Blog - Page 79 of 109 - Farm Holiday Cottages - Fishing and Wildlife Holidays

I have put up five new photographs. You will need to scroll down the page. The first two are from Pat with her own words. The remaining three are from Liz again using her own words.

Herewith a couple of photos if you think they are suitable for the photo page. I thought the members of the forum might like to see a photo of Bobbie who we lost recently, I send a photo of him with our other dog Busby(Bobbie is the one at the back). Also another of the birds at Kew. Any idea of the breed, they are very attractive? Pat

The mouse was an opportunist feeding on the peanut holder that had blown down. As you can probably tell it let us get very close.
The 2 hedgehogs are some of the ones that visit the garden to be fed. This picture was captured from the CCTV I have set up to watch them.
Finally for now the Great Tit picture was just before chick No. 5 took flight for the first time from the nest box with a little encouragement and a meal worm from one of its parents. Liz – Scarborough (North Yorkshire)

We still have more photographs to put on the photo page that have been emailed to me. Keep them coming.

I have just had a phone call telling me that the new Horses should arrive at Denbury at about 7.30am in the morning. They were collected from the Stud at 2.30pm and will be on the overnight ferry from Ireland. Once we have quarantined the new arrivals, we will have to start weaning Willow. A couple of entries on the forum thought that Branston was Willow being weaned. Now that we have another Filly Foal it will be kinder to wean Willow with her. We needed to put Branston in a stable so that he would not rub against the new posts that we put in for the corral in front of Lady’s stable.

The Broodmare that is coming is from quite a large Stud, so she is unlikely to have a stable name. I will check, if she hasn’t, we will need to name her. What ever, we will be giving the new Filly Foal a name. I wont be able to show you the new arrivals on the webams for a week or so, but I will post some photos on the photo page tomorrow night.

Jan saw an Owl swoop down on a Vole or mouse last night. With a bit of luck it was a Rat. I have seen an Owls on a number of occasion’s catch its supper in the same place. You may have noticed that the grass is very rough in the Badger Field. I have let it become like that to encourage the Voles who like that sort of conditions. Voles are the main diet for Owls, so it is working. I would like to think that Jan was right about the Owl being a Barn Owl. But I very much doubt it. I have never seen a Barn Owl in all the time that I have been at Dendury. It was probably was a Tawney Owl. But I could be wrong. The Barn Owl Trust have put up a couple of nest boxes in the Barn that the Sheep are now in. The camera that is in the Barn, can also see the nest boxes.

I needed to put water into the Sheep’s drinking trough this evening. They seem to be drinking more than usual since they have been in the barn. We always make sure that the trough is at least half full. When we are busy it is probably is half full most of the time. A couple of the Ewes and the Ram came over for a drink when I put water in the trough. The Ram seemed to holding back a little, when he did get close to the trough after pushing his way in between the Ewes, he would not drink. I then realised that he was unable to get his mouth near the half filled trough, as his horns were to big, catching on the sides of the trough and stopping him from drinking. It was the first time that I have noticed what was happening. The only time that the Ram could have a drink was when the water was nearly to the top of the trough.

I have put up five new photographs. You will need to scroll down the page. The first two are from Pat with her own words. The remaining three are from Liz again using her own words.

We still have more photographs to put on the photo page that have been emailed to me. Keep them coming.

I have put on four new photographs. The first one is from Chris. Chris and his Wife Holidayed a Denbury the week Willow was born, when he took the photograph. Thanks for the Wensleydale Cheese Chris. The second and third are from Julia, The Bird is a Black Cap. All for photographs sent by Julia are from her Garden. The Fourth photograph is from Janet. This is part of her email. I hope this photo will be OK for the forum. It is a female Sparrow Hawk, in my back garden, she managed to pluck several feathers from the chest of the starling, the noise the starling made was horrible, I thought it would die, but when I opened my back door, the birds both flew away, in opposite directions, of course. PLEASE TRY TO PUT A FEW LINES ABOUT YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS.

Elsie your photographs of the Fox were to dark and the Fox to far away. I could have made you look a rubbish photographer, but I am to kind. When any of you send in photographs please add a return receipt, so that you know I received them. We have a number of photographs to go on the photo page, all will go on.

We finally managed to get the Sheep camera working today. The problem that I had was the camera is a mobile unit, with the controller etc all in one in a large case. When wire in to our webcam system, I should have been able to control the camera as I would any of the other moving cameras, I couldn’t, and I could not work out why not. This morning I spent two or three hours trying to get it going, in the end I decided to put the camera in position without having control. We set it all up positioned on the Sheep, when I tried to get the picture on the screen it was blank, I tried other channels, the picture came up and I also had control. Somehow I had put the camera on twp opposing channels. Making it right took two minutes, so I am not best pleased that I have spent so much time on the camera unnecessarily.

With the camera working as it should, we will now be able to show the Sheep and Willow with the new Foal with the same camera. Over the next couple of days I will put an infra-red lamp in the barn so that we will be able to see both the Fillies and the Sheep of a night. I am going to leave the Sheep in the Barn until they Lamb. Partly as we have no secure areas to stop them breaking out, and disappearing as they did earlier in the year, the other reason is it will be good to be able for you to see the Ewes Lambing. I am trying to think of a good area to be able to fence of a largish area for the Sheep to go into once they have Lambed. It was ideal and good viewing when they were in the Valley with the Fox walking in between the Sheep, without the Sheep bothering one bit, although I cant remember seeing many Deer when the Sheep were in the Valley. I could fence off an area in the Valley, but there is now way of telling if the fence would discourage any of our Wildlife. What ever, if I keep the Sheep I will need to fence an area for them. I keep on making more work for myself.

The new Horses should be at Denbury Sunday morning. I spoke to the person who has been looking after them for a couple of days until they were collected. The Broodmare has been with him for a few days. The Foal only arrived last evening with her Mother. They thought that it would be better if the Foal was weaned last night, she was lightly sedated, just to make sure that she did not get to upset, causing her to try to get out of the stable, that she was in when her Mother was taken away. This morning she was very calm, she was calling a little, but not as much as they thought that she may of. It is not a nice job weaning, but it has to be done. The Foal was born in April, so like Willow she was also left with he Mother for a lot longer than they would normally be. We have got to do the same with Willow and we are not looking foreword to it. But at least Willow will now have company.

Three new photographs have been put onto the photo page. From Julia’s Garden is a Badger and a Long tailed Tit and Elsie’s Ducks on her pond.

Pats mentioned on her entry on the forum yesterday, that a report on the BBC Countryfile last Sunday that Farmer would have the right to refuse a Badger cull on their land. I cant really see how that would work. There will have to be a cull in an area as a whole, to get a true result of what the cull achieved. The Government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir David Kings has been crucified by a number of organisations, on the findings of his magnificent seven. Many have come to think that he was nobbled by the Government to release the crap that he has. The Government will have to be either stupid or on a death wish to allow a cull. They are not the most popular at the moment, a Badger cull would make them even less so. If I get a choice if there was a cull, one wouldnt happen here. Any person that I knew who was involved in a cull, I would give out there names, address and phone numbers, on this website for those who wanted to make representations to them.

Branston is using Lady’s stable tonight, as we have concreted the corral post in to the ground today. Branston likes to have a little scratch from time to time, we don’t want him moving the posts if he decided to use them for scratching his backside. Once the corral is finished we will need to make an area available to Branston to him to take cover. We hope that we will be able to let Branston and Smuggler run together, when we bring Smuggler down to break. With Smuggler now being gelded and Branston still being young it should work. Of course Sonny need to be gone first.

All though we are not members, we use a Farmers co-operative to purchase all our fencing and animal feeds. There prices are a lot better than most suppliers and the quality is always better. Their stores are not massive but they some how manage to sell every thing that a Farmer needs, plus every thing else you can imagine. White goods, sweets, plants, wines etc etc I could keep going on. For the first time yesterday, when I collected the fencing for the corral and the Horses feed through the Christmas period, I noticed that they also sold Christmas Trees. We would normally buy our tree from a Christmas Tree Grower, quite local to us, and have done so for years. We normally buy a 6 foot Nordmann Fir, costing as near as could be to

There are three new photographs on the photo page. Pat sent in the Heron taken at Kew. Love the photo, I also like the Bird. But no where near my lake. Elsies Deer photograph was taken at Fountains Abbey. The Swan and Signets sent in by Vicky from Derby.

Sorry, we didn’t manage to get finish setting the camera up to watch the Sheep. Just been megger busy running about picking up posts and rails for the corral, that we are putting up in front of Lady’s stable. I forgot to order the ballast to make the concrete to put the posts in, so that had to be collected. That was another couple of hours of wasted time.

We need to get the stable area for Willow and the new Foal ready by the end of the week. Finishing the corral really need finishing as well. As we are going to need to juggle the Horses around so that we can keep the new Broodmare and Foal away from the other Horses for a week to ten days, just to make sure that the new arrivals are not bringing in any unwanted bugs. You can never know what new Horses may be bringing with them. Not necessarily from where they had been kept. But also from where they have been whilst travelling from one location to another. I cant be sure what route from Ireland to Denbury the Horses that are coming will take. The Horse Box that they are being collected by will no stop off at other premises to collect and deliver other people’s Horses.

I not a big fan of Bloodstock Auctions for the same reasons. Some of the larger auction have in excess two thousand + Horses for sale over a week. Four hundred + a day coming from here there and everywhere. Bringing in who knows what. This year the Bloodstock industry, including Horse Racing came to a virtual stop in Australia, through Equine Influenza. There are many problems that new Horses can bring in to a yard, so it is very important to be vigilant and isolate them for a period.

There are two new photographs on the photo page. The Ponies from the New Forest in Hampshire was emailed from Elsie and the Moorhen was sent in by Vicky from Derby.

Elaine and Sue, it did look a little like the Badgers were mating this evening, but they were actually playing. They must have been trying to grab hold of each others rear legs. I have got a long recording of a mating session that took place last year on the feeding place on camera one. It is on a hard disc that I have taken out of a CTV digital recorder. If I can get some one to put it on to a disc, I will show it on the the site. I have a new machine that is a lot easier to work than my last one. There is a few good recording on it, but it is finding time to download .

Robin I didn’t approve your forum entry on Sunday, as at the bottom of the page, in one of links that you gave, were links to a holiday site, that offered Holidays as we do. I am sure that you didn’t realise, and that you will understand. The other link was www.badgers.org.uk/badgerpages/eurasian-badger-64.html The link will take you to the Badger Trust for information on Badger, as Robin was giving in his forum entry.

I must admit the Badger Trust would not be my favorite organisation. In my opinion they do not use the best resources to portray the Badger. Anyone who watches our webcams are able to see the Badgers as they are. Playing as a family group is appealing. One picture is worth a thousand words, the Badger Trust don’t think so. We offered the Trust a link to our webcams to let more people see Badger in real life. They used the link for a few weeks to promote Badger Day a couple of years back. Removing the link immediately after. I am sure a link would have benefited the Badgers, and a reciprocal link would get more of our visitors linking to the Trusts site. Obviously the Trust didn’t think so.

Today we managed to get the most of the equipment up for the camera in the barn to watch the Sheep, hopefully when they are lambing. There is a little more work to do and we will show it on the site. We have decided t put up another pen next to the Sheep to Stable Willow when she is weaned. The new camera will also be able to see Willow and the new Foal. We are not going to wean her until next week when the new Filly Foal arrives. The new Foal that is coming is being weaned today. She will need the company as well as Willow.

Over the past two days the infra-red lamps to show the far end of the valley were installed. At the moment they are a bit of a disaster, just a very small bright areas in and around the trees. I hope that it is just a case of adjusting, although it could be that the beam is the wrong angle, that will mean having to get new lamps.

The aggravation the remote Duck is giving me, it wont be called Daffy or Donald. Its been called a few choice names that I couldn’t repeat as it is. If it sinks, Titanic would be appropriate.

Thank you Elsie and Vicky for the photographs that you emailed me. I will try to put them up tonight, but I should think that it will be tomorrow, as I have had an extremely busy day. Tonight’s Diary will explain.

We managed to buy three Horses today. I had been offered two on Friday, After checking their pedigrees I was not over impressed. It made me phone the person from Ireland that had bid on a few Horses at the Tattersall’s Sales in Newmarket last week. I am pleased that I didn’t buy any Horses last week as the three that I purchased today were a little over half the price that I was prepared to pay for one at the Auction.

The three Horses that I purchased are now all living in Ireland. Two will be coming to Denbury this Saturday or Sunday. The other one is being left in Ireland until she goes to the Stallion, very early in February.

We have purchased one Filly Foal by a French Sire called Hellissio. Hellissio is a multiple three and four year old Group winning Horse, including five Group 1. over ten to twelve furlongs. In 1996 it won the French Premier Flat Race, The Prix de l’Arc Triomphe. I haven’t seen the Filly. She was got to keep Willow company, but when we see her we will soon know if she is going to be alright to race. Nothing will be lost if she is not.

The next one that we have purchased, I know very little about, she will be here over the coming weekend. She is about eight years old. She has had three previous Foals, and is now carrying a Colt Foal by Trans Island, that is due in the middle of March. Trans Island was a multiple Group winning Horse over 6 to 8.1/2 furlongs as two, three, four and five year old. The Mare was purchased to keep Lady’s Foal, due in April company.

The third Horse is named Hearthstead Dancer a 2003 Filly by Royal Academy, another multiple Group winning Sire including two Group 1 at two and three, over six furlong to a mile. The Filly has won one race and two places as a two year old. She has also been placed over Hurdles. She is the type of Filly that I was looking to buy last week, but in Foal. She is the right age to be putting into Foal next year. The Filly will be kept in Ireland and will go to the Stallion very early in February. With a Mares gestation period of eleven months, we will be looking for a Foal to be born in January 2009. A soon as The Filly has been successfully mated she will be bring her back to the Farm, I should think late February. I will let you know more about the two that will arriving at Denbury at the weekend.

The weather was not as bad as was promised last night and this morning. We were woken in the night with the wind, definitely not the 70 to 80 miles gusts that was forecast. The forecasters managed to get it wrong again. The better way this time. With it being wrong the right way still gives us problems. High wind forecasts make us spend unnecessary time and work with making sure every thing is safe from being blown away. The Telescope Observatory is open to southwest winds, as forecast. If the high winds that were forecast came, it may have been damaged the Observatory, causing the Telescope to also be damaged. The Telescope is far to large to take in and out of the Observatory, so we needed to secure the Observatory with a rope. The rain has been constant for some days now. Today has been really miserable, just very dark and grey with driving rain. The Valley camera make the weather look quite good, but I am able to brighten the picture on my computer. The fields are quite sodden, much to wet to let the Horses out. The fields have been quite dry for a while, so with a dry spell they will soon recover.

I don’t really mind the rain. Horses droppings are not particularly good for grass leys, and we would by now have harrowed the Horse field to break up the droppings. The dry Autumn has allowed us to leave the Horses out for longer than normal, so we have left the harrowing. The rain being as heavy as it has been breaks up the droppings, so we will now probably harrow the field late winter, early springtime, before the grass starts to grow.

Arnie really dislikes being stable during the Winter. His stable has a large opening facing the Horse field, he spends a long time looking out of it towards the field. Last year his stable door got broken with his heavy weight leaning against it. We didn’t replace the door as in front of the main stables is a corralled area that so he is free to come and go into the stable as he wants. Breeze is stabled in the same area, so this year we have left her stable door open, so that she has a bit more freedom. We leave the turnout rugs on because if it rains you can be sure that they will be wet in the morning.

Lady and Willow are stabled in a different stable block that has not been corralled off, that is why you very often see Branston head peering in to Lady’s stable. With the way we have seen that Arnie and Breeze take advantage of the corral, we are going to start to corral in front of Lady’s stable block tomorrow. Lady being in Foal wont be able to go in and out of her stable as much as Arnie and Breeze, but it will give her a bit more freedom during the Winter, when the Horses cant go into the fields. At the moment Lady and Willow spend most of the day in the corral with Arnie and Breeze.

I have posted a new photograph of where the Sheep are now housed. It is the same place that we stabled Bliss and Misty last Winter. It is a gated area of about 30 x 15 feet. A good large area for the two fillies to have a buck and chase about, that they often did, and of course we were able to keep them together for company. I will try to get a camera installed showing the area on Monday or Tuesday.

Elsie, didn’t get your photograph

I showed the stream on the Valley camera earlier, to show how much rain we have been getting. We had a bit of a flood in one of the outbuildings. The forecast for tonight is not very promising. Heavy rain and severe gales they reckon.

Elsie emailed me this as below today. About a Horse that died on whilst being operated on with a Twisted Gut. The first signs was when the Horse showed sign of a belly ache (colic) If you remember this was the first signs of a problems that we had with Woody. There are various reason for Horses to have belly aches. Impaction that is a mass of food getting blocked in the intestine, Spasmodic that is the intestine contracting and Gas is a build up of gas in the intestine. These are fairly easy to cure, if they don’t cure them selves, very quickly. Others that need treatment and can be life threatening are Enteritis, where the large or small or both inflame and the worse type is what Major died of. This is when the gut twists and nothing can pass through. In most cases it needs an operation to cure the Horse . Although I have seen a Veterinary who once rolled a Horse on its back from side to side, untwisting the gut. A lot of Horses that need an operation don’t survive. If a Horse paws the ground, kicks at its belly, repeatedly gets up and down, looking behind themselves and standing stretched out, there is a possibility of a belly ache. (colic) There is a photo of Major on the photo page, not a very good one.

If any of you have any local Animal of Wildlife stories that you think may be of interest, email me the link. No national, as there is a good chance a lot of you may have seen them already. I wont promise that I will put them all up. Also if you have any of you own Wildlife or Scenery photographs, including Plants and Trees, that might be of interest, email me them to me, again I wont promise that they will all be put on the photo page. No family, human or private photographs will be shown.

One of the working shire horses, that are such a popular attraction at Bradford Industrial Museum, has died.
Major joined the Horses at Work team two years ago and, after an initial training period, had started to become a firm favourite among both staff and visitors.
While at the museum he not only provided rides to eager visitors, but worked in Bradford and Keighley on plant watering duties and appeared at the Great Yorkshire Show.
staff called out a vet as Major was suffering from what was thought to be a bout of colic.
This was later diagnosed as a twisted gut and he was taken to a clinic for further treatment. Despite the veterinary surgeon’s best efforts, Major died during the operation intended to save his life.
He worked alongside three other horses, Murdoch – who was one of two brothers named by Telegraph & Argus readers in 2005 – Noble and D’Arcy.
Five days a week visitors can get the chance to be introduced
to the museum horses, both old and new, at 11.15am from Tuesday to Saturday. And at 1.30pm on each of these days and on Sundays, the horses are available for horse-drawn rides. Noble and Murdoch have become old favourites at the museum, but as their training reaches a conclusion, D’Arcy will begin to share the workload.
The horses programme of work changes daily and may include work in singles or pairs, harrowing, long-reining, tram training or pulling the plant watering carts that are used in the centre of Bradford and Keighley.
Bradford Council is one of the few local authorities to still keep and employ its own horses.

The Father Christmas Webcams are now working.

We had to get the Sheep in this afternoon. The weather has been awful for the past few days and although Sheep do stay out, bad weather will bring them down. A couple of them looked a bit low, especially the Portland Ram. He is no spring chicken, and wouldn’t have long to go. I really should have kept one of the other Rams that I sent to Market, but I felt sorry for the old chap. If I had kept two Rams there would have been fights, with the young Ram trying his luck, for sure he would have taken over.

All the Sheep are now in the Barn. Unfortunately I sent the only reel of the coax wire that sends the signal for the camera, to a new location that we should be doing in the new year. If I had the wire I would have put a camera up in the Barn so that you can see the Sheep in the barn. The wire should be back with me on Monday, and I should be able to have the camera working by Tuesday at the latest.

I had hoped that the Sheep would have followed a feed bag when we moved them. The Barn is only fifteen yards from where they were fenced in around the lake. Of course being Sheep they didn’t follow the bag. As soon as they got out of the fenced area they got their heads down and starting munching away on the grass. Mind you the grass was definitely greener on the other side, so you couldn’t blame them. At least they didn’t have it on their toes, much to all of our relief. We couldn’t leave them out without being fenced in so we had to move them manually. I hope any of you who manage to see the sorrowful episode, could not lip read. If you did and could, I apologise. I am not very patient when it comes to Sheep. Some of them are very friendly, that being the case, and those that are not, you would have thought that they would have been by now, with me feeding them every day. There are three or four that keep away from me every time that I go in with them with hay. Being Sheep when they run away most of the other run with them. Dolly, Minty and Ramsden are normally are the exceptions.

We easily caught Dolly and Minty, and they were carried over to the barn. The others had us running about a bit, it could have been worse. In the end we managed to pen in a few at a time and carried those over to. The weather forecast is not good for a few days, at least, so they will be kept in the Barn until it looks as if it is going to be more settled, for a while. I will make up my mind about it. But it would be good for you to be able to see the Sheep lamb.

I had hoped to have been able to show you the Remote Duck working over the weekend. To be honest I wished that I had never started it in the first place. Believe me I hate the duck. If it was real I would have eaten it by now. The engine is in, and working, but I am having problems with the steering. The propeller and rudder are a special one piece unit. To posh really for what I am doing, but it seemed the easiest way of getting the Duck working. I have had to make various additions to the steering, but every time I go to move it a part comes undone. I think that I have found the solution, well I hope I have. I phoned a shop this morning, and were they helpful. They sell Remote Controlled Helicopters www.buzzflyer.co.uk they really were the most helpful people I have spoken to about the Duck. If get the Duck working I may get a Helicopter to look around the farm with a camera. Buzzflyers are sending me the parts that they think will solve the problem that I am having with the steering. They are no going to charge me either. If you know any one who is looking to buy a Remote Controlled Helicopter, let them know about Buzzflyers. Once I know that the Duck will float and swim around the lake, I will fit the camera. I hope that will be a bit easier.

Farm Holiday Cottages – Fishing and Wildlife Holidays

I have put up five new photographs You will need…

I have put up five new photographs You will need…

I have put on four new photographs The first one…

Three new photographs have been put onto the photo page…

There are three new photographs on the photo page Pat…

There are two new photographs on the photo page The…

Thank you Elsie and Vicky for the photographs that you…

The weather was not as bad as was promised last…

I showed the stream on the Valley camera earlier to…

The Father Christmas Webcams are now working We had to…