Categories
webcams

Last night when I walked around the lake to make…

Last night when I walked around the lake to make sure that all was well two Black Swans were flying above. I reckon that they must have taken off from the Lake just before I had arrived. With a bit of luck it maybe the breeding pair that flew off just over a week ago and are coming back to to nest in the Autumn.

The new Pen is settling in well and is now being accepted by the Cob although after the hard time the Cob gave her when she arrived she is a little wary to feed with him and we are having to throw her food out to her. It will get better over time.

We started to make our hay yesterday. This year is the latest that we have ever started to make it as the weather has been so dry the grass has not grown as it has in previous years. I kept putting off making it in the hope that we would get enough rain for the grass to grow a bit more, but it never happened so I am hoping that it now stays dry so that what grass we have got will make. Already there is a shortage of hay in this part of the country and is costing more than it has for many years. I should think that we will only make 60% of what we normally make. Fortunately we have some hay from last year so we may be in a position to be able to sell some.

I still have not found the time to change the Bees into their new hive. Mind you something maybe telling me in my head to put it off. I must try to do it this weekend.

I must admit I don’t like to see Horses tethered by the road side but if they were not there is a great danger of them straying and getting hit by cars or lorries. I like to see working horses as long as they are not over worked. You do find that most people who are on the road with horses drawn caravans do look after their horses. They have to or the horses would not be able to do their work. Not having ready water is wrong especially in hot weather. It is better to have some that could be knocked over than none at all.

About a month ago whilst I was away from the farm an RSPCA inspector trespassed on Denbury after a complaint that Branston was not being looked after. The inspector trespassed around the cottages and spoke to our holiday guests who assured the inspector that the report was wrong. I phoned the inspector and asked what knowledge she had of horses. Guess what she admitted none. She said that Branston was old. He is 5 years old. I am sure it was that Branston is a grey horse that she thought he was old. Our horses are very well looked after. With the holiday guests that we have at Denbury we would soon get complaints if they were not. The RSPCA do some very good work but they seem to be always looking for easy headlines to help bring in donations.

Categories
webcams

Some of you may have noticed that the Barn Owl…

Some of you may have noticed that the Barn Owl nest cam has sound. As soon as the Owls have laid their eggs we could see them in colour.

It was a bit of a surprise seeing a Lamb this morning, more so as I only mentioned in Tuesdays Diary that I did not expect any until Easter time. It was Thornton’s Sister who gave birth. The Lamb has the same markings as Thornton when he was born having a brown ring around his neck. I am sure Vicky will have a photograph of Thornton with the same marking. When she reads this she will send it in and I will take a photograph tomorrow and do a full page of new photographs including Thornton.

Ramsden nearly finished up the same way as our last Ram (Ramsden) did. We found him being mauled by Branston this morning. If we did not see him doing it when we did the Ram would have been dead. Branston had him on the ground and was stamping on him. After we got Branston away it took Ramsden a while to get up and he didn’t look to good. Eventually he managed to walk but he has hurt on of his back legs. Nothing to serious but giving him a limp. It must be something to do with Rams that Brandston does not like for we not realise that he must have killed our last Ram. The Ram is being a bit of a pain by getting out of the penned area by jumping over the top of the gates. He is getting very good at getting out. First he was head butting a tied up gate and breaking the hay ties that it was tied with. Not an easy thing to do. We used a much stronger cord to tie the gate, but that only made him more determined to get out and when the cord didn’t break over the gate he jumped. We raised the gates but he just jumped higher. He is back in the pen tonight. I shouldn’t think he will be able to jump much tonight.

The Canada Geese are on the Lake more than they are not, so it is looking promising. Our domestic Geese have started to lay so the Canada cant be far from laying.

Categories
webcams

Starting from number one there are five new photographs on…

Starting from number one there are five new photographs on the Photo Page.

Getting really short of photograph’s.

Please check the adds.

ALL TOOK AT THE TROPICAL BUTTERFLY CENTRE NEAR WORKSOP. LYNNE.

Just took this capture shot thought you might like to put on the gallery. The adults are either side and the chick is the white blob in the middle. Elaine.

Two Badger Cubs have been out for the past couple of nights, one was helping to get new bedding for the Sett. They had a bounce about and left to what looked like a hunting trip with their Mother.

It does seem that two of the Adult Badgers are missing. The most that I have seen is nine and a few on the Forum have seen nine.

By a bit luck the Swallow webcam is positioned in a place where it can be turned onto a doves nest with a pair of Dove chicks in the nest. There is a large choice of nesting Doves to pick from. They don’t stop breeding and we have far to many on the Farm. We have a couple of young boys holidaying on the Farm this week and they have managed to catch a few for friend who wants them on their Farm. They may well come to regret it.

We have so many Dove that we will need to consider that we will need to cull some. I reckon that there must be well over a hundred. It wouldn’t be a problem if they were not so dirty, but their droppings are every where. You can guarantee that at least a few times a day we manage to put our hands on it. Another problems with the Doves is that they will go straight to the Horses feed bowls when we feed the Horses. Branston does try to stamp on them but they still keep trying to eat his feed. For a couple of days of the Dove seeing the nets that they are caught in, they avoid feeding with the Horses, within a couple of days they go back again.

Categories
webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number six. We don’t have a lot more photographs to put on the Photo Page.

The lovely sunshine has really brought the crocuses on in the garden. Here are a couple of shots I took yesterday. Pat.

This is a picture of the Blue Lagoon near Abereiddy beach that Marie spoke about the two specks in it are labradors !! Lynne.

Hello Mr Farmer, I have sent in some pictures, .
The Napoleonic Martello Tower in Grain. Rose (FF)

A picture of a swallows nest taken at the caravan site. they had built their nest on the office wall. Elsie.

Alex asked when Emmi is due to Foal. She was mated on the 2nd of April last year, so her Foalng date is the 1st of March but it could be any time now or even a month later, as some of you well know.

No Jan, I haven’t tracked the Moon in the day. I some times when I get time put the Sun on. I am so busy at the moment I haven’t had time to show it in this good spell of weather.

Branston just likes getting into mischief. It was a message on the Forum last night that made me realise that the Stable light were out. I thought that a bulb had gone and went to the stables to change it. We only use low energy long lasting bulbs, so I was a little surprised that it had gone. When I got to the stables Branston was standing next to the switch. I tried turning the light back on. Obviously he had tuned the light off with his mouth, as the switch was wet where he had used his mouth to turn the switch. The switch is a turn round type that would be difficult to turn with his mouth. I have put some nasty tasting cream on it, that will stop him doing that again in a hurry. At least I know that it is Branston who has been turning the lights off. They have been off a few times recently. Everyone on the Farm got the blame, except Branston.

If he is not turning lights off, he will be trying some other annoying thing to do. If the stable doors did not have kick over bars on the bottoms he would be letting all of the Horses out, as he pulls the bolt catches over. He opens the main barn very often, and we find him with his nose in the feed bins eating away as if it is alright to be there. We were putting in a new webcam cable today and it was quite low. Branston found it, he pulled it so hard with his mouth that it broke.

When I went out to the stables to turn the lights on that Branston had turned off a pair of Geese flew on to the Lake. It was 10.15pm, I would have thought to dark and late. You may have seen them, as I turned the camera onto them. Half an hour later they were flying off again. They must have returned again during the night, as they were on the Lake this morning.

I am going to put the Astro Cams on again tonight. I am going to leave them on the Moon all of the time. If it clear again tomorrow I will show Saturn. It is to much of a chore changing from the Moon to Saturn, as I need to change the camera over and refocus the Telescope on Saturn. Putting the Moon on and then changing over to Saturn is a bit time consuming and I finish up not sitting down of an evening. As soon as Jupiter is visible at a reasonable time I will start to show it on the webcams.

Categories
webcams

Branston stable light Geese flew in at 10 15pm in…

Branston stable light

Geese flew in at 10.15pm in the dark

Categories
webcams

Three new photographs have been put onto the photo page…

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

Categories
webcams

We have seen two Little Grebes on the lake for…

We have seen two Little Grebes on the lake for the past couple of days. It is the first time this year that we have seen them. Usually we have a pair on the lake for most of the summer. It could be that we haven’t seen them, for when ever they see us they dive down in to weeds below the water to hide. They seem to be able to stay under the water for ever. When they do come back to the surface they never rise in the place where they dived down, it is always a long way off.

Now that Bliss an Misty are not on the Farm, we are going to start to break Smuggler and Branston. They will not be as easy to break as the Fillies, as they are older and will be a bit more set in their ways. Smuggler is coming five years old and Branstone three.

Before we start to break them, Smuggler will need to come down into the main yard with Branston. Unfortunately before we can bring him down Sonny will have to be sold. Sonny is an 11.2hh Dartmoor Pony that we got in to keep Smuggler company as he was a Colt. Now that he has been gelded, he will be able to go into the field with the other Horses. Sonny is to small for any one at Denbury. He is a very smart little pony, dark bay with four white socks, he will only be wasted here. He will make a great little show or a child first pony.

Once broken we will probably keep Smuggler as a riding Horses. Even as a Colt he was very laid back and easy to do. He should have been broken a couple of years ago, and If we hadn’t been so busy he would have been riding out by now. He will love the attention when he comes down and is being broken. We did try to sell him in the Summer. The money that we were prepared to let him go for was silly money. If any one had bought him, it would have been the best buy that they would have had, he is extremely well bred and will make a very good event Horse. One Women who came wanted both Smuggler and Sonny, trouble was she must have thought we were daft. She thought that we would let her take them away without paying for them, to see if they would be suitable. She was sent on he way with the sharp end of my tongue. We are unsure what we are going to do with Branston. Again he is extremely well bred. We will have to look at all the options with him. Now that we have a camera in the sand school we will let you see some of the work when breaking Smuggler and Branston.

The weather is awful tonight, tipping down with rain and gale force winds. It was nearly as bad last night, it did look a bit like snow last night. The Horses are in and stabled, so we are having to muck the stables out of a morning. I hope that this is not the start of Winter.

Categories
webcams

Denbury although only about 6 miles from Taunton is very…

Denbury, although only about 6 miles from Taunton is very out of the way, it is not isolated, the village that we come under is within half a mile. Mind you there is nothing there other than private houses, occupied mostly with those who think that they are a better type of people than they really are. I am sure that they would stick there noses in the air, passing common people like us. Within two miles is a village with a number of Pubs and Shops. But once you enter the drive of Denbury, it is as if you are in a different world. It is so quite that it feels as if you are isolated and in the middle of nowhere. So if there are any noises in the night, even with me not being a particular light sleeper, I will be woken. At about 4.am I heard a noise in the yard. It was as if someone was walking around. After going out for dinner and a few glasses of wine, I really didn’t want to get out of bed at that time in the morning. Then Branston called out, which is always a sign that some thing was happening.

As much as I didn’t want to go and investigate the noise, when you have got animals there really isn’t a choice. Reluctantly, with Tass and Kye by my side, we made our way to where Branston had called from, only to find Bliss flaunting herself at Branston. Branston was enjoying every minute of it. Fortunately for a Colt he is very laid back, any other Colt would have cleared the gate that he was behind to be with the Filly. Again fortunately Bliss is a very laid back Filly. After getting a head collar on her I walked her back to the field to put her back with the other Horses, believing that she had squeezed under the fence, that she had done before, only to find the field gate open. Shinning my torch around the field I could see that the other Horses had also got out. I had a good idea that they may have been grazing on the holiday cottages lawns. They were all there except Arnie. Breeze being Breeze decided she was not going to be caught and started running around bucking her hind legs in the air, Misty and Lady joined in the fun, leaving Willow bemused at the goings on. I didn’t need that at that time in the morning. It took a good twenty minutes to get them back into the field, with only Arnie to worry about. After another twenty minutes I found him, head in the feed bin stuffing his face.

On both Thursday and Friday night, the Fox that was in the valley with the Deer was trying to get the young Deer to run around with it. On Thursday night there was one youngster with it Mother, on Friday it seemed very much as if it was twins Calves with their Mother. On my larger monitor, I could see the Fox was going up to the Calves and running away to get the Calves to chase it, The Calve were doing the same to the Fox. There could not have been any danger from the Fox, or the Mother would have chased the Fox away. After seeing the Fox with the Sheep earlier in the year, the Fox by what we have seen, does not live up to it reputation.

Categories
webcams

Bliss and Misty were entered into the Doncaster Bloodstock Sales…

Bliss and Misty were entered into the Doncaster Bloodstock Sales today. The sale is at the end of October. I don’t know that they will finish up going there or not. I have been looking at the different options. There is a chance that I may decide to race one of them if not the two.

I spoke to a trainer in France earlier today. What he has told me sounds very interesting, but I shall have to make more enquiries. Unlike the UK, the French Government run the racing industry and give it a lot of support. The winnings are a lot more and there are other benefits.

I had an email last week from an Abdul Kareen making enquiries about Branston being for sale. I checked out his email address and it turned out to be Kuwait Oil, Abdul Kareen being the Kuwaiti Oil Minister. He had checked out Branstons Pedigree that I have on the Ownaleg website and he was interested in buying him. A few emails passed between us. As I have not heard from him for nearly a week I should think that he is no longer interested. It would have been good to have known that Branston had got a chance at racing. I am not to disappointed as Branston is a really nice Horse, I should think that we will break him over the Winter for a riding Horse on the farm.

The night are drawing in and getting chilly at Denbury. I must admit I am not looking forward to Autumn and Winter, as there is a lot more work to do with the Horses. We need for it to be dry for as long as possible, for if the fields get to wet and muddy the Horses will need to be kept in of a night, and a lot in the day. We try to keep them out until late November with their turnout rugs on. If we are really lucky it can go into December, Although we have at time had to get them in their stables as early as the middle of October. That is part of the reason for me having to sell some of the Horses, we really need to cut down on the work. Mucking out the stables is not the best jobs, and they need doing every day.

No Elaine, they didn’t forecast those heavy showers that we got last night, just some very light rain that would hardly be noticeable. The ground was still wet this morning.

The Badgers are getting a bit to brave again. You probably see them run back to the sett just before I get in view. I do try to stop them being friendly, but it is becoming a bit harder every year. It is mainly this and last years Cubs that have got use to me from the start of them leaving the sett. It would be very easy to get them feeding from my hand, then they will not be wild animals, they will then eventually have no fear of humans, that would not be right. I will need to make them wary of me.

Categories
webcams

Every time that I see the Swallow chicks in their…

Every time that I see the Swallow chicks in their nest it looks as if they are dying. Their mouths are open as if gasping for air. It can only be that they are so hot in the top of the roof. The last nest was the same and I don’t really like showing them on the webcam. The Dove chick is growing very quickly, it surely has got to be in the top ten for being the ugliest Bird chick. There were two but one disappeared very shortly after they hatched.

My luck seems to be holding out with the Sheep. I had forgot that it was a bank holiday today, for I had hoped to have moved them into a barn or stable to make sure that they don’t go free range again, before I send them off to market. I will send them to market this week. I am still undecided if I should to keep the Portland. The intention was to keep the friendly Texels, but after they escaped they lost their chance.

As we drive down our driveway on our way into the farm, the whole of the main Horse field comes into view. Just by habit we look to make sure that the Horses are all OK. Woody being grey stood out more than the rest when she was out, it is very strange her not being there now. We are looking to get another broodmare now that Woody has gone. It would be good to get one that is in Foal, but being realistic I should think that we will get a mare not in Foal that we will send to stud early next year. But you never know what may come on offer. The Bloodstock sales are coming up so I will see what is on sale there. Some of the sales can be seen on webcams. I will let you know when the next one is on.

When we went to feed the Horses this evening the Barn door was open. After Branston was opening the catch we tied the catch so that he could not open it. We don’t make mistake and it is never forgotten. This evening he was in the barn eating the Horse feed. Before we jumped to conclusions of who had left the gate untied I checked the hay-tie that it was tied with. It was wet where Branston had had it in his mouth. We thought that we had beaten Branston by tying the door, I don’t know how he untied it but he obviously had. There are three knots in the tie now.