Blog - Page 76 of 109 - Farm Holiday Cottages - Fishing and Wildlife Holidays

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

I am sorry there will not be a Diary tonight as we have only just finished work on altering the stables.

Baby blue tits in my garden last summer
Just sent these for you Mr Farmer the two carriages were at the Rydale folk museum in north Yorkshire we went there last year it was very interesting, Lynne.

This was taken at Lotherton Hall nr Leeds. They have a large number of different species of birds. This is St Mary’s Island Whitley Bay where we go with the caravan. Lovely spot and you get lots of laughs watching people running across the causeway before the tide comes in, Elsie.

One of the Wolves I met at the Bath and West Show – last night I said it was on a heavy chain – you can see that it’s no more than a strong choke chain!! I realised later that it seemed as though I was visiting “chained-up” wolves from what I had written!!! Julia

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number 0ne.

We got up at 5.30am on holiday in Pembrokeshire last September and got some fantastic shots of the sunrise over the cliffs.
Baby blue tits in my garden last summer, Lynne.

Picture of our pond with what the Hawk thought was his dinner, our Koi fish. Karen, Florida (USA)

Hello Mr. Farmer, A pair of Alpacas looking almost like Dr. Doolittle’s Push Me Pull You! at the Bath and West Show 2006, Julia.

This one the other cows holding up the traffic. Elsie

I thought that after seeing Lynne and Davids pet Squirrel, there must be a story. They have kindly said that they would tell us about it. As soon as I receive it I will put it on the Diary Page.

I put the Dove nest webcam on for a change this morning. It doesn’t take long to find a Dove nest with the amount of Doves that we have on the Farm. The nest is in the stable that Breeze is normally stabled in until we move her over to Lady’s Block. Doves tend to use the same nests time after time. I have shown the nest that was on this morning a number of times before. Seeing a Blackbird this morning made me put the Dove nest on. I had seen for couple of days a Blackbird going in and out of the stable block, as if it was taking food to a nest. I don’t think that I am wrong, but I was unable to find the nest. If I get time I will look again tomorrow.

We are moving Breeze back to her usual stable tomorrow, as we are going to start to make the stable that she is in a lot bigger for the Broodmares, once that they have Foaled. We think that Emmi could do with an older Horse as company as well as Gypsy. We don’t think that Emmi has been very happy since she arrived here. She is not eating her feed as she should be. We are hoping that moving Breeze close to her will buck her up. When we turn Emmi out into the field with Arnie, she seems a lot more relaxed. It would be better if we could put Emmi out with all of the Horses, but for sure if we did there would be a kicking session, Emmi would be the loser.

There is a good chance that we are stopping Willow nursing from Lady. After the Vaseline and Cayenne Pepper concoction not working, we have tried another recipe, that seems to be working. As I am writing the Diary, I have been watching Willow attempt to take a feed off of Lady, but she gave up very quickly. With a bit of luck we may have stopped her. I will now leave Willow with Lady for a while longer, without Willow getting milk from Lady she will be a lot easier to wean.

I don’t know what has happened to the Ewe who is due to Lamb. Her udder looks as it will burst. I will check her over tomorrow. There is nothing to worry about. She is an older Ewe, so her udder will be quite large through previous Lambing.

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

(as promised) a black swallowtail butterfly that I raised. Karen, Florida (USA)

A couple more of the little squirrel. One when he was quite small and the other when he was all grown up ! Lynne.

Hi this is a photo of a cheeky Blue tit taken in my garden. Vicky, Derby.

I took this photo today 11/01/08.Rose W’canton

Vicky, Derby.’t now what happened to the rain we were promised today. Lots of rain and wind were forecast. It was very windy this morning, but very little rain. It started to rain a little when we walked down the valley this afternoon with Tass and Kye. It is still a little windy, but nothing much to worry about.

Kye is starting to try her luck with Tass. She thinks that she can be boss. If we allowed it she would soon take over. Tass is a quite Dog and wouldn’t do a lot to stop it. On our walk this afternoon Kye was being very rough with the playing, not so playing, more like fighting, with a lot of growling and holding Tass around her neck with her jaws. Kye needs to know the pecking order. German Shepherds are very clever Dogs and will quickly learn what is to their advantage.

There are a couple of rooms at the back of the Farm House that we very rarely use. They have been used to store furniture and other degraded household item. When we came to Denbury the entrance to the rooms had been blocked up, the only way into them was by an outside door, at the back of the house. We were told by the previous occupants that during the war the rooms had been used by American Service Men. On a number of occasion after the war they returned to the Farm to visit.

We decided over Christmas that we would get the rooms tidied up to be able to start using them again. Last week we started. As we started sorting through the items in the rooms, we came across mountains of hazel nuts shells and a couple of what must have been Squirrel Drays made of twigs and leaves. The room must have been used by the Squirrels for quite a while. They must have come in through gaps that are under the door and down the chimney.

There are five more photographs on the Photo page, starting from the sixth one down.

Mushrooms in Chatsworth last month
This is what Blossom could look like after a day on the beach when she grows up a bit !!!! Lynne.

The cow on this photo had all the traffic held up at the New Forest Hampshire, the cars in front of it had managed to get moving and then it decided to get in front of our car. I could not stop laughing. Elsie.

Pollperro when we were there earlier this year on holiday. Sue.

Hello Mr. Farmer. On last night’s forum I mentioned about an encounter with a wolf at the Bath and West Show in 2006 – well, here are some photos! here is a picture of a Sow with her piglets – I wish you could see the video, it’s comical!!!!.Julia.

p. penhaigon. This time of year we are fortunate to see any Badgers. Although Badgers do not hibernate, there is a period in the Winter when they sometimes do not come out for a few days, More so when it is wet or cold. I should think that there are still in the region of fourteen in the Sett, most I should think will come out to eat the easy picking that we put out, within feet of the Sett entrance.. Unless there is a cold or very wet spell I should think that they will seen a lot more early February.

What a change in the weather we had today from yesterday. It started off a little cold after a frosty night. The frost after the rain caused our car doors to freeze, so that we could not open them. We needed to run warm water around the door rubber before they would open. By 10.am it was so warm I was working without a coat. I made it a point to walk through the valley after I had finished mucking the Horses out. The stream was running a little fast, but nothing like it was last night. It was running so fast last night that it was flooding the valley field and over the bridge. The flood on the field had retreated and the bridge was clear. All through the valley on muddy areas there were fresh animal foot prints from the night before. I have walked the valley for nearly fifteen years, and it is different every time I walk it. There is light rain in the air, but we have been promised heavy rain over the next two days.

Over the past two days we have had lots of new photographs emailed to us. It may take a while for them to be put on the Photo page, but all will be. Today’s start from number one.

Sorry Lynne, I somehow forgot to put your name to your photographs.

Picture 1 is of Marley in our suitcase. We were packing getting ready to leave for Jamaica on our vacation and Marley thought if he would sneak in our suitcase he would be able to go with us. Needless to say, he didn’t get to go. Karen, Florida (USA)

Cobwebs in the garden in the autumn.
A taste of spring !! Cherry blossom on a nearby road to. The picture of the heron was taken through my back window in the rain he was eyeing up my fish in the pond for breakfast !! Lynne, Sheffield.

Here is another one that my grandson sent to me of a baby mouse, taken with his phone. Pat(H)

We have had our fair share of rain today. The roads around the Farm are flooded, as are some of our fields. I don’t mind the rain. If we didn’t have it we would complain a lot more. I cant say that I liked the flood that we had last year. It was the first time in the fourteen years that we have been flooded at Denbury. It was the clearing up that we had to do that was a bit of a nuisance, but it had to be done and was just another days work.

We don’t really get an awful lot of rain at Denbury. A lot of the times that you may see it raining on the Valley camera, it is very fine, the camera in the valley seems to accentuate the rain. On the other cameras you have probably seen that it looks dry.

We stable the Horses in the Winter, not so much for the rain and cold but because Horses poach the fields when the ground is wet. We are letting them out more this year than we want to. That is because of Willow. If Arnie and Breeze were in the own stables, they can get exercise in the corral in front. Being that they are on Lady’s block, until we finish the corral over that side, they cant come out of the stables. Branston is free range n that side and is a Colt, so we need to turn them out in the Horse field. The corral is nearly finished. We were to do a bit of concreting today, that would have let us finish it early next week, but it was a bit to wet.

Horse dung is not good for grass, and takes a long time to break down. That is part of the reason we harrow the fields. It breaks down the Horse dung as well as getting the dead grass out. Rain like we have had today makes the dung soft and easier to breakdown. Don’t use Horse manure on your gardens, unless it is well rotted. The dung breaking down will take much more out of your soil than it will put back. Well rotted Horse manure is probably the best manure you can get. Any one holidaying at Denbury are welcome to take some of ours home. People fishing here can get a ready supply of worms once the manure is rotting. We have literally hundred of tons of manure, we will have to get it spread on the fields.

There is only one time when I do mind the rain. That is when I feed the Badgers. Both of the places that I put food down are not easy to get to as they are quite steep to get to. That an understatement, the lower feeding site is a nightmare to get to at any time. If it is or has been raining, it is outright dangerous. To access it I have to climb a very steep bank of at between thirty to forty feet. Getting up it is not that bad, a bit slippery. Coming down can be horrendous. How I haven’t broken something I don’t know. Many times I have slid down that bank so fast, if it had been a ski slope I would have won a medal. Many times I have had to have a complete change of clothing when I got back to the Farm House.

As I said at the beginning of this Diary, I really don’t mind the rain. Even in the rain Denbury is a lovely place to be. I often walk down the valley, in or after the rain, looking for animal foot prints, the Birds seem to be singing more and the fast flowing stream is always interesting.

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

Karen and David have emailed a number of photographs that we will put on over the coming days.

Picture 1 is of our pond with what the Hawk thought was his dinner, our Koi fish. Karen, Florida (USA)

A taste of spring !! Cherry blossom on a nearby road to ours. Daffodils in the garden Yellow gorse in Pembrokeshire last May. The squirrel i raised from a tiny orphan just thought you might be interested to see what he is watching on the monitor, Tass’s pups !!!! Lynne, Sheffield

Hi Mr. Farmer, I was searching through my photos and found this one of a baby deer which was sent to me by a friend of mine which I thought would be nice for the photo page. Pat(H)

The Otter I believe was emailed from Aaron.

Rye Harbour webcam two is now working. Salt water had got into the camera and caused the camera to stop working. It was a shame that it stopped working when it did, right in the middle of the Sea Birds breeding season. It could not be changed when the Bird were nesting.

We are going to try again to wean Willow at the weekend. We have tried different spiked creams on Lady’s udder, they all seem to work for a few hours until Willow becomes determined. We have tried something different this evening to see if that works. If it does we will leave them together for a bit longer. If not we have got a sedative from the Veterinary to quieten Willow down when we do wean her. We will probably have to sedate her for a few days. If this does no make us able to wean her we may have to send her away from the Farm, so that she is unable to hear Lady.

We received the covering certificate for Emmi today. She was covered on the 2nd of April 2007, so Emmi is due to have her Foal on the 2nd of March, give or take a week or two either way. We need to get Emmi over to the stable block where Lady is. Those stables are larger, but more importantly that is where the cameras are set up. We also want to enlarge one of the stable in the block, so that it will be more roomy for the Mares and Foal. We cant do the alteration until Arnie and Breeze go back to their own stables, where Emmi and Gypsy are. Willow really is making it difficult.

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from the sixth one down. There only a few more left to show.

The first three are of the Griffon Vulture, that were sent to me by Simon, when he first approached us about a Griffon Vulture nest webcam, for our site.

The two others are from Sue. The description is on Mondays Diary.

Rose asked if Ewy is in Lamb. I shouldn’t think so as she has not been near the Ram. Since we have been letting Emmi and Gypsy out in the Horse field in the afternoons with Arnie, Ewy has been keeping close to Arnie. Tonight when we went to get the Horses in, Ewy came down to the gate with them. She did look sad, and ran up to the wood when we started to walk the Horses through the gate.

You must have thought that I had given up on the Duck. I haven’t done anything with it since before Christmas, as we have been so busy. A good part of the day is now taken up mucking the Horses out, and getting the stable ready for when they come in of a night. After a bit of trouble with the Duck I have managed to get the engine running. I just need to fix the steering and I will be able to try it out on the lake. That should go alright. I will then need to fix a wireless camera into it.

I mentioned a while back that we were looking seriously at trying to generate our own power and heating on the Farm. We intend to use Solar Panels on the Farm House roof to partly achieve this. We cannot start that until we get our roof re-tiled, that should be in the Summer. Over the past couple of days we have been looking at the option of using another resource that we have on the Farm, to heat our water for our heating and hot water. Over the years that we have been at Denbury we have noticed that the dung heaps from the mucking out of the animals, gives off a lot of heat. We have always said that we would look into capturing the heat, but talking is as far as it has got.

Yesterday I experimented to see how hot the muck heap was generating. I put a jar of water a few inches into the muck heap, after a few hours I got the jar out. I didn’t have a thermometer, so I was unable to measure the temperature, but it had heated to a degree, that if it was in a bath, it would be to hot to bath in. The muck heap works the same as a compost heap. If you have ever taken the top of the heap down six inches or so, you will see for yourself the heat that is generated.

Our next step is to obtain a large container to be able to fill with muck, and other necessities, putting in a long pipe with water circulating in it. We will then be able to see how much hot water we can generate. It will work, but have I got the time to see it through?

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

You can take a ride on the old tram if you fancy the experience.
Elsie.

This was in today’s Daily Mirror, a nice story.
Elsie.

The other are from Sue as last night descriptions.

Rose from Wincanton asked about Breeze and Ewy’s friendship, and does Ewy visit the Sheep pen. I think Ewy’s believes that she is now a Horse. Now that we are stabling the Horses of a night Ewy is be left on her own in the field. Every morning we watch her making her way to the field gate to wait for Breeze when we turn her out after her morning feed. When we call the Horses in of a night to stable them, Ewy comes down with them. Ewy get to the gate and is unsure to risk following the Horses to their stable. She gets so far and then panics, skidding to a stop, turns tail and has it away so fast the stones of the cottages car park fly every where. You would think that Ewy would go and lay by the Sheep pen of a night. Instead she disappears into the wood once the Horses go in to be stabled. The Horse field will soon have to be rested, so they wont be turned out. Ewy might then decide that she want to be a Sheep again.

When I went to feed the Badgers tonight, I heard the Fox starting their breeding. I am sure that many of you have heard the Urban Fox when they are due to mate. It is a chilling screechy screaming noise. I had never heard it until moved to Denbury. So I must admit I did wonder what the noise was. The noise is not part of the mating, they are calling to each other and call like it most of the year, it is just more pronounced during the mating season. As you must have noticed we have a lot of Fox here, so we the mating season goes on and off for nearly two
months.

I told you not to hold your breath waiting for the Portland Ewe to Lamb. I am surprised that she hasn’t, her udder is so large you would think it would burst.

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

This was taken at Beamish Open Air Museum a wonderful place to go if you want to re-live your past or the younger ones to see how we lived. I have more if anyone would like to see them. Elsie.

Vicky was our neighbour’s cat but he decided to come and live with us. He was old when he went missing and we never found him so took it that he had gone away to die. Elsie.

Mr Farmer please find enclosed more photos. The first 5 are of Pollperro when we were there earlier this year on holiday 6 and 7 are in Perranporth as are 12 and 13
8 to 11 are of Dingles world of steam the Speedway ride was running while we were there and we paid

There are five new photographs on the Photo page. Starting from the sixth one.

The first one is from Maddi who is trying to get me sued for copyright infringement. The reason I have put it up is that I have been known to do the same to people, from both Horses and Sheep. They don’t always think that it is funny.

One of the Portland Ewes has a very full udder. By the look of the udder it could well be in the next twenty four hours. Don’t hold you breath though, just in case I am wrong. I will leave the camera on and check on the Ewe before I turn in for the night.

Hello Mr Farmer, I hope you can use these photos, my brother took them last summer, the great tit flying to the bird box was in my mum

Farm Holiday Cottages – Fishing and Wildlife Holidays

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

The are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five more photographs on the Photo page starting…

Over the past two days we have had lots of…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page Starting…