By the look of it a Swallow has started to nest already on the nest at the top of the roof. I could be wrong, but it does look very much like it. There is no reason why they should not be. We will have to keep an eye on it. For anyone who has not seen the nest cameras scroll down on the Dog thumbnail, it is below the
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What a change to wake up to a sunny day. The weather report looked pretty grim for our area last night. With the amount of rain that we have been getting we decided to stable the Horses last night, to give them a break from constant rain in the night. As it happens I don’t think that it was as bad here as they forecast. Mind you what different about the forecasters getting it wrong. They reckon that we are in for a good week. Lets hope they are right. We are in desperate need to make some fodder for the Horses being it hay or haylage.
Before we can even think about making anything the ground has got to start drying. If a tractor went on the ground with it being so wet, it would just churn the ground up, any fodder that we made would have dried mud in it. That will go for everyone who tries to make it. Being in a valley, that is very fertile we tend to be able to make our fodder early in the year. We never have to put fertilizer on the land to make our hay for the Horses. The valley this year is going to cause us problems as the land will stay damp longer. The seeds on the grass will mostly had dropped by now, so the quality of any hay or haylage we make will not be as good as normal. The other problem we are liable to encounter is that as soon as the weather is suitable for mowing the grass, every other farm will want to do the same. Not having our own farm machinery to make our own hay and haylage we rely on contractor to make it for us, as soon as the weather breaks every one who uses contractors will need them. The weather we need to dry the land is hot and windy.
We took the Dogs for a walk up the valley this afternoon to see just how wet the ground is. It didn’t help when we had a heavy shower. I know that I am moaning again, but just how do they manage to get it wrong so often. The forecast for my area today was no rain. It take some believing that they can get it wrong so often. Without the shower the ground was very wet. The heavy rain and flood has caused a lot of the grass to have fallen over so that nearest to the root it is starting to get soggy. I’m not sure if to cut it and try to dry the grass by turning or leave it a few days before mowing, hoping that the sun will dry the bottom. I cant afford to get it wrong.
There are a number of Badger Setts on and around Denbury. When we first moved here I found eight. One has stopped being used, and another has little activity. A couple of hundred yards from the sett we show on the webcams, is a Sett in the our wood, with the ground being so wet we can see that there has been a lot of activity getting to it. It is always a good time after heavy rain to see what Wildlife has visited the Valley. There has been a lot of Deer activity going on. There was an entry on the forum a week or so from someone who had seen three Deer on the Badger webcam. I haven’t seen any for nearly two months