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Jan Asked about the Skyscout that Susan sent on to…

Jan Asked about the Skyscout that Susan sent on to me from the US. I have mentioned about it on another diary entry. In case some of you missed it I will give a brief description. Although we have a large Telescope at Denbury to show the Sky, I know very little about Stars, Planet, Constellations etc. The very little knowledge that I now have was told to me by a very good amateur Astronomer, who came to Denbury and pointed out different parts of the Sky, most of which I confess I forgot within a couple of weeks. I was OK remembering whilst there were clear skies. As soon as there was a week of being overcast, I could not refresh my memory and forgot what I had been told.

The Skyscout s a very cleaver piece of equipment that works by Satellite Navigation and GPS. You are able to look through an eyepiece at a Star, although it could be anything already mentioned. By pressing a button when lined up on the object it tells you what it is. Another way is to select an object on the vast memory that it has stored. As you look through the eyepiece flashing LED arrows direct you to the object, once aligned on the object all of the direction LEDs flash. This piece of equipment allows me to align the telescope so that it is able to track properly what I select.

The Bird on the SWT camera two is a Jay. I had spoken to the Manager of the Lock of the Lowe’s centre on Friday, and he was rather pleased that it was there. There have been Jay chicks feeding on Denbury Cam 1 today. It is the first time that I have seen them here.

A couple of people have asked about Lady moving her head from side to side. It is what is classed as a vice in Horses. She came to Denbury with it and was properly caused through boredom being stabled when in training. The habit can also be picked up from being with another Horse that has the habit. It properly causes more stress to us watching it as it does Lady. She does tend to do it more if Woody is laying down ill. Woody is OK today.

Concerning the Ospreys stopping off at the Chew Vally Lake on their migration. I have a person who lives nearby Chew Valley, who does Wildlife programs for the BBC, coming to the farm, maybe next week. I am sure he would be able to give me information, and I will let you know.

We sent twenty three of the Sheep to market today. I will tell you about it tomorrow.

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The Lock of the Lowe s visitors centre managed to…

The Lock of the Lowe’s visitors centre managed to get one of the new camera working today. I had hoped that the main PTZ camera would be working, so that we could see the last of the Osprey chicks before they migrate. They are going to try to get it going next week. We are sending another camera to them next week to get a closer view of what you can see on the new camera. It is positioned on a feeder that is visited by both Pine Martins and Red Squirrels.

We have been sorting the Sheep and Lambs out today, to take to market in the morning. The lambs being free range had to be got into the pen before we were able to catch them. There were only six to catch, but it finished up taking the best part of two hours. The time it took us, any decent sheep farmer could have done it in half an hour Taking livestock to a Market is not the way that I like to sell animals. I would much prefer to sell them privately, to save them the stress that they obviously go through when being sold in a busy market, and going from one vehicle to another. I did advertises them a number of times since I have had them penned in. We had a couple of phone calls, but no one came to look at them. We are taking all of the sheep to market except for the Portland’s, as there is a rare breeds auction on the 11th of August, that would be a better option for them.

When you take animals to market, it is better to pen them so that the sheep are of the same type and size, it is then easier for the buyer to price them. So it is an early start tomorrow. When they are in the pens the potential buyers, touch, prod, and feel to see what condition they are in. The cattle part of the market is the worse place. Where the Auctioneer walks around the the sheep pens to sell the sheep, the cattle are put into a ring, where they are moved around by the market workers, by prodding them with sticks. Very often the cattle are whacked harder than they need to be. As much as I have a lot of respect for the RSPCA in what they do, at cattle markets they do not seem as diligent as they are in their other good work, and allow in my opinion unneccassry use of sticks on cattle.

As we were sorting the Sheep, I had second thought about sending the Texel’s Ewes, Dolly and her gang off. There are five of them that were orphaned when they were Lambs, and bottled fed by a young girl. They are very friendly but unfortunately I really cant keep them. We can only hope that they get a good home.

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Alex asked if we have found out if Lady is…

Alex asked if we have found out if Lady is in foal. To be honest we have been so busy after the flood, we have not had time to get the Veterinary in to scan her. We have not seen Lady come in to season since she was covered. That would be a good sign that she is in foal. Even more so with Branston being able to be close to Lady’s stable. If Lady did come into season we would soon know with Branston being a Colt, by the way he acted. Woody although ill, has come into season a couple of times since Lady has been back from being covered. Branston let us know then. I will try to get the Veterinary in next week to make sure that if she is in foal she is not carrying twins, that you wouldn’t want in a thoroughbred.

The other reason I need the Veterinary to come in, is that I need him to look at Breeze, as we have not seen her come into season this year. I am concerned that she maybe in foal. If she is it will not be good news, as there is a chance that she was covered by one of the Colts last year. I was not told about it until a couple of months ago. By the time I was told it was to late to do anything about it. By all accounts the Colts got out, and were seen with Breeze last November. I am hoping that she had finished cycling by then. But if my memory serves me right it was quite warm then. Mares will stay in season longer if t is warm. I would like to see Breeze have a foal, but having one in October, for that is when she would have it, would not be a very good time. Breeze and any foal would be stabled through the winter. Not a good start for a foal. The foal would be getting on for six month old, before it it was running about in the fields with Breeze.

With thoroughbred Horses like Lady and Woody, the ideal time to have a foal would be February to March time. There is a chance that the weather would be kind, so that the mare and foal could get out in a field for part of the day. and the spring grass would be starting to grow. Some breeders try to get their mares to foal in early January, so that they have a full year for the foals to grow before becoming yearlings. Get it wrong, and the mare foals late December, you are in all sorts of trouble, for as soon as January the first comes, on that days the days old foal becomes a yearling. The foal then grows being out of its age for racing. The Manager of the Stud where Lady was covered, made a visit to Denbury yesterday, and told us of an occurrence that happened this year. The mare in question was the highest priced mare sold last year. In foal to a top stallion. It sold for over

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I have been trying to get a fixed camera positioned…

I have been trying to get a fixed camera positioned on to the branch that we put into the lake to try to get the Kingfisher to fish from. It has landed onto the branch a few times, not so frequently that it would warrants leaving the main lake camera that has a bird feeder on it during the day, permanently on the branch. As we haven’t managed as of yet to find another Birds nest, we will alternate the nest camera with the new Kingfisher camera, that way we should see a little more of the Kingfisher. There is still a good chance that there will be another Swallow nest to show. It is not to late for some of the Swallow to nest again. The picture we have got with the new camera is not to great. I will try another camera tomorrow, and hopefully put it on.

A few week ago after Kye initially trying to be friendly with the sheep in the pen, started to chase the lambs, who were still free range. She was only trying to play with them. Unfortunately unless dogs are stopped they will eventually harm the sheep. Kye had to be stopped and it wasn’t easy. If you don’t stop them they will chase any sheep they see, if they don’t attack the sheep they will chase them to exhaustion. At that stage they are liable to kill them. We had to be very hard with Kye, she seems now to have stopped the chasing.

The hay is close to the Sheep pen. Where Kye would normally go to the pen to watch the sheep through the bars, she now wants nothing to do with them. In fact she really pretends that she cant see them at all, and will lay completely out of site of the sheep. It did start off as play with the sheep, as she did with the Horses. The Horses are able to look after themselves. All of our dogs have always walked behind the Horses pushing them on, when the are taking them in and out of the fields at feed times, and other necessary movements. On more than one occasion Tass has had a kick from one or another Horse. Tass nips at the feather on the Horses feet, she will get away with it most of the time, but every now and then the Horse will throw out one of their rear legs, when Tass hasn’t moved away quickly enough she gets a wallop. Kye is doing the same, it wont be long before she get one to.

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We are trying a few Google adds on Swallow horse…

We are trying a few Google adds on Swallow, horse, dog page. You will need to scroll down the page to see the image until tomorrow when I will get the adds put on the side of the image. The idea with the adds, are that when any person clicks on the to the site we get a payment, not sure how much, but it is going to be something like 1p for so many clicks. We want to see how it goes on a couple of pages, before we make a decision if this is the way we will be going. We have also signed up to another agency, who we will also be trying. The site needs to make some money to pay for the bandwidth that is used when you watch the web cams. Let me know how you feel about them.

Our Springer Spaniel Jade who is now fourteen years old, has had a problem with her breathing for some while. Her Epiglottis that separates the windpipe from the food pipe is inflamed/enlarged that makes her at times choke quite severely. It sound like a human with a horrable cough, you can bet you life she will do it when I am on the phone. There is an operation that she could have had, but the Veterinary advised that because of her age, the operation could well kill her, and that it was not recommended. It was always going to get worse, over the past week it has, to the extent that she is now choking more than not, when she is awake, that now is getting less every week. She has other problems and is finding it difficult to walk to far. Mind you she still manages to be the guts she has always been at meal times. She is now starting to suffer with the problems that she has, we need to make a decision when the suffering is to much for her.

Surely we have got to get a bit of a summer soon. Maybe not, with it raining last Sunday, Saint Swithin Sunday. Can you imagine another forty day, of what we have had in the last forty. The ground is so wet at Denbury I have given up to making any hay this year. The first sign of a few days sunshine we will mow the grass and try to make haylage. the difference between hay and haylage is that hay is completely dry grass, that is baled without being wrapped in plastic. Haylage is grass that is dried with a little moisture left in the grass, it is then baled and wrapped in a plastic film or bag. With the ground being very wet, so wet that your feet leave a deep imprint in it, the sun will have to be very warm to dry the ground, or when you turn the grass to dry it for hay the moisture in the ground will stop it drying completely. Haylage is a hit and miss procedure, if it is not made properly, it will go mildewy in the bag, making it unsuitable for horses. If you get it right most Horses prefer it to hay. the other feed we may be unlucky to have to make is silage, that is grass baled within a day of it being cut. As long as that does not go mildewy Horses will eat it with molasses poured over it. This will be the first year ever that we have not been able to make hay, it is causing concern.

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Who s the cleaver one Within a few days of…

Who’s the cleaver one. Within a few days of putting the branch in to the lake, we got a Kingfisher on camera at 4.15pm this afternoon. I have only seen one twice in all the time that have been at Denbury, as you can imagine I am really pleased that we managed to see one today. I hope that some of you also managed to see it.

Both Swallows nest have now fledged. The way it was looking I thought that the Swallows in the nest in the roof would not be leaving for a few days. As it happens they have been flying around the farm yard all day, only returning to the nest in the roof this evening. On the other hand the first nest, although chicks fledged yesterday, have been perched on the wire by the side of the nest waiting for the adults to feed them. Unlike the roof fledglings they look as if they will perch on the wire, rather than return to their nest.

The Farmer who’s farm our lambs had eloped to, brought them back. The idea was that he was going to phone us when he was getting his sheep in, and we were to help. Because they are young he took his Ewes into his field, where my lambs were. They all mixed in together and he was able walk them back to his barn, where he sorted mine from his flock, and put them into his truck, to return them to me. They will be on their way to market on Saturday. Five of the lambs are still missing. It could be that they were washed away in the flood, although I have not seen any signs of them.

Woody is still loosing weight. She is not in any pain, with the pain killers we are giving her. Although if any one sees her in the poor condition that she is in, they will feel that I am being cruel and I am making her suffer. I don’t think that unless the weather changes that I can keep her going much longer.

The Osprey chicks should continue returning to the nest until about the 20th of August. The Bird box that you may have seen on the SWT camera two today, is where you may see the Pine Martin. There have been four around that area for the past couple of days. The camera unfortunately is mine, that has gone wrong. I am sending a new one to them tomorrow. They also have an IR lamp that is going to be installed, so you may be able to see some thing at night.

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It is good that we can still see the Swallows…

It is good that we can still see the Swallows after they have fledged. The camera is not as close in as the last nest and I am able to zoom it out. Up to a couple of days ago there were five in the nest, but I have only seen four perching on the wire. The other one may have found another spot to perch and the adult is feeding it there. I will look in the barn tomorrow. I have only seen four nestling in the other nest, the other one may be behind the other four. Why do they builds such a small nest, they are always overcrowded near to the time that the chicks leave.

Tomorrow I am going to have to move the Rat baiting cage back to under the feeders, near the lower Badger feeding area. We did kill off a lot of the Rats, but obviously not enough. Going by the way the Ducklings are getting on , we must have finished off most around the lake.

I must have been off my trolley last Thursday, especially as I hate Rats so much. I phoned up a person who is involved in the release program of Water Voles, offering Denbury Farm as a release site. We are going to speak about it next week, but I reckon I may just have second thought on that moment of madness. They are actually very different in many aspects than a Rat. I didn’t realise but they are vegetarians, but they still look like a Rat with a stubby nose. The person I spoke to said that they are quite elusive, mind you Rats are meant to be as well. He told me that there is a place where they breed the Water Vole for release programs, that we may be able to broadcast from, but I think that I may want to find out a bit more about them first.

Denbury would be a good site for releasing the Water Vole. We have the lake and a scrubby area around it, we also have the stream that runs through the farm. By all accounts that is very important for a release program, as the Water Voles can then colonise in different areas along the stream, don’t worry I not talking myself into it. There main predator are Mink, that is why they were nearly all killed off, and release programs have been necessary. Other predators are Rats, Heron and the Otter. A couple of years ago I went to the WWT at Slimbridge, they have Water there. As we were leaving our host pointed out a Water Vole to us. I was feeding on the lawn by some hedging. It had quite a large audience, all of which were delighted to see it. I wasn’t to enthusiastic, and I bet most of them wouldn’t have been either, if it been in their garden, or even worse in their home.

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I hope when I turned the camera over that some…

I hope when I turned the camera over, that some of you saw the Badger trying to get peanuts out of the Bird feeder. To get to where it was, it needed to climb a tree. I suppose it was about seven feet off of the ground. It would not have been over hard to climb, but I was surprised that it managed to get to the feeders. The tree fell over last year. It s old variety of apple from the old Cider Orchard that most Somerset Farms would have had to make their own cider. There are about six Apple trees on the bank where the Badger Sett is. They are very old. As the trees on the bank get old their roots get weaker and they start to slip down the bank, that is very steep, and between thirty to forty feet high from the path that you some times you see the Fox, Rabbits and Pheasants feeding below the other feeder that we show. I regularly slip from top to bottom when the ground is wet after rain.

The Badgers were out quite early tonight. A couple of this years Cubs were being a bit brave and were waiting in the open for me to put the food down. I shook the feed bags a couple of times and they ran back to the Sett. The new camera on the set did not go over to IR mode last night and I had to replace it this morning. Unfortunately I did not get the focus right. As it is a fixed camera I have to adjust the focus on at the camera. I will get it adjusted correctly for tomorrow. The position look about right, and it should allow a better view when the Badgers are playing by the sett entrance. I will get the other camera up to show the back of were the Badgers come out of the hedge. I will also try to get a microphone going.

The Badgers are increasing the size of their Sett. The bank where it is fifty feet plus in length. Most of it is the Sett. It is very steep ground that other than trees would be little use in farming. We need to watch that sett is not going to far into the field at the top of the bank. When I was fixing the new camera my feet went down a few holes that had been dug. They cant be seen when the grass is long, so we are unable to put the horses in the field unless we electric fence off all along the top of the bank where the holes are.

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The Ownaleg com website alterations to include the Horse Racing…

The Ownaleg.com website alterations to include the Horse Racing and Breeding Syndicate, is all but finished. I still did not get all of the photographs that I wanted. I have been trying to get descent ones, on and off all day. Bliss and Misty have been pains in the neck. Every time they were as I wanted, they move as I pressed the button. These digital cameras are not instant as the old type of cameras. The one I am using seems to have a three second delay after you push the button, so it is not always the Horses fault. I tell you what, I could have thrown the camera on the floor and stamped on it, more than once. The ones not on, will have to be added later and some fine tuning to get the site right.

I had hoped to have sent the lambs to market tomorrow, but because that they went onto another farm they cannot be moved from Denbury for six days. I thought that one of the Rams in the penned area was dead this morning. When I went to feed them one had tuned over on its back and could not get back over. Looking by the mess around it, it must have been like it most of the night. When I found it, the Ram was lifeless, but as soon as I turned it back, it managed to get up. It was unsteady on it legs for a good few hours and looking very sorry for it self.

The Ragwort that we have around the farm this year, is the worse that we have ever had since we first came to live at Denbury. It is one plant. that is really not good for Horses. It is known that Horse deaths by Ragwort poisoning is in the region of a thousand a year, and it is not a very nice death. The toxins in the plant cause liver problems in livestock, and can also cause the death of humans who have been pulling the Ragwort from the ground with their hands.

A lot of the time Ragwort has a bitter taste and is not very edible. If the plant is damaged it looses it bitterness an will be eaten, that is why you need to be very careful when making hay that the is not any ragwort in the field. Making hay early in the year you can easily miss it. This time of year it is in flower and would mostly be standing higher than the grass, the little bright yellow daisy type flower cant be missed.

There is a code of practice and a Act of Parliament on the control of Ragwort, and you can be fined if it is not controlled. The Act was amended a few year back that was greatly watered down to an earlier act that imposed larger penalties. It will turn out to be a big mistake, as when the plant goes to seed it produces thousands of seeds to each flower, that can lay dormant in the ground for decades. We are having to pull it up now, trouble is the plants are getting on for being four feet in height, the wet from the rain makes them quite heavy to pull. The ground being wet helps a little, but there is so much of it this year it become a daunting task, one that we really don’t want If you have any in your gardens, pull it up including the root and burn it.

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Rye Harbour Update apologies for the failure of the tern…

Rye Harbour Update: apologies for the failure of the tern and gull web cam, but I am still trying to determine the elusive fault. Anyway the weather has shown some improvement and some of the tern chicks have survived the attacks of the Kestrel and some of the failed terns and gulls have re-nested. So, if I can get the web cam up and running again there should be more close ups of these seabirds. Barry, Rye Harbour

We have spent a good amount of the day getting the Horses tidied for to get some photographs to put on Ownaleg.com website. I have decided to advertise four of the Race Horses in one of the racing newspapers on Saturday, for Syndication and Partnerships or for sale, to see what the response will be. I have managed to get the text for the web site finished. I will also need photographs of the Horses to show on the site. I have spent about four hours. Nearly until it was time to feed the Badgers, trying to get decent pictures with the right pose. I still haven’t got them and I will have to try again tomorrow. Trying to get any Horse to stand as you want for photographs is a challenge, but young stock is a nightmare. You don’t really want the Horses photographed on a lead rope, although I even tried that.

When we were first going to try to Syndicate some Horses I had an advertisement made. It was going to be shown on a Horse Racing television channel. When I negotiated the term the channel was freeview and had a large audience, with very little waning it went to a subscription channel. The audience sharply dropped, making the advertising not viable. I have a copy of the add on DVD and hope that it can be shown on the Ownaleg website.

The Swallows in the first nest that we have been showing looks like the nestling will fledge very soon. I saw five chicks in the nest yesterday. It is a bit crowded, but a least they look like they are going to make it. The nest at the top of the roof, in the barn had four chicks yesterday. I could be wrong, but I have only counted three this evening. One may be hiding itself behind another of the chicks. I got that wrong I have just seen five when I changed the camera over to IR mode. It is the first time that I have seen the five in the nest. They should be leaving the nest very soon, a little later than the other nest. It is still not to late for other Swallows to be nesting. I will look over the weekend. The way both of the camera are situated we should be able to see them in the barns when they return for a week or so after they have fledged.