Blog - Page 77 of 109 - Farm Holiday Cottages - Fishing and Wildlife Holidays

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

The first is from Marie. A screen shot of our Peacock.

hi there at the farm just wondering if you could add this picture of this badger that i saw a few weeks ago. From Aaron on the message board.

Mr. Farmer, picture 1 is my three boys, Marley, Jagger and Rasta. They are long haired daschunds and kings of the household. Picture 2: is our Marley acting like a clown. I’ll send more butterfly pictures later. Karen, Florida, USA.

This cat used to visit a lot of us near where he belonged. He was a really big lad and we used to give him tit bits. One day he came and he had a note on his collar saying please don’t feed him as he is well fed at home. That told us didn’t it. Elsie

I spoke to Bliss and Misty’s Trainer yesterday. Both Horses are getting on well and are now cantering. Misty has caught up with Bliss on her progress, she is showing lots of potential, and is able to take any position when riding out in the training sessions. Bliss is on a growth spurt, her progress has slowed a little. The Trainer believes both Horses have a good chance to start racing May/June time.

We introduced Emmi and Gypsy to Arnie yesterday in the main Horse field. There was a little bit of squealing from Emmi. Both Arnie and Emmi made a few two barrel kicking threats at each other, but that was all the were. They settled down and got on well with each other. Gypsy tried to get Arnie’s attention, but he really wasn’t that interested. The three of them kept close to each other all of the time that they were in the field. We were confident that Arnie would be good with the two new comers. He has never been any trouble with any new Horses that we have introduced to him. We cant let Emmi and Gypsy out with Breeze and Lady, without first introducing them in the field, parted by an electric fence. Even then the could be a bit of kicking. I wont be risking it with Emmi being so near Foaling. I will try the introduction in the Spring. Today when I turned Emmi and Gypsy out with Arnie, it was as they had known each other for ever. Emmi was calling to Arnie when he was out with the other Horses.

Marie captured a screenshot of our Peacock sitting on the gate of the Sheep pen. He hatched on the Farm a good few years back. He is a bit of a wanderer. We really don’t know how he has managed to survive for as long as he has. He travels a fair distances from the Farm and can regularly be seen walking down the lanes. How a Fox hasn’t had him I don’t know. Of a night when he is on the Farm he roosts in an Acacia tree next to the Farm House, but can also be seen in the barn where the Sheep are when it is raining. None of the Peahens that we have got to keep him company have survived. We were only talking about trying to find him another mate a couple of days ago. I might have a look to see if there are any for sale.

When we first had Peafowl and the Peacock moulted, we collected all the feathers believing that people would like to have them. What a waste of time that was. Most of those that we asked told us that they were unlucky and that they would not have them in their house. That was from people far and wide who did not know each other. The main reason seemed to be the eye on the feathers was meant to be evil. The other was that in Asia the Peacock was a delicacy, and that there was a risk that the Peacocks would become extinct with the amount that were being killed for food. To stop the risk it was rumoured that eating peacocks was unlucky. We don’t have the feathers in the Farm House anymore.

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from the 9th picture.

The first two go with the article below.

Hi Mr. Farmer, In response to your plea for more photos here are three more. Staying on the birds theme, the black swan was taken when we visited Leeds Castle, the Peacock was taken on a visit to Audley End and I thought I would post my photo of Concorde’s last flight. This was taken through the coach window on the way home from a visit to Winchester. I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. Pat(H)

The Lamb died this afternoon. We did all that we could to try to keep it alive, unfortunately that was not enough.

I thought that you may find this article from the BBC interesting. It will give you an insight to the problems that The Lock of the Lowe’s have in protecting their Osprey Nest. Because of Egg thieves they need to have 24/7 security at the centre during the breeding season. On the Photo page there are two photographs that were part of the article. I will need to worry about copyright now.

Compulsion of prolific egg thief
By Sallie George
BBC News, England

The RSPB believes the bulk of Wheal’s collection remains hidden
The theft of eggs belonging to some of Britain’s rarest birds is deemed so serious that in some areas, nests are guarded around the clock during the breeding season.

The RSPB said thieves such as Gregory Wheal were motivated by an overwhelming addiction to the thrill of stealing and possessing rare eggs, with their collections becoming a trophy of their endeavours in the field.

Such is the extent of the compulsion that collectors will risk their lives to satisfy their desire for eggs.

Mark Thomas, investigations officer for the RSPB, said: “It becomes a complete obsession where collectors will risk absolutely everything. They physically can’t help themselves.

“We know of two collectors who have fallen to their deaths.”

‘Hidden collection’

The organisation believes there are currently about 50 egg thieves active in the UK.

Wheal is not the country’s most prolific, but he is the one who has been caught and convicted the most times, the RSPB said.

He has now notched up nine convictions for egg theft, dating from 1987, and has been jailed once before, for four months in January 2006.

Wheal is described as the most convicted egg collector in the UK

The RSPB is convinced Wheal’s main collection of stolen eggs remains undetected, possibly hidden away in a lock-up hundreds of miles from home – a common practice among ardent collectors.

Mark Thomas, investigations officer for the RSPB, said: “In all of this time we haven’t found a substantial collection of eggs, which makes us believe he had got a big collection somewhere hidden away.

“There is no doubt he is prolific, he has been active for a considerable time targeting rare birds and nests which we would spend quite a lot of time and money guarding.

“He would think nothing of travelling vast distances to get to very rare birds’ nests.”

Collectors ‘turned in’

Collecting eggs from wild birds’ nests has been illegal since 1954, but since 2001 the offence has carried a maximum six months’ jail sentence.

Since then, the number of active egg collectors has dramatically dropped, the RSPB said.

Mr Thomas said: “If you go back 20 years or so there would have been about 200 of these individuals, but now the law has changed.

“About 12 or so individuals have gone to jail for these sorts of offences and that has served as a very good deterrent.”

But despite the threat of jail, some collectors find themselves unable to stop stealing from rare birds’ nests.

At the end of the day their lives are being ruled by a collection of shells

Mark Thomas, RSPB
Mr Thomas said: “During the winter months there are no eggs being laid – they will be at home, thinking about the breeding season.

“The thrill is still there, and as soon as the first birds start to nest they have got to go out and do it again.

“These are people who are absolutely obsessed with birds, but whereas a bird watcher will go out and write down their findings, an egg collector has to take something away.

“I have raided houses before and found a drawer full of eggs from one species of bird – but in every shade. They become completely obsessed with minute detail.

“I have been in cases where we have caught an egg collector in the field, and when it comes to interviewing them, they are in floods of tears, they realise it has got completely out of control.

Meticulous planning

“This is why, a lot of the time, we have collectors’ families informing us of what is happening.

“We get wives and girlfriends ringing up to say their partners have got a lock-up somewhere full of eggs.

“At the end of the day their lives are being ruled by a collection of shells.”

Meticulous planning goes into the egg theft operation.

Collectors will undertake painstaking research, planning their trips weeks in advance, marking maps and travelling hundreds of miles.

Once the egg has been stolen, the collector may then bury it somewhere to avoid being caught in possession of it while travelling home.

Collectors then return to the site when the breeding season has ended and dig up their find, before putting it into storage.

Some nests, such as that of the Osprey in Loch Garton in Scotland, are deemed so at risk, they are guarded 24 hours a day during the eight-week breeding season.

Mr Thomas said: “The theft of eggs has a very significant impact and poses a very serious threat to many of Britain’s rarest birds.”

There are five new photographs n the Photo page starting from the fourth one.

The first one is one of three sent in by Julia.

This is our favourite place Dartmouth in Devon. We have been going to South Devon for years. I can’t get enough of the place. Elsie.

Two more of the Moose from Maddie.

The picture of the Kingfisher was sent in by both Maddi and Elaine. I hope I don’t get done for copyright infringement.

I have not been showing the Sheep today, as the Lamb is not very well and we don’t expect that it will live. When I last went to check on the Sheep at about 10pm it was fine, but this morning it was very weak and laid out on its side. We had thought that it has been feeding properly. It is getting milk from the Ewe, but because it has a deformed mouth it is not getting as much as it should. I only noticed the Lambs mouth this morning when I was bottle feeding it. It perked up a bit after the bottle feed, but it is not looking good. There of course is a chance that as its mouth is deformed it has other problems.

It has only been the Portland’s that we have had problems with. All the other Sheep have been alright. Even the Portland Crosses that we have bred have been OK. We sent a few of the older Portland Ewes to Market last year and the remainder will go when they have Lambed. I would like to have ten Ewes on the Farm. I will make the numbers up with Jacobs. We have had a few of those before. They were very hardy and although they are worth very little, I do like the look of them.

We let Emmi and Gypsy out into the main Horse field early this afternoon. We put Emmi on a head collar to lead her out, and let Gypsy follow on her own. Gypsy stuck to Emmi like glue, no way was she going to loose sight of her. I was sure that she would have followed Emmi, but I didn’t want to put Gypsy on a lead as the only time Gypsy has had a head collar on was when she was loaded and unloaded onto the Horse Box, when she came to Denbury, she wasn’t very keen on it, and it wouldn’t have been a good experience for her, so we are taking every thing we do with Gypsy, very carefully. She is getting friendly with us and we don’t wont to frighten her. It didn’t take them long to decide hooray we are free once we had got them into the field, they stuck together racing, kicking out and bucking around the field. I hope some of you managed to see them on the webcam. We will try to let Arnie out with them tomorrow when we let them out.

I doesn’t look as if we are have a lot of luck with the Vaseline and Cayenne Pepper that we are putting on Lady’s udder, to stop Willow from getting milk. A couple of times last night before we stopped watching her we could see that she would not feed, but looking at the recording that we did through the night, she did take a couple of feeds. The taste of the concoction must wear off after a while. It is also possible that she had a feed about 6.30pm tonight, only a couple of hours after we put the concoction on again on Lady’s teats. If she did we are going to have to look at other ways of stopping her feeding.

I have put three new photographs on the Photo page. The photographs that have been sent in are running out. If you have any please send them in.

Elaine the last photograph you sent wont open. Try another way of sending it.

The first one is from Patrica the last of three photographs that she emailed to me.

The second from Elaine.

The last one from Elsie.
I thought this was so cute. It is from a card in aid of Retired Greyhounds. Elsie.

I can tell you without any hesitation, that I have had a belly full of the new Lamb. The so and so has had me on the run around all day long. I have told you many times, Sheep are more trouble than they are worth. How such a little thing can make so much noise I really don’t know. If we had sound on the Sheep you wouldn’t want to watch the webcams with the noise that the Lamb is making. Mind you if we had sound you would have to turn it off with my cussing about the Lamb. Even when the Lamb is next to the Ewe, it is bleating.

The Lamb seems quieter when it is out off the pen, and it has been out more than it has been in. Because the Lamb was being knocked about a bit, I decided to pen it and the Ewe on their own with some hurdle’s that I had lying about, I put an old pallet at the end where it had fallen out a couple of times. The bars at the bottom of the hurdle’s are close that it would stop Lambs from getting out. The only place it could get out was at the front of the pen. As it had not got out that way before I thought that I could leave it. By the time I got back to the Farm House the Lamb was out. I put a couple of boards up to stop it getting out that way again, again by the time I got indoors again it was out. I have now raised the boards a bit higher. It better not get out again.

We have left the Horses stabled for the night, not so much because of the weather, as it is not going to be freezing here tonight. But we want to see if the concoction of the Vaseline and Cayenne Pepper is stopping Willow from suckling. We put the concoction on Lady’s teats again this morning. After a couple of attempts of suckling Willow gave up because of the taste. We need to see if it is going to work. When the Horses are turned out that is not possible. Tonight we can keep an eye on them, and also put the recorder on. If when I have Lady’s camera on, and you see Willow suckling, please let me know on the Forum.

Now that it looks that Willow is going to take longer to wean, we need to get Emmi and Gypsy settled. They have been stabled in the same area since they have been here, the only turnout being the corral in front of the stables. With Emmi being laid back and kind, we have been able to let them Gypsy out with her. Emmi will put her ears back at Gypsy now and then, but nothing to serious. We have to separate them at feeding times as you can never be sure that Emmi might just give Gypsy a kick if she believed that Gypsy was a threat to her food. When Gypsy is stabled, Emmi is always looking in to her stable to check on her. Tomorrow we will give them both a little time in the main Horse field and over the coming days introduce Arnie to them. He will be alright with them. We will then try to introduce Lady and Willow. We will need to be careful as if Lady believes that Emmi may be a threat to Willow there will be a kicking session, with Emmi due to Foal, possibly within a month we really wont want that. Breeze would chase the pair of them around, again I wouldn’t want that. We will take it day by day, and I will let you know how it goes.

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

The first two are of our new Lamb, the three others are from Maddi of the Moose Calf.

That was a bit of a surprise this morning. I had only checked the Ewes udders a few days ago and there were no sign that a Lamb was going to drop this morning. As soon as we entered the barn we could hear the Lamb calling. Some how it had got on the outside of the pen. It was still wet when I picked it up so it couldn’t have been born to long. I was a bit concerned if the Lamb had got the colostrum from the Ewe, or even if it was feeding at all. I could see the Lamb trying to get on to a teat, but I wasn’t sure if it was being successful getting milk. I checked both side of the udder to make sure that there was milk coming out. One side was alright, the other I needed to start it off. The Lamb seems to be feeding alright now. It is a Portland Lamb. The other Portland Ewe has bagged up, so she will be lambing over the coming day. I have put an infra red lamp up facing the Sheep’s pen, so hopefully you will be able to see the Sheep during the night.

We have always been fortunate with weaning Foal off of the Mares. Put the Mares in a stable and the Foals in a secure field or stable the Foals together, within a few days both the Foals and the Mares accept it without any problems. Willow has been the exception. Initially yesterday she was fine in the stable between Emmi and Gypsy. That lasted until about 9.pm last night, when she was stressing so badly that we needed to keep going out to check on her to make sure that she was not going to hurt herself. We only went to bed when it looked as if she had settled, that was nearly 2.am. We got up early to see that she was alright. By the way that she had sweated up she had obviously had a bad night, and was still very agitated and throwing herself about the stable. We had no alternative but to let her Emmi and Gypsy out together with Willow, hoping it would quieten her down. It did for a few minutes, after that she decided that she was getting back with Lady no matter. In the end we have had to put Willow back with Lady.

I can see that weaning Willow off Lady could well be a problem. It will be my own fault for being too soft. We should have weaned her two months ago, but as I did not have a companion for her, I left it, giving her more time to be reliant on Lady as her food source. That really is the problem. Willow wants the milk. We have now got to stop her from suckling, Willow will then be easier to take off of Lady. Tonight we have put a mixture of Vaseline and Cayenne Pepper on Lady’s teats to try to stop Willow from suckling. As it is dry we have turned the Horses out tonight. As Willow and Lady entered the field, Willow went to suckle, trying both side of Lady’s udder, stopping we hope by the nasty taste. We will try that for a couple of days to see if it works.

We had hoped to have put Willow and Gypsy in the pen we have put up next to the Sheep. We would then have deep littered that area. Deep litter is to only muck out the dung, and adding new straw on top of the old. The underneath straw starts to compost giving off heat. It is a good way of bedding Horses in large areas, and saves a lot of work. We could then have put Emmi next to Lady, getting them use to each other for when they are turned out together with their Foals in the Spring.

WE WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting from the sixth one down. the first three are from Maddi, I will put on some more of Maddi’s tomorrow.

Hello Mr Farmer,
My friend Carrie in Canada sent me these photo’s, I hope you all enjoy them. Maddi.
Baby Moose 12 Hours Old – Born in the middle of downtown Flatrock
In my whole life in Flatrock, I have never seen a new born baby moose. This one was not even a half a mile from my house. The mother picked a small quiet neighbor in Flatrock and had her baby in the front yard just off Deer Marsh Road ,at 5:30 am. Debbie and I (Jim) were out bike riding when we came upon the pair. The lady across the street from this house told us she saw it being born. We saw them at 5:30 PM. So the little one was 12 hours old. What an awesome place we live in, to see such a site. Jimmie & Debbie Auchinleck.

Dartmoor Ponies taken 2 years ago when we were on holiday. Elsie.

The Osprey picture is from Elaine.

As you have probably seen Lady is now on her own. We parted Lady and Willow this morning. Up to now it has gone very well, much better than we had expected. They are calling for each other, but that has got a lot less over the hours. Of course Willow is pining for Lady. Parting the Mares and Foal is one of the most disliked things that I have to do. Unfortunately it has to be done. The alternative is to leave the Mares and Foals together until the Mare decides that it is time for the Foal to stop suckling, that would put the Foal at risk of being kicked by the Mare, if the Foal persist in trying to suckle. The last three months of the gestation period of the unborn Foal is very important, If the Mare was allowed to keep feeding her current Foal, it would cause the unborn Foal not to get the nourishment that it needs. Willow has been with Lady eight months, by far the longest that we have kept a Mare and Foal together.

Willow is stabled in between Emmi and Gypsy, in those stables they have bars so that the Horses can see each other. Willow went to the side Emmi is stabled, to my surprise ignoring Gypsy completely. After about an hour we let Emmi out of her stable to walk about, Willow really did get stressed, so that we had to quickly put Emmi back. After four to five days we will turn Willow, Emmi and Gypsy out into the main Horse field. Within a couple of weeks we should be able put Willow and Gypsy together in the barn in the area we have made for them.

Once we got Willow into a stable we had to put Lady into hers. We also brought Arnie in to keep Lady company. Lady has only called out once or twice in the last couple of hours for Willow, that was only after Willow had called out to her. Lady should only need to be stabled for two to three days, after which we should be able to let her out of the stable. All the time that she is stabled, Arnie will be kept with her.

We wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting from the sixth one down. the first three are from Maddi, I will put on some more of Maddi’s tomorrow.

Dartmoor Ponies taken 2 years ago when we were on holiday. Elsie.

The Osprey picture is from Elaine.

As you have probably seen Lady is now on her own. We parted Lady and Willow this morning. Up to now it has gone very well, much better than we had expected. They are calling for each other, but that has got a lot less over the hours. Of course Willow is pining for Lady. Parting the Mares and Foal is one of the most disliked things that I have to do. Unfortunately it has to be done. The alternative is to leave the Mares and Foals together until the Mare decides that it is time for the Foal to stop suckling, that would put the Foal at risk of being kicked by the Mare, if the Foal persist in trying to suckle. The last three months of the gestation period of the unborn Foal is very important, If the Mare was allowed to keep feeding her current Foal, it would cause the unborn Foal to get the nourishment that it needs. Willow has been with Lady eight months, by far the longest that we have kept a Mare and Foal together.

There are five new photographs on the Photo page.
I have had a problem with my email, yesterday and today. If you sent any photographs in please resend them in case I did not get them.

The first is from Elaine.

The Horses from Elsie. It is near here where Max is taken for his walks. He does not like the horses though. Another one following of more horses in the same field. Elsie

The last two. Hello Mr. Farmer,
Here are some scans of my dogs. The four pictures together are of my last dog, Bud (as in Budweiser – well, we DID run pubs for twenty odd years!!) He was a real poser and would always look into the camera lens. The picture on the top right was taken just a few days after we collected him at 7 weeks old. I had taken a till upstairs to count and he sat under the table resting his chin on the wooden slat. This was a very endearing habit he retained throughout his life. If he wanted anything, he’d rest his chin and look you in the eyes, as if to say “resist me if you can”!! The photo of the handsome Bud was taken when he was about 10 months old. We went to Centerparcs for two weeks each year so we could have a relaxing holiday with our dog!! The last picture is of (l to r) Tynus and Guinness, the two GSDs we had when we lived in Cornwall. Unfortunately, they have rather “alien” looking eyes because of the flash, but they were gorgeous!!
I really miss having dogs so much, it’s just not possible at the moment. Still, I do have wonderful memories!! Hope you like them, Julia

This Government seems to have found a way of allowing a Badger Cull, believing that they will not be blamed for it. The article in the Sunday Independent.
http://environment.independent.co.uk/nature/article3293973.ece
The farming and animal health minister, Lord Rooker, is giving it his backing, and believes that Government has “no justification” to reject it. I cant remember Rooker doing anything of any good as an MP, so I wouldn’t expect any other answer from him. What these Minister keep forgetting is that they and their Government are put their by us, and the majority of us are against a Badger Cull. And they should and could stop any cull, if they were minded to it.

The National Farmers’ Union and the National Beef Association reckon that they have persuaded 70 per cent of the Farmers in the designated area, to take part in the first of three yearly culls. I think that they and the Farmers that they reckon that they have persuaded, to consider what action can be taken against them. Although I don’t believe that there is a 70 per cent of Farmers in the area who would participate. These figure are NFU bluster after being proved to be an insignificant body. Farmers are not people who need leaders, as was clearly shown in the recent call for a Deer Cull on Quantocks. You can do something about a Badger Cull.

Do not insure with the NFU Mutual Insurance. The NFU’s main source of income.

If Farmers do start to shoot Badgers.

Stop buying British Beef and Beef Products and where possible British Diary Products. There then wont be a reason to cull the Badgers. Even a small reduction in Beef and Beef products, will depress the Beef Market. Reducing Farmers income by more than the incidents of TB costs.

Farm Holidays make up a large part of Farmers income. Find Farm Holidays away from Beef and Diary Farms.

Lobby your local MP. email Hilary Benn, Jeff Rooker and the Prime Minister. There is also a petition on the governments e.petition
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/stop-badger-cull/
A new petition is maybe needed. Someone on the Forum might like to get one going on the Government site.

We were going to wean Willow off of Lady today, but there was so much to do today we are going to have to do it tomorrow.

Emmi and Gypsy have settled in well. Gypsy is still a bit wary, but she is coming up to us and allowing little touches. She is eating very well and has grown in the short time she has been here. We were a little concerned about Emmi, she was not eating all of her feed. After trying different ways of introducing the feed to her, we have managed to get her eating, what we hoped is sufficient, always putting more out than she is eating. She really enjoys our hay, she will eat all that we put in front of her.

Neither Emmi or Gypsy have shown any signs of being ill, so today we introduced Arnie to them. We stable both Emmi and Gypsy and let Arnie walk freely in the corral in front of the stables. Initially he ignored them both making his way to his stable hoping for hay. After getting him out he put his head quickly into both of the stables, going back to Emmi, where he stayed for a good hour. There were a few squeals, but a lot less than I had imagined that there would have been. Emmi seems to be a very kind laid back Horse.

Arnie completely ignored Gypsy, so we let her out of her stable. By this time Arnie had found some hay, as gypsy got close to him, he put his ears back, flicking his head in Gypsy’s direction. Arnie was a bit to large, so with a squeal she ran off. We had one fright when Gypsy went into a stable, we didn’t notice that Arnie went in with her. We didn’t give Arnie any chances of hurting her and got him out. He will get use to Gypsy, This morning you may have seen him playing with Willow in the Horses main field.

Five new photographs have been put on the Photo page, starting from number eleven.

These are the latest pictures of Blossom age 4 weeks. Alex..

Taken at Golden Acre Park. Nr Leeds. Elsie.

As requested, herewith three photos of my front garden, two summer and one winter. Pat.

I checked of the Ewe’s today to see if there were any signs that they were due to Lamb. None of their udders showed any signs of producing milk. As I let the Ram run with the Ewe’s all year, it is difficult for me to tell when they will Lamb. Sheep Farmer would know within a day or two when their Ewes were due to Lamb. Most Farmers will only introduce the Rams to the Ewes from October on. With a gestation period of 148 days, giving a day or so either way, they would know nearly to the day when their Ewes would Lamb.

When the Rams are introduced to the Ewes, called Tupping, most will have fitted a harness, with a crayon type marker attached under their chest. When the Ewes come into season, the crayon marker will leave a coloured mark on the Ewes back after the Ram has covered them. You have probally seen Ewes with the marks. 148 days from then is about when the Lambs should drop. Pity I wasn’t so organised. The ideal time to lamb is in the spring when the new grass is growing. Some Farmers lamb early. One not far from Denbury, Lamb around Christmas time. I will keep checking the Ewes and let you know if there are any signs of them Lambing. I have an Electrician coming on Monday to tidy up the barns wiring, and to put a couple of new points in. When he has finished I will put the infra red lamp in the barn.

We have been looking at the options of a Stallion to use on the Maiden Filly that we purchased when we bought Emmi and Gypsy a month ago. We have left the Filly in Ireland as we were going to use the Stallion Generous on her. It is what Lady is now in Foal to. Generous was last year at Stud only an hour away from Denbury. It seems that the Stud wasn’t making any money, and has closed. The Stallions including Generous being taken to Ireland.

Every year we receive a Stallion Book from Weatherby’s, giving all the details of all the Stallions available, with all their statistics. You can access it on line. I liked the look of a Stallion called Clodovil, when I phoned the Stud he was fully booked, with a waiting list of over forty. Yesterday I received the paperwork for Emmi, by chance she had belonged to the Stud that Clodovil is standing. As there was a piece of the paperwork missing, I phoned the Stud and was fortunate to have spoken to the Owner. I enquired of what chance I had of a covering of Clodovil. As long as it was an early covering he would be able to arrange it. The Filly will be prepared and hopefully be covered in the middle of February. Looking at the fillies Pedigree it will be a good match.

I looked at the BBC weather forecast on the television this afternoon, about 2.30pm, to make a decision if I was turning the Horses out after their evening feed. The forecast with animation, so I didn’t get it wrong, was dry with a chance of a little rain. Since 4.15pm it has poured down. I was going to turn the Horses out at 4.pm but I could see that it was liable to rain, so the Horses were bedded down in their stables. Both yesterday and today the forecast has been seriously wrong within a couple of hours of it being given. Even with rugs on, the wet with cold is not good for Thoroughbred Horses to be out in.

I have put up five new photographs starting from the sixth one down.

Hope you have a good Christmas and a Happy New year!!!! I am attaching a couple of photos the first is one that sue sent from her mobile it was taken at Pocklington show earlier this year can’t remember what type of bird it is maybe you can help. The second is of a Young hedgehog that was in my garden. The third is of my late cat Fred who I lost at Easter this year he was my baby with fur like silk always so smooth even though he was partly feral. Regards, Elaine.

MR FARMER I HAVE SENT YOU THREE DIFFERENT VIEWS OF MINEHEAD THINKING MAYBE SOME PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO SEE SOME OF THE AREA YOU TALK OF IN DIARY THESE WERE TAKEN OFF THE PLEASURE BOAT WAVERLY AS WE PULLED INTO THE HARBOUR AT MINEHEAD FROM JOHN AND MARIE IN TAUNTON.

I tell you what, seeing the photographs from John and Marie made me fancy fish and chips after all the Turkey, Pork and Beef we have been eating. As it takes to long to get fish and chips home, the only time that we eat it is when we go to Minehead. We must be sad people, we can even see the place where we sit. In the first photo of Minehead. On the very far left is the Cottage that some of our Family stayed in during their Summer Holiday, unfortunately you cant see the rock face behind, that sometimes very large pieces fall off of and go through the cottage roof. The stairs at the end of the Harbour Pier is where the young lad died in the Summer, Tomb Stoning, what a rotten Christmas his parents must have had.

I hate shopping, I promise you Lady’s you wouldn’t want to go with me, it would be your worst night mare. As we needed to get Horse feed and it was half way to Exeter, I decided to allow a shopping expedition. Didn’t start that well. We decided to take the Park and Ride. The Bus Driver must have passed his test in Disney, he curbed the rear wheels twice going around bends. My knuckles were white with holding on to the handle of the seat in front of us.

Half an hour would be as much shopping that I would want to do, but I did try. After an hour I really had enough, but a sandwich would be nice, maybe with that inside me I could carry on for a bit longer. A take away bacon sandwich and pasty was ordered, the assistant pointed to the menu, to what type, it was then that we saw the price of the sandwich,

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…

There are five new photographs n the Photo page starting…

I have put three new photographs on the Photo page…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

font color red WE WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY…

font color red We wish you all a very happy…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page I…

Five new photographs have been put on the Photo page…

I have put up five new photographs starting from the…