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Our Life at Denbury Farm 28th July 2018

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The first pair of Canadian Geese with their single Gosling flew away yesterday. Another pair of geese that came to the new lake hatched 5 goslings and just four weeks later another pair came from nowhere with one gosling. The gosling defiantly couldn’t fly, how it got there or where the geese were nesting we really don’t know. The two pairs of geese are constantly fighting each other and chasing our resident black swan who I reckoned should never allowed them on her lake. This year the ponds are busy with nesting waterfowl. Three pairs of Canadian Geese and three pairs of Tufted Duck nesting as well as Mallard. This year was the first time for the Tufted but unfortunately none of the ducklings survived. The Geese with the 5 gosling are teaching the gosling to fly so it will be any day soon that they will be off as well. The gosling that hatched with the late arrival Geese has an angel wing. We have a Muscovy duck with the same problem and that cant fly, so it could well be that we will have another addition to look after.

The badger cubs are getting so big that it is becoming difficult to distinguish them from the older ones. Our resident fox did only had one cub this year. It looks a bit lonely on its own. It has in the past week been visiting the badger feeding area, and another vixen has started to eat there with her three cubs so the feeding area is very busy. Last night a very large Roebuck came. It may well have been the young buck that visited in the winter.

Our hay has been made two weeks ago. Touch wood we seem to get it right every year when we make it with it being dry and hot. We usually make ours when the grass is in full seed that makes it a more energy feed. This year it as touch and go if we had all the hay we needed. We just got through with one bale left. We reseeded a baron field last Autumn so we should have plenty for this winter. You have probably seen and heard on the news that the hot dry weather has stopped the grass growing. We have needed to use some of our winter. We are also able to get some brewers grains so we will be ok. There are going to be a lot of farms that will need to use their winter food in this dry spell. It will enviably cause a shortage in the winter feed. It could cause a lot of problems. Potatoes and root vegetables that need lots of water are also suffering because of the dry weather. Potatoes will cost more

Making our hay reminded me of the first year we came to Denbury nearly 30 years ago. Our twin boys were seven at the time. We walked down the valley to see how the hay was drying. From a distance we saw four badgers with their noses pushing under the drying hay. Being newish to farming we didnt realise that they were looking for worms and other feed under the damp hay. I must admit badgers at the time after listening to what I believed were my farming peers badgers were a nuisance so we decided to chase the badgers away. The boys ran ahead yelling to make the badgers run off. One stood his ground or was deaf and stayed put. After seeing the other badgers running away the boys were getting a little braver and ran to within a few feet of the deaf badgers who suddenly turned around and ran at the boys. Did they run. It was a good thing they were good at running as I was too far away to help and laughing so much I could never had run to help them.