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webcams

We are trying a few Google adds on Swallow horse…

We are trying a few Google adds on Swallow, horse, dog page. You will need to scroll down the page to see the image until tomorrow when I will get the adds put on the side of the image. The idea with the adds, are that when any person clicks on the to the site we get a payment, not sure how much, but it is going to be something like 1p for so many clicks. We want to see how it goes on a couple of pages, before we make a decision if this is the way we will be going. We have also signed up to another agency, who we will also be trying. The site needs to make some money to pay for the bandwidth that is used when you watch the web cams. Let me know how you feel about them.

Our Springer Spaniel Jade who is now fourteen years old, has had a problem with her breathing for some while. Her Epiglottis that separates the windpipe from the food pipe is inflamed/enlarged that makes her at times choke quite severely. It sound like a human with a horrable cough, you can bet you life she will do it when I am on the phone. There is an operation that she could have had, but the Veterinary advised that because of her age, the operation could well kill her, and that it was not recommended. It was always going to get worse, over the past week it has, to the extent that she is now choking more than not, when she is awake, that now is getting less every week. She has other problems and is finding it difficult to walk to far. Mind you she still manages to be the guts she has always been at meal times. She is now starting to suffer with the problems that she has, we need to make a decision when the suffering is to much for her.

Surely we have got to get a bit of a summer soon. Maybe not, with it raining last Sunday, Saint Swithin Sunday. Can you imagine another forty day, of what we have had in the last forty. The ground is so wet at Denbury I have given up to making any hay this year. The first sign of a few days sunshine we will mow the grass and try to make haylage. the difference between hay and haylage is that hay is completely dry grass, that is baled without being wrapped in plastic. Haylage is grass that is dried with a little moisture left in the grass, it is then baled and wrapped in a plastic film or bag. With the ground being very wet, so wet that your feet leave a deep imprint in it, the sun will have to be very warm to dry the ground, or when you turn the grass to dry it for hay the moisture in the ground will stop it drying completely. Haylage is a hit and miss procedure, if it is not made properly, it will go mildewy in the bag, making it unsuitable for horses. If you get it right most Horses prefer it to hay. the other feed we may be unlucky to have to make is silage, that is grass baled within a day of it being cut. As long as that does not go mildewy Horses will eat it with molasses poured over it. This will be the first year ever that we have not been able to make hay, it is causing concern.

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webcams

I hope when I turned the camera over that some…

I hope when I turned the camera over, that some of you saw the Badger trying to get peanuts out of the Bird feeder. To get to where it was, it needed to climb a tree. I suppose it was about seven feet off of the ground. It would not have been over hard to climb, but I was surprised that it managed to get to the feeders. The tree fell over last year. It s old variety of apple from the old Cider Orchard that most Somerset Farms would have had to make their own cider. There are about six Apple trees on the bank where the Badger Sett is. They are very old. As the trees on the bank get old their roots get weaker and they start to slip down the bank, that is very steep, and between thirty to forty feet high from the path that you some times you see the Fox, Rabbits and Pheasants feeding below the other feeder that we show. I regularly slip from top to bottom when the ground is wet after rain.

The Badgers were out quite early tonight. A couple of this years Cubs were being a bit brave and were waiting in the open for me to put the food down. I shook the feed bags a couple of times and they ran back to the Sett. The new camera on the set did not go over to IR mode last night and I had to replace it this morning. Unfortunately I did not get the focus right. As it is a fixed camera I have to adjust the focus on at the camera. I will get it adjusted correctly for tomorrow. The position look about right, and it should allow a better view when the Badgers are playing by the sett entrance. I will get the other camera up to show the back of were the Badgers come out of the hedge. I will also try to get a microphone going.

The Badgers are increasing the size of their Sett. The bank where it is fifty feet plus in length. Most of it is the Sett. It is very steep ground that other than trees would be little use in farming. We need to watch that sett is not going to far into the field at the top of the bank. When I was fixing the new camera my feet went down a few holes that had been dug. They cant be seen when the grass is long, so we are unable to put the horses in the field unless we electric fence off all along the top of the bank where the holes are.

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webcams

The Ownaleg com website alterations to include the Horse Racing…

The Ownaleg.com website alterations to include the Horse Racing and Breeding Syndicate, is all but finished. I still did not get all of the photographs that I wanted. I have been trying to get descent ones, on and off all day. Bliss and Misty have been pains in the neck. Every time they were as I wanted, they move as I pressed the button. These digital cameras are not instant as the old type of cameras. The one I am using seems to have a three second delay after you push the button, so it is not always the Horses fault. I tell you what, I could have thrown the camera on the floor and stamped on it, more than once. The ones not on, will have to be added later and some fine tuning to get the site right.

I had hoped to have sent the lambs to market tomorrow, but because that they went onto another farm they cannot be moved from Denbury for six days. I thought that one of the Rams in the penned area was dead this morning. When I went to feed them one had tuned over on its back and could not get back over. Looking by the mess around it, it must have been like it most of the night. When I found it, the Ram was lifeless, but as soon as I turned it back, it managed to get up. It was unsteady on it legs for a good few hours and looking very sorry for it self.

The Ragwort that we have around the farm this year, is the worse that we have ever had since we first came to live at Denbury. It is one plant. that is really not good for Horses. It is known that Horse deaths by Ragwort poisoning is in the region of a thousand a year, and it is not a very nice death. The toxins in the plant cause liver problems in livestock, and can also cause the death of humans who have been pulling the Ragwort from the ground with their hands.

A lot of the time Ragwort has a bitter taste and is not very edible. If the plant is damaged it looses it bitterness an will be eaten, that is why you need to be very careful when making hay that the is not any ragwort in the field. Making hay early in the year you can easily miss it. This time of year it is in flower and would mostly be standing higher than the grass, the little bright yellow daisy type flower cant be missed.

There is a code of practice and a Act of Parliament on the control of Ragwort, and you can be fined if it is not controlled. The Act was amended a few year back that was greatly watered down to an earlier act that imposed larger penalties. It will turn out to be a big mistake, as when the plant goes to seed it produces thousands of seeds to each flower, that can lay dormant in the ground for decades. We are having to pull it up now, trouble is the plants are getting on for being four feet in height, the wet from the rain makes them quite heavy to pull. The ground being wet helps a little, but there is so much of it this year it become a daunting task, one that we really don’t want If you have any in your gardens, pull it up including the root and burn it.