in the Stable next to Emmi. Emmi seemed to be quite miserable without a Horse in the stable next to her. In the day Lady and Emmi are together in the other corral area of the other stable block. We wanted to keep Lady away from Willow for a little longer and we havent had the time to put the Fillies into the area next to the Sheep. Moving Lady next to Willow and Gypsy hasent been a problem and Emmi seems a lot happier. Lady lets Willow know that she is not going to have her back. Every now and then Lady will put her ears back and show her teeth to Willow, just a little warning, but she does sometimes put her head over into Willow and Gypsys stable, to be a little friendly.

We have been keeping Lady and Emmi seperated by a rope in the corral area. A few years back Lady had a kicking session with a Mare, and the other Mare came off worse. When she was with Woody, Woody was the boss and we never saw Lady get into any fights with any other Horse. Now she is without Woody I dont partiulary trust her. The last thing Emmi would need now is a kicking session with Lady. Lady did push her way through the rope today, when we went to the stable they were very friendly with each other. That could change without any warning.

Categories
webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one. We don’t have a lot more photographs to put on the Photo Page.

Lifeboat station at St Justians Pembrokeshire. Porthgain Harbour Pembrokeshir. Lynne.

This is one of 6 Siskins visiting the feeders at the moment.We never saw these birds here until the Locherbie air crash.When they were searching Keilder Forest they seemed to disturb them out of their habitat and since then we have always had a few in February.They are very timid and took it through the window. Lindsay.

Hummingbird Fly Zone This woman is Abagail Alfano of Pine, Louisiana – she did not do it for a lark but had studied them daily and one morning put the cup in her hand with water in it. They had gotten used to her standing by the feeder and came over to her hand. She says in touching they are as light as a feather. Said if had known her husband would take pictures she would have put on makeup !! Alex.

A webcam capture shot from Elaine.

Elaine has sent in a few capture shots over the past coupe of weeks. She sent them by Word. I did not know how to change to a jpg. I was shown today.

Very quick Diary as I have to reset the Telescope as it was wandering to much last night. When I have reset the Telescope I will put the Moon on to make sure that it is tracking as it should be. Jupiter can only be seen from well after 10.pm at the moment. It is to late for me to set it up and focus the Planet.. It will be earlier within a month. I will show it then.

The Geese look as if they are going to nest on the Island. I don’t think that they are the same pair as last year as they are using different banks of the lake to rest on. This afternoon we put a ramp from the Island in to the water in the hope that if the Geese hatch eggs this year, they will return to the Island at night. The Goslings were unable to get back on to the Island once they had left the nest in other years as the bank was to steep. I am not even sure if Geese do return to their nest with their Goslings, but it is worth trying the ramp.

We have decided to put up another camera on the other side of the Lake, so that we can watch the Geese on the nest and have more cameras to try to find out the different spots that the Kingfishers perch. Whilst Diane, John and Vicky were on Holiday here last week they saw the Kingfisher on the monitor in the Cottage, fly in front of the Feeders. We are going to put in a couple more branches in the Lake, as perching places. While I was panning around the Lake I stopped at the Kingfisher branch. There were a lot of very large Fish swimming close by the branch. When the Sun is out they do swim at the top of the water to get the warmth of the sun.

Categories
webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven.

The first one is of Ramsden, our Portland Ram that died last week.

Taken when I visited the Dingle peninsular in Ireland, last October. Rose (FF)

I am glad I wasn’t the one on the end of this, Ugh. It is a little girl from Bristol. Elsie

Rocks on top of the Surprise near Sheffield. The view from the Surprise looking down over Hathersage. Lynne.

The first photograph is of our Portland Ram that died last week. It was taken by Vicky whilst on Holiday here with her parents. The Photograph could have only been taken a day or so before he died. We are pleased we have it as we never did take a decent photograph of him.

When Ramsden first came to Denbury he was a bit of a swine. Although he had large horns because of his breed he wasn’t that big. He also had quite a kind face. I have never really had any fear of any animal. Don’t get me wrong, I have had to run as fast as my legs would carry me on a number of occasions, when that was the only way at the very last resort when I was knew that I was going to get hurt if I hadn’t, so Ramsden was never a threat. But he charged at me a few times and it was quite painful. Once was when I was checking on the Lambs in the field last year. He just charged without any warning. The other two occasion’s was when the Sheep were in the pen that they are in now, and we were catching then to be shorn. After a while he never bothered charging again. He must have realised that wasn’t a threat.

We put the Sun on the Astro webcams yesterday and this afternoon. It was wandering a bit more than I wanted it to, so as the Moon was out I put the Moon on early. This is the longest dry and clear spell for a good while so I put the Telescope on as much as time allows me to. Trouble is that it take a while to focus in on the planets and it is quite cold in the Observatory. After broadcasting Saturn I will give Jupiter a try. Jupiter is a lot closer to the earth so it should be easier to show. The Telescopes computer tells me that it will rise after 6.30pm, but what time it will be able to be seen I am not sure. When it is darker I will use my finder to see where it is. As long as it is not to late I will put it on.

Categories
webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number six.

The Dingle peninsular in Ireland, last October, Thanks, Rose (FF)

This a wonderful place to go if you like walking. Clumber Park part of Sherwood Forest. As you can see Max liked it. Elsie

Seaweed on the beach. Lynne.

This beautiful amarylis was given to me at christmas by my daughter.Lindsay.

I had not seen any Deer for a few weeks and was about to ask last night on the Diary had any of you seen any Deer. As I was going to write it I saw at least a couple at the far end of the Valley. The light wasn’t very good, so I was unable to tell if the were any of the regular visitors to Denbury. Last year was an exceptional year at Denbury for Deer. I never for one moment expected to see a Rut in the Valley. I have got a bit of recorded footage of the Rut. When I get time I will try to show it. Some years back before we had the webcams we use to have a regular Herd of fourteen or more Red Deer visit us at Denbury. At the time I was not best pleased to see them in the Spring, when they would be eating the new Spring grass that we needed for our Cattle. Now I would much rather loose a little grass and see the Deer. It is a little price to pay.

Ewy must be the most lonely Sheep in the World. I really thought that she may have come down to search out Breeze or a least the other Sheep. But no, she just seems to keeps as far away as she can without loosing sight of the Farm. Although a couple of times I have caught her on the webcam down the Valley, but she doesn’t stay down there to long.

We had Holiday Guests for the past week, so the cable that we use for the Sheep and Horse web cam in the barn, needed to be used for their webcam live feed to the Cottage. We are able to let our guest see all of the web cam at once, but usually we put the four most popular on. We have put in a new cable, so that there will be a permanent feed for both. It should be working next week. As you can see none of the Sheep have lambed, but of course our Ram is no longer with them. We will need to replace him if we are to have Lambs next year. We will probably get a Texel Ram, the same breed as Minty, Dolly and most of the others. We will also get two or three Jacob Ewes. There was an advertisement in our Farm Suppliers for ten Jacob Ewe Lambs for sale. When we phoned we got an answer phone. The message that we have left has not been answered. There is still time, although I should think that they may have been sold. One thing that was for sure, I wasn’t going to have the ten.

Just a few anagrams sent in by Elaine.

DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM

PRESBYTERIAN:
When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER

ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER

DESPERATION:
When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT

THE EYES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE

GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE

THE MORSE CODE :
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS

SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME

ANIMOSITY:
When you rearrange the letters:
IS NO AMITY

ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES – LET’S RECOUNT

SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z’S

A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
I’M A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE

AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:

MOTHER-IN-LAW:
When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER

Yep! Someone with way too much time on their hands!
(Probably a son-in-law).

Categories
webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one.

The Dingle peninsular in Ireland, last October, Thanks, Rose (FF)

Robin may recognise this place. The beach at West Kirby. Elsie.

My 4 year old Cavalier Ellie And My Sons 7 month old Cavalier Lily (note the disgusted I’m having nothing to do with you look on Ellie face!!!Seagull in Pembrokeshire.Lynne.

This Red Deer was sitting by the side of the road near Ballater on Deesside last July.I am sorry but it is slightly out of focus.Lindsay.

The Veterinary came today to check over Emmi. The main reason we got him in was to see if Emmi had needed to be stitched in the vaginal area on her previous Foalings . If she had been stitched it was important to make sure that the stitches had been taken out and to what degree of stitching she had needed. Emmi had had two previous Foals in the years 2005 and 2006. Last year she was barren. I had only found that out yesterday, so it was even more important for us to know. The Veterinary had found that Emmi had been stitched and the stitches were still in place. If we had of not of known and the stitches had not been removed it would have caused Emmi to have unnecessary discomfort and tearing of the virginal area on this Foaling. With a local anesthetic the Veterinary also opened up the previous stitched area. This will make the Foaling a lot easier for Emmi.

We have got ready ourselves for the Foaling. We have installed a live camera feed into our bedroom so that we can monitor Emmi through the night without having to go to Emmi’s stable every hour or so. We set our alarm clock to wake us every hour. Last year with Lady being nearly a month late, we were waking every hour for nearly two months. The way Emmi’s udder is bagging up it cant be more than a couple of weeks at the most, in fact any time from now.

What you should look for when Emmi is about to Foal, is that she may start to lay down and get up more than usual. She may start to hoof at the floor, her tail may start to twitch, she may start to look behind herself and to her belly. If I see any of these signs I will go to the stable to see if she is sweating, with any of the signs and sweating there is a good chance that the Foal is on the way. But there again Emmi may not show any of these signs at all, and the first we know about it is when we see the Foals nose.

Categories
webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven. We don’t have a lot more photographs to put on the Photo Page.

Sidmouth Devon. The Church at Sherwood Forest. Elsie.

Hello Mr Farmer, Taken when I visited the Dingle peninsular in Ireland, last October, the Robin was so tame we managed to take about 20 pics of it. Thanks, Rose (FF)

My daughter lives in Sydney and I took this photo on a recent visit. Rose W’canton.

We managed to harrow the Horse field today. Harrowing is normally done to take out the dead grass and to breakup clods of earth. We harrow to break up the Horse droppings. Horse droppings are not very good for grass Leos. They don’t break down like Cow and Sheep droppings and kill the grass under them. The harrow breaks them up and spreads them about a bit. The ideal way to deal with them is to clear the fields of them every week. I am not into that with the amount of Horses that we have, we would be working from morning to night every day. There are machines that you can buy that hoover them up, but again it is very time consuming.

We have been putting in a new webcam wire for the Lake area in the Summer, and for the Sheep and Horses when they are in the barn during the Winter. We are also running wires to the Holiday Cottages so that our Holiday guest can access the Internet whilst on Holiday. We have to be careful where we run the wire because of the animals getting hold and chewing them. Arnie is the worst culprit, he chewed through a couple of webcam wires that we are using for the Dove nest. When we were putting the wires in today I forgot about a water pipe that we had capped off. It was a temporary job, very close to the ground and hidden by grass, it was also not a very good job. One of my Lads was helping me as the whole job was getting messy. A rough old high bush was in the way of us being able to get the wires in to the Farm House roof, and needed cutting back, whilst pulling the large cut branches I broke the water pipe, even worse I was standing right over it. Before I had time to move away from the torrent of water I got soaked from top to bottom. I wasn’t best pleased I can tell you. Even worse the pipe hadn’t been used for a very long while and the first seconds or so of the gush was filthy. My Lad tried not to laugh, of course he did, and what a mouthful he got. Mind you I am the worse person in the world for laughing at the sort of things that happened to me, when it happens to others. Half hour later I laughed myself.

We let Willow and Gypsy out of their stable for the first time in a couple of days. We have kept them in to stop Willow having any contact with Lady. We put Branston in a stable and let the two Fillies have the run of the area that he uses. It was the first time that Willow was out without Lady. She went and stood by the gate in the direction of Lady and called out, Lady did not call back. Both Willow and Gypsy were a bit frisky and looked as if they may have attempted to jump the gate. They settled down after a while and went exploring. Once they realised that they had the large area that they had, nothing would have stopped them from galloping around at full speed for a good twenty minutes. If you had been watching the Puppy cam you would have seen them. Once they had kicked and bucked two days of being in, out of themselves they settled down, a little puffed out and a little sweaty. Willow went back to the gate now and then, gave a little call to Lady and returned back to Gypsy’s side. Willow and Gypsy have bonded well, staying close to each other for most of the day. We thought that we may have had trouble getting them back to their stable, but as soon as they saw their feed coming out of the barn they followed it back to the stable. I have decided we will do what we did today for another two or three days, we will then put them in to the barn next to the Sheep.

It is to overcast to put the Astro webcams on tonight.

Categories
webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number six. We don’t have a lot more photographs to put on the Photo Page.

The lovely sunshine has really brought the crocuses on in the garden. Here are a couple of shots I took yesterday. Pat.

This is a picture of the Blue Lagoon near Abereiddy beach that Marie spoke about the two specks in it are labradors !! Lynne.

Hello Mr Farmer, I have sent in some pictures, .
The Napoleonic Martello Tower in Grain. Rose (FF)

A picture of a swallows nest taken at the caravan site. they had built their nest on the office wall. Elsie.

Alex asked when Emmi is due to Foal. She was mated on the 2nd of April last year, so her Foalng date is the 1st of March but it could be any time now or even a month later, as some of you well know.

No Jan, I haven’t tracked the Moon in the day. I some times when I get time put the Sun on. I am so busy at the moment I haven’t had time to show it in this good spell of weather.

Branston just likes getting into mischief. It was a message on the Forum last night that made me realise that the Stable light were out. I thought that a bulb had gone and went to the stables to change it. We only use low energy long lasting bulbs, so I was a little surprised that it had gone. When I got to the stables Branston was standing next to the switch. I tried turning the light back on. Obviously he had tuned the light off with his mouth, as the switch was wet where he had used his mouth to turn the switch. The switch is a turn round type that would be difficult to turn with his mouth. I have put some nasty tasting cream on it, that will stop him doing that again in a hurry. At least I know that it is Branston who has been turning the lights off. They have been off a few times recently. Everyone on the Farm got the blame, except Branston.

If he is not turning lights off, he will be trying some other annoying thing to do. If the stable doors did not have kick over bars on the bottoms he would be letting all of the Horses out, as he pulls the bolt catches over. He opens the main barn very often, and we find him with his nose in the feed bins eating away as if it is alright to be there. We were putting in a new webcam cable today and it was quite low. Branston found it, he pulled it so hard with his mouth that it broke.

When I went out to the stables to turn the lights on that Branston had turned off a pair of Geese flew on to the Lake. It was 10.15pm, I would have thought to dark and late. You may have seen them, as I turned the camera onto them. Half an hour later they were flying off again. They must have returned again during the night, as they were on the Lake this morning.

I am going to put the Astro Cams on again tonight. I am going to leave them on the Moon all of the time. If it clear again tomorrow I will show Saturn. It is to much of a chore changing from the Moon to Saturn, as I need to change the camera over and refocus the Telescope on Saturn. Putting the Moon on and then changing over to Saturn is a bit time consuming and I finish up not sitting down of an evening. As soon as Jupiter is visible at a reasonable time I will start to show it on the webcams.

Categories
webcams

Branston stable light Geese flew in at 10 15pm in…

Branston stable light

Geese flew in at 10.15pm in the dark

Categories
webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one. We don’t have a lot more photographs to put on the Photo Page.

Dear Mr Farmer, this was sent to me from my Auntie I don’t know whether there is any way of putting it on the photo page. Alex.

Good grief, what is that line made of?
You won’t believe this!
Thought you might enjoy this.
Ever worry about squirrels getting into your bird feeder? Well, look at this.

Dear Mr. Farmer, Just in case anyone had thought of a visit to the Isles of Scilly, but not actually gone…..here are a couple of photos! These were scanned in, so not brilliant quality!
Regards. Julia.

I was tempted to put Alex’s Bear photographs one a time over the next four day. But it could have spoilt the effect.

The Portland Ram Died today. He found it hard to get up this morning, and It was only me helping him that he got up at all. He was a good age and had lost most of his teeth that caused him not to be eating that well. Once we had got him up this morning I put him out on the grass behind the Sheep pen. He had a few nibbles of the grass and laid down. When I went to check on him an hour later he had died.

There were five Geese on the Lake this morning. Two pairs and a single. One of the pairs flew off. The other three stayed for most of the morning before flying off. I should think that they will return over the next couple of days, if not tomorrow. If they don’t come back in the morning I will get a ramp put up o the island. When the Gosling hatch they are unable to get back on the island as the banks go straight down. A ramp will make it possible to get back on the island of a night time if they want. I don’t really know if they will use it, but will be worth a try. I will have to get on with the remote controlled Duck. I haven’t managed to get time to finish it. I must try to find the time.

We relay the webcams live to our Holiday Cottages. Our Holiday Guest whilst watching the webcams saw a Kingfisher fly in front of the Bird Feeders that are normally on cam two. Has any one else seen them. if you do please let us know. We started putting in new wiring today, to be able to show the the Sheep on the webcams when we have Holiday guests. When the Sheep are out of the pen we will be able to put another webcam on the lake. One new camera that we have I will put on the Bird feeders. The PTZ camera I will try to program it so that it will patrol every ten to fifteen minutes on to the area where the Kingfisher goes.

The equipment for the Griffen Vulture nest webcam arrived in Spain yesterday. As long as Simon does not get any major problems he will start installing it over the next week. it is not in a very good location, needing Simon to do a bit of dangerous climbing.

Categories
webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one. We don’t have a lot more photographs to put on the Photo Page.

Dear Mr Farmer, this was sent to me from my Auntie I don’t know whether there is any way of putting it on the photo page. Alex.

Good grief, what is that line made of?
You won’t believe this!
Thought you might enjoy this.
Ever worry about squirrels getting into your bird feeder? Well, look at this.

Dear Mr. Farmer, Just in case anyone had thought of a visit to the Isles of Scilly, but not actually gone…..here are a couple of photos! These were scanned in, so not brilliant quality!
Regards. Julia.

I was tempted to put Alex’s Bear photographs one a time over the next four day. But it could have spoilt the effect.

The Portland Ram Died today. He found it hard to get up this morning, and It was only me helping him that he got up at all. He was a good age and had lost most of his teeth that caused him not to be eating that well. Once we had got him up this morning I put him out on the grass behind the Sheep pen. He had a few nibbles of the grass and laid down. When I went to check on him an hour later he had died.

There were five Geese on the Lake this morning. Two pairs and a single. One of the pairs flew off. The other three stayed for most of the morning before flying off. I should think that they will return over the next couple of days, if not tomorrow. If they don’t come back in the morning I will get a ramp put up o the island. When the Gosling hatch they are unable to get back on the island as the banks go straight down. A ramp will make it possible to get back on the island of a night time if they want. I don’t really know if they will use it, but will be worth a try. I will have to get on with the remote controlled Duck. I haven’t managed to get time to finish it. I must try to find the time.

We relay the webcams live to our Holiday Cottages. Our Holiday Guest whilst watching the webcams saw a Kingfisher fly in front of the Bird Feeders that are normally on cam two. Has any one else seen them. if you do please let us know. We started putting in new wiring today, to be able to show the the Sheep on the webcams when we have Holiday guests. When the Sheep are out of the pen we will be able to put another webcam on the lake. One new camera that we have I will put on the Bird feeders. The PTZ camera I will try to program it so that it will patrol every ten to fifteen minutes on to the area where the Kingfisher goes.

The equipment for the Griffen Vulture nest webcam arrived in Spain yesterday. As long as Simon does not get any major problems he will start installing it over the next week. it is not in a very good location, needing Simon to do a bit of dangerous climbing.