Tag: cottages

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Starting from number eleven there are five new photographs on…

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

Asbo, taken by Vicky.

The Bagot Goats.

Meet our new addition to the Chickens, Asbo we have named him. We named him today after a complaint from Diane who he woke at 3.am this morning with his Cock-A-Doodle-Doing. As you can see he is a fine looking fella.

Asbo is a Light Sussex Cockerel that we have got to run with our laying Hens, 5 of which are Light Sussex. We got the Chickens to give us and our Holiday Guests eggs. It has been one of the best decisions that we made. Our Guest have enjoyed having the Chickens, Geese and not to forget Dennis clucking around the Cottages, and all those who have eaten the eggs think they are better than those in the supermarkets.

The reason for getting Asbo was that now that the Cottages are not going to be so busy for the next couple of months the eggs will go to waste. Hopefully Asbo will start to fertilise them and we will be able to incubate the eggs and produce chicks to grow on to be sold as laying birds in the Spring. Light Sussex are one of the best laying Chickens producing large brown eggs.

The only problem we have is that Asbo is Cock-A-Doodle-Doing. Although we are on a Farm in the countryside, and it is nice to hear a Cockerel, it is anti social at 3.am in the morning. I didn’t hear it myself, but I would not want to be woken by a Cockerel at 3.am. Tonight we are going to try to darken the Chicken house so that it is completely dark inside even when light outside, as we were told that a Cockerel will not Cock-A-Doodle- Do if it is completely dark. I am not convinced. If he wakes anyone tonight he will be going back from where he came until the Cottages are not occupied. We will only need him for a month or so and when we are finished with him he will go back.

The Bagot Goats have also been a bit of a problem. I knew there was a reason for me not having Goats in the past. They eat any thing and will make themselves a nuisance trying to get it, that they are with the Rhea. They are not happy with their feed if the can see the Rhea eating theirs so they try to chase the Rhea away from their feeding trough so they can eat it. It causes us to spend time that we don’t have not got keeping the Goats away from the Rhea food.

I am not sure how many Billy’s and Nanny’s we have. I was told the there were I Billy 3 Nanny’s and an un-sexed Kid, probably a Nanny. It is a Billy and the way that the Goats are dueling there may not be as many Nanny’s as I think. A stand to put the Rheas trough on may stop the Goats, as the the Rhea are a lot taller. As long as the Goats don’t knocked the raised trough over it may work. The duelling is a bit different. If it is because there are more Billy’s some will have to go. The Kid Billy has an Asbo and will be going in the Spring or there will be unnecessary fighting.

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Starting from number eleven there are five new photographs on…

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

Autumn colors, in the cemetery. It was so mild and it was about 5:30 in the afternoon. Karen Stoke.

This is the massive tree in the cemetery it is covered in Fungi, some of it has died. But there was more growing up the top of it. Jordan age 6 Stoke.

This is the trunk of the tree the Crow was in, it had some kind of growth on it I don’t know what it was. I think the tree was a Silver Birch. Karen Stoke.

This is the base of the tree with rotting Fungi on. You can see the cam picked up the midges. Karen Stoke.

This is a Bird a Crow I think, that was in the cemetery when I took Jordan Fungi hunting. Karen, Stoke

Struggling a bit to do a Diary every night as we are very busy trying to get a few jobs done around the Farm and Holiday Cottages. Quite a few of our Holiday guests have asked about open fires in the Cottages, so this week in between the Cottages being occupied we are putting in the Chimney flues so that we can put in log burners. Wouldn’t be the easiest of jobs especially as none of us are very happy sitting on the top of a roof let alone working whilst up there. Fortunately we managed to find a roofer at very short notice.

Another job that we have decided to do is to install electric gates and railings at the end of our drive. With the Reindeer that we have on the Farm we do get a few uninvited visitors who we really don’t get the time for. We have kept a number of different animals that have encouraged people onto the Farm. Part of the reason that we stopped keeping Ostriches, one animal that we really enjoyed keeping even when earning capacity declined was because we were spending lots of our time making sure people were not disturbing them or feeding them with feed that would harm them. The Reindeer are liable to be a bigger problem, so the gates are essential.

We were very lucky with the gate that we purchased. We found them on an auction site. The person selling them put them partially in the wrong category and the photograph was dreadful. After winning them I could not contact the seller, when I did he had sold them to a person who was also bidding but was the under bidder. I managed to embarrass him to keep his word. Just as well as the gates turned out to be antique and worth a good

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webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page from…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page from number six.

Two more photographs of Hurricane Katrina from Elsie.

Clematis from Karen.

Puffin from. Jill.

Another photograph from Australia. Rose.

This afternoon the sun was shining and it looked as if the day was going to finish well, when from nowhere, without any warning by darkening in the sky came an almighty crack of lightening, immediately followed by the blackening of the sky, thunder and rain immediately over head of the Farm House. The rain was so heavy that we were unable to see more than a few feet in front of us.. The electricity went straight down that caused the webcams to go off. I went to put them back on until another strike of lightening followed. It only lasted a few minutes but a lot of rain fell in that short time.

I was tempted to tell Mary that we had eaten the Sheep, but I thought better of it. They have been out for a while. We had been meaning to let them out of the pen for a few months, but had not managed to find the time to make a secure area for them. The only reason that we had them penned in was because they were free range and wandering onto other Farms as our fencing is not really suitable for Sheep. As they are very friendly Sheep we have fenced off an area around the Farm House and Cottages and have let them be free range there. They keep returning to the penned area. The wire that we use for the webcam that the Sheep are on, is also used for relaying the webcams to the Cottages, when we have Holiday Guests, so I am not sure if the Sheep use the pen of a night. We have to try to shut them in the pen when we are feed the Horses as the Sheep try to eat the Horses feed. They are so determined that that are very hard to keep away from the feed. The other day I had made up all of the Horses feed in their buckets when Dolly turned up. What ever, she was going to eat. In the end I had to resort to putting a paper feed bag over her head for a few moments so that I could get out of the barn with the feed before she had eaten it all. It worked, she didn’t move until I removed the bag.

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webcams

There are four new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are four new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number six. Nearly out of photographs.

My tulips, planted over the last two years….Anjela Connecticut.

This may be blurred if it is no good just scrap it.This was mother bird sitting back on the nest at 9.00am.Note the feet at the top of the picture,it is bigger than the chick. Lindsay.

Cygnet and Swan from Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset. Lisa, Eastleigh, Hants.

The River Thames, from the Thames path near Abingdon. CH.

Sorry no Diary tonight as we are trying to get the new Valley camera set up with the computer.

Elsie If I remember I will put the Sheep on tomorrow. When we have Holiday Guests the wire that we use for the Sheep we use so the our Guests are able to watch the webcams in the Cottages.

OUR HOLIDAY COTTAGES NOW HAVE INTERNET CONNECTIONS.

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webcams

This morning we were standing by the stables whilst the…

This morning we were standing by the stables whilst the Farriers was attending to Bliss. A Robin that we often see, was picking up the left overs from the Horses morning feed, it is always about when we are mucking out or feeding the Horses. All the time we were outside the Robin was within a couple of feet of us. All of a sudden, so fast that it had happened before it had begun, a Sparrow Hawk came down and picked the Robin off. We all looked at each other to see what we had seen had really happened within a couple of feet from where we were standing.

I have seen a Sparrow Hawk take Dove on the wing a many times at Denbury. A few years ago we had one nesting in the cottages loft. It had got in the hole that use to be put into buildings to encourage the Barn Owls. It would perch on a telegraph pole very close to the cottages, waiting for the Doves. The Doves would wait on the roof of the cottages not daring to fly until the Sparrow Hawk had gone. But on many occasion as we were working in the yard, we would see him take a Dove.

At the time we had two nurses living in the cottage that was below the loft where the Sparrow Hawk was nesting. We were told later that they had been buying mice to feed the Chicks with. Odd pair they were. If I ever wrote a book they would defiantly have a mention or two.

We needed to have the Farrier in today to see to Bliss’s hoof. She has been limping on it on and off for some weeks. One day she would be alright on it, the next day she would be hardly able to walk. We have been poulticing it hoping we could draw any infection out. It didn’t take the Farrier long to find the problem. The infection had moved until it got deep into the heel. He cut away the dead hoof where the infection was hiding. Although the pain was relieved nearly straight away, Bliss has been limping in anticipation of her still having the pain.

I have all of the parts that I need to finish installing the camera on to the new tower. All I need is t find some one to take the old camera down. With a bit of luck it will be working next week.

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The clearing up the damage that was caused by the…

The clearing up the damage that was caused by the flood on Monday, has hardly started. It doesn’t matter where you start there is always another place that you should be doing first.

How such an insignificant unnamed stream became such a raging torrent I will never understand or know. The stream would be no more than two foot wide and eight inches deep. I suppose in a couple of places erosion may have made it three feet wide, but never more than that.

The first that I knew that we had had a flood was when one of the tenants in the farm cottages knocked at the farm house door at about 7.am, Monday morning, informing us that at about 4.30 am there had been a flood that had gone into the cottages. On making my way to see what damage had been done, I could see that a small pond in the farm yard had piled up debris on the fences, but on turning into the cottages parking area I could not believe my eyes. The force of the flood water had turned two cars ninety degrees, and were resting on each other, with a gate that had been ripped of of its hinges, that had travelled eighty metres in between the two vehicles. The water had risen to the steering wheel, and both vehicle are write offs. The stones of the levelled parking area had been moved to form two large mounds, with some that had been thrown onto the lawn. Every bit of vegetation from the cottages to the lake had been flattened tight to the ground. The Lake was now orange in colour, where the flood water had gone in. The spare capacity in the lake seems to have stopped the surge of water going any further, as at the far end only small area of grass and vegetation had been flattened as it made it way to a large pond next to the lake. I cant imagine that none of the fish were swept from the lake to the pond, but I did not see any that were out of the water.

The inside of the cottages were mud baths. All the carpets were muddy and wet, with a tide mark up to eight inches off of the floor, making the walls dirty. New carpets and underlay have had to be ordered, but wont be able to be fitted until the cottages dry out, by using hired air blowers and dehumidifiers.

Part of the drive tarmac has been lifted, fences broken and a substantial gate broken in two. We are still finding more damage all of the time. I went to the place where the streams enters the farm from a wood. Two trees have been knocked over, and it is obvious that a lot of water has passed through the wood. Before I got to the wood the width of the stream, where the valley camera is situated, would have increased from two feet to twenty metres. Although I have not looked any further, I am told that it started a very long way up the valley.

One of the cars that has been written off belongs to a person on holiday. The cottage has no carpets, there are three dehumidifiers in there and they chose to stay, without any complaints. Hopefully the new carpets will be able to be laid in the middle of next week, and the farm back to normal by the weekend.

We have a annex in the farmhouse. Although we had no damage in the farmhouse, the annex got flooded. The person using it is away in Brittany, entertaining the French, Morris Dancing. A friend of his left his car on the farm whilst they are away. His car is also a write off. They are in for a shock when they return at the weekend.

Although there was a lot of damage no one was injured. It would have been very unlikely that if it had happened in daytime that any one would have been injured either. I have lived at Denbury for some years, and the stream has only gone over once when the underneath of a bridge got blocked, and that was a one off, just as this incident will be.

Thankyou all for your kind words.