Pentalk-Blog

Farmer's Blog

2009-05-21T09:29:00.002Z

Farmer's Blog

www.myfarmfood.co.uk

"Hello again,

Well, June was an interesting time for me as I spent two weeks of it sat by the pool at our hotel in Tunisia! It was a lovely holiday and I came back fully refreshed and ready for the busy summer ahead. The highlight of the holiday was definitely our trip down to the Sahara Desert, and riding camels across the sand, where all you can see is more sand.....absolutely beautiful.
Before I could go on my holidays however, it just happened to be the time when the wheat needed spraying again with another fungicide and the spring barley, which we had sown in April needed some weed killer and a fungicide to control and prevent it getting any diseases. The weather at the start of June wasn't great, but towards the end of the week it improved and I managed to get all the spraying that needed doing done before I went on my holidays. I sprayed more land in two days than I have ever managed before, so once I finally got on holiday it felt like it was a was a well earned rest.
Whilst I was away on holiday at home they cut the grass for silage and baled it, ready for feeding to the cattle through the winter. Once silage is bailed it needs wrapping in plastic to keep the air out, which would cause it to go moldy.
On my return to work, there was more spraying to be done, this time the maize which needed a weed killer as the weeds were nearly as big as the maize itself! I was also told the news that our pig man was leaving us. This is a bit of a pain because it is just before harvest so we need to find a replacement quickly otherwise we will be extremely busy. As I sit and write this blog we have found a replacement but unfortunately she can't start work until the end of July/beginning of August, so I'm not sure how we are going to cope yet when we start combining at mid to the end of July.
At the end of the month we had started preparing our sheds ready for when we start combining so that we have somewhere to tip our grain that comes off the fields. This involves sweeping the sheds and then hoovering them will a big industrial vacuum to get rid of any dirt and dust that maybe in the sheds, after all, you wouldn't want wheat that goes into making your bread to be tipped into a dirty shed, would you? We also spray the sheds with an insecticide incase there are any bugs in there as they can get into the grain and eat there way through it. This not only wastes the grain but can also lead to it being rejected by the millers.
I am now full time pig man until our new pig lady starts, I don't particularly enjoy this as I like to a have a variety of jobs in a week and being pig man means I don't get time to do anything but look after the pigs, but someone has to do it!
We're now hoping that we get some decent sunny weather to ripen our crops and get them ready for harvesting, but we obviously don't have any control over this so we will just have to wait and see what happens."

If you would like to do a 5 day blog (monday to friday) to be showen on the Pentalk's blog please email us at dbase@pentalk.org

Mouse trouble on day 7

2008-12-15T08:40:00.002Z

hi folks ,this the last of my seven blogs to you all , hope you are keeping up .... , time very early am ... alan has just got the sheep fed some more silage ,put some flying herdwicks back again where they are supposed to be , marked up the tups again, we are just ready to venture out along the very icy road [ no it was not gritted after all,] just scraped the snow to the side !, we are heading for penrith to an open sheepdog trial , with two dogs ,should take us just over 2 hours as we are going the long way because of the weather , have a flask of coffee and sandwiches , see you later on ................................................... pm back home , we had a good trial ,alan ran" fox "first , he had a very good outrun , lifted the sheep beautifully, a good line to the post , then tight around the post ,good cross drive just a wobble to get the centre gate oopps ! good tight turn back to a very nice clean pen ,the dog went well ,Alan was pleased with him .second dog "goe ". also went well ,not as good as" fox" and ran out of time at the pen due to a very reluctant sheep , we called in to reged nr penrith as we wanted to see the lakes artist exhibition , it was good , my late sister was an artist of some merit ,infact most of my family are very good artists ,im the only one without that talent ,but i do like looking at art , ... back in after another long trip back ,, the road up here still not nice , but it is nice to be back to a warm fire and a nice meal yes the mutton was fantastic , life here is full of ups and downs, but we wouldn't change anything well maybe ju st the weather, with any luck we will have friends and family to feed over Christmas ,there will be plenty of talk about family gossip, sheepdogs and sheepdog trials over a glass or two of whisky ! it will soon be time for us to get a Christmas tree , the cards have started to arrive , i have to get the airmail ones sent of this week to family thousands of miles away , a small cute large eared mouse has just ran across the kitchen floor , looks like a door mouse but i know that can not be , i have seen him before , a few days ago , i was wondering why kitty [ terrier ] was so fascinated in what was going behind the aga ,now we know why , he found his way to the small dustbin ,climbed up like batman would have ,got his teeth around a large toasted "burnt " muffin and dragged it down with out dropping it , then he sat there turning it round and round taking little bits ,how funny , it was as big if not bigger than him , just shows you if you put your mind to it what you can do ahh , collie dog" jill" just sat looking at it , well its not a sheep so she was not a bit bothered in him , well its been fun doing this blog all 7 of them , i hope you enjoyed hearing about life in the winter on a hill sheep farm in the lake district by for now folks and good night .......chris bradley

Day 5 at the Funny Farm

2008-12-11T08:46:00.000Z

hi folks , Time flys when you are having fun doesn't it ? well it does for Alan, when it comes to training the dogs , i said to him today ,you have been ages with"goe [ sheepdog ] wasn't he working well today ? ow i haven't been long have i , ? yeh right i said , time has flown for me as far as Christmas is concerned sad time for our family as my sister died at christmas 2 years ago , i dont rearly like christmas anyway " barr humbug "i here you all saying , can not believe its time for cards ,tinsel and the Christmas mad dash present hunt , wonder if i have still got those funny little gifts that arrived in the post few days before last Christmas, from aunties and uncles, might be able to recycle some of them ! bath smelly stuff that makes you sneeze ,scented candles that i hate ... give me migraine! as long as i have made a note of who sent them i would hate to send one back to the wrong relative ! have a horrible feeling that has happend last year ! dont think this is bad , bet you have done this or wanted too ,? Alan is not good at presents ,normally says well i haven't had time to go to shops and look around or he says but you are so hard to buy for , he has used that excuse a few times , ,thing is he hates shopping ,its something on line to seeing the dentist , then again i don't like shops or any kind of shopping , don't like the rush of crowds of people , and can always think of some job around the farm i would rather be doing , when the big store tesco started the new home delivery service i thought ow this is heaven a dream come true i spent hours on the computer ; carefully selecting the weeks food shopping , but things started to get complicated you had to know the weight of a tin of baked beans tuna fish frozen chips ect ect ,then while studying the multi chose floor cleaner and starting to feel board with the whole propose ,Alan offered to take over the simple shopping list , so i went to bed and left it up to the man to quickly sort it out , anyway 2 days later the little blue and white van arrived , i thought hope he hasn't gone mad and just ordered all his favourite food ,cream cakes ,ice cream and fig biscuits ,i started to carry all the bags in from the door step , seemed a lot, seemed heavy , ! well i was shocked on opening the bags one by one bag after bag after bag of onions and more onions he didn't understand it went in kgs pressed the button to many times we had small red ones large white ones ,tiny shallots some in red string bags some loose , a massive selection ,,also we had 30 garlic's , 12 pts toothpaste , 50 tiny tins of beans ! even budgie seed and we don't have a bird , never again , then i found out i needed sometimes to just get out food shopping just for the sake of getting out ,, you know what i mean . ... pm later on..... aarrrh " aren't sheep selfish creatures" one perfectly healthy ewe, died and for no good reason .. knew she didn't like me ! well time has flown by doing this blog maybe its true .. keep warm Chris from the funny farm ,

Still no gritter

2008-12-11T08:45:00.002Z

hi everyone , yes still waiting for the gritter to arrive up the valley , moan ,moan , there isnt even any salt piles put out this year suppose it is all the council cut backs , the forecast tonight is frost and ice again but the good news is Alan did manage to drive back from ayrshire but it was a struggle taking many more hours in the bad weather , so today we had to check other sheep and hoggs an hours drive away from home the hoggs looked like they are due the worming doses again so that is the first thing on the agenda for next week , alan was hoping to go to a nursery trial with his sheepdogs this weekend but with all the bad weather and no training done with the 2 young dogs [ mac and jill ] ,he has decided to give it a miss ,and hope he can find a bit of time to train the two open dogs [ fox and goe ] before Sunday if so he might take them to the open trial nr penrith , even though the open standard dogs are fully trained , its an ongoing process to keep them up to scratch ,arr just found my lovely warm and lined wellies they were in alans car i was glad to put them on today ,.......................... later on pm ,Finnish packing away some herdwick mutton into the freezer ,looks good and lean and can't Waite for a Sunday ,mutton with red cabbage carrots and leeks plus a few sweet tatties ,, home grown and matured and lived its happy life on the high fells for the last 2 years or so . busy day again today ... what's that noise ???? ...... ow you wont believe it folks . tha t noise with its flashing amber "beautiful " dancing lights can only mean one thing ITS THE SALT GRITTER yeh happy days ! its just gone past our door ,what a fantastic sight , first time iv seen anything so brilliant sleep tight folks , aarr happy days , happy days .! till tomorrow Chris

Snow day

2008-12-11T08:45:00.001Z

day 3 of my blog .. time .am very early! ow goodness ,we are in whiteout conditions here today , the snow has been falling ,alan still in Scotland ! the weather forecast not good for his way home ! still had to get on with things , so took some nice hay out to the" tazmainian devils " [sheep] and some other sheep in a paddock close by , could not get the yard gate open as so much snow blocking the way , fed the" reserve "herdwick tups ,who are in the stable ,out of harms way , nearly got bowled over by one of them who butted the bucked out of my hands my fingers too cold to fight for my possession of the feed ! back to get more feed then let the geese out who had been making a right racket , think they wanted to skid around the snow covered yard and this is just what they did do see photo .... called "snow geese "or maybe it should be swan lake.!.. by the look of one of them ballet dancing ! still no gritting going on here and with the whole of cumbria in the grip of this weather i know we wont see any road clearing now . just fed the wild birds and a very beautiful greater spotted woodpecker came looking for nuts he was disapointed as we have run out of them and im feeding wild bird seed ,so lots of others arived for a hearty breakfast , no did not get his photo sorry , ......... time mid day now ..... , ow no ! the devils got in with the other sheep , spent the last hour fixing the wall gap i was frozen , took little" jill" [ sheepdog ] to help me she was a star , a tractor from the next farm [2 half ,miles away ] up, nr hardknott pass went past and has made the road look walk able i will go and check the x bred ewes see if all is ok feels a bit funny today in a "winter wonderland ",just me and the animals , .. see you later on ,........ had some nice hot milky coffee ,that cheers you up ,found out my lovely warm lined wellies are in the car with Alan ,aarrh,had to put on my old tatty walking boots , yes the ones" Jill "chewed ,now they leek shi.....! and can only find one glove ,best ones gone yes in alans car ,along with my best woolly hat aarrh , mucked all the dog kennels out now ,glad i got that job done .. still all sulking as not getting out much , had some of them run loose in the yard ,ow they loved that , had to disappoint some one who wanted to get there bitch mated to our good stud dog" fox ",no way it could arrive here , .. hope you aren't too board with this blog ? .. ,back to work .. chris

A frosty day 2

2008-12-08T18:51:00.003Z

hi all. morning ..

what freezing weather again today ,still no sign of our road being gritted ! it is so bad now you can not even walk on it ,as for yesterday we did get the sheep home with the help of the dogs ,but according to the weather forecast it is going to get worse with snow blizzards on the way ,so i wont be going anywhere far from home ,but that is not so for Alan as he has to go to Scotland for a dear friends funeral ,times like these makes you stop and count your blessings ,so i will try not to go on about the weather ,after all it is so beautiful to look at ,sheep don't seem to mind if it is very cold its the wet that they don't like ,the sheepdogs seem a bit dull as they are not getting out much this week ,mind you some of them have had lots of work in the last few days as Alan took them off to gather the high fells ,not much of a gather as the thick mist came in two days running ,so he did a few hours and had to give up or get lost up there , the herdwick tup's seem to be working well with lots of yellow colour appearing on the rumps of the ewes , .........have now gone on to blue colour with the white x bred ewes who are out with a couple of beltex tups , ...... 2 hours later back on the laptop , have just fed the wild birds and the little hebridean sheep or ",tazmainian devils" my friends call them who come here to train there sheepdogs with them they are very good at that job ,we have tried all types of sheep breeds for training and the" hebs "so far are the best ,,i have included a photo for people who do not know what they look like , rarther small built ,with horns ,skinny legs fine bone ,lovely big eyes and black fleeces , run like the wind, but with good breaks ,and don't get worried or stressed ,don't jump fences ,easy to look after , ... later on. very dark now . ..... im putting the kettle on now for a cup of t ea , waiting for alan to phone and tell me he has arrived safely , while 4 dogs " fox,"a red/white border collie ,skye who is an old black/white b.c and kitty a terrier ,and little jill a black/white b.c... she had been very ill but is getting better now and is living in the house so i can keep an eye on her for a while , look at me in anticipation of getting there dinner and relaxing in front of the blazing log burner for the next few hours , whats on tv folks ...? Chris

Chris and Alan Bradley

2008-12-08T18:48:00.002Z

Hi everyone
We are hill sheep farmers farming in the beautiful ,remote Duddon valley , there's me Chris and my husband Alan we are in south lakes near to the famous Hardknott pass and Wrynose pass , two very high mountain pass roads.

We are surrounded by high fells covered in snow and ice today . This my first blog I am only able to do today because I have time since the horrible icy roads have forced us back home after 4 hours of being stuck with a trailer full of Herdwick sheep destined for the livestock market in Ulverston but since the council have not gritted our road ,it was impossible to get more than the 2 miles ,so hours later we are back home with a lovely cup of coffee,and trying to thaw out ,while we wait for help with the trailer still stuck with the sheep in .

Alan is back out now to check the herdwick tups and ewes and see how the last bale of silage is lasting , I have sent you some photos of Troutal farm ,Seathwaite ,Lots of my pics contain sheepdog images as this is our tools of the trade and our passion ! It has just started to snow again ,and I have forgotten to let the geese out so by for now " back tomorrow " hope you like my photos ? regards Chris

Goodbye!

2008-12-06T09:01:00.000Z

Friday 5th

2008-12-06T09:00:00.000Z

Wednesday 4th Dec 08

2008-12-05T08:47:00.000Z

Got up this morning to find 12 rabbits running about in the farmyard; someone had not shut the door properly. As luck would have it, unusually, I had shut all the dogs in last night. By 7.30 Val and I had them all back in...Phew! “What a funny way to mek a livin.”
Had Graham Pattinson here today taking off a corrugated roof off, and will reroof it again in the next day or two I hope. Jonny and I cleared up the mess he left behind.
One of our girls called in sick today, so I was in the tearoom helping out, it was busier today, and had a large Christmas party booked tonight, I’m pleased to say it all went very well. Val’s attention to detail pays off yet again.

Thursday 5th December 08

Dad normally feeds our menagerie of animals in a morning, but not Thursdays, so I do it, and get a chance to have a good look at them all. An odd sheep and goat need their feet trimming, and I’ve got to get one of the alpacas sheered, must get that sorted; but apart from that, they all look fine.
Have had a letter from the highways dept, indicating that they will make permanent repairs in 2009/2010, but there is more than that road to do. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Was at a funeral this morning of Norman Wise, a local farmer who successfully diversified 30 years ago, when the word diversification wasn’t even heard of, and his son is still expanding the caravan site, and is also heavily involved in Solfest music festival.
A busy tearoom today with a group booking for lunch, was in helping out.
A lot of running around after our three girls tonight, school, parties and hockey practice, we’ve along way to go before all that finishes.

Tuesday 2nd December

2008-12-03T13:21:00.001Z

Very cold and icy outside, the roads are treacherous, as I found out on my morning school runs. The roads around here are an absolute disgrace, too many holes to count, and when they are mended, they are to such a poor standard that the holes reappear again very shortly, and then yet more letters and emails from me to the highways dept; - irate from Silloth. They certainly do nothing to help encourage our customers to return. Are ours the worst in Cumbria?
We have opened a large parrot aviary this year, and I am a bit nervous to see how they fare in this freezing weather, -- so far so good, but you would think that the canaries in there would forgo their morning bath on a morning like this, wouldn’t you? But no……..
To make sure the rabbits and guinea pigs aren’t picked off by predators we have to bring them inside, have you ever tried to catch a rabbit that doesn’t want to be caught in a large paddock? I gave that a miss and got Jonny (a 16 yr old school leaver who helps us out with the chores) and my daughter Corrie (8) the pleasure of that. They must have used their little grey cells, because it didn’t take too long.
The Xmas lunches have got off to a slow start today, but the bookings are better as the week goes on. Another preschool booked to see Santa……….more shopping, not my favourite activity!
Val is tired out after yet another night with the month end stuff, bless her.

Regards John

John and Val Nattrass

2008-12-03T13:20:00.002Z

Hello, this is my first attempt at a blog; I hope that you find it interesting.
I’m John Nattrass, I am married to Val and have three children Emily 15, Corrie 5, and Molly 6, and we now own and run The Gincase, which is a farmhouse tearoom with a Cumbrian craft barn and art gallery, and a children’s farm park, 3 miles west of Silloth.

I was in a former life a dairy farmer, for 30 years milking 100 cows or there abouts. It was after the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, when we were affected but not infected, when the government tried to focus more attention on diversification, and there were funds to go with it, that the seeds of The Gincase were sown. Val has always had a hankering to open quality tearoom, and after a few holidays in Devon, we thought there was an opportunity to have some sort of farm park here in the west of Cumbria. To cut a long story short, we converted some farm buildings, created paddocks for some child friendly farm animals and opened in July 2004 It was going so well that we decided to have a year off from farming in 2005, (at this time I found dairy farming a thankless task, and couldn’t see any light at the end of my tunnel, and I was also helping out in the tearoom and burning the candle at both ends) so I sold the cows and other stock, and I would reassess the situation in 2006……….I’m still taking my time in reassessing!!! My neighbour, David Pattinson, who bought my cows and rents my land keeps me up to speed with the dairy situation.

Mon 1st Dec 2008
We are closed on Mondays, so we have the day off. Not really… we use this day to do paper work, catch up on all the other jobs that we don’t get time for.
Today Val and I were in Carlisle trying to find gifts for Santa; we are having a Santa’s Grotto at The Gincase on Sat 13th and Sun 14th Dec. The children are all booked in, (we do have some spaces left!) so we do have the children’s details to help us, but all the same it takes some time to do it within our budget.
Got back home to find a burst pipe in the rabbit pen, oh great!!
Supper, read to Corrie and Molly, take them to bed, try and make sure Em’s up to speed with her homework and preparing for her GCSE exams in the new year, and then back into the tearoom to prepare for tomorrow, all the food served here is made from scratch on the premises. After 4 years it now all follows a familiar pattern, it is tiring but is also rewarding.
All during December, as well as the usual menu, we serve Christmas lunches, roast turkey and all the trimmings; and as tomorrow is day one, we have to make sure nothing is forgotten. In previous years they have proved to be extremely popular, and we do have quite a lot of bookings, but at the start of the month it is difficult to predict numbers. I’ll let you know tomorrow.
Then, as it’s the month end now, we, that is Val, has the dubious pleasure of entering all our data onto the computer and getting it to balance, her previous life working in the HSBC, and her constant attention to detail has stood her in good stead, and she will get there in the end.
Bed time, we hardly ever go to bed the same day we get up.

Regards
John Nattrass

Fri 28th Nov

2008-11-28T18:16:00.001Z

Last night's meeting at Pooley Bridge was arranged to allow the Ullswater Parishes within the National Park to raise issues through their Councillors and Clerks with the Chief Executive, Stephen Leafe. Many found it useful, I think, but there were so many issues raised that I can't say progress in resolving problems or in improving understanding was really made.

On planning applications, we were told that LDNPA policy is to have as much pre-application discussion with the applicant as is needed to avoid problems in the grant or excessive conditions. That may be good for meeting Government turn round targets and reducing refusals, and hence the number of appeals, BUT (that's a big "but") I think it reduces the effect of consultation with Parish Councils and must predispose the LDNPA to grant permission, even if there is local objection.

The strategy of encouraging farming as one of the two main commercial factors in the Park (the other being tourism) seems well embedded and the Chief Executive's sympathy with farmers seemed very genuine.There appear to be pressures building in the Matterdale valley to prevent large, modern farm buildings: is this a vocal minority which should be heeded? Do farmers need to landscape all new buildings from day1?

Today has been this and that. Lovely views on the dog walk this morning:hope she appreciated them, though dogs seem to prefer the smells on the ground to the views.

The new Merc B Class seems as if it ill be OK on mud:road tests don't seem to realise that getting off wet grass verges is crucial round here.

Oxfam have benefitted from some table lamps and a turntable (taken into Keswick this afternoon). Buying Xmas presents from Charity shops seems a winner until 25th Dec, when the buyers may be found out and get no Christmas dinner and sarcastic comments throughout the New Year. The day is over and I have not started on the Parish Council minutes yet; still I have sent its donation to Eden CAB so the day has not been wasted.

I sign off my first ever series of blogs knowing that Bridget Jones would do better.

Thursday 27th November

2008-11-27T17:52:00.001Z

AM to Penrith to shop for posters, needed to decorate the Watermillock Village Hall on 31st December. The theme is "Nip and Tuck", so film stars in their swimsuits will be ideal. Probably I will need the internet but have to keep my reputation for good conduct (worse luck).

PM dog walked,then I typed up some PCC minutes, using two fingers if you will pardon the expression.They have gone to most of the PCC by e-mail.

Tonight we meet the LDNPA Chief Executive as representatives of the Ullswater group of Parish Councils.More news on this tomorrow

Wed 26th Nov

2008-11-26T17:52:00.001Z

No Parish Council business today.Posted some Church Service notices, but the main item was to collect a Used Merc B series, which I have bought.Accumulated items from the car traded in have been bagged; Kim's game could usefully be played with its contents.Always resolve a) to keep new car clean b) to keep it tidy c) to put into it only what is essential (eg. cheming gum to stop me yawning on long journeys and a map- I am that old fashioned).
By the end of this week, I am confident of breaking all three resolutions.

Oddly, the dealers insist on their finance man offering me a loan, even though I said all along I wanted to pay cash and the salesman explaining that I should give him 100% on the satisfaction form, so he keeps his job in 2009. He was good, so I dont mind saying so. Reminded me of solicitor days and pulling one member of staff by the leg ; I falsely accused her of asking for a glowing testament before dishing out the legacies.

Off to show off the clean car to my wife and get to the pub.

More serious business tomorrow: PCC minutes and other Church work: then Friday for Parish Council minutes and post arising. What fun it is to be retired!

Tues 25th November

2008-11-25T18:02:00.001Z

Well last night lasted just over three hours:two hours of Parish Council business after an hour of "surgery". Is the Matterdale Valley being spoilt by the way farming is developing, particularly in needing very large buildings? Should the planning policies be very restrictive or should commercial decisions be allowed to dictate the shape of our built environment?

Does the absence of the public from Parish Council meetings indicate failure to understand the Parish Council role and how the public participation can inflence key decisions? Is it a mark of satisfaction with the status quo or the reverse or neither?

Should more people be encouraged to stand for election to the Parish Council in May 2010 and, if so, who and how?

These and plenty of other questions were raised yesterday and on Thursday this week we will have the chance to raise some of them with LDNPA.

Despite all this, the dog has been walked and fed, an emergency call from my old office dealt with and some of today's superb views taken in.

Mr David Brown

2008-11-24T18:06:00.001Z

"I was a private practice solicitor with Latimer Hinks, Darlington, for 40 years or so, but am now retired and living in Watermillock. I am Clerk to Matterdale Parish Council and a member of Penrith Rotary Club. I am a trustee of Cumbria Community Foundation and golf in the Seniors Section at Penrith Golf Club. I am married with two grown up daughters"

Monday 24th November-Blog

Golf at Penrith this am;some other mad fools on course.Played with one retired farmer and one Parish Councillor, so a good start to the Parish Council Meeting day.
Agenda for that reviewed and all the papers dug out and arranged.Plenty to get our teeth into as the Precept (parish tax) is fixed tonight for 2009/2010. Also there are planning conflicts on caravan sites and large agricultural buildings that people want to have their say about. Hope no more than three hours needed tonight.More news tomorrow

Friday 31st October 2008

2008-11-09T17:56:00.002Z

7.05AM Still in bed with my wife listening to Radio one, the boy (Jonathan) has came in and is climbing all over us.

Chris Moyles is banging on about the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand senario this week - Me being very open minded thinking live and let live!

7.30AM Dressed and ready for work, bite of breakfast and cup of tea with family, wife twinning about being too busy and me not doing any housework.

Started car to defrost and switched heated seats to warm by behind up on the way to work.

A few phone calls on route to work and arrived at 8.45AM.

Cup of coffee and started pushing paper round my desk as a few disputes and things to deal with had built up as it has been another busy week. David Crowden and the team had arrived by this time as there had been a directors meeting the previous eveining David discussed a few points with me that had arose.

10AM Store lambs starting to arrive by the trailer load with sellers expecting a tremendous trade as I had canvassed and assured them with confidence that there would be a good customer base of buyers. The sale got under way at 11AM and trade was very satisfactory with everybody delighted, 1,000 lambs inexcess of £40.

12.20PM Sale concluded - out of rostrum wrote sale report, gathered my diary and files together, wellies and leggings and jumped in the car as I was bound for Alnwick to view with intentions of purchasing a quantity of breeding sheep. My clients expected arrival time for me was 2PM (Penrith to Alnwick is a bloody long way!) I will let you work out the rest, - Once again I was rather late!!

3.30PM Destination found! Sheep all shedded and penned up by farmer. Wellies and leggings pulled on as doing this glancing at what I am going to asses thinking quietly to myself that business could well be done here as my first impressions were that the sheep looked ideal for the purchaser I had in mind. THE DEAL WAS DONE WITH ALL PARTIES HAPPY!!

4.30PM Back on the road again heading for Penrith. Friday evening round Newcastle roads were manic as you could quite imagine. This really pissed me off as I dont like standing still. Finally arrived back at the auction at 7.30PM, quick glance in the office to check nothing major was waiting for me on my desk. Out of office and went to Penrith golf club for Eden Valley Cricket League presentation to support the team I play in which received a few awards.

Thursday

2008-11-02T11:24:00.000Z

7.15am- My day started wonderfully well with all three kids up so I had some quality time with them before I left for work.

8.15am- Jenni was working early and taking the two girls to the childminder so I took Jonathan to his childminder Then auction mart work began. My day was planned to travel across to Alnwick to view 600 mule gimmer lambs with a prospective buyer in mind.

9ish- My client phoned under pressure as they had a farm robbery last-night. That knocked the visit to Alnwick on the head. So thinking on my feet I decided to put forward farm visits from Friday to procure deadweight stock for the weekends travel.

11am- Arrived at the mart and made the team a brew before I started to look at the morning’s correspondence and deal with telephone calls. Wandered outside onto the yard to have the crack with the yard team, Malcolm Holmes in general just to see what sheep was left over from the Wednesday sale, as our market licence states all sheep need to be removed by 8pm Thursday evening. All in order, well done Malc!!.

Lunchtime is the time to catch most farmers on the telephone so I used the opportunity to canvass store cattle for our forthcoming sale on the 10th November (anybody with cattle to enter please phone, entries close on Monday 3rd November). The next job on the agenda was to co-ordinate a load of deadweight lambs, which Jenny Sayer my field person had covered most aspects of this job. I really did what a Livestock Manager does dot the I’s and cross the T’s. All sorted and job arranged all lambs will move through Thursday evening for Friday kill. We will await the return sheets!!!- hoping all is good!
I had a meeting with David Crowden regarding matters arising and the figures for the month as a directors meeting was this evening. Things looking comfortable and David happy with the situation, I will await the feedback from the other 10 directors on Friday morning.

I had a quiet five minutes at 4.30pm and my office phone rang thus being Jenny Sayer making me aware that our entry book for the forthcoming store cattle sale only had 100 entries in and the corresponding sale the previous year had 775, OH SHIT!, that being our target, that is the highs and lows of being an auctioneer, one sale closes and the future ones need looked at taking nothing for granted.

5.30pm- Quick look on the yard all under control all clean and washed ready for Fridays sale of store lambs at 11am.

5.50pm On the road- mobile ringing deadweight cattle to market.

Wednesday 29th - 4am start!

2008-10-30T17:32:00.000Z

4am – Fantastic my alarm clock went off with my body still half asleep, showered, shaved and changed, it was very cold crisp morning.

4.30am- Set off to work after defrosting the car. Not much traffic on the motorway, dark and cold. To break the journey up I phoned Tristan Davidson to see what was happening as he was busy delivering milk and papers.

5am- Arrived at Penrith Auction Mart, trailers loaded with prime lambs, cast ewes and rams were starting to role up at Penrith for the sale. I assisted Mary Bailey in penning the prime lambs up and keeping things in order on the docks.

7am- Sale of Cast Ewes and Rams started with 82 pens forward so I stepped into the rostrum to conduct the sale, assisted by Tom Robson who was eating pork scratching’s for his early breakfast!!. Everything was going well, bar from Bob Vevers creating wit about the ring as he was buying ewes.

7.20am- Gordon Teasdale arrived at work and sat behind me in the rostrum taking in trade, a nice trade was had with ewes £2-£3 sharper on the week.

8.45am- The Sale of ewes concluded and a 15minute interval was given before the start of prime lambs during this 15minutes Robin Raine a director of the mart turned up with a trailer full of cast ewes, obviously late and missing the sale, this making Gordon Teasdale’s blood pressure rise.

9am- Prime Lamb’s got underway with 197 pens forward, selling through to 12.45pm with a market average of 121p/kg.

2pm- Deadweight Lambs which were cancelled on Monday had been put back on with an increased price. So that was it all stations go!! - speaking to the customers and informing them of the new arrangements.

3.30pm – Completing all market reports for the day for the papers and website.

4.15pm- On the road few farm visits before home.

Tuesday 28th

2008-10-29T08:25:00.000Z

The day started as early as 5.50am as I am member of Justicetown Shooting syndicate my jobs for the morning were to go to the Bothy and organise things for the days shooting ahead, as David Coulthard is not an early riser and Mark Armstrong the shoot captain was turning over for his second dream. Once that was done I went round to Segbushwell for a jug of milk to drop off back at home so Jenni and the tribe can enjoy breakfast.

7.15am on the road to Penrith Auction Mart. Telephone rings and my judge for the Suckled Calf Sale calls in sick PANIC STATIONS!. Last minute judge who gets the short straw, David Hetherington wont answer his telephone so thinking on my feet I rung Philip Horn of Robberby who was politely bullied into judging. Shortly after arriving at work feeling under less pressure as Monday’s telephone canvassing for this days buyers had gone well, but still hoping things went without a hitch.

10am The Show of Suckled Calves commenced with some exceptional stock forward in the show lines. Philip Horn placed a Limousin Cross Heifer Champion bred by Messrs Barnes and Bland, Knott Houses, Grasmere. I would also like to say the judge completed the task in a sound and capable manner.

11am – This being the advertised sale time I was still constantly on the phone speaking to clients about forecasted prime sheep prices for Wednesday. So I actually started the sale at 11.15am, the sale went like a dream, the ring was buzzing with local and distant buyers all supporting and pleasing all sellers. Another good day in the rostrum.

3pm- Sale concluded, I completed the market reports for the papers and looked at the weeks advertising.

3.15pm- Quick bite of late lunch, crack with Jack Weir, Philip Wilson, David Willan and other farmers putting the worlds to right regarding trade and opposing markets.

3.30pm- Digital Camera into the car and off I went to Ike Bainbridges of Southfield Farm, Appleby to take numerous pictures of his implements which are forward in his farm sale on Saturday 22nd November. All details of this farm sale can be viewed on our website www.penrithauction.com.

4pm- The office phoned me to ask if I could call at Swinbanks of Brow Farm, Dufton on my way back to the Auction to collect a passport which needed to be replaced with the correct one. A1 service, lovely cup of tea and a truly nice family, possibly a game of golf came out of that farm visit.

5.30pm – Jollied around all our primestock buyers for Wednesday mornings prime sheep market and took a lot of stick off Paul Barker from Woodheads nothing new!! Because Paul always starts the conversation hard and softens, towards the end.

6.30pm- Heading back towards home calling in by the shooting bothy to see how the boys have come on today!! 53 head in the bag and port and beer was flowing well.

John Wharton - Penrith Mart Auctioneer

2008-10-28T12:28:00.002Z

Hello, My name is John Wharton I am 32 years of age, with most thinking I am a lot older than that for various reasons. A small bit about my background for those who don’t know me, I was born and bred by Raymond and Joyce Wharton from Segbushwell Farm, Blackford. I went to Blackford School then followed onto Eden School, Rickerby Park.

I started my involvement in livestock auction marts in November 1992 where I started as a office junior at Borderway Mart, Carlisle where I did general office duties then I was giving the opportunity to become a livestock auctioneer I started to sell Cast Ewes and Rams, and then I worked up through the ranks selling most classes of Livestock within H&H. While working at H&H, I met my wife to be Jenni Neve of Haining House. We have now been married for 9 years and have 3 lovely children, Hannah 7, Jessica 5, Jonathan 2.

After 14 years of auctioneering at Carlisle, I took the opportunity that arose at Penrith Auction Mart to become Livestock Manager and Principal Auctioneer. Joining an auction mart team were its loyalties lie with farmers working for farmers, it is made up of 10 Farmer directors, headed by David Crowden and 3 other full time staff. My strong belief after 18 months is that Penrith Auction Mart welcomes both buyers and sellers and we try our utmost to please everyone involved.

Monday 27th October

My day started at 6.30am, a prime stock buyer ringing up looking to procure prime lambs which I had canvassed all weekend promising a price of 2.70p/kg, my reply was, half asleep “yes it will get done, speak to you later” So I washed and groomed myself for a days work and set off on the road at 7.15am. Traveling past Southwaite services having gathered my thoughts I rang the primestock buyer back who then had reduced the price to 2.65p/kg this ruining all my hard work at the weekend as I new this would not tempt the sellers to market their lambs as they has been promised 2.70p/kg.

8.10am arriving at work, the market was already buzzing with trailers arriving at the market with prime and store cattle. The phone was very busy with farmers wanting a promised trade and buyers looking for cattle as cheap as possible (WHATS NEW!).

9.44am the clerical team prompted me it was 14 mins past the advertised starting time, so I stepped forward into the rostrum to commence the sale, satisfactory trade was had with 94 prime stock numbers forward. Charles Kirkpartick and Micheal Atkinson in the jolly mood as normal. Completing the sale of primestock I moved into ring no 2 to conduct the sale of 550 Continental Strong Bullocks and Heifers, a nice ringside of both buyers and farmers created a nice selling atmosphere on a crisp sharp day. The sale came to a conclusion with John Linsley winning his pound bet for the approx finish time of the sale (3.40pm). Having not been to the toilet or had a drink for the duration of the day it was chill out time for 20mins to wind down. The last hour was spent talking about trade, Tuesday’s sale, and prime lamb prices, and catching up on missed calls.

6pm - My eldest daughter Hannah phoned me for the crack and also told me that her fourth tooth had fallen out and asked how much the tooth fairies would be giving tonight!!!

The last thoughts of my working day are preparation and canvassing for Tuesdays sale of Suckled Calves and Breeding Cattle.

Frederick Cameron Wilson - Penrith Show President 2008

2008-08-12T17:09:00.004Z

FromCumberland and Westmorland Herald and Freelance photographer,president of the 2007/2008 Penrith shows Frederick Cameron Wilson(Fred or Freddie)Also life member and vice president of Skelton show.
Hello everyone,Just a short history of myself.l was born in Penrith many years ago from a English father and Scottish mother (Ayrshire).Ever since l was born l've loved the countryside.My father Freddie took me in the pram and his Alsation dog Chippie on country walks every weekend via Great Salkeld,Morland,Pooley Bridge ect.
My great grandfather on Islay was a farmer and a ploughman,so you can understand why l love the countryside and everthing that goes with it.
This year l celebrate thirty years of photographing shows and being associated with the the Cumberland and Westmorland newspaper and of course president of Penrith show and not forgetting my 60th birthday in March.What a year.
Now the date is the 25th July, the day before Penrith show and l'm beginning to get nervous,As the president in 2007 when we had to cancel the show and now the president for 2008 l'm hoping for a dry and sunny day.The committee has agreed to bring back the pet show back into the main area and l'm delighted.Can you imagine the pride and excitment when they win a rossette and a prize.Parents and all their relatives love to watch them as well as buying extra copies of their local paper if their pictures are published.
Time is 8pm and l'm out with the dogs,a good walk may calm me down but will the show go according to plan on the 26th,will l be able to do my show duties and still take the show pictures,will the pipers arrive on time from Edinburgh.Well better be getting back home times getting on and l will have to sort out everthing out for the morning.My wife Wendy is shouting phones been ringing all night,names and numbers in the book please ring them back.Its only a few last minute preparations not to serious.
The day has arrived,Penrith show day,time is 4.30am and l can't sleep.Lets get up and have some coffee and a slice of toast and have a walk in the garden.The weathers fine,a few clouds so it should brighten up later.Its now 7.30am,l,ll tune in to the weather forecast,its not bad at all.Now then lets get the kilt out ,sporran ect,l'm going to get some stick today.Everyone will be asking are you wearing anything underneath or not,but have l got a surprise up my kilt for them at the end of my show speech.The times come to set off to the show with my wife Wendy via Carleton road and up to the A66 roundabout,theres long tailbacks,there goes the ambulance and the fire rescue service.It must be an accident.l heard later it was a bus and a car at Whinfell top,nineteen injured.At last on the way through Eamont Bridge and there's the showfield.Lest Armstrongs on the gate.Good morning Mr. president,park anywhere shouts Les.
Chairman John Page ushers the wife and l into the members tent to meet the officials and have a cuppa and a chat..Right says John its time to judge the tradestands so off we all go.It was a difficult task but we got their in the end.Its now lunchtime and then on to judge the childrens pets and to hear the banter from the one and only Glen Tubman MBE.the mans a master of his trade.My word what a great turnout of pets,over forty entries and everyone a winner.Now that the pets have been judged its on to the chairman's and then my speech which l've not prepared,anyway l know what l'm going to say,keep it short and sweet.My speech is nearly finished and now for my finale.Ladies and gentlemen whats under my kilt will now be revealed,a copy of the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald newspaper,l'm never without one.
Now that my official duties are over lets take some pictures for the paper of some of the finest stock in Great Britain and have a pint shandy as the days getting hotter.l've now finished taking pictures so lets enjoy the Royal Scots association pipers from Edinburgh.Well what a show,the committee tells me its the best show for years with more people than ever coming through the gates.l'm so pleased for the committee as they work so hard and put in a lot of effort and time,it would be great if they made a profit after cancelling the 2007 show.The show day has been one of the greatest in our lives .
My thanks go out to all the exhibitors,committee members,helpers and sponsors for making our day day and everyones day very special.Best wishes from Freddie and Wendy Wilson and all the best to all agricultural shows in 2008.

SKELTON SHOW DIARY 11/08/08

2008-08-11T09:13:00.002Z

Hello again - final diary of my week which should have been done over the weekend but never had a minute sorry! Big discussion of yesterday is do we carry on and hope the filed will dry up or do we have to cancel again! Went to Lowther on Saturday and felt really sorry for them - what a state the field was in - mind you my BMWX3 came into it's own and performed well on the mud. No surprise they had to cancel yesterday - however we are only a one day event so providing we are careful setting up decided to carry on.

Slightly heartened by the weeks forecast on Countryfile yesterday - providing we miss the heaviest of the rain over next few days looking set fair towards the weekend.

Went to the field first thing this morning to mark out tents and tell Brian from North Cumbria Marquees what goes where as he has just taken over this business. Whilst there are some wet areas, field in remarkable condition. We also have the advantage of two hardcore roads which we installed many years ago which help - Brian under strict instructions to stay on the these roads!!

Meeting with Head Stewards to mark the field out tonight - my plan will be to cordon off main thoroughfares and give ground as much time as possible to dry out. Friday is the critical day when trade stands start to arrive - we will need to try and get them on using routes away from where people will work on Saturday - fingers crossed we can do that without making too much mess.

Other issue could be attendance by farmers who need to get the harvest in if it is dry at the weekend but again not sufficient reason to cancel.

So as things stand as of Monday morning THE SHOW WILL GO ON. Full details of what you can see is on our website www.skeltonshow.com We look forward to welcoming friends old and new on Saturday. Come and enjoy a great day out in a beautiful setting of the Old Park Huton in the Forset on B5305 three miles north west of the M6 Jun 41.

So ends my weeks diary - hopefully you have found it interesting, shame nobody choose to get a debate going, can't really believe you're so shy - maybe another time?

Regards

John

John Slee
Deputy Director
Skelton Show

SKELTON SHOW DIARY 08/08/08

2008-08-08T12:24:00.002Z

Well today is a notable date 08/08/08 and just caught sight of the Olympic games opening ceremony on the plasma screen in our business centre reception - very impressive don't think we will quite match it at Skelton but at least the air will be clear and pure!

So what have I been up to in the last 24 hours - managed to get the Rural craft list done last night then had a bit of family time and watched the latest Die Hard film - don't you just love Bruce Willis - total escapism and much needed after the week I've had. Also caught up with family news including the trip to the vet my wife had with our three new kittens who are growing rapidly and into everything - fortunately not my filed layout plan though!

Up again early this morning, after a quick dip in our pool, it was off to the printers to change the layout plan as we need to relocate one of our toilet units near to the church such that it can be wired into the permanent electricity supply - hot and cold running water - no expense spared at Skelton - but only in the unit by the church wall - a bit of insider information for you surfers.

Then onto North Lakes and Southwaite services to leave some flyer's before starting work. Also called for some road marking paint as we're going to try and avoid setting the trade stands out with string this year due to health & safetyt concerns. New man looking after this importnat job this year. Just been round to Lloyd Motors to discuss siting of BMW stand and collect an outstanding cheque then left some more flyer's at Houghton Hall Garden Centre where a very astute gentlemen ceased the moment to extract a free ticket from me - he'll go far.

Forecast on radio terrible for tomorrow which is a shame for Lowther but hopefully it will get rained out and start to dry up next week - hope so as our field needs a few dry days. Might be able to have a night off tonight as some old friends coming for a meal and I feel well organised - just got to number the plan and prepare the cards before we start setting out on Monday night.

Time to get back to work - still no comments from anybody -maybe tomorrow?

John
Deputy Director

SKELTON SHOW DEPUTY DIRECTOR JOHN SLEE DAILY REPORT

2008-08-07T12:18:00.003Z

Hello again - presume someone is reading my ramblings but still no comments, surely it's not that boring!!!- come on don't be shy let's get some debate going.

Well, I had a long but good but long night and got my head down and completed the layout plan for the 112 tradestands which we have this year - really pleased with the response, a good wide variety of stands including major agricultural suppliers and service providers (posh name for accountants and land agents), garages, home and garden products and childrens amusements. So plenty to do and see besides the main attractions and judging of classes. Eventually got to bed at 11.30pm

Antonia tells me livestock entries pretty good although we never do as well as shows earlier in the season because of movement restrictions - maybe we should move to the week before the Cumberland - now that should spark some response!!

Spoke to show Chairman and Director (both Davids) about field layout and new attempts to make both entrances more attractive - not telling you what we are up to though you'll have to come and see - don't forget discounted tickets still available from website www.skletonshow.com

So whats on today - dropped off some old photos of the show with my son who works for Cumbrian Newspapers who are providing marketing support - he wants to use them in their advert in the show programme. Also expecting June Bell to finalise full page feature in Farmer next Friday and let me have a look at the proof. In the meantime still doing the day job running a multi million pound business for Capita.

Need to ask William Pearson our brilliant web master to close down online applications for trade stands as now layout done I'm not going to start trying to fit in last minute applications - not fair on those who have bothered to apply on time and a right pain at a time when loads still to do.

Think I'll have a quieter night, know doubt be a few emails to reply to and may think about getting lists together for Rural crafts tent.

Come on then all you surfers - let's have your views, comments and thoughts?

Regards

John

SKELTON SHOW DEPUTY DIRECTOR JOHN SLEE UPDATES PREPARATION FOR 2008 SHOW

2008-08-06T11:29:00.002Z

Hopefully I've got the technology sorted as my last two comments repeated themselves - don't you love technology which is great when it works but oh so frustrating when it doesn't - talking of which my home PC is creaking a bit - hope it lasts out till after the show as more and more people using email to contact me and we become so dependant on our PC.

Just grabbed a few moments over lunch to add today's thoughts - as I look out of office window at Kingmoor Park Carlisle it is pouring down again. I do hope that it will stop raining and give us a dry week to set up the show next week. Also the field could do with drying out - whilst we have a couple of hardcore roads which provide good access across the field it can be wet under foot. So those of you with devine intervention get the pray mats out please!

So what have I been up to today - started the morning at 6.30am with a relaxing swim which always helps calm the nerves, then to the printers at 8am to finalise show guide which is looking good. We are very grateful to the NFU who have sponsored this years guide which is given out free to each family who attend the show and contains a plan of the field, programme of events and details of the wide variety of things to do and see. Also gave Reeds updated sponsor lists and some more adverts for the catalogue.

Then it was off to work via Penrith town centre to ensure our banner has been erected - looking good and via our treasurer Bev to drop some cheques off to help the cashflow next week. Having prepared the drawing board to start working up the trade stand layout on Monday evening haven't achieved much. Enjoyed a bit of family time with my daugther and partner last night - they've just got engaged so much talk about future wedding in 2010. Looking forward to doing the proud father bit but not the bill that will follow.

So most get home a reasonable time to get on with the layout as trying to get finished by the weekend so that I can have at least one day at Lowther. Haven't caught up with our secretary Antonia to see how entries are - she took off to see Mama Mia last night - we believe in a work life balance at Skelton!

Finally whilst I'm happy to rabbit on each day which I hope readers find interesting, the purpose of a blogg is to get some dialogue going so please let me know what you think about our show - is there anything you like to see? anything we could do better? what do you think of our web site etc.

Regards

John

Skelton Show Preperations

2008-08-05T08:19:00.000Z

With less than a fortnight to go before the show on Saturday 16 August things are really hotting up. Having had to cancel three shows so far this century we are determined this show will go ahead and be a good one – hopefully it will as well supported as the Cumberland and Penrith.

Entries close tomorrow so last minute reminder to anyone who is still undecided – come on give us your support. Spent the weekend chasing the usual few people who always bring a trade stand but never get the forms in on time. Whilst Trade strand entries have officially closed, if anyone is desperate apply and pay on line NOW by going to trade stand page on website www.skeltonshow.com Been really pleased how many people have applied online this year. Have well over 100 trade stands as well as 30 rural crafts.

You can also buy discounted admission tickets on line saying 50p per person on gate price.

Was up early this morning to see printers and drop off revisions required to field plan and draft show guide. Had to accommodate new Fur and feathers tent as well as other minor revisions. Also finalising advertising feature in Farmer supplement of Cumberland News the day before the show. Then a full day at work and back to start trade strand layout plan – no rest for the wicked but it’s great!

SKELTON SHOW DEPUTY DIRECTOR JOHN SLEE

2008-08-05T07:53:00.002Z

With less than two weeks to go the committee are springing into action to make sure this years show is a cracker. Just been finalising an advertising feature which will appear in the Farmer supplement of the Cumberland News the day before the show, it's great the way our trade exhibitors want to advertise and be associated with our show. This year we have over 100 tradestands as well as a large foodhall and rural crafts tent.

Today is an importnat day as enties close - so if you are sitting on the fence deciding whether to enter or not can I encourage you to fill in the form. Our schedule is available on the classes page of our website www.skeltonshow.com

Must dash - more later

John

2008-07-26T09:32:00.002Z

Oh dear, didn’t get the blog written on Friday, ran out of time!
Friday 25th July 2008
Had a chat with Alan Irving, the chairman, about a few outstanding issues, including plans for next year already. I always give gift tokens to the team who help me all day in the secretary’s office at the show. Cath, Julia and Rachel are totally invaluable. They turn up at 7.30am and keep going on results, general sorting out and fending off the enquiries when I am doing other things, all day until at least 4pm. This year I don’t think they even had a break to look round the show like they normally do. So I went to Carlisle to buy vouchers, and to get a glimpse of the sunshine we have missed all week. Had a voucher of my own to use up, from my birthday back in February (I don’t go shopping very much), so it was a good opportunity to obtain some bargains!

Back to Brampton to meet my mother, who I have neglected for the last few weeks. We had lunch at Gelt House, one of the farms that hosted schools for our Year of Food and Farming project. As we left there I had a phone message from Margaret of Penrith show, panicking that she didn’t have radios, having forgotten they were supposed to be collected from the NFU at Rosehill. I hope she obtained them in time. Alan Irving had left a set of photos of the show at the vet's for me so I collected them, then came home via the Gilsland post office. I picked up the Cumberland News there and we were all looking at the pictures together, with Elsie and Tom asking how the show had gone. They had also seen me on Border TV, the only people to have mentioned it. Another project I need to catch up with is the Save Gilsland Post Office campaign, having been too busy with the show to get involved and now we only have two weeks left. Georgia from the village has been masterminding the campaign so I need to find out from her how I can get involved at this late stage. Back home, and the sun was out at last. The dogs had a quick walk and then we set off to Theatre by the Lake, and a meal beforehand. One of our shared interests is the theatre and we try to see several of the summer season plays at Keswick each year.

Saturday 26th July 2008
I’m, quite excited by the prospect of a whole weekend where I will not have to work on show things, the first time since early June. The garden is in a terrible state, the worst ever. A combination I think of bad weather and lack of time. I will tackle some bits of it today. Tonight we are heading down to Garstang with Ian and Sue Powley for a NW region Year of Food and Farming thank you celebration. There is a crowd from Westmorland Show going too, so we can catch up with Christine and a few others there. Sunday we will go for a walk on the fells, which we like to do most weekends but other commitments often get in the way.

It will take at least the next four weeks to finish off this year’s show, paying bills, paying in cheques, hundreds of thank you letters. I’ve already had lots of calls and emails about the date for next year’s show and in some places the date has to be confirmed soon. Early in August I will be inviting judges for the 2009 horse section, and I know that Nick Utting usually books next year’s main entertainment feature in August too. I take a holiday, and then mid September we start all over again with planning meetings for next year’s show.

2008-07-24T20:23:00.000Z

Thursday 24th July 2008

Last night’s inquest meeting was much better than anticipated. Almost unanimously it was declared a highly successful show with few problems. We have had some really good feedback – best Cumberland Show ever, best livestock show this year, a real agricultural event –and a really impressive article in the Carlisle News and Star on Monday night. No-one mentioned the Border TV report on Monday so I don’t know if that happened or was any good. They have promised to send me a copy. We have also had some great photographs taken, so I am looking forward to seeing those.

After the usual morning exercise and feeding routines, there is a flurry of emails and phone calls before I get started on the list. 10.30am and I haven’t ticked anything off yet! The VAT return is due by next Thursday, and of course the accounts are not up to date. It usually takes a least a day to do the June quarter accounts and VAT return, but I’ve decided to take a risk and leave it till Monday. I’ve checked with Brian the treasurer that he’ll be around to counter sign a cheque if needed. That buys me a bit of time because I really think it’s important to thank the judges very soon after the show. We have a great computer system called Show Manager, where everything is recorded, and at the touch of a button I have the fifty judge thank you letters. Just a couple of individual ones to do, and then that job is finished. I make a start on thanking the major sponsors, which is more time consuming as each one is individual. Again I think it is important to do straight after the show. As expected I have a few things to add to the list after last night’s meeting, but won’t worry about those till next week.

As I’ve got to go to the post box with the letters I decided to reduce the huge pile of cheques a little by taking another 70 to the bank to pay in. I think the pile is getting smaller, but not much because the dog show and industrial section cheques have been added to it, just another few hundred. I take the opportunity to do a bit of essential shopping, an advantage of working from home in my own time, and when I get back the weekly organic fruit and vegetables have been delivered. I hardly ever go to a supermarket now with the vegetable box scheme, and organic meat deliveries from Askerton Castle, everything comes to me. After taking the dogs for a walk I have a little spare time to pick raspberries and blackcurrants in the garden. At least I’ve made a start now.

It’s the Thursday night swim with friends, then back for a simple meal with Steve, who has finished his travelling this week after going to Glasgow today. I really should be catching up with some of my other commitments, but not sure if once again I will have the time or energy. I am treasurer of the choir and the finances have not been sorted out since a busy time we had in June, buying a new uniform, doing our own concerts and taking part in a concert at Theatre by the Lake. We have a social night coming up, and I am sure the choir members will want to know if we made any profit on our concerts. I have to very organised here with different ‘pots’ and boxes as I am also treasurer for the calligraphy group I belong to, Eden Valley Scribes. At any time I have cash, cheque books and paying in books for the Scribes, the choir and the show, and obviously our own personal ones too. I don’t often get muddled!

2008-07-23T16:46:00.001Z

WEDNESDAY 23RD JULY 2008

Another grey drizzly start to the day. I am beginning to feel resentful that everywhere else has fine sunny weather except us here, apparently between Brampton and Haltwhistle.

On the daily morning jog I was pleased to see a wheatear again. I usually see them on summer mornings, but they have been missing this year. Then I saw a stonechat bullying the wheatear, perhaps that’s why. I like fine mornings in May best, when the fields are alive with the calls of nesting curlew, the skylarks are singing and the swallows have arrived back.

The phone has at last become much quieter, and I made progress on the list today. I had to spend half an hour sorting out boxes of things brought back from the show as I was getting fed up with not being able to find items. Some missing things were found, but still no poultry results. Nick Utting called and we decided it was age making us feel so tired after the show. I was pleased I’m not the only one. Neighbour Gill, wife of Mike the Gilsland Show secretary, called in with their daughter Elizabeth. She was delivering something to Steve, but we had a general chat about shows. I do a few voluntary things and she reminded me it was time to read the Squeak. Gill is manager of the local regeneration project and The Squeak is a community magazine. I go in to the office and read The Squeak onto tape, for blind people in the area.

I got through the results for most of the horse societies, and had a few emails and phone calls to return. Once again the morning was gone. A few years ago we were given a grant for radios to aid communications at the show, providing we shared them with other shows. Each year I write to the other shows offering the radios, and a few other pieces of equipment. Now our show is over it was necessary to compile a list of the shows, as the NFU office in Rosehill keeps the radios during the summer for shows to collect. I prepared cheques for just a few of the bills to be paid, so that Brian the treasurer can counter sign them tonight. As we have a show meeting tonight I finished early and treated the dogs to a walk at Gilsland Spa, in the Irthing Gorge Woods.

I sing in Brampton Players Choir, and Wednesday is normally choir night, but we don’t meet in the school summer holidays. We have such a good time at choir that the Cumberland Show Inquest meeting is a very poor substitute. I am not looking forward to the meeting at all as, no matter how good a show we have had, the meeting just dwells on the problems. I come away with a huge list of things that were wrong, and it is so demoralising just 4 days after the show. I know that everyone would forget if we left it longer, but that is no consolation. People have been saying it seemed a bigger attendance than ever before, and everything worked very successfully with great stock on show. I just have to concentrate on that to get through the meeting tonight.

2008-07-22T18:23:00.002Z

TUESDAY 22nd JULY 2008

I take back what I said about summer here at last. Another grey drizzly day here, although it has brightened up for the afternoon.

I must have started feeling a bit better today as I’ve made a list. Yesterday I couldn’t see far enough to decide what should be on a list. I even started having ideas about how to solve some of the problems we had at this year’s show. I can’t stand not having a plan of action for things. Even if it might turn out to be the wrong action, I like to have a plan for resolving things.

During the morning it was once again a constant flow of telephone calls and emails about results, equipment and problems. The results were not very well co-ordinated from the different sections of the show and I had to chase the dog, industrial, poultry and showjumping section results, only to find I had the showjumping results all the time here in my results box. I think the only one missing now is poultry, which I saw on Saturday, but which has now disappeared. Christine, the industrial section chairman called and we had a chat about how things had gone on Saturday. She was on Radio Cumbria to give prizes to some of the presenters who had entered the industrial section, so I listened to that. Pam, the food hall co-ordinator called in whilst returning some ‘pop up’ gazebos to Greenhead village hall, from where we had hired them. The food hall had been a great success and several producers sold out.

Once again that was the morning gone, with not much being ticked off my list. I had a quick lunch (Steve is away playing golf today), then tackled one of the jobs I hate. I have to get results back to some of the pony/horse societies within 7 days. It’s always a struggle to find the correct bits, track down missing results and fill in their forms, especially as, not being a horse person, I can’t understand the terminology sometimes. Last year I just sent our own results sheets off and no-one complained so that’s what I am doing this year too. I managed two of the societies fairly painlessly, but it still took an hour and a half. Several more to go yet.

I took the dogs for their afternoon walk a bit early, then set off to Toppin Castle, the chairman’s home. I had to collect fire extinguishers and radios, borrowed from Westmorland Show, as Steve has agreed to deliver them back for us tomorrow. Whilst there we put the show to rights again, with Janette, Alan’s wife, and his father. Back home at 6pm and that’s another day finished. I must make more progress on that list tomorrow.

One of my summertime ‘treats’ is to listen to the nightly prom concerts, which conveniently start as the show is over. I listen to anything I know well and like (William Tell Overture and Haydn Cello Concerto tonight), and other nights start listening to music I don’t know until I decide I am not that keen on it. I’ve discovered many new (to me) pieces of music that way. I often listen while pottering about doing other things such as baking or jam making (such an exciting life I lead!). Haven’t picked the fruit from the garden yet so it will not be jam making tonight.

Donella Rozario - Cumberland Show secretary

2008-07-21T20:06:00.003Z

My name is Donella Rozario and I am the secretary of Cumberland Show. I live near Gilsland, just on the border of Cumbria and Northumberland, with husband Steve. We have been there for nearly 20 years. We do not farm but have donkeys and hens along with our dogs and cats. I have been secretary since late 2002 and have just completed my 6th show at Rickerby Park.

MONDAY 21st JULY 2008
When I woke this morning I looked out on the blue sky that I had hoped for on Saturday, the 171st Cumberland County Show, in Rickerby Park. It seems summer might finally have arrived.

But it’s no use grumbling about what could have been, we had a highly successful show in mainly dry weather. Numbers through the gate were not as high as hoped for presumably due to weather in surrounding places. But everyone who came seemed happy, and we had a great display of livestock again. As usual I was completely exhausted and looking forward to a day off on Sunday. But just after 9am came a call from the Cumberland News protesting that I had not yet sent the results through by email as promised. So I wearily did that and put them on the website too, hoping that it might stop a few more phone calls. I felt guilty as usual though, knowing that we had a team of equally tired people down at Rickerby Park dismantling everything. I managed the rest of the day off socialising with friends who had come all the way from Suffolk for our show.

Back to this morning, when I slept in a little later than I have for the past few weeks, and 6.15 felt really late to be getting up. I set off for my usual ‘run’ (slow jog!) with Maisie the young dog, dodging the cattle on our track, and coming back to feed the hens and have a little chat to the donkeys over their carrots. I then remembered that today is closing date for entries to our village show, Gilsland, and had to jump into the car to deliver the entries that had been sitting on the table since last Wednesday. Fortunately one of our neighbours, Mike, has just taken over as secretary and it wasn’t too far to go. I was secretary of that show for 11 years, and still stay involved. I have done to Mike exactly what I hate everyone doing to me - leaving entries to the last day.

Over the last 5 years I’ve discovered that it’s no use trying to get anything important done on the Monday after the show. The phone doesn’t ring much less than it did last week, and there are so many little loose ends to sort out. And that’s indeed how the day went, answering the phone and emails about results, lost items, return of equipment, return of banners, with a few bills arriving already and fortunately a few really good comments about the show. By 3pm I still hadn’t emptied the car of all the bits that had been thrown in there before leaving Rickerby Park on Saturday night. So I spent an hour doing that and stacking things away in sheds and the spare room until I have time to sort it all properly. So once again I made no progress on the pile of cheques, cash, notes and results lying about the office – there is always tomorrow.

I took the dogs for their afternoon walk across the fell, fed them and went off for my Monday night swim with two friends. Back and much more relaxed, I shared the cooking with Steve, for a fairly late evening meal. No chance yet for all the things I have promised myself when I get some free time back - but as I said there is always tomorrow.

Last thoughts from the marketeer

2008-07-21T10:26:00.003Z

Well what a week to do a blog!

Seems to me when I read it back that I have had a very food related week.
Most weeks I don't have that much to do with farming, but as it is show season and because I am trying to get lots of coverage for Natures Nest Eggs (you know, the ethical eggs produced by David and Helen Brass), I have had more than normal.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, David Brass is in the final of the Poultry Farmer of the Year - it is part of the Farmers Weekly Awards which takes place in London in October. I was chatting to Chrissie Lawrence who has the Farmers Weekly Livestock Blog and she said the competition in the Poultry section was the strongest it has been since the awards began 4 years ago. What a pitty I didn't enter David when there was less competition, but then again, can you imagine winning when the competition is so tough. Its like winning at a Royal Show rather than a local show.

It was Carlisle (Cumberland Show) on Saturday and a very happy Kevin Watret from the Solway British Blue herd took his third best on field with Broomfield Vivien - the cow that won at Northumberland and at The Royal Highland Show. I spoke to Kevin on Saturday night and he was very chuffed at winning - he also took a Simmental and won Champion with that, so it goes to prove that a good eye for stock transcends breeds.

I know Vivien is going to Penrith Show on Saturday, I will be there too, it is one of the best shows as I said, and as the weather is supposed to be good this week, there will be a lot of crop gathered so hopefully a lot of farmers at the show too.

The phone is now hotting up for Monday morning and I have just had a journalist on the phone about Eden Housing Association winning the opportunity to build 60 extra care homes in Carlisle - I do a lot whit Eden Housing Association and it is very gratifying to see the journalists ringing for a story. I mixed farming with housing las tweek and have put an ad in the Penrith Show programme (inside front cover), looking for land to build affordable homes in rural communities - so if you know of anyone with a small parcel of land, let me know or visit the Eden Housing Association website.

I have decided the time has come for me to get my own website sorted and my own blog too. I was talking to Chrissie Lawrence at Farmers Weekly about this and she said her current hot topic is the launch of the new commercial cross bred cattle society - have a search in this blog link and see what you think.

Well, that seems to be it from me. I've had fun writing this and hopefully someone will have enjoyed reading it. Feel free to comment or get in touch to tell me what you think. My email address is tracey@marketsense.net

I'd just like to say thanks to Steve Pattinson for persuading me to do this and hope that if he asks any of you, do have a go - its a great way to get things off your chest.

Happy summer and good luck for the livestock sales in the autumn.

Tracey

There's something special about showing livestock

2008-07-18T13:35:00.004Z

Well, with the Cumberland Show taking place tomorrow it is a good time to think about all the times I have been to a show with my Dad, the landrover, trailer and several black and white beasties.

I can't remember going to a show as a child just as a spectator. Our first venture was to Cockermouth Show when it was at Greenlands, just opposite our road end. One year we took about 12 cattle and went down the day before to build a temporary show shed using telegraph poles and silage tarpaulins. We won most points on the show field as well as breed champion and interbreed so it was a hell of a day rarely repeated.

We once had a farm sale back in 1981 and to promote it Dad decided to spend 'promotional money' on showing and meeting breeders rather than advertising. What a summer we had, we showed at the Highland and at the Royal (when it was a really good stage for dairy cattle). We also went the the Scottish Winter fair( now no longer) and won that. We had a great celebration in the cattle lines and I remember the fun we had with the infamous Logan breeders from Sterling. John, Hamish and Kenny were all very good company and it was very sad to hear that Hamish died after winning in Scotland some years later.

I can honestly say you don't get any better hospitality than in Scotland and I have very fond memories of showing there.

My Dad has very fond memories of me helping him prepare Leicester Tups for Cockermouth Show one year. Our flock mark was 2 red dots on the back, so when as a three year old, Dad had dipped his prize tups, I naturally decided to help and daubed each with a large dollop of red paint - needless to say, the sheep changed colour and so did Dads face! They never made it to the show so we will never know if they would have been covered in red rosettes on the day!

One of my favourite tricks at shows was to make a cup of coffee and squirt 'fresh from the cow' milk into my cup - the best frothy coffee in the country, I especially liked doing it when Joe Public were around - they were often disgusted and didn't realise that's where milk came from. I think today kids do know rather more and our food education system is much better.

My favourite show has to be Penrith, not because I can walk there, but because you see some of the best livestock in the country. The show is next weekend and I know there will be a brilliant turn out of British Blues, I am expecting to see Kevin Watret with his Highland Show winning cow and a few more local breeders too. The show is terrific and after last years fun and games with foot and mouth lets hope this season is better.

What a great job I have

2008-07-17T17:57:00.002Z

Well yesterday I had a networking lunch with the Rural Business Women and today it was another lunch courtesy of Lake District Life. The event was held at the Punch Bowl at Crosthwaite near Kendal. I forgot how big these do's are. You arrive for champagne and canapes then are treated to a beautifully prepared meal of potted shrimps (they were on the telly last night) and slow roast belly pork for main course. It was delightful and as part of it, I gained a few new ideas for Lake District Hotels who are one of my clients. My client also enjoyed the afternoon so well done Lake District Life.

I do know they will be on the phone to follow up, but it was worth it! And to make things even better, one of the top three dog magazines in the UK will be featuring my press release! How wonderful and a great track record for my press releases in July: Horse and Hound last week, Poultry and Pig Marketing this week and Dogs Today next week.

Happy Birthday Dad - my pops celebrates a birthday today, but he wont thank me for telling you how old he is. He has never been happier, messing about with a dozen British Blues, far too many Texels and a suckler herd. What is it about Texels that is so appealing, they always need something doing to their feet and they are very stupid and heavy.

I'm in a bit of a rush tonight, got to get to Mum and Dads for supper - how do I tell them I cant fit another thing in!

Dad had a couple of fat cast cows in the auction the other day, I think they did very well, making over £1000 is pretty good - but if you ask a farmer how his trade was, it is never rarely more than fair (meaning very good). It puts a whole new meaning to fair trade I think, and the third world countries better watch out.

With the rising cost of fuel, fertiliser and feed, I am sure our farmers will be needing rather more than a fair trade this autumn and winter - and I am sure the supermarkets wont be that generous with their suppliers on price - but will pass it on to consumers!

Now normally I would be quite witty but tonight I am so tired that I have to cut it short. Once driven to Cockermouth and eaten another meal I am planning a really early night before I visit a saw mill in Maryport - a very switched on guy has just bought it and is doubling capacity to cope with the extra demand built up from the markting campaign I am about to do - No pressure there then. Perhaps I can talk more about this tomorrow as he may not appreciate the cat let out of the bag too soon.

Anyway, goodnight for today and see you tomorrow.

Tracey

Am I getting old or are tractor drivers getting younger

2008-07-17T00:11:00.003Z

Well they say you know when you are aging when the policemen look young, but I was walking through Penrith the other day and a young lad was driving an enormous tractor and trailer through town, bigger than many lorries that you need a class II licence for!

It got me thinking, when I was a lass I drove a rickety old fergie and haybob up the road no problem and I never had to take a test to see if I understood signs and the highway code. Things have moved on a lot since then I know,but the tractors today are more than twice the size of my little fergie!

I used to work on the farm at home, but tractor driving wasn't my strongest point. I remember several years of anguish at silage time, trying to row grass in a straight line to avoid the wrath of the man on the forager - and hills, well it wasn't until I was in a car that I understood the reasons for changing down a gear. No one explained it properly, its a man thing, they just expect you to be able to know from the purr of the engine! Many a time I would aim the tractor down the one big hill in the field and be ready to press the clutch and brake rather than knock down a gear.

If I were to get in a tractor today I wouldn't know where to start - that is unless it is scraping out time - I assume everyone still has a small tractor to nip in and out of the cubicles..... or has everyone got automatic scrapers and slats these days.

There's one job that has never changed since the day I left the farm, scraping out and swilling the parlour, although I have to say now my brother has the farm and the swilling to do himself, the job seems more automated and easier. When David took over at Annfield he widened the passage in the cubicles to make it easier for his wife to scrape out .... oh I wish they had done that when I was still working there - but at least I got to grips with how to turn in a tight corner.

I still enjoy getting my hands dirty and still like to look at a good udder as it wanders in for some udder relief in the parlour, so I occasionally pop up to my brothers for a quick fix of unit putting on - again it seems so much easier than when I did it every day - the units are at the right height and my brothers cows do not sh*t in the parlour.

My day has been a bit odd today, I have spoken to the Jobcentre (about a press release) and tracked down the writer for Pig and Poultry magazine. I have chatted to the Mayor of Carlisle and the entrepreneurial lady that took over Arragons cycle shop in Penrith. I met a lady who produces environmentally friendly nappies (if there is such a thing!) and spoke to a Raikke master at a business lunch.

If you have ever done any networking events you will know how tiring they are - you have to be positive and bright and enthusiastic to every single person you talk to about your business and theirs - it gets a bit repetative after 15 times, but you still have to maintain the passion! Thoroughly jiggered and with no voice I took Murphy (dog) up to a friends farm for an energetic burn off (him not me) and then played jigsaws with monsters with three lovely little boys (a friends not mine).

At the end of the day I was left with no voice, no energy and ready for an early night. Did I get one? No, fell asleep on the sofa and woke up in time to do a spell on here.

They say buses come in twos - so do business lunches - I had one today and I have another at the Punch Bowl at Crossthwaite tomorrow, then its a drive over to Cockermouth for supper with Mum and Dad (its his birthday). It seems I'm destined not to lose weight this week - and I haven't worn my pedometer for two weeks 'cos I know what it will say.

Anyway, off to bed now and will be thinking about weddings - not mine, but another client who has 6 hotels. Honesty, one day dogs, another eggs and job centres and then another on weddings and bull semen websites - I think I have the most varied job in the county!

lets just hope I don't dream I was in a meeting and agreed something with a client - it has been known and you feel a real chump when you tell them you were dreaming about them last night!

Sweet dreams.

Tracey

How do you know where to stand when moving stock?

2008-07-15T18:49:00.006Z

Ever since I could walk I was out on the farm with my Dad. I have pictures of me and my brother learning to milk a cow by hand and have always been contented around stock. But when it comes to moving them things are sometimes taken for granted.

You have to stand in the right place - something we do, naturally. But I have seen first hand a number of people who just don't know where to stand - take my wonderful Mum for example. She wasn't born a farmers daughter but has spent over 40 years working with stock so you would think that she would know by now where to stand.

We all love her dearly, and also know that her pet hate is moving stock because she doesn't naturally know where to stand. "Forward a bit, no, not so fast, back, back, right a bit STOP." The best place for Mum is static and turning them up the road- we stand her there and it usually works. I love moving stock, the anticipation of something going wrong or having to make a quick adjustment half way through, but for Mum, it is pure trepidation!

So are we bred to know where to stand? We once had an Irish agricultural student for a few months, and he was rather like Mum in that he had to be told where to stand - I recall moving stock out of my favourite field one day and he was too far over. Dad shouted left hand down, left hand down (meaning go left) and the next thing we saw was this poor boy running as fast as he could in the wrong direction with his left hand down as close to the ground as possible!!!! Funny now, but not at the time with fleeing cattle and a lot more running required.

So what have I been busy with today? Well funnily enough I was planning to catch up with Jennifer McKenzie when I received an email from the very same! Networking is a great thing, and even better when you can do something mutually beneficial. Working with journalists is something I do on a daily basis, either finding out what stories they are planning to run in the coming months or trying to get them interested in a story I have from one of my clients.

Media works so wonderfully when PR consultants and Journalists both have something the other needs!

I was later chatting to the Editor of Poultry World about another of my clients who is incidentally nominated for Poultry Farmer of the Year with Farmers Weekly. I have been working with David Brass from Lakes Free Range Egg Co. Ltd to create a brand of ethical free range eggs and get them to market. We launched them in over 150 Morrison's stores a few weeks ago and they are doing very well. The brand is called Natures Nest Eggs and really encapsulates the environmental and animal welfare issues that David and his wife Helen have stood for over the last 20 years or so.

One of the nicest things about working with the Brass family is the enthusiasm of the whole family - including their two sets of twin daughters! I have attached a picture of the family and the egg packaging here. I took the picture on the only hot evening we had this summer so far and managed to avoid the bird poop whilst lying flat on the ground waiting for the hens to come back. Fingers crossed for David and Helen at the Awards which are in October.

Last year the Farmers Weekly Awards were very successful for another of my clients (Norbreck Genetics) - Philip Halhead won Young Farmer of the Year - so I am hoping to do the double!

Well, better shoot, I could say the dog needs a walk but that's done. And my dog press release is also done - now I am going to finish another press release about the unemployed receiving training to get their Class II and Class I lorry driving certificates - what variety!

Speak again tomorrow when I want to ask you about lads of 16 driving huge tractors on the roads!

Bye for now.
Tracey

Hello! There's a new pen on the Pentalk page

2008-07-14T16:43:00.004Z

Well today is my first day as a blogger on Pentalk and I'm sitting here wondering what to write. An introduction is a good place to start so hello, my names Tracey and for those of you who don't know me, I'm a farmers lass who used to work at home on our mixed dairy, beef and sheep farm in West Cumbria. I went away to Uni and lived in the metropolis of Manchester for a few years before the hefting instinct kicked in and I moved back to Penrith.
Having worked in marketing for over 20 years I now have my own business and, not surprisingly, I have one or two farming related clients.

My Dad has always been keen on Belgian (now British) Blues and way back in the early 70's it was a toss up between starting a herd of them or pedigree Friesians. Personally I'm pleased he chose dairy as I enjoyed milking and loved judging - especially at the Royal Show; when I left home I adopted the nearest Club so can boast that I judged Friesians and Holsteins for three different clubs.

Are farmers genetically bred to spot a good cow?
I used to do quite well with dairy, but would never have thought that spotting the right animal would translate into beef breeds or sheep come to that, but it seems that you can spot a gud'n if you have an eye. It must be true as I have seen many fellow dairy breeders around texal sheep rings, the limi's and Blues too. Now I'm not saying I'm that good a judge, but when I first saw Dad's British Blue's, I could tell which was the best looking (usually the worst to get in calf!). And so my re-introduction to the breed today.

As a Marketing and Communications Consultant I now have two British Blue Clients, Philip Halhead from Norbreck Genetics www.norbreckgenetics.com was one of the first clients that I signed up on a regular basis - so I will always have a soft spot for this dynamic young company. The other Blue Client is Kevin Watret who many in the Borders area will know. He is the brightest spark of an Electrician I know and has a great eye for developing his young herd of Solway View British Blues (www.solwayviewbritishblues.co.uk). It was great to see him do so well with his first ever home bred bull Solway View Antonio, and this year he went several steps better and won the Royal Highland Show with his star brood cow Broomfield Vivien. Hard to beat that success rate so I guess Kevin will be looking to win the Royal with his own bred cow next year!

What a varied life I lead
I am lucky to work on such a range of clients. This morning I was writing about dogs staying in hotels before I went to the BBC Radio Cumbria studio to do a live broadcast on Women in Business - it makes me sound very important, but it is all about networking - something Pentalk must know something about! I had lunch in the Priory at the cathedral in Carlisle, very wholesome and a great cup of coffee. My fellow guests from the radio and I then had a look in the cathedral- the first time I have done so. It is quite impressive - having visited Notre Damme at the beginning of June, I can say, for our l'al city it does stand proud. I'm not terribly religious, but you do get a sense of calm when inside - tell that to an angry and tired farmer - can you imagine - kicking wellies off at the door and wandering in for a quick look!

Well, need to walk my dog (Murphy black lab) and finish my doggy press release. Did you know that there are 7.4 million dogs in the UK - 75% are pedigree and the biggest breed is the Lab (0.6M) followed by the collie. Did you also know that 34% of people get their pets from rescue centres - that's a lot of abandoned pets!

Well, I can natter on all night, but as a starter for ten at least you know who I am.

Still to come:
Do born and bred farmers have the innate ability to stand in the right place when moving cattle?
Driving a tractor at 16 - has it changed since my day?
Does fair trade relate to the 3rd world or the auction?
Showing cattle and the best frothy coffee you can get.

If you have any ideas of what you would like a birds eye view of, drop me a line and let me know.

catch you soon.

Tracey

2008-06-13T18:29:00.002Z

Hello for the last time! It's been an interesting week all round for me, and I've really enjoyed writing for this blog - and thanks for listening!
Today has been as busy as any other this week. My whole day was taken with my Barrow project again, apart from the bit where I handed in my resignation! I gave my months notice and I start my new job at Capita Symonds on July 14th. I will miss the people I have been working with but I am really looking forward to my new job. I know roughly what it will involve but as it's a completely new team I'm joining, the scope of what we will be doing is rather broad. Basically, my new role doesn't exist yet and from what I gather, we will almost be working out the details as we go along. All good fun though!
So, as I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to be a dad. Our baby is due on Christmas eve, which will make for a great Christmas present/very busy Christmas. I suppose it will make for a very expensive Christmas when the child gets old enough to work out that it's birthday and Christmas are at the same time!
One thing we will be doing asap is taking the little one out into the hills for some fresh Cumbrian air. Obviously we won't be making him/her walk, but using some sort of carrying device.
I have very early memories of being hauled up seemingly large mountains (they probably looked like the Himalayas to me at the time) with my Dad and two brothers.
My first big walk occured when I was six years old when we walked back from the south lakes to our house in Curthwaite. It took 3 days to do. Apparently (I can't remember,) I had my own back pack to carry with my own stuff in. From the stories my mum tells, I was literally asleep with my thumb in my mouth whilst walking at times.
I guess the point is that I have very early and enduring memories of experiencing the wonders of the great Cumbrian outdoors and I wish for my own children to have a similar experience.
It seems wrong to ignore such things if they are to grow up here, in the best part of the UK.
Well, thanks again for listening!
John

2008-06-12T19:27:00.002Z

Thursday evening! Only one more day of work until the weekend!
Its been a very busy day again today, I have been sat in front of my computer for nearly 9 hours today and I'm beginning to feel a bit, er, distant (see yesterdays blog about sometimes wishing for a more physical job.) It's not always like that though. We spend quite a bit of time going out and about around Cumbria attending outreach events where we can give energy efficiency advice face to face. On monday for example, I went to the market in Barrow-in-Furness and set up a table and gave advice to people passing by. You kind of have to entice them in before you can talk to them so we offer two free low energy lightbulbs or two reflective radiator panels if they come and fill out a commit card. Each has a list of actions you can take to help save energy at home, with an aim of each person saving 20% of the C02 emissions they produce in their home.
A lot of the advice we give is to do with home insulation measures. Ensuring you have a good amount of loft insulation (about 270mm/10.5 inches) and cavity wall insulation (if you have cavity walls) is the most effective way to reduce heat loss from your property. You can then use your heating less and save money. The average payback time for loft and cavity wall insulation is now about 1-2 years (it was about 3-4 but with fuel costs rising rapidly the timescale is coming down.) Properties that do not have cavity walls are a bit harder to treat, but it is still possible to insulate either internally with insulated plasterboard, or externally with renders containing insulating beads.
I've just realised I'm talking like I'm at work! Sorry about that.
On a totally unrelated note, my girlfriend and I recently found out that we are going to have a baby! So there is plenty to keep us busy at the moment. I should be doing things like moving furniture and painting bedrooms but can't yet because I'm not healed up well enough from my bike accident (see Mondays blog.) Actually I'm happy to be busy right now because it stops me thinking too much about being a dad when I can barely look after myself! Scary. Looking forward to it though.
I'll knock off now and get some sleep, and look forward to seeing you tomorrow for my final blog! Good night

2008-06-11T20:50:00.000Z

Wednesday evening already! Time flies when you’re having fun. Or when you’re so busy you can’t seem to remember going to sleep!
We had our usual Wednesday meeting first thing this morning, where we all tell each other what we are doing and how we are getting on with it (or where we are told how we are not getting on with it perhaps as well as we should!)
The Decent Homes project I am working on at the moment is keeping me extremely busy and on my toes. This is partly because I have never had my own project of such a size to work on before and I am checking and double checking everything and probably spending more time on things than I should. But it’s all good experience and will probably come in handy at some point.
Sometimes I do wish I had a job that involves more physical graft than mine does – I have had jobs in the past where I’ve had to do just that and found it very satisfying at the end of the day. Tiring, but feeling somehow that I’ve done something useful, achieved something. I spent a bit of time when I was younger working for a market garden near Wigton, where I basically spent all day filling huge saw horses with large pieces of wood to be cut up with a chainsaw, split into logs and loaded onto a trailer and delivered around and about. I loved that job but it was just a holiday job really.
I’m sure a lot of you reading this know about hard graft on a daily basis, more than many of us can imagine, but doing it because it’s your livelihood and a tough one at that. If you watch any television or read the papers at all it’s hard to ignore the ups and downs of British farming in recent years. From BSE to foot and mouth (which is one of the reasons this website exists, which is - dare I say it - possibly the only good thing to come out of the crisis,) and the many other factors that have affected British farms - all of these troubles have made headlines. If you add to this the sensational and often unhelpful way in which the media reports these things, I guess people can sometimes get the wrong idea about British farming (I’m speaking here as a non-farmer and as how someone in your average city may see things.) But really, in my opinion (of which I have many!) farming is essential to this country and has been for hundreds of years. We’ve been living for a while now in a culture where choice is very important, and a lot of the time people choose to buy products that were made thousands of miles away and imported here, when they could have chosen the same or an equally good product that was made in the UK – regardless of whether it’s something they really need in the first place! I’m guilty of it too, of course, but I am aware of the fact and do try to buy locally produced stuff where I can. My girlfriend and I have a veg box delivered each week that is mostly all local produce (apart from the bananas!) which tastes fantastic.
However, I shall dismount my soap-box for the second time and bid you good evening. See you tomorrow...

Tuesday 10th

2008-06-11T07:35:00.000Z

Hello again! How are you doing? Good. Well its 8pm Tuesday and I’ve just finished work! I’m sure many of you have to deal with such injustices regularly though, so I should stop moaning.... I’m working on a project at the moment to organise a survey of 435 homes in Barrow-in-Furness to determine whether they meet the governments’ basic definition of a ‘decent’ home i.e. whether it has ‘reasonably’ modern facilities and is in a ‘reasonable’ state of repair (you’d be surprised how many aren’t.) I had made up the questionnaires and printed half of them when I noticed a load of random numbers one of the pages, so I had to stop, remove the numbers and print them all again (don’t tell my boss though – paper and ink is expensive. ) Anyway I paid for it with some of my evening.
So yesterday I mentioned those two magic words ‘wind farms’! In my current job I don’t have much to do with the large scale wind farms you see more and more around the county (and the country). My new job, however, may see me involved in some way with wind farms and the electricity they produce. It seems you either love them or you hate them, don’t you think? It is a fact that Cumbria is one of the most beautiful parts of the UK. It is also a fact that because of its high ground and coastal areas (some of the things that make it beautiful) it is an area rich in natural resources. These two things cause a conflict. Should we (depending on your opinion) spoil the thing that makes Cumbria what it is in order to help protect its future?
Fossil fuels have a limit and will end one day in the not too distant future. They also harm the planet by contributing heavily to global warming. So we must have an alternative. For some, nuclear is an option as it can produce energy without producing lots of C02. But it has its dangers and the waste it produces is very difficult to deal with. Renewable energy on the other hand can provide clean and safe power for everyone whilst perhaps not totally free, at a lot lower cost in the long term.
In the case of wind energy and wind farms, especially in a place like Cumbria which has a large national park, the cost can come in the visual impact turbines have on the landscape. Though some people like the way they look and think they actually enhance the landscape, many people don’t and believe they spoil the nature of a place. Cumbria as a county relies heavily on tourism for its income and people travel from all over the world to take in the views which, some people think, could be spoiled by wind turbines.
I personally think that there is a balance to be had somewhere here, and that if the planners are canny enough, they can put up enough turbines without necessarily having to put them in some of the more sensitive areas. Also, they can be removed fairly easily (as opposed to traditional power stations) and once they are gone, the problem no longer exists.
What do you think?
Anyway, I’ll get off my soap box now and get some tea. See you tomorrow.

John Laval - Energy Advisor

2008-06-10T08:06:00.002Z

Hello! Now then, first things first; my name is John Laval and I’m currently a 32 year old Energy Advisor with Cumbria Energy Efficiency Advice Centre, which is part of Carlisle City Council. I say ‘currently’ as I’ll only be 32 until my next birthday and I shall shortly be starting a new job as a graduate Energy Management Consultant with Capita Symonds in Carlisle.
You’re probably thinking ‘what has any of that got to do with rural affairs?’ Well, not much really (although saving energy is important for everyone!) but let me give you a little background.
I live in Carlisle but grew up in a small village called East Curthwaite in the beautiful English countryside between Dalston and Thursby. I went to primary school in Rosley which is at the heart of a farming community and my best friend and next door neighbours’ dad was a farmer. So I spent much of my childhood playing with my friend on the farm, climbing on things that we probably shouldn’t and asking if we could take the quad bike on big adventures over the fields and up to the quarry.
My mum’s partner is also a sheep farmer on the Solway coast, where we go regularly for possibly the tastiest salt marsh lamb dinner on the planet. So I do know a bit about the workings of a farm.
I am also a very keen mountain biker and spend a lot of my spare time in the Lake District and south west Scotland biking with friends and on my own. Or at least I did until 6 weeks ago when I was biking in Grizedale Forest with a mate and had a bit of a spill breaking my collar bone, two ribs and my thumb and knocking myself out. We didn’t have a map (we had one for the trail but had left it on the table at home!) so my friend had to think quickly and once he had untangled me from my bike, he used his mobile to phone another friend of ours who was shopping in Carlisle at the time. He described where he thought we were to our friend, who went into Millets and got an OS map of the area and gave us a 6 figure grid reference based on the description. My friend phoned Mountain Rescue who sent a Land Rover up to us using the grid reference, which described a point 100 yards from where we were!
I’m healing up well now and should be back on the bike in a few weeks, which I can’t wait for, although I may be taking it a bit easier for a while and I also need to replace my broken helmet!
One of the main reasons I enjoy biking (and walking) is that it gets me out into stunning places like the Lake District , one of my favourite places in the world – and right on my doorstep. For an adrenaline junkie like me Cumbria is the most exciting and beautiful part of England and should be looked after in a way that preserves the qualities that make it what it is. Which leads me onto wind farms..... Perhaps I’ll leave that for another blog. Cheerio

Friday 18th

2008-04-19T17:33:00.000Z

The Final Blog:

Friday already, which means this is my final blog! You can tell the weekend’s here as the rain’s arrived.

Looking forward to a long weekend, I’m off on holiday Monday and it’s been a busy week in the office. No doubt though I’ll end up going home and working on the farm with dad. By Monday night I’ll be looking forward to coming back to work for a rest!!

I’ve had an interesting morning, part of it was spent looking into the different aspects of deer farming, a part of the industry where I didn’t have too much knowledge. (But I’m still not sure how they round them up?). Who said being an accountant is boring! It’s definitely a job where your knowledge is always increasing.

In my role I am occasionally requested to do work other than accounts and taxation, for example bid for some land at a public auction. I certainly find this interesting and it is an adrenaline rush bidding on behalf of someone else. This afternoon I was out of the office however it involved audit obligations as apposed to auction work, but again variety.

This evening I have the pleasure of attending a Chartered Institute of Taxation dinner with some colleagues, which I’ve plucked the short straw and offered to drive!

Well that’s the blog finished for the week, hope you have enjoyed reading about 5 days in the life of an accountant!

Thursday 17th

2008-04-18T07:40:00.001Z

Day four of my blog this week:

The suns shining again this morning, hopefully it’s here to stop for the weekend but with the cricket season approaching the rain will probably return. Bet you’re not surprised to hear I play cricket!! My girlfriend (who also is an accountant) will become a cricket widow for the summer, secretly though I think she’s looking forward to it.

Now that springs here the office gets busier than usual and we have to begin organising all our summer agricultural events. Every year we are one of the main sponsors of Dalston show, so we try and organise our trade stand early in the year to ensure that it’s the best at the show. We are also sponsoring the Cumberland show and various other events so between work and play looks like I’ve got a busy summer a head.

I had an external appointment this afternoon to see a client before they started milking. I appreciate dealing with clients and contacts within the agriculture sector means you have to very flexible, this means that a lot of my appointments are weekends and evenings to fit around them so an afternoon one will be a nice change. This is one of my favourite parts of the job, getting out and meeting people, everyone has a different story to tell with different ideas and views.

Wednesday 16th

2008-04-17T07:37:00.000Z

What a difference seeing the sun shinning early in the morning makes to you day, no matter of your trade/profession!

This was true of today as the day was relatively problem free but not say ‘boring’? It was however less hectic than yesterday, I didn’t have as many appointments which means I was able to spend time with the agricultural team within David Allen & Co. Part of my time is spent researching and ensuring all the team is up to date with any changes in the industry, and as everybody knows these changes can occur on a daily basis from different sources.

The morning was spent sorting out any queries that the team had with their work schedule and making sure all deadlines were adhered to. Our agricultural team (all with their own farming backgrounds) are out of the office part of the time at clients assisting with secretarial services etc, which means planning the workflow in the office carefully.

I also needed to look at some tax planning work for a client that came from yesterday evening’s appointment. This type of work is extremely enjoyable and satisfying knowing that careful planning and advice can and will save many £’s. Every meeting is different and each client requires individual advice therefore it is difficult to forward plan your time in the office.

My day in the office finished relatively on time today at 5.30, but then I’ve been roped into going home and doing my dad’s VAT. He knew something would come out of me becoming an accountant!!!!

Tuesday 15th

2008-04-16T07:48:00.001Z

Day two of my blog:

It was one of those mornings when it was raining at Dalston and I was pleased that I was at my desk working rather than outside milking cows or lambing sheep!!! But no doubt I’ll get roped into this at the weekend instead.

Working as an accountant my days are sometimes extremely long too, I was in the office for 6:30 this morning reading emails and sorting out today’s workload. Each day certainly has variety and this morning was no exception as I was dealing with some complex legal work and liaising with solicitors then I was involved with office meetings. It certainly helps to be flexible but I know it’s a team effort.

My afternoon though was predominantly spent out of the office at clients, this a part of the job that I really enjoy as your never know what you are going to be faced with or asked, it can be anything from how much tax do I have to pay to can you help me move my sheep. Which is where my farming background, really helps me in my job.

My day ended at 8.20pm with a late visit to a client, as this is usually a good time to sit down with then at the end of the day. Today was certainly not 9 to 5, but I know tomorrow probably won’t be as long and I am happy to be flexible with my clients timetable.

Michael Peile – Chartered Accountant

2008-04-14T17:55:00.000Z

David Allen & Co Chartered Accountant

Good Morning,My name is Michael Peile, I am a chartered accountant and work for David Allen & Co Chartered accountants based in Dalston. I am the agricultural businesses manager within the firm and deal with predominantly agricultural related clients. I also deal with largerLimited companies and complete statutory audits for our larger corporate clients. I have worked for David Allen & Co for nearly 7 years. I joined the firm after leaving schooland qualified as a chartered accountant in 2006. David Allen & Co was set up in the garage of David Allen ten years ago. Now the firm has over 70 members of staff and we have just extended the purpose built building which we constructed in 2002 on Barras Lane Industrial Estate in Dalston.Some of you may have been past and seen the new building but if not this is what to lookout for; As the agricultural business manager my main day to day job is to run the agricultural department of the firm. We deal with all types of agricultural businesses from dairy, beef,sheep, poultry and even goat farmers. I grew up in the farming industry with my wholefamily being involved in running various types of farms. Initially I thought that I wouldfollow this path and go into farming then I realised that I that wanted to play an activerole in the industry but not so hands on. I decided that being an accountant meant that Icould add value to industry without getting dirty! (I still remember telling my granda Iwasn’t going to farm and decided I wanted to be an accountant; he thought I was crossingto the dark side.) I feel that my background helps immensely as over the last few yearsthe industry has changed so much but by being involved in a farming family really meansI know what challenges the sector is facing.Outside the office we have on show our firms farming mascots, some of you may haveseen these as they have become quite a local talking point, so much so the local auctionnoticed that we did not have them tagged and sent us out some tags for them, if you passby look out for our herd of cows;
As a firm of chartered accountants we do not only offer an agricultural team but we offera whole range of other services, from dealing with Limited Companies, PAYE, we haverecently taken on an ex VAT inspector to deal with any vat queries and also an ex taxinspector to deal with any issues that our clients face with the Revenue.We offer a comprehensive and value for money service whilst helping you make the mostof your business.Well I had better get back to work now ….. lots to do.

Times Up....

2008-04-06T07:43:00.001Z

Good evening from Okato.
Turned the clocks back last night, but my body clock refused to budge, so awake early as usual. Was really nice to walk down to the shed this morning without the aid of a light, but did seem strange for daylight to show its face at around 6.30. Sunrise was lovely and orange this morning, but the day hasn't been up to much. Cloudy but warm, with a light shower this afternoon.
Very lazy day for me, visited my Mum in Okato for the morning, as I usually do on a Sunday. Called into see our son Jared as well, had a chat with him, he is as busy as ever, and getting new work all the time. Only problem some of the new work people have wanted him for, he hasn't got the machinery to do........so if anyone has a spare seed drill.......
Once again sent myself off to the bedroom after lunch to finish scraping that underlay, from that gorgeous pink carpet, off the floor. This last lot, I'm sure they used super glue as it was a mission to get it off. Finally finished at around 3pm, so good job out the of way. Next two bedrooms will be a breeze as the carpet and underlay are separate and underlay not glued.
Colene did the last milking in her shed this morning. Tomorrow, she will put a final hot detergent wash through the plant, and we will take all 14 units out of the shed incase there are more light fingered people out there that decide they need our plant!
I gave her the afternoon milking off.Not sure how we will work it from now on. I thought perhaps she could do the morning milking and I would do the afternoon....Tomorrow morning, the two herds will be milking through our shed, Colenes cows being on once a day milking. We get one herd in and half way through that go get the other herd. Think we will be all dried off within the next week.
Cows across the road again today, so 3.15pm start , and my chance to play on the white line in the middle of the road again. Sunday afternoon, so not much traffic up and down the road. Cups on before 3.45. Tried to rain while I was hosing down, and still trying. According to the weather it should have been raining all weekend. In early this evening well before 5.30.
So as I end this diary I would like to thank Steve for giving me the chance to tell you a little of my daily life, and I bet he didn't realize I could "ramble" so much or as we say here in New Zealand "waffle on". I have enjoyed it..... thank you.
As we head into winter now, we hope that your warmer weather will arrive before too much longer.
So as I end my week at the helm, I leave you with this little gem for you to ponder on....

"Did you know that animals that lay eggs don't have belly buttons!!!

Take care folks
Regards ~ Carolyn

Penultimate Online Diary

2008-04-05T11:11:00.001Z

Hi folks,
Well down to the second to last day of my efforts in the literary department.
Usual start to the morning, 4.20 up with a cuppa, then down to the shed. Once again very dark, and a very cool wind. Cows were a bit ratty this morning, don't know what their problem was, but they were pushing each other, and fidgety and messy. Maybe they are ready to end for the season as well. Milk weight down once again. Drafted out ones to dry off as well.
Clever tanker driver managed to leave a water tap on last night when he collected the milk at 10.25pm. Of course we didn't find it till 5.25 this morning, and Jim reckoned around 2000 litres of water went down the drain.....a driver has done that once before and managed to get water in our milk sample and they tried to give us a grade for excess water in the milk. Got it sorted when the tanker driver admitted he could have put water in our milk sample. We have let our liaison officer know the problem and await the outcome. At a time when water is short, 2000 litres is a lot to loose.
Very red sky this morning, and windy and cloudy, felt very much like rain. But it never happened, and remained a dull day.
Not much done today although I do think it was a productive day. Spent 4 hours on my hands and knees stripping the underlay off the floor in our bedroom. Why the previous owners felt the need to glue it to the floor is beyond me. Maybe they thought everyone liked pink nylon carpet and would want to keep it forever!!!. Most of the underlay was perished, so would not just strip off. Had to use a putty knife, and there is no way a spade would have worked like I was told......I know my back is going to complain tomorrow long and loud!!!
3.30 start this afternoon as the cows are across the road. I am the dairy farmers answer to a lollipop man, and stand in the middle of the road to either stop the traffic, or stop the cows crossing when the need arises. Some days it goes well, and all the cows get across and no traffic. Other days I am forever shutting the gate on the cows, letting a few across, shutting it again, etc etc. Its amazing how some people have no idea how to drive when they see cattle crossing a road.....townies I guess!!! Probably go "yuck" when they squelch through the cow muck as its hits the underside of their 4 wheel drives!!!!. Anyway cows decided this afternoon to spread themselves out and head up the road, but the dog sorted them out without too much problem or any traffic.
Did outside chores and inside at around 5.30, early tonight!!
Off to Colenes for tea tonight, I cook the roast she does the vege, and the best thing is I don't have any dishes to do, she has a dishwasher!!!
Catch you tomorrow or my final online diary....Cheers

Friday already!!!

2008-04-04T07:48:00.001Z

Hi folks,
Well, the week seems to have come and gone pretty quickly.
Up this morning, just before 4.30, to rain. See, I told you that our mountain was a weather indicator. Not heavy rain, and it soon stopped, to come back with vengeance just before I went to milk. Very heavy and would think we could have got around 2mls in that shower. Laid towels in the hallway in case it came through the ceiling again. Didn't last long, and had stopped when I walked down to the cowshed. Very dark, no stars and quite cold. Had 3mls of rain all up and Colene was delighted to be able to say she got 3 and a half mls of rain!!!
Milking went smoothly.We had to draft 2 empty cows out this morning, as our livestock agent was coming to see them with a view to buying.
Started to spit again just as I finished hosing down the yard, but didn't come to much. Was still dark at around 7.30 and was a very dull grey morning when daylight did surface, I call them "blah" days, gives you no encouragement to do anything whatsoever other than to grab a rug, snuggle into a couch and read a good book!!!!
The cow we called the vet to is fine now, and decided she needed to go home to Colenes farm, so she took herself back to Colenes shed. Our farms are joined by a race (track) Managed to nudge the gate open enough and off she went. So Jim had to bring her back to here to milk this afternoon.
Livestock agent arrived on time, and we sold one Jersey for $700 and 1 Friesian for $800. He had a busy day with 20 places to visit looking for 400 cows and had to be in the Waikato by 6.30 pm this evening. The Waikato is a farming region around 4 hours north of Okato. Think he would be struggling. Most of the North Islands surplus, cull and empty cows etc, go to the South Island.
Made some lemon muffins this morning, hate to see the lemons going to waste on the tree. Mostly I freeze the juice or make lemon cordial. Would like to have a go at making Limoncello, its a liqueur made with lemons and vodka...so if anyone out there has a recipe, would you mind sharing?? Went around the garden this morning and with that rain we have had, the weeds have bolted out of the ground as have the lawns.
Went into town with Jim and Colene this morning. Jim needed parts for the gravity pump for the proliq tank, as a new load is being delivered tomorrow. Proliq is a by-product of whey, and the cows love it. Then went to find some timber sleepers for garden edging. went to one place and the price was quite high, so went somewhere else, and found better quality timber for over $20 per length cheaper. Needed 10 sleepers for around Colenes place....guess what we are doing this weekend!!!
Went and collected our lawn mower, which for some reason only had one speed and that was on. Couldnt even turn it off, and if I tried to pull off the spark plug to stop it, it gave me a shock, . Jared and I both brought mowers at the same time and having exactly the same problem. Not a year old and they have been in the repair shop twice.Was going to refuse to pay the second time, as it had only been in repair the week before, but they nicely told us they weren't charging.... They tell us it is fixed...wait and see I guess.
Got back to Colenes house to unload the timber and found that Colenes goat, Banjo, had got its head stuck through the netting again, seems to do this 3 or 4 times a day, gets in and can't get out. Her miniature Kune Kune pig, Zeppelin, must have felt sorry for the goat as she was sitting cuddled into it. Got the thing released, and Colene gave it a good telling off, but doubt it will not have any effect, think its a bit thick...well actually I know its a bit thick!!!
Home here at around 2pm. Organized dinner for this evening. Only a couple of more milkings for me now , well twice a day milkings anyway.. Discussed with Jim in the cowshed this morning about me doing the morning milkings and giving Colene a few well deserved sleep ins. But Colene said not to worry, she doesn't mind. But, she will have to do as she is told!!! Am going to miss milking,(never thought I would say that.)
Mountain was clouded for most of the day(must be going to rain). Very strong wind this afternoon and with this wind, there wont be any rain until it stops. Rain is forecasted for tomorrow. Bit cool when I walked down to the shed for afternoon milking around 4pm. Good milking once again, well except for the cow who thought she was a steeplechaser, and jump over the back bar . I often wonder why cows have such small silly legs. Anyway, she got stuck, juggled a bit and got over the bar and wandered on like it was something she did every day of her life!!!
Mountain was clear when I walked home after milking. Wind had changed direction which usually indicates rain is on the way. Went to lock the cows in their paddock, and one of the cows had been tipped by one of the others, into the trough of proliq, which in turn tipped it over...not much lost as it was almost empty, but she will be licked to death tonight until she is all clean!!!!
As usual fed the house animals, 3 dogs and 4 cats sometimes five and a three legged cat inside the house, and along with the two shed cats and two farm dogs that's why I say we must have shares in the pet food company.....
Nice easy dinner, always a bonus at the end of the day if there isn't mountains of dishes to do after dinner.
Change the clocks back on Saturday night, so does that mean I'm up at 3am.....time will tell.

Another 'online diary entry'

2008-04-03T07:46:00.001Z

Another day another online diary entry (better than a BLOG!)
Firstly our cow is ok and doing well. The vet arrived last night around 8pm, and diagnosed that her problem was a feed induced diarrhea, which was a relief. Milked her this morning and she is improving.
Up at 4am this morning, to be down at Colenes shed by 5am for herd test. Was a very crisp morning. Plenty of stars about, no wind and I could see the outline of the mountain standing proud.
Jim arrived down as well, to help with pushing the cows away from the molasses, and also continue in his capacity as effluent supervisor. He stayed until about 2 rows to the end, then came home to get started at our place. Cows didn't approve of me pushing them away from the molasses and one decided I needed a good kick to wake me up. Luckily it only glanced off my knee and only bruising....... Milking didn't take too long, but the clean up did. Once hosed down, Colene and I had to take down all the milk meters, disconnect all the hoses and scrub everything in hot water. Finally got cleaned up and back down to our shed sometime after 7am. Colenes shed (dairy, parlour......??) is only a 2 to 3 minute drive from our place, so nice and handy.
Got back to our shed (dairy, parlour????) to find Jim must have gone and had a wee nap in-between sheds. Still half a yard to be milked.! Guess that is what happens when the boss is away. No dramas during milking, and washed up and inside by 8.15. Walking home as the sun was rising up in the sky. Once again a lovely bright sunrise looming up from behind the mountain. Doesn't seem to matter how long I have lived here, the mountain is something I never get tired of looking at or taking photos of. This morning before sunrise, not a cloud in the sky, with a couple of jets passing over top of the mountain, it looked superb. Did also notice that there is still a small amount of snow on the top.
Entertained Jim and Colene this morning. Jim was outside putting the dogs in their enclosure and I was inside ironing, He called out and I answered. Then he told me to come outside and pick up Colene off the ground. Apparently he had called out to our old Dalmatian "come here you old fat git", and I answered with "what do you want". I only heard him call out something, didn't hear what he said, but they both had a good laugh....oh well.
Had to go down to Opunake this morning which is a small service town 30 minutes south of us. Our DeLaval centre is there and it is the only place in our area that has extra small milking gloves. Colene tells me I'm soft for wearing them, and if I didn't I would have long strong nails like hers!!! I'm not convinced, so soft I maybe, but I'm not changing. Find that if the gloves are too large, I end up losing tips of them into the cups when putting them on the cows. Then they appear in the mastitis detectors.....make a good sound when they are sucked up though!! Anyway I digress, got to Opunake, and no milking gloves, on back order apparently, due in two weeks, so had to settle for the larger ones. Then to Taranaki Farmers (farm supply store), yep forget puppy biscuits for Colenes pup when I was in town yesterday.
After lunch had to take Colene to the vet....yep, no doctors out this way!! No just kidding. She has herself a 10 week old English bull terrier, and it needed its first shots. A little bit big for the cat cage, so she nursed it while I drove. Perfectly behaved...the pair of them.....Also had to collect some dry cow therapy for 60 cows that we will be drying off. Then had to do another little chore for Jim and collect some metal punches form our son Jared's house just around from the vet.
Decided I needed to take tidy out the carshed and take the rubbish down to the dump, which is on the farm. So loaded up the truck stopped at the cowshed and got all the rubbish there as well that needed dumping.
Started to cloud over whilst I was down at the dump, , and the wind got up a little. There was a huge black cloud coming in from Okato, dropped a few spits of rain, and then encased the mountain. There is a saying over here, that if you can see the mountain it is going to rain, if you cant see it, it is raining!! Also strange but true, that when it is going to rain, the mountain gets a cap on it....honest!
Dairy company rang this morning to tell us that as from tomorrow we will be on every other day pick up, milk was down another 13 litres this morning. Colenes are dropping as well, I noticed this morning while down there.
Cooled down somewhat this afternoon. The mountain does have a cloud cap on it, so maybe it will deliver some rain. Milking went okay, cups on at 4pm. No hassles or problems and all cleaned up around 5.45pm. Was cold walking home, fed the dogs and cats, so that's me for the evening, well outside anyway.
Jim headed off to finish spraying after milking, so guess it will be a late supper.......
Another day tomorrow, wonder if it will rain. New Plymouth is hosting an international Triathlon, this weekend,, so guess they wont want the rain!!
Catch you tomorrow.......

Wednesday 2nd

2008-04-02T07:39:00.000Z

Hey there folks,
Well, day three of my blog, and what kind of a weird word that is....BLOG.....my dictionary doesn't even have that word in it!!!

Anyway, up at the usual time of somewhere between 4 and 4.30, being 4.15 this morning. Made the usual cuppa and watched the BBC Sky news, but seemed to miss the Flying Penguins.......hmmmm, wouldn't be April 1st by any chance!
Quite dark again this morning, couldn't see what the day was going to be like, no stars, so presumed it was cloudy, a little cooler than usual.
Our milk weight was down again this morning by around 70 litres. Milking went well although once again had to chase the early rows out of the shed. Finished and cleaned up by around 7,45 this morning, a little later than usual.
Sun was just coming up, and it was a brilliant sunrise, very orange, and quite a sight to see as the sun come up from behind the mountain.
Busy morning this morning, had an appointment in town at 11am and had a few other chores to do, so decided to go early to get everything done without rushing as Colene was with me, and always she likes to be home before 2pm to go to milk.
Got away by 9,30, having done a quick round of housework to leave the place at least presentable. New Plymouth is our nearest city,around 30 minutes north of Okato. Its where we do all our buying, banking etc. Called at the farm supplies store first, to get the cat food. I am thinking that by now, with all the dog and cat food we have purchased over the years, we must at least own a quarter of the company! Then on to pay a deposit on some carpet. We are re doing our three bedrooms, (not before time I must say), and they gave me a date of 7 May for the laying of it. So that gives me just over a month to get all the old carpet up. Our bedroom will be a mission as the previous owners glued it to the floor. I'm told a spade is the best way to get the carpet backing off the floor. Think the worst part will be moving all the furniture first.
Colene and I had appointments at the beauty therapist after that....don't laugh!!!! Colene has a deep tissue back and shoulder massage every 6 weeks as she always seems to have problems. Me, well, just a facial. Hey, don't mock, you need it at my age!
Then it was a trip to supermarket, seems everytime you go there it costs more doesn't it. Arm and a leg these days just to get the weekly shop, very soon you will need to give a kidney as well. Not too busy there, which is always a bonus, as both Colene and I hate crowds.
Stopped at Oakura on way home, which is a small seaside town out of New Plymouth, for a coffee and a sandwich. We take them away and go down to the beach and park. Today the beach was busy with school kids, obviously having a beach education day, which most schools over here have at least once a year. Very pleasant just watching the waves go in and out.....
Home at 1.30, time to put the groceries away, and you know, didn't even buy anything tasty...opps, no I did, got Jim some chocolate, thought it might sweeten up the redundancy talks!!
Herd testing at Colenes farm this afternoon, so I was down there by 2.30 to help her with that. Seeing the cows are having molasses, we needed extra help to shoo them away from the troughs. So Jim came down to help and he also became the effluent disposal officer. Seems when anything out of the ordinary happens in Colenes shed, the cows seem to think they need to make more mess than usual.
Herd testing went smoothly, no mixed numbers, etc, and was washed and finished up just after 4, and back down to milk our cows.
Very warm in the cowshed this afternoon, although out in the open there was a cool wind. Once again things went smoothly.
Herd test again tomorrow morning at Colenes shed, so will need to be down there at 5am to help. That will be the last herd test of the season, dare I say, thank goodness!!
Fed the house dogs and cats, and inside by 5.,45. Leftovers tonight, haven't had much time to sort anything else.
Jim had to go check one of Colenes cows, seems she may have eaten too much molasses, which causes acidosis, prognosis is not too good. Just got a text saying the vet is coming to check her out....
Sun has just gone done and temps dropping, autumn is setting in.

Tuesday 1st

2008-04-01T07:46:00.001Z

Hello again,

Well wasn't to be, awoke this morning to no sound of falling rain, which maybe was a blessing, as we found out that with the deluge yesterday,we have a leaky ceiling in the hallway. Managed to soak up most of the water with towels last night before we went to bed, and had the heater on it this morning to try and dry it out. Will have to get it checked out before winter arrives.
Up early again this morning, was wide awake at 4am, so saw no point in just lying there. A text message came through from Colene at 4 30am , to let me know the neighbours dog had been back to her dairy and eaten the cat food.....again. Seems like every barrier we make, every hole to block off, it still finds a way through. I think Colene needs to borrow her brothers paint ball gun and do a stake out!!!
I was either a little later this morning or Jim earlier, as he had the cups on the first row when I appeared at the cowshed (milking parlour). Was dark again this morning, and only had the light on my cell phone to guide me!! managed to miss most of the puddles on the track, either by good luck or good management! Lucky really as my gumboots (wellies) have a hole in them.
Checked the milk weight this morning as usual to find that we have gone below the 2000 litres per day mark. If we stay below that level, we will be put on to every second day pick up. They have been managing to hang in there, but maybe it was just the rain yesterday that upset them, time will tell at next pick up
Milking went smoothly although had to chase the first few rows out of the parlour, just didn't seem to want to move for some reason. Mind you, they probably knew there wasn't much waiting for them back in their paddock. While milking Jim and I discussed the up and coming redundancy of number one Gopher ` ME!!! Time is getting near to shut down in Colenes cowshed and merge her 125 cows with our 200 and milk them through the one shed before eventually drying off. Most likely will happen within the next week or so. We have a herd test at Colenes place on Wednesday and enough molasses for 4 or 5 days.......wonder what the going rate of redundancy is???? But then again I will still be on call, so I'm sure call out rates are good.
Started to drizzle again around 6.30 and remained that way until after breakfast. Finished and cleaned up at the shed by 7.30 and while wandering home from milking, the morning reminded me of Cumbria! Back in 2006 while staying with Steve and Claire, I can remember looking out the window one morning over the fields and there was this fine misty drizzle settling in, in fact it settled in for the day! Well that's how it was this morning. The two differences though, here it was at least 15 deg warmer and also there were no rabbits running through the fields. Mind you, over here the rabbits need to take a packed lunch before they venture out!
Sent an empty heifer to the abattoir this morning to be done for our freezer. Truck was due to come around 8am, was here 10 minutes early, and of course no animal in the loading pen.. Still only a 5 minute job to get her in and loaded. Give it a month and our freezer will once again be full. Think Jim was beginning to worry that he was heading towards being a vegetarian with the lack of beef etc in the freezer! We tend not to buy meat, as it is so expensive i.e. $25-30 for a leg of lamb, scotch fillet $21.00 per kilo. even mince is around $8 per kilo.
Went on the net this morning to check out the prices for flights to the UK. We have been doing this since we visited back in 2006 and usually check once a month.. Interesting to follow the ups and down of the airfares. I am wondering if I will ever feel the urge to hit the "Buy Now" button when it reaches an all time low!
Managed to get myself organized enough to prepare this evenings dinner this morning, makes it so much easier if it is all done prior to going to milk.
After lunch spent time in the garden, trimming and cutting back trees, raking leaves etc. Very wet underfoot, so didn't do any weeding. Trimmed the hedge leading up to the back door,as it was invading the foot path. Not an easy job as my hedge cutters are exceeding blunt, and Jim had managed to quietly leave before I could grab him to sharpen them. Oh well, got one hedge looking tidy, a bit uneven, but a blind man would be glad to see the difference I say.. Had to get up the ladder to trim the tops. Would have been quicker to use the electric hedge trimmer, but I have never used it, and don't want to end up with a broken leg after falling off the ladder, a 'designer' hedge or even cut the lead in two.....!
Made a detour this afternoon on the way to milk. Went down by the river to see if all the rain had made a difference to the river. Was pleased to see it flowing again, not a fast flow, but moving. Has been at a stand still for so long. Also noticed how green everything has turned, really pleasing to the eye, even if there isn't alot to eat, green looks good! Spotted a patch of ripening blackberries as well, blackberry jam coming up maybe??
Cows cant have had much milk this evening, only an hour and a half from start to finish, so was back inside by 5.30 or so, after feeding the dogs and cats.
Nice easy dinner, very little in the way of dishes to, so managed to get them done even before Jim left his easy chair!!!!!
As the saying goes....."Red sky at night, shepherds delight," must be going to be a nice day tomorrow, guess that means the rain is gone........oh well, fingers crossed for more to come.

Carolyn McBride - Kiwi dairy farmer

2008-03-31T08:30:00.000Z

Hi folks,
My name Carolyn, from "Down Under' here in New Zealand, living and working on a dairy farm with hubby Jim.
Somehow your webmaster has managed to convince me that my input as a daily blogger would be of interest. Now I'm wondering how he has come to that conclusion......could it be that at the time of being asked, it was 9.30pm in the evening, after an exceptionally busy weekend down on the farm, and my defenses were weak!!!
Well this morning saw me getting an extra hour of sleep before starting the day. No our clocks haven't been put back. This past weekend we relief milked for our daughter Colene so she could have the weekend off. This means that we start our day at 3am, with cups on first row by 3.45, home again at 5.15 and cups on our herd at 5.45.... the afternoon sees us down at our daughters cowshed at 2.30 to start the afternoon milking routines.
We have a good routine so things tend to go smoothly, although her cows did tend to think we where there this weekend purely just to clean up after them which meant I spent more time hosing down than putting cups on!! And not to mention having to go and shoo the cows away from the molasses troughs before they gorge themselves and there is nothing left for the others.
Anyway, up at 4.20 this morning, for the usual cup of tea while watching the BBC news, leaving Jim to sleep blissfully on till about 4.45.
Cups on at 5.45 and this morning. Milking went well, with no hiccups, which is always a bonus. Very dark this morning, and daylight didn't put in an appearance till around 7.30, just before I got inside for breakfast....
We are suffering a drought at the moment, so it was lovely to have had rain (46mls) yesterday, and to wake up this morning with the rain still falling. While it is too late to be of much good for the milking season, and if we don't get follow up rain, the situation will still remain bad, we have to be grateful for what we get. What does amuse me though, is that the lawns around the house grow with or without rain, while the paddocks don't!
With the weather like it is today, I am house bound, as it only takes one person to feed out. So it was an indoors day with housework the order of the day, along with a ' Quick hide' , the God squad are coming down the driveway'!!!!!! These guys parked out at the gate and walked in so it was a matter of quietly sitting (out of sight of course of all windows and doors) till they disappeared, which Colene and I both did! But with our German Shepherd out this morning, they didn't even venture in the gate....well done Slade!!! And thanks Jim for ringing me on my mobile and telling me they were on their way! It always pays to have back-up! I do get annoyed though when they keep calling.I wonder what part of no they don't understand!
Managed to answer a few well overdue email letters this afternoon. Had rain off and on, all afternoon.
Slight drizzle around milking time with the wind getting up a bit. Started milking at around 4pm, usually takes a shorter time in the afternoons as all the heifers are on once a day milking.
Half way through milking the heavens opened and it bucketed down, so loud you could hardly hear yourself think!!! Was brilliant. Had 6mls in rain gauge before milking and 25 after milking, Total of 69mls.
Came home to find the deluge had flooded part of the carshed, so needed to shift the two bags of grass seed to higher ground . Feed the cats and dogs.
Once dinner and dishes were out of the way, its time to claim the couch!
Hopefully will wake up tomorrow morning and find its still raining......

Wednesday and the rest of the week!!

2008-03-27T18:50:00.003Z

After fighting my way through the traffic I made it to work for the first day of completing Single Farm Payment forms (SP5 to be precise). Luckily they seem to be a little easier this year and the RPA seems to be better organised, although this is the fourth year of this scheme! I completed 5 forms today, all of which were fine apart from an odd clerical error or two. I do tend to find that the first few weeks are generally easier but by the end things are becoming trickier. I would imagine that it could be down to me having the same conversation about weather, 8 days a time for several weeks. Or it could be that they are just trickier.

I finished work and then it was quick turn around again tonight as we had to be at Dalston for 6pm so that we could get everything ready for the charity entertainments performance. For those of you who have never seen a young farmer’s entertainment production or read previous blogs on the subject, it briefly consists of half an hour of singing, dancing and comedy. The more entertaining, original and slick the better!

Raughton Head YFC which I am member, wrote our own production titled ‘For England’ which is basically a very quick run through English history. This includes dancing maidens, jousting knights, George (Which I play) and the Dragon (Mark II), Henry VIII blind date, Elizabeth I and Walter Raleigh, Naval battle against the Armada, Wellington vs. Napoleon, WW2 girls and then finished off with a finale! Luckily we have the wise and experienced Ian Blamire as our director. He is a past member or Raughton Head who has done it all before, both on and off stage.

The evening went very well with a tremendous turn out of people. Skelton YFC were on first and they were as good as ever, with the French policeman scene stealing the show. We followed them and did our best to keep up the standard for all the friends, family and supporters. After a quick tidy up and the set packed up again it was off to the pub for a few drinks with the rest of the cast, Skelton YFC and what seemed like half the audience!

Thank you to all those who came and supported, it was very much appreciated. Next up, Northern Area Final on Sunday!
Day 4 & 5

Back to work again and back to single farm payment forms, although admittedly a tad jaded from the charity performance the night before! Whilst I am on the subject can I once again say thank you to all those who supported the charity performance, between ourselves and Skelton we managed to raise nearly £1,500. Raughton Head will be making a presentation to our chosen charity at the end of our club year. Each year we pick a charity to support, in previous years it has been the air ambulance, Jigsaw appeal. Money is raised at dances, performances, bike rides or where ever else possible!

At this time of year work seems to pass as a blur as each SFP form merges in to the next one so it is not long before the end of the Thursday arrives. I stay back to get caught up and then head home for a bite to eat and then attend the local pub quiz where we come a steady 6th out of 22, not too bad.

The next day I’m up and off to Silloth for appointments which had to be done on farm as they were insurance calls. I grabbed a sandwich at Wigton on route back before stopping in on a farmer at Rosley who had his clean indoor house wellies on, in the front room for the entire call, very nice fellow though. After that it was back to the office and finish up and that was my week done! This wasn’t a bad thing as I have a Northern Area Weekend to go on Saturday, which is my chance to represent the club and County once again. Although in between all this I had a Celildh in Canonbie (Scotland!) to go to as it is a good friends mothers 50th!

The Northern Area competitions weekend for those of you who don’t know is where all the counties of Northern England (Cumbria, Yorkshire, Northumberland, County Durham, East Riding, Isle of Man and the hosts Lancashire) meet to compete in a variety of competitions in which many of the competitors have already been through eliminators and county finals to reach this stage. The competitions can include Junior Public Speaking, After Dinner Speaking, Brainstrust (Debating), Stars in their Eyes, Sports (Football, Dodgeball, Netball and Rounders). Raughton Head have a Junior Reading, Club Promotion, Football and of course an entertainments team entered. So wish us and the rest of the County luck for the weekend and I’ll report back at the start of next week!

What a weekend! I am writing this now in a complete state of exhaustion after a very hectic but successful weekend. May I just quickly apologise for the delay on my previous blogs as unfortunately I had computer difficulties, someone took the laptop without me realising!

After my previous nights trip up to Canonbie for a tiring 50th Ceilidh it was back up again the next morning to start getting all the many props gathered together. This included 1 dragon costume with head piece, 2 bags of ‘gold’, a WWII radio, 1 sword, 1 shield and a large clip board. This is along with all the other necessaries for a Young Farmers weekend, which I’ll leave to your imagination. This was all dragged around to the bus depot which is just around the corner from the house and it then it was off to Ivegill to pick the rest of the rabble – sorry cast – up.

We got down to the beautiful resort of Pontins in Blackpool at around 4pm where we were greeted by torrential rain, just what we wanted with all the above props to carry! The rooms were sorted and it was off to get the results of all Saturdays speaking competitions. The results were good with Caldbeck juniors off to the national finals along with our Raughton Head Club Promotion Team. The national final is held at Staffordshire show ground in October. After the results everyone went to the bar to join the rest of the county before we all off to the dance at night. Being away for a Young Farmers weekend as part of a club, district or county is one of the best parts of young farmers as it makes people meet and socialise together with people that they would never normally talk to - this is the marriage service offered by YF’s! An excellent night was had by all, I was of course tucked up in bed early to get ready for our performance (I’ll leave it you to decide if I’m being elaborate with the truth or not).

Up at 8am, some more sprightly than others and some managing more breakfast than others. I managed a Dairylea Dunker and an apple as I missed breakfast. Our practice stage time was 1am with everyone as stressed as usual. An afternoon of practising and hanging around followed before we eventually got the call and made our way to the stage to follow on from Skelton who, by all accounts did their best performance to date. An added gauntlet was thrown down when we heard that our Football team had won, as had the county dodgeball and rounders teams. Nerves were therefore even higher and stomachs were churning and that was not just because of the previous nights over indulgence! Ian Blamire, our director gave us his final words of encouragement before he left us to get ready. He always struggles before the start of the play, must be his age. The compare introduced us and away we went with everyone giving their best performance yet.

With a big sigh of relief we were finished and then followed the long wait to the results. A couple of hours later and the music sounded to herald the judges on stage to give their adjudication of all 6 performances. Skelton came an unfair 5th with a Yorkshire and Northumberland team 4th and 3rd. This meant we were through, but who had come first between us and Yorkshire A???????
RAUGHTON HEAD of course!!!
Cue shouting, screaming and a lot of emotional people, mainly parents of course. This was topped off with an overall 2nd for Cumbria for the whole weekend. Thanks again to all our supporters, they are very much appreciated and we’d struggle without them. Next round National semi final: April 13th at The Majestic Theatre, Retford

I hope I haven’t bored you all too much and maybe it might have given you a slight insight in to YFC and NFU workings. More information can of course can be found at http://www.cumbriayfc.co.uk/ (Jan Davison would kill me if I didn’t plug it!)

Thanks

Graham

Tuesday 25th

2008-03-26T15:14:00.001Z

Blog Day 2

It was back to work today which is always a treat after a long weekend. Mondays are always the busiest day of the week as people build up their queries, claims and vehicle changes. So as today was a Tuesday and the last day we were open was Thursday we were therefore very, very busy. I also had the extra task of dealing with all the messages left on the answering machine over the weekend; this included a stolen ATV, Single Farm Payment (SFP) queries and an old Wigton farmer who couldn’t quite fathom our answer machine.

I managed to escape the madness for a few hours as I had two appointments out of the office. On an average week I would expect to be out of the office 2 to 3 days a week and in the rest. It is a sign of how the NFU Mutual has changed as neither of the appointments were for farmers, although the majority of our customers are still farmers or those with a farming background. So after getting some forms completed, cheque collected and courtesy call done I passed by home (The parents, not mine but it is just force of habit) for a quick bite to eat. The world was set to right and it’s off back to work.

The afternoon was spent getting caught up as my SFP campaign starts tomorrow. Each year our office completes over 600 forms for NFU members, of which I complete 120 of them. So 120 individual appointments and what ever follow up work is required which could be another(!) letter to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), an extra form for boundary changes as well the photocopying , checking it a few times and dropping it in to the RPA. All of which has to be done before May 15th all whilst doing all our usual work. Easy I hear you all say!

After a 25 minute drive down Warwick Road it was back home for a bite to eat. A warning to you all to avoid that area of Carlisle as they are yet again carrying about work on the sewerage system. It is surprising how such a little thing has such an immense affect on such a large city!

And finally. Tomorrow (Wednesday 26th March) night is your chance to see the best and second best young farmers entertainments productions in the county. Raughton Head and Skelton will perform their productions at Caldew School, Dalston at 7.30pm. Tickets are on the door so be there early to avoid the crowds. If I do say so myself, you won’t find a better nights entertainment anywhere else in the County! But don’t take my word for it, have a look at the most recent Pentalk Courier.

See you there.

Graham

Graham Holliday - Entertainment blogger

2008-03-26T15:13:00.001Z

Hello all you Pentalk bloggers!!!!

This is my first attempt at a ‘blog’, so wish me luck!

My name is Graham Holliday and it is my job to follow on from Matthew Burburys excellent (long) blog on the Young Farmers Clubs (YFC) entertainments.at the Northern District and County rounds of a much larger National YFC competition. This week I have a charity performance and the North of England final to contend with, more of which later in the week.

I am 25 years old and have worked at the Carlisle NFU office for nearly three years. I originate from Dobcross Hall which is my family dairy farm that is run by my parents and my younger brother. They also offer an excellent range of hedging plants for your stewardship needs. I studied Agriculture at Newcastle University before coming back to sunny Carlisle to work for Mike Forrester building agricultural buildings. After a year of hard work, I somehow started at the NFU where I am one of five group secretaries who offer assistance and advice to farmers and not forgetting the quality insurance products of the NFU Mutual.

In my spare time I am a member of Raughton Head YFC, and have been for over ten years and since last November last year I have had the privilege(?) to be the current county chair of over 1,000 Cumbrian Young Farmers.

Anyway to the job at hand, my daily blog! As it was a bank holiday Monday I was recovering from an over exuberant weekend so therefore spent the day very unproductively, although I did manage some obligatory DIY in my Carlisle abode. The evening was filled with a variety of work readying, TV watching and sleeping. Not very exciting I know but it makes a change from meetings and competitions. Last week there was the county club promotion final, club dress rehearsal, pub quiz (Which Raughton Head won!) and a casino night (which I almost won).

A more interesting day to follow tomorrow!

Sunday 16th March 2008

2008-03-16T07:18:00.002Z

Just a quick last hurrah from me here in Albany Australia.

Our team the Ag Amblers was one of twenty six who just completed a 24 hour Relay for Life here in Albany. The relay is an event for fundraising for cancer research and raising awareness of cancer. It was our first time as a team and it was lots of fun with all sorts of entertainment and activities to keep people motivated whilst they undertake a continuous relay for 24 hours.

One of the highlights was the memorial candle ceremony last night to remember those that have passed with cancer. Candle bags were decorated in memory of cancer victims and placed around the track with sand and candles in.

The best thing however was that we raised AU$110,000 to go towards education and research into cancer, this combined with last years total means that over the last two years the Albany regional community have raised in excess of a quarter of a million dollars for this cause.

All I can say is that I was very proud to be involved.

Anyway thanks for letting me have this opportunity to share a week with you, best wishes to you all.
Warm regards
Sue-Ellen

Friday 14th March 2008

2008-03-14T15:02:00.002Z

Up early this morning and prepared veges for a roast dinner for 17. This was to be our team's final fundraiser for the Relay for Life. Got into work and organised things in the kitchen before heading to the office to return some calls to several beef producers that had called in response to an article I wrote in our recent newsletter.

Began writing a brief for a consultancy however finding I am a bit rusty.

The luncheon was a great success with everyone enjoying the food. For me the great thing was the discussion and socialising that went on over the table. Too often I find we grab a sandwich at our desk or race around without stopping to smell the roses. We have a large office with nearly 100 people in it however so often we do not make time to stop and chat. It is amazing how much business can be done in these situations. We have unofficially agreed to try and have something similar on a regular basis in the future.

The afternoon was spent tidying my desk and prioritising my tasks. Often I get decieved into doing the easy things and leaving the harder ones til last. This often means late nights and stress which is not overly beneficial to anyone.

Off to Bookclub tonight where we discussed a book Lovely Bones. Our group is a diverse group of ladies and it really is interesting to see things from many different aspects.

Home now and packing my gear in preparation for the Relay for Life tomorrow. I have the sun shades and chairs so will be arriving early to set up the Team area. The first lap starts at 3pm WA summer time and then we are rostered on from there. I may not report tomorrow but will let you know on Sunday how it went.

Thursday 13th March 2008

2008-03-13T07:46:00.002Z

Sorry I missed a day. Things have been very hectic as I have been very busy with meetings over the last two days and to be quite honest, I didn't think there was much of interest to write.

Reading over Tuesdays blog - it sounds as though the only thing I did was sightsee. I feel as though I should clarify that it was in fact just a quick drive around at lunchtime pointing out the items of interest that could be visited after hours.

Yesterday was spent in a variety of meetings, one focused on developing an extension strategy for the Beef projects in WA, another involved planning a display to spread our messages at a forthcoming conference of the WA Lot Feeders Association, and another related to trying to maximise fertiliser application on the local Agricultural College farm. I am on the advisory committee and it can be quite challenging sometimes, trying to get the best "Bang for our Buck". I know producers experience this also however the budget allocated to the farm on the college is often much more constrictive. (This meeting is to be continued on Monday next week with a field walk) I am not sure what they are like in the UK at present but our fertiliser prices are skyrocketing at the moment.

Today I was involved in a team coordinating a major Livestock Conference in early July to be held in Perth. Previously I had been the convenor but handed over whilst I was visiting the UK last year, and now am only involved in a content and consultative capacity. It is always interesting trying to forsee issues of relevance one year to six months before the conference Overall from today's outcomes it is looking as though we could have some very interesting speakers.

If you are interested in having a look at the proceedings from the previous conference they are located at www.agric.wa.gov.au/livestockupdates

Tuesday 11th March 2008

2008-03-11T13:48:00.002Z

Today I had the opportunity to play tour guide in my lunch hour for a visiting colleague. As I am very passionate about the fantastic place I currently call home, I never tire of explaining the history of Albany or unveiling the natural beauty.

Albany is on the south coast of Western Australia, approx 400km from Perth and has a population of about 34,000. It has a temperate mediteranean climate and was the first settlement in WA. It thus had the first farm in WA and for a long while was the harbour for the Swan River settlement with bullock drays and coaches taking most mail and cargo on the long journey from Princess Royal Harbour to what we now know as Perth.

Albany has many claims to fame - it was the last port of call for diggers leaving Australia to sail to Gallipoli (thus the last sight of Australia for many); it is also home to the last operating whaling station in Australia (this closed down in the 1970's and now the whale chasing is undertaken by tourists with cameras as the whales are now regular visitors with many being easily seen from the beach). More recently the first competitor in the Antartica Cup Yacht Race left from our shores. http://www.antarcticacup.com

We have recently been blessed to have international artists visit for the Perth International Arts Festival, of which we host a regional component, and one renown classical quartet found it hard to get over the clean air and fantastic scenery (but then they were from London).

The Great Southern, as the area surrounding Albany is known, is establishing a reputation for it's excellent wine and fresh food and produce.
If you have time and want to have a look at a small part of Australia try www.amazingalbany.com

Hum Drum

2008-03-10T07:59:00.002Z

Not an awful lot to report today, unfortunately. It has been one of those days where you seem to be rushing from one thing to another however when you sit down and reflect at the end of the day it seems as though little has been achieved even though you haven't stopped.

I spent the early part of the day helping settle a new staff person in and assist in setting them up their computer and getting access to the . The local office manager undertook the basic orientation so that stoppped me from passing on my bad habits.

I work in an office of approx 100 people working in a range of areas covering cropping (both horticultural and broadacre), natural resource management and animal production. We have an Accredited Animal Health laboratory based here at the office in Albany as well. My role is more a facilitation role with the coordination of field days/ walks, group meetings and conferences for producers although I do also work on the Agline which is a "cost of a local call" advice line that producers, or general public for that matter, can ring and obtain advice on a range of issues. This can be on any topic from pesticide rates to removing snakes from gardens. I will admit the fauna questions are not our domain but it certainly adds spice to life.

I am currently undertaking industry analysis on the beef industry in the agricultural areas of Western Australia, as opposed to the rangelands or station country. Although Australia does not have a high population of beef cattle compared with other countries, it is interestingly the second largest exporting country in the world.

This coming weekend is the "Relay for Life" event in Albany and our office has nominated a team. It is a 24 hour event to raise awareness of cancer and funds raised prior to and over the event go towards cancer research. Today we had a curry lunch for staff as part of our fundraising effort and as it is the last week there are quite a few other last minute events organised to boost our contribution.

Hello from Australia

2008-03-09T13:46:00.002Z

Hi to all Pentalk readers. As you will have seen my name is Sue-Ellen and I have had my arm twisted by a friend Alison to share some stories with you on the blog.

A quick bit about me - I work as an agricultural advisor based in the southern town of Albany. I enjoy travelling, reading and furniture restoration. I was a member of Rural Youth in WA - the equivalent to Young Farmers and was extremely lucky to have spent seven months in 1995 travelling through Great Britain and Eire as an exchangee. In 2007 I spent three months revisiting friends and relatives and dragging my poor mother all over England, Scotland and Ireland.

It was wonderful to revisit and reminisce on the good times, and it was especially marvellous to see friends again. It was great to fall in love with the Lakes District all over again.

So get to the point I hear you say.. The reason I mentioned all this was that I have tonight arrived home from an overnight trip to Perth (4.5hrs each way) to catch up with a girlfriend who shared the exchange with me back in '95. Heather stayed in London and worked after our exchange and met and married etc. She was on her way home to Tasmania for a holiday and decided to have a stop over in Perth, so with my motto of "never let a chance go by" it was an opportunity too good to miss.

There were many stories retold and lots of laughs. One of the stories involved driving through the Lakes District after our exchange and up a one way street the wrong way in Windermere. Oops hope you can't get arrested this long after the event.

The weather here was very mild on her - the temperature only reached 30 degrees Celsius today. This summer has been very warm on the west coast this year and we on the south coast of WA have not recieved the normal summer rains that maitain our perennial pasture growth so things here are drier than usual.

Thursday March 6th

2008-03-07T08:36:00.003Z

Having stayed in Newcastle last night, we drove back over to Alston first thing. I headed over to our new offices in the town hall and I had a quick catch up with the team on how the broadband projects are going. I returned a call to someone who was writing an article about wireless broadband and had a long conversation about the definition of social enterprise. I had to explain that we are a NOT a "non-proifit" organisation but that we make profits which are reinvested back into the business. In the end he decided not to mention Cybermoor which was probably for the best. Then it was a meeting at the Alston Community Gym where our healthcare project manager was providing cover. I caught up on where we were with the project, in particular the upgrade of the radiography equipment that the PCT had rececntly offered to pay for. I enjoyed a particularly delicious smoked haddock and spring onion pie from the Moody Baker
for lunch.

In the afternoon I had to catch up on e-mails. Veronica, one of our website customers http://www.npenninemusic.co.uk/ was interested in driving her site up the google search lists so I spent some time on that. Then I revised the spec for the new health project manager when Maggie leaves at the end of March.

In the evening it was a horror show on ITV4 as Everton lost 2-0 to Fiorentina in the UEFA cup - Goodnight Vienna!

Wednesday 6th March

2008-03-05T18:13:00.003Z

I met with Claire Poulter, who is putting together a plan for the combined delivery of social care and healthcare in Cumbria. She explained some of the complexities of the process she is involved with and we visited the Old people's home and hospital to show her what Alston has.
She was interested in support for people to take part in e-health (possibilities for Pentalk here!)

In the afternoon I took part in an advice session in Gateshead on broadband. Rural B&Bs and a farmer from Hadrians Wall made up half of the group. I demonstrated the benefits of Skype and internet phone calls.

It struck me that there are plenty of people who still have no idea about the internet and don't want to learn! I'm now sat in a pub in Newcastle after the talk, blogging on my laptop using the pub's free wireless connection.

Tuesday 5th March

2008-03-05T18:07:00.002Z

Today was spent at a meeting with Cuedoc in Penrith working on our project to deliver video links between the minor injuries unit at Alston Hospital and Penrith hospital.
The service will reduce the number of visits that patients have to make to Penrith and Carlisle, reducing the cost of treating them as well.
We are fortunate to have a great team in the community hospital in Alston and we are doing what we can to make sure that the hospital has a good future.
After getting back to Alston, I had to put together a report on our Business with Altitude project which supports social enterprises in Alston. Finally I met with a colleague to go through issues on the funding of the project. This is a tortuous process and has been going on since last June, trying to sort out what is eligible expenditure for the European Commission.

Monday 3rd March

2008-03-03T16:53:00.005Z

My name is Daniel Heery and its a great privelege to be contributing a few words to the Pentalk blog. I run Cybermoor, a social enterprise supplying a website http://www.cybermoor.org/ and broadband to residents of Alston Moor. We also offer other services including wireless broadband, websites and consultancy services to communities across the UK.
Today started when our 6 month old baby, Ben, woke me up at 5.55am, not that early for most farmers but a bit too early for me!
After breakfast I logged on and picked up e-mails.
We are part of a consortium looking at telecare across the EU and we are currently negotiating with the European Commission to fund a pilot in Cumbria. Our European partners often interpret things differently to us and now we are getting close to a deal, we are having to sort out the details. That took up a fair amount of time, then I headed over to the office. We all work flexibly at Cybermoor - using the Alston wireless network we can log on from pretty much anywhere with our laptops to check e-mails and make phone calls.
At lunchtime we had a special general meeting for Cybermoor and I met with one of the Directors afterwards to discuss http://www.cybermoor.tv/. We recently carried out a survey of what our users thought of it and we now have to respond to the findings.
In the afternoon, I had a long meeting with some academics from Leeds and Sheffield who are researching the use of technology. We took a walk around Alston and I showed them our broadband antennas and explained the complexities of managing Cybermoor broadband in Alston and the nearby Dales (http://www.cybermoor.coop/)
After responding to some e-mail queries about our NHS project and it was time to call it a day. Then I bumped into someone on the street and had a long chat about funding for a website project we are doing with Alston Sheep Show!

Sunday 24th

2008-02-25T08:35:00.000Z

Had a good day today, starting with church at 8.30 in Penrith. I am very much in the minority it seems these days in that I like to go to church and get a lot out of it. Seems that those of us who attend church (in my case the Roman Catholic variety) must be doing a bad job in letting others know just how good religion can be. It is certainly my rock in a storm.

Back at home I get though a few outstanding chores before scooting off to Penrith to have a swim. I cannot remember when I last went to the baths, but today I am on a mission. The physiotherapist advised that swimming would help my shoulder, so I give it a try. Once in the pool, I quickly realise I cannot put much effort into using my arms as my shoulder complains, so my movement up the pool is slow. I see a lady coming down towards me and think, blimey she is going slowly, but 2 lengths later she overtakes me! I manage to keep going, on and off, for half an hour and decide I had better give it a rest – don’t want to do too much first time. If it helps, I will be going back a few days each week.

Back at home I manage to get a couple of hours capturing some video footage for the Network and then I am whisked off to Upfront Gallery to look at their new season exhibition. Back home I answer a few emails & run off the remaining papers for tomorrow’s meeting and then chill out, with a wonderful meat & potato pie & red wine; I have to say, Margaret’s pastry is the tops.

So that’s it, the end of what has been a quiet week for me, with no evening meetings. Hope you found the crack of some interest – by the way, just look at those films I mentioned on Wednesday, you can see 3 clips on the Cumbria Farmer Network website – I think you will enjoy them.

Paul

Saturday 23rd

2008-02-24T08:15:00.001Z

I will have to be quick today, so I have some time to put my feet up before bed.

Had a slow start, but did my domestic bit early on, getting Margaret breakfast in bed and setting a loaf off in the bread maker. Then off to the shop for the paper and a few bits before settling down to finish preparing for my meeting on Monday.

This job takes much longer than I anticipate, but I manage to get a glimpse of the Ireland Scotland match, which is exciting to watch. I think I enjoy watching rugby more than football these days – none of this acting injured and shouting at the ref.

I miss the football results, so sneak a look at them on the internet, only to find out that Leeds have not won again, and what is worse, Carlisle have – more stick when I see Graham next time.

After tea I finish off the questionnaire analysis and email to Andrew before watching the end of the France England game – puts a smile on my face. Oh and in case you have looked at the photo and wondered, yes it is the flag of St George in my office – I was given it last year by a badminton team I managed at the national finals at Nottingham – great memories.

Friday 22nd

2008-02-23T08:58:00.001Z

Quite an eventful day today, certainly one that has left me tired as I decide to write this while Margaret watches Jonathan Ross.

The morning was going OK, with the usual phone calls and emails, when I get a call from an internet TV channel that has just loaded our DVD’s onto their site and ask if they look OK. I like the look of what they have done, with links to our website but watch in horror as I note that they have not cut down the films as they said they would, so most of the videos are viewable free of charge! I quickly email a response to say I want them re-editing to reduce their playing time so that there is some incentive for the viewers to buy the DVD’s from us. I find it hard to believe this is just a misunderstanding – I hope we can sort it quickly.

Steve emails to offer us promoting the videos in the Courier and then sends an excellent piece of advertorial for me to check – I make a mental note – this chap has talent.

In the afternoon I spend time planning the commons research meeting I have on Monday and realise I am going to have to do some more over the weekend. I also get some time to capture some more film, but seem to get loads of interruptions, which is unusual for a Friday afternoon – can I have directions to Andrew’s house? Can my wife be added to the livestock transport test? My cheque is on the way, so don’t cross me off the list for the transport test at Torver etc. etc.

I try to pack up early, as Jamie has booked a court for a practice at 5pm, but get pestered with calls from Everley, who is having problems with one of the groups we have got grant for and then Julia, who wants to talk over things for Monday. I finish these at 4.30, quickly get changed, ask Margaret to make up my half made sandwich and I rush off to Penrith.

I arrive just in time for the practice, feeling quite fit for a change – at the start – but this soon changes as I decide Jamie needs to mainly play games tonight in preparation for the tournament on Sunday near Glasgow. After an hour I am goosed, bright red and ready for a long drink. We scoot off to the café, where I get a pint of water and sneak my sandwich, then off again as my first coaching class starts at 6.30. This goes really well and gives me hope we are making good progress.

At 8pm, just 6 children turn up as there is an away match for the first team. I am challenged to another singles by Ben. Inwardly I groan – will my body cope with it??? I just manage to get through this, when Will and Jonathan arrive back from the match at Will asks me for another singles. I decide enough is enough and decline; after all I do need to be able to walk tomorrow.

Thursday 21st

2008-02-22T10:13:00.001Z

Had a messy sort of a day today. I continued to take the Network calls in the morning, whilst trying to do a myriad of different things. I order some stationery for the carcase collection scheme, organise the room for the Board meeting next week, look at an opportunity to set up a scheme for members to buy cheap electricity and another to promote the farm assistant scheme. The electricity scheme sounds very interesting – I wonder if we get anywhere with this in a few months?

I also catch up on remaining work to be done for the commoners’ research project and speak to several of the team to find out how things are going. Then a quick bite of lunch and off to see Andrew to plan our Monday meeting.

The first thing I learn when I arrive is that it is Jethro Tull’s birthday – Andrew does tell me how many years, but the fact is gone in an instant. It never ceases to amaze me that for someone who had to retain so many facts when at school and college, I am really bad at doing so today. When the film, “Finding Nemo” was out, the kids called me Dori – the fish who suffered with short term memory loss!

Andrew and I look at the progress of the project and feel fairly content – maybe this is false confidence, we certainly will be under the spotlight with this job. We produce a simple plan for Monday and a promise that we must make every effort to stay on track, otherwise it will last all day. We finish with a cuppa, trying to put the world to rights as usual.

Back home and I have a few more emails to deal with; including one I missed from Val, who rings to ask if I would have a look at her proposal. Val is trying to get a national conference together and needs some feedback urgently. She wants to know if the Network would do some of the admin for this conference. I promise to ask Will and get back to her.

Margaret arrives back at 6pm and we cook the tea together, catching up on each other’s news.

After my power nap, I cannot face TV, so spend the evening capturing video clips from the Broughton draft ewe sale and it brings back memories of high emotion. It really hits home how important it is to help these farmers find some answers and solutions to the desperate position many of them face.

Wednesday 20th

2008-02-21T10:47:00.001Z

A good day today that started with Campbell telling me early that his meeting last night had gone well. The group are interested in the carcase collection scheme and everything seems to be on track. I take it on myself to ring one of the farmers in the group and discover he may know of an appropriate site, so I tell him he needs to follow this up as soon as possible if we are to stand any chance of getting this up and running in time for the beginning of April – he promises to do this and report back.

I reflect that whilst the Network has many farmers committed to helping each other, we have a long way to go to get the majority of members working together to increase their joint profits. Is it always someone else’s job to find and/or develop a solution?

It seems like we are salmon swimming upstream, we know it is the right thing to do, but it is much easier not to make the effort. In the past we have had a government that has gone ahead of us to shelter us from the strongest current, but now everyone is in the fast part of the stream and has to fend for themselves. Few salmon are big enough to get upstream without help so the rest have to each do something together to allow them to continue to make progress against the current, even though they often disagree. There is limited government help, but mainly for groups who can agree to work together – I wonder how many take up the challenge? I do fear for those who do not.

Thankfully I do not get too many phone calls, so I have time to read a few questionnaires from the commoners research I mentioned previously. Some really good stuff here that clearly shows the importance of common land to the economy, community and environment, so I hope Natural England will be pleased.

After lunch I have the luxury of having time to start capturing the filming I did at Coniston, which will end up as the autumn issue of Behind the Scenery. I rarely seem to get to this job during the week and it doesn’t really seem like work. I have a call from a teacher who wants to order the complete set of 4, having been shown one by another teacher friend – she thinks they are great, so this inspires me to press on with the editing. I complete 2 tapes in the afternoon – only 12 more to go!

I wonder if I get as good a day tomorrow?

Tuesday 19th

2008-02-20T18:12:00.002Z

Not so much to report today, so I thought I would throw in a picture to take up a bit more space. Had an early start writing yesterday’s blog, then getting the breakfast – this is my job in the morning, with Margaret washing up before she scoots off to work at Carlisle.

I spend the early part of the morning trying to make sure I am fully aware of how Will wants the carcase collection scheme to work and then chatting with Susan so that we get everything in place in time. I also look at some questionnaires that have been returned from an interesting research project I am managing with Andrew Humphries. We have been asked to look at present and future trends in the grazing management of common land in England and have a team of people around the country carrying out interviews with almost 40 groups and individuals. I am looking forward to seeing all the results next week.

At 10.45, John phones to say he is setting off to High Bankhill to feed his sheep, so if it is convenient, can I come now. I quickly finish an email and dash out, with the company cheque book in hand, so I can get the relevant cheques signed and bills paid. I get to the field just in time, pass the time of day then continue on to Carlisle, where I get some treatment on a frozen shoulder. The consultant tells me stress could be the cause and asks me if I am under a lot – I ask him to look at the colour of my hair and lack of it and answer the question himself! Anyway he relieves me of £35 and says come back again and smiles when he tells me the symptoms can last 2 years – probably thinking of his bank balance at the same time!!!!

In the afternoon I arrange the next Network Board meeting and send out details. This is to be a special meeting where the new Board meets the coordinators who do the work, to review what the company should be doing over the next 2 years. We have asked an outside consultant Viv, to attend the meeting to help to bring out some new ideas and opportunities, from which I will have to build the business plan – should be an interesting exercise.

I start an early tea, as Margaret said she would be home early, however half way through she rings to say she is running late and 2 minutes later Ellen phones for some clarification about the laptops she has for the livestock transport test tomorrow. After tea and 40 winks (or a power nap as my daughters remind me) I go upstairs to the office to find a message from Susan, suggesting it would be a good idea for me to take the company telephone calls tomorrow – lets hope there aren’t too many and I can get on with some other outstanding jobs.

Monday 18th

2008-02-19T19:57:00.001Z

As one of my badminton coaching days, Monday is always hectic. I have decided to write this early Tuesday morning partly because I am not a night person and partly because I woke early, wondering what I should write for the blog.

Yesterday I woke to see a hoar frost, with the birch trees in particular looking superb. After some time to catch up with emails, I packed my lunch and my VERY LARGE badminton bag and went into the Farmer Network office [the bag is the nearest I get to a big flashy car as a status symbol – it is so big I have a wide load sticker on the back and tow it behind the car!].

Susan comes into the office each Monday and I like to catch up with how things are going, but yesterday was special because we needed to go through the workload and plan out how much we could give to our new staff member, Ruth, without totally putting her off for life. We are both looking forward to some extra hands in the office, as we have been flat out over the last 2-3 months.

Ruth arrived early and after going through the list of things to do, I wonder if we should have kept a few details on the list secret for the time being?

After we have briefed her, I have to find something else to do because we only have enough space for two people in the office at once, due mainly to several boxes of videos stacked up that we have to sell. These videos, called “Behind the Scenery” are the result of over 12 months work by me to film two families in Cumbria to follow them round on their everyday lives on and off the farm. We wanted to use them to educate the public to show what life is really like and not something that was biased in some way. Trouble is sales are slower than we thought and although highly valued by those who buy them, we need to get more sold from the office to allow us to be able to swing the proverbial cat!

I find enough work to keep me occupied and leave at 5.20pm and head off to Morrisons café for some tea and time to plan my coaching session, which is on the back of the till receipt again (not in the coaching manual), then head off to the Leisure Centre. I quickly get changed and arrive in the hall to find I had forgotten we had a match, with our A team playing our B team in the league, so quickly have to re-think the coaching plan for the 11 children who are left.

I feel chuffed when James comes up to me as soon as I get in to tell me that after his first county tournament at the weekend, he has been invited to attend the under 13 county squad practices (and he is just 10) – it makes it all worthwhile to see him so happy to have been asked.

Coaching goes well and the match finishes as a draw and a bonus that I do not spot anyone throwing tantrums! After the club finishes at 8.30, Jamie arrives for some 1:1 coaching. I find out that he also did very well at the county tournament on Sunday, so it gives me some extra encouragement. We have a good workout and agree to try and slip in an extra session on Friday evening if we can get a court, to prepare him for an important competition in Scotland this weekend.

I arrive back home just after 10pm to find Margaret almost asleep on the settee. I have a quick drink and then off to bed.

Paul Harper

2008-02-18T12:16:00.001Z

I think this should be a good exercise for me. After Steve gave me the nod, I have been thinking, what can I tell people about myself that people will find interesting? It certainly makes you realise what a boring life you lead, when you read previous blogs like that of Matthew.

My name is Paul Harper, by the way, I live with my wife Margaret at Lazonby, having lived in the village for almost 25 years. Margaret & I have 3 daughters, Sarah, Claire and Rebecca, who have all left home but still give us lots of enjoyment, interest and a reason to live. For instance, we have just returned from Birmingham after a trip last week to see Rebecca – why else would you go to Birmingham? Well actually it is not as bad as you might think. The city centre has been improved a lot over the past 10 years and although cities are not my cup of tea, if you like retail therapy, then it is OK. The Selfridges building is impressive and you should not miss a trip on the canals to see the industrial heritage of the city. Its best redeeming factor from my perspective is that it hosts the All England Badminton Championships in March, but more of that later.

Margaret and I really enjoy our life in Cumbria. When we moved from Devon in 1983 we had every intention of moving back to our roots in Yorkshire but it didn't take long for the Cumbria magic to work on us and we became hefted.

I was brought up on our small family farm in Yorkshire, spending time milking cows bottling milk and all the other the dogs-body work that goes hand-in-hand with being an eldest son. After some experimentation with working in a bank, I decided my heart was in agriculture and went back into education studying at Seale Hayne College where I got to know a little more about agriculture, something about management, a lot about the fairer sex, and lots of time to enjoy my favourite sport, badminton.

Since I finished college I worked for ADAS in Devon and then Penrith, designing buildings in the early days and later helping to manage projects, prepare business plans and marketing plans so that farmers could access grants. I left the company in 2002 to work for myself and in the last two years I've been fortunate to be at the heart of setting up the Cumbria Farmer Network helping to manage the company and make things happen behind the scenes.

Although I do have a few other clients, I have put almost every ounce of effort into the Farmer Network to try to get it established successfully. The ethos is that the company is run & directed by farmers themselves. I am one of the few non-farmers involved who try to bring some other skills to the company to support what the farmer directors want to do. No doubt you will hear about some of what we get up to over the next week.

When I am not working and not on holiday, I coach badminton play bowls in the summer and enjoy watching sport. Badminton is my main sport. I started playing when at school and then played at a good level whilst in Devon. From my perspective it has been and still is a great way to keep fit, meet new people with men and women competing equally – not many sports have as many partnerships formed whilst competing which have then blossomed in a romantic way and become permanent. Instead of the adrenalin rush from competing myself, I now get this from watching students I coach improve and teams I manage win matches (which does not happen too often).

So that is me in a nutshell. Hope to give you some more detail over the next week.

Was it worth it?

2008-02-18T12:15:00.000Z

Was it worth it?Woke with my head spinning this morning. Perhaps I should have had another rehearsal, can I do a re-write this morning? Will everyone turn up? After breakfast, I sat down at the computer and tried to re-write a scene from the Entertainments. I needed some help from Oliver and Emilia, and they were able to find me the words for Alouette in their music book. The pan for today was to rehearse at Low Hesket village hall for a couple of hours in the morning, give everyone an hour or so to have a bite to eat before metng again at Ulswater College to view the sage at 2pm. Skleton were first on at 3pm, so not a lot of time to do any major changes...just a tweak here and there.I was impressed how bright eyed and bushy tailed the Young Farmers were on a sunday morning. We went through the 'Music Man' sketch I had tweaked, and did a quick run through just to get a feel for the whole show. The pre-show time at Ullswater was pretty stressful as the sound and lights needed to be ran trough, and all the cast have to look at the stage, and the size of the wings, and get a feel for the setting. Each club is given half an hour only to view the stage. By the time we had finished the paying public were starting to find their seats. And then to add to my good humour, Fred from the Herald arrived for a photo opportunity. Nice to get the publicity, but I was wanting time to gee the cast up! Aaarghhh!!!Once I was happy I go front of house and sit with Alison, Oliver, Emilia and their 2 cousins Thomas and Joe. The show flies by, and I am happy with it. The re-written sketch works much better and the bigger stage helps as well. Once it is over, the cast change quickly and come through and watch Kent Estuary and Drigg, both of whom are very good. I ma glad I dn't have to m,ake a decision between them. Once this aftrnoon's show is over the clubs for this evening are piling in for their pre-show viewing of the stage and lights. Hectic or what!!The family head home, while I head to the pub. I join aout 20 or so in the Wolfe, and the laughter and chatter is great. Some leave at 7 as they have tickets for this evening's show, but I will just get back for the results. We leave the pub at about 9, grab some chips and walk to the theatre. It soons becomes apparent that the Skelton crew have been in the pub as we are the rowdiest gathering stood at the back.As per earlier in the week, I hate the adjiudication process. The judges comments aboit our show were fair, but not glowing, and I was convinced that they hadn't enjoyed our efforts. This wasn't helped when Kirsty was awarded best actress. Much cheering and chanting, but sometimes I feel that the award for best actor and actress is a consolation prize! The end of the road is nigh!A deathly hush as the judges say... and now for the results. I sit feeling qute low. In fourth is Kent Estuary, third is Crook. By now I am really down, as we are eithe rfifth or sixth. And in second place....Skelton. Cue mass hysteria, people jumping all ove rme and hugs all round. That was very unexpected. Raughton Head win to massive accliam, and I hope they progress a long way. I t would be nice to see them go all the way to National.SO Skleton and Raughton Head now go to represent Cumbria at the Northern Area. This is 6 weeks away at Pontins in Blackpool. More fun to come! Both clubs adjourn to the warehouse for more beer. To see the Skelton lot bouncing on the dance floor and just so excited and bouyant makes all the effort worth it!So readers, my week has passed by very quickly. Not a normal week, but on balance a fair insight to the mania that is my ife. Alison does well to put up with me. (so thats even stevens then!!!!). This week is the Ofsted inspection, I mjust get some cricket fixtures compiled, and there is plenty of reading that needs looking at. Thanks for all the kind words, and until the next timeCop you laterMatthew

Twins for a week

2008-02-17T17:54:00.000Z

Today is my brother Justin’s birthday. From now until next week he and I are the ‘same’ age. When I was one, instead of a rattle, or a cuddly toy, my parents gave me a real live baby brother. For all you mathematicians out there, its three months, which proves that breast feeding is not a fool proof form of contraception. Obviously I was then deprived of mother’s milk, and have struggled to thrive since(obviously), and perhaps why I have such a curious fixation with….. oops am starting to reveal too much!

As you can imagine, when one is younger the privileges and rights that come with being the eldest are many, and it used to nark me that I had to share them with Blinky for a week. (as a typical Aussie family we refer to each other by nicknames… Justin is known as Blinky, younger brother Daniel is Jug, and I am one of Mouth, Viv or Pudding Head). And Blink of course knew how much fun he could extort in that week.

Rang brother this morning to wish him happy 40th, but he was out at a party, so spoke to my niece and nephew who were ‘home alone’. Sounded like complete pandemonium, and lots of noise down the phone. I think I was relieving the boredom for them!!!

Oliver required some help knocking posts into the ground, as he is constructing a den. A very industrious and hard working lad is my son, which he gets from his mother! Unfortunately, the needs of work meant I couldn’t stay and help, and spent the whole day at Newton Rigg trying to catch up, in readiness for the blessed inspection. Listened to the FA Cup on the computer, and cheered when Liverpool were beaten. I am a West ham supporter (with quite a strong allegiance to Carlisle as well), but the number of Liverpool supporters around who like to gloat are many, so any change for them to go out to lesser opposition is welcomed!

Alison and the children had a drive out and a walk on this fantastic spring day, and I just hope there is light at the end of the tunnel in sense of the time work is taking up. We had a lovely supper together this evening, and once the kids were bed, Ali and sat by the fire and read the papers. Really a very pleasant evening.

We discussed birthdays, as you earlier mathematicians will have deduced that if my birthday is a week after my brothers, then it falls next week. By a strange twist of fate Alison’s is the day after mine. Next week I will be 41 (or “ancient” as Emiliai tells me with relish!!!! ), Alison will be “*%@~ (if there is isn’t a number on the actual blog then you’ll know that the Pentalk editors have stepped in!!).

Lots of thoughts about tomorrow as I am with Skelton YFC all day with the Entertainments. Hopefully will sleep and not have too over active brain as I think of what can be done to improve!!

Happy Birthday Blink!! (and I’m still the eldest, so am still the boss)

It's been a long week!

2008-02-16T08:35:00.000Z

Friday already, and am surprisingly tired. So much to do, and so little time. Sums up my life!

Somebody once told me that if want something doing then you ask a busy person. Yet another hat I wear is that of branch treasurer for our union branch. One of the joys' of becoming a new University back in August was the requirement to become a brand new branch of the union (Unison). Muggins here was nominated as treasurer!

We have been a shadow branch, a branch in limbo, a newly formed branch, and finally a fully constituted branch! But that meant we have to have an AGM before the end of Feb. Now it doesn’t make sense to try and get a quorum at one venue, so instead the officers attend different venues, and hold the same meeting. Just like ground hog day, but more like ground hog hour!!! Today I have sat through 3 AGMS at Newton Rigg, Brampton Road, and finally at Fusehill Street (in the old maternity hospital where Oliver was born!!). I have had more exciting days, let me tell you, but needs must! (we have to repeat the whole thing again next Friday in Lancaster)

I also play darts for the Caldbeck cricket Club (D side) on a Friday night, and for some reason I am responsible for the food, so a quick dash around Tesco got me some potato wedges and not-so Jamie Oliver friendly chicken burgers (or LTA as my team refer to them as. L for Lips, T for tits, and no prizes for the A stands for!). But since the team all have to contribute, and I am providing for 12 players (6 home, and 6 away) I am on a tight budget……. They are all tight, so I have a small budget). But after a few pints, and some shocking darts everyone seems fairly appreciative of the warm food. Better than curled up dry sandwiches!

Before heading out for darts, Oliver went to football at Dalston, while Alison spent an hour at High Head Sculpture Valley to catch up with some admin work. (she normally works Thursday & Friday, but has taken them off this week for half term), so I spend an hour so playing with Emilia outside. Good fun, but then the temperature dropped, so we lit the fire and watched some telly.

Darts was poor this evening, and after three great victories in the last three weeks we were whopped 11-3 tonight by Ireby. There are 4 Pattinsons in my team (one called Steve, but not the same one that my wife swoons over…well not as much….this one is only 18!!). A good laugh, as we don’t take it too seriously. The LTA burgers went down well, as did my spicy wedges.

The last two days have seen me manage not to encounter anymore Pentalk co-ordinators. This cream seems to be working. (even the one I normally spend some time with, is giving me a wide berth.) If only I’d discovered it earlier.

Looking forward to a break this weekend, but suspect I may have to go into work to get ahead, and Sunday is County Entertainment’s day. But perhaps a lie in. We’ll see!!!

Who said romance is dead!!!

2008-02-15T08:30:00.000Z

Roses are reddish
Violets are bluish
If it wasn’t for Jesus
We’d all be Jewish!!!

Woke up this morning and dashed down the letter box….but there was nothing there. I suppose I shouldn’t have been that surprised….our postman doesn’t call till about midday!

On the breakfast table the roses and the chocolates that had left for Alison had mysteriously disappeared, and were replaced by a card with my name on in, next to some very swanky chockies. I ripped open the card, but whoever had written in it had only signed it with a question mark. I am still none the wiser! Hope springs eternal!!

I quickly transferred some TV tunes onto a CD for the quiz night. If you are reading this from Ivegill, and are attending the quiz on Friday night, here is a tip. Song number 7 is the Banana Splits!! If it is Saturday when you read this, then just treat that little gem as a useless ‘hot tip’.

Got to work at normal sort of time (I am rather lax at getting in before time, but since I often leave a couple of hours after knock-off time I don’t feel too ashamed). Having not been at my desk yesterday the inbox was as full as a fat woman’s sock! Sat through three meetings today, and still managed to be productive. Left the office at 6:50, dropped the Ivegill quiz off (hint 2… its Knot’s Landing if you’re not sure!), then got home at 7:15, giving me a full ten minutes before dashing out the door.

Before you lot start criticising me for a bad husband, you’ll be pleased to know that tonight and I took Mrs Burbury out for Valentines evening. We settled down at a lovely table, gazed across into each other eyes, wished each other luck, and then turned our dominoes over! The domino drive at Sebergham is a regular event, and very child friendly (unlike some other venues), so Oliver and Emilia participated as well.

A good laugh, and nice to have lots of children involved. Some of the ‘pros’ hate the speed of play, and the fact that kids line the doms up like Stonehenge. But often their unorthodox play wins the hand, and the pro is baffled by the playing order. Tonight my luck was out, and I got the lowest score amongst the Burburys. Oliver got 112 which saw him win a prize (a very nice plant which he gave to Alison. It had no label on it, but it was in a Haughtons Garden centre bag so I know it’s not a triffid!!)

And then Oliver won first prize in the raffle, and Emilia and I also had our numbers pulled out. So Alison was the only one not to win a prize. (she drew a blank you may say!). Got home, put kids to bed. Being a suave sophisticated gent I suggested a wee romantic drink, but the lure of the electric blanket thwarted me. (so I ended up with a blank as well!)

So here I sit with a wee whiskey, have just played a game of poker on facebook (they only use fun chips…so I am not losing real money. I think I was chatted up by Veronica from Ireland, but since it has been so long since a female has shown any interest in me I am not sure. Somehow we ended up talking hairy chests. ). Also played a couple of moves on Scrabble as well. Not sure how long the fad of facebook will last, but a couple of people from Tassie have re-established contact, so that has been a pleasant surprise.

So, Valentine’s day is over for another year, and amazingly it follows a fairly predictable pattern. Perhaps I should combine tonight’s activity with romance. If I count the spots on a single domino from the box I can ask ‘ She loves me, she loves me not’. Right, all the doms are upside down, shuffle them, and an odd number spots for she loves me, an even number of spots for she loves me not. Here goes.....

The double blank….typical!

Tomorrow is Triffid Day

2008-02-14T13:23:00.001Z

I quickly read my efforts from the last two evenings. Thanks to all those who have offered kind words….nice to know people are indeed reading these. Not surprisingly I have no feedback from Bobby Jack, but then he probably still hasn’t learned to access ‘tinternet!!

Had to be woken up this morning, so brekky and the chat about last night’s entertainment was rushed! A pretty normal routine in our house! At least with half term there is not the panic to practice recorder, fill in the reading book log, practice spellings and ensure sports gear is packed. I had to turn left out of my lane this morning as I had a day at the Brampton Road Campus (or the Cumbria Institute of the Arts site as most of you will know it) for a day full of OFSTED preparation meetings. I certainly know how to live!!!

Usually my trip to work is via Skelton, Laithes and Newton Reigny, where my only worries are the school run coming the other way, or maybe the odd dairy herd returning to the fields (I nearly typed paddock there…some Aussie terms are hard to lose…struth!). But today I joined the commuter belt in trying to get across Carlisle before 9am. Needless to say I was late!

The forestry industry will be pleased to know that an OFSTED inspection means half the trees of a small African nation need to be chopped down to provide us with paper for all the reports, the agendas, and massive spreadsheets full of figures which need to be circulated. With the sun streaming into a hot room it has been a day of attrition, but needs must!

As I drove past the garden centre at Houghton they had a big sign reminding me about Valentine’s Day, and to ‘say it with flowers’. I called in, but the young sales assistant had never heard of a Triffid. Best revert to plan B.

Mrs Burbury, Oliver and Emilia spend the day walking with Trish Jackson and her tribe. (Day three of the blog and yet another Pentalk co-ordinator features. They get everywhere. Perhaps I should see the doctor and see if there is a cream? What is the collective noun for a group of pentalk co-ordinators?.. an obedience? a gaggle? A nag?). On such a lovely day the photos were captivating. Alison has a special talent with photography, and the photos from today are awe inspiring, Ullswater as flat as a mill pond, not a cloud in the sky, and even some nice photos of the cheeky monkeys.

I was home before the rest of the family, so did my best to earn brownie points. Brought the washing in, made the bed , started cooking tea (that’s what we call it in Oz), polished the silver, re-tiled the back shed, and solved the third world debt problem. Naturally I did most of them incorrectly (how was I to know which way the sheets should have been folded?) which actually resulted in a deficit on the brownie point tally. So very hard to earn, and so easy to lose!

Oliver was off to Cumberland Westmorland wrestling tonight. Tonight was points night, where the young guns can win money if they progress far enough in the bouts. Oliver set off with my pound, but came back with nothing (I would have done as well to ring Robert Wharton for a hot tip!). I dropped Oliver round to the Potts household. Young Phil goes along with Oliver, so we share driving duty. Oliver was returned having not won a single bout, but having had an ice-cream none-the-less. (The usual bribe of an ice-cream only if he and Phil win a bout each and the ice-cream van is met on the drive home seems to have been relaxed.)

I ploughed through my neglected email box. So much to do. Cricket fixtures need creating, a quiz I promised to set for Friday needs writing, and the share club needs some attention (anyone want to buy some Northern Rock shares?). Just as I started to construct my quiz the phone next to the computer rang. Some 90 minutes later Alison hung up, by which time I was nearly asleep on the sofa. Not sure when this quiz will happen, but am too tired to worry about that now.

Best get an early-ish night. Tomorrow the Vice Chancellor of the University is meeting with the LSC regarding funding and budgets, and I am his figures back-up man. Hooray.

Now where is the web address for inter-flora. Wonder if this is cutting it too fine?

Locked Out!

2008-02-13T08:39:00.000Z

She locked me out!! Can you believe it, I have been locked out of my own home by Mrs Burbury. I know she is bitter, and perhaps I need to spend some quality time with her, but to arrive home from Whitehaven at 12:30am and find the door locked is a reality check!

And to make matters worse, the last thing I said as I left the house was that I wasn’t taking my keys, so leave the door open. So either:

a) she is resentful of my time away and needed to remind me who was really in charge.

b) she doesn’t listen to what I say, or worse still, chose not to take heed of what I said

or

c) she is getting old and forgetful!!

Gosh.! Really had better give some serious thought to what to accompany the card for Valentine’s day. And the day started so well and all……

Up and at them at normal time, a little bleary eyed from last night’s typing. The drive to Newton Rigg takes about 20 minutes (strangely less to drive back home…how can that be?). I have my football kit, and some left over beef casserole with me for my lunch!

The new University of Cumbria has been selected for a one day OFSTED inspection which is taking place next week on Tuesday. And the one thing that the inspectors want more than anything is data. Rates on retention, success, and achievement, plus age break down, and gender breakdown, and all going back three years. As the person responsible for the Further Education student record system I spend all day writing reports, checking the output, and putting into documents and a format that everyone understands. I know a lot of people can’t imagine anything worse, but I get excited by spreadsheets… the bigger and more complex the better!!

The morning is punctuated by Alison sending me a choice of three photos to accompany this blog. In a wholly justified response to the blog she sent in a picture from the Dr Who exhibition of an alien. She did remark that it looked like I had been on a diet (cheeky mare), and the second photo was of me inappropriately attired in only a woolly beanie, a green shirt, and home knitted socks from my mother. I had never seen this photo, but the laughter down the line showed it had an impact!! Thankfully we opted for the one form Lands End taken on last year’s holiday.

During my lunch hour I donned the footy kit, and ran around the artificial pitch at work like a mad loon. I have no skill, no fitness, and no hope, and my main purpose for turning up is so that someone else is not the last man picked!!!! However, the break from the computer chair and monitor is welcome, and we laugh a lot. I usually find productivity is better in the afternoon after a jog around the pitch.

I leave work in reasonable time, as I am to be picked up by Richard at 6:20 so we can get to Whitehaven. Its then time to fill the car with 3 others from Lamonby; Andrew, Bobby Jack, and the lovely Anita (yet another Pentalk co-ordinator… they seem to get everywhere!!!!). The trip down to Whitehaven was a forum for Bobby Jack to talk about tractors, romance, tractors, and cows. If anybody is needing some useless information, then Bobby is your man. But the whole car was entertained, and we arrived at the Civic centre just as Raughton Head started their entertainment.

Tonight’s two shows were of a high class, and with Drigg on home turf the nerves kicked in as the two judges started their adjudication. Thankfully, after 20 long minutes Gordon Brown announced the top four in reverse order. Longtown had made it in fourth, Skelton were third (cue wild cheering and fist pumping by the assembled Orange army), while Drigg were second. The final announcement was the winners, and Raughton Head were crowned Northern District champs (cue even wilder cheering from their whole cast and crew), meaning poor Kirklinton were the one team to be ‘evicted’.

After a quick consultation with the judges on what may be done to improve, we adjourned to the nearest pub to have celebratory ale. All the talk was of what improvements can be made for the county final, but the stark reality is that the County Final is this Sunday, so the realistic chances of making major modifications are slim. But we live to fight another day, and my mind is working on what we can do to lift our game for Sunday’s performance.

The trip back was a forum for tractor and car talk from Bobby Jack, until the lure of sleep took over. (I also threatened to spread his romantic notions for Anita for Valentine’s Day on the blog, but he wasn’t too fussed as he can’t use ‘tinternet’!!) It is a great tonic to be in the company of young vibrant people, and nice to not be the driver.

So for the second night (early morning) running I sit and write, with my head spinning at thoughts of Entertainment. Perhaps tomorrow will be a little more normal?

Matthew Burbury

2008-02-12T08:37:00.000Z

Here I sit, my head a spinning,
All the talk of maybe winning.
Or maybe fifth, for which is last
and why the show flew by so fast.

On Tuesday night we'll find out fate
a horrid time to sit and wait,
And wonder if the judge will spot
What worked well, and what did not.

For 5 long weeks we've practiced hard,
To dance, to sing, to act the card.
With tears, and laughter, and hair pulled out
The show went on, despite our doubt.

And in a flash of one half hour
We river danced, and did girl power
And on a bus that went 'too quack'
We did the trip to 'Greece', and back.

Tonight at Dalston, in hall of heat
They clapped their hands, and stomped their feet
The competition they came to see
Was 'Entertainment - YFC!'

So Longtown, 'Linton, and Skel-toon
Have done their bit, and very soon
Will boys and girls from down at Drigg
join Raughton Head, for Haven's gig.

And only once all five are done
Will judges tell us who has won.
And which 4 teams go on to county
(there will be tears, there's bound- ty.)

So like this nation we will wait
And let one man decide our fate
Civic centre.. a hush comes down
And wait the words of Gordon Brown!!

G'day! As Mr Black and family are on the piste, some of will probably think I have been on it too much as well!!. My name is Matthew Burbury and the blog baton has move half a mile up the road and landed in my ample lap. The above ditty sums up why I am sitting on my computer gone midnight and unable to contemplate bed just yet!!. For my sins I have been producing Skelton Young Farmers Entertainment, of which the first round took place tonight at Caldew School. More about the entertainments later!

So why I am your blogger this week? I wish I knew exactly why, but I think I have a good idea. I am of course the lucky man who is married to Pentalk Co-ordinator Alison Burbury. I imagine the email conversation between Stevie Patt and Alison went along these lines:

SP : Alison we have Dave Black, eminent vet of the county (nay the nation) for the week staring the 4th, and you've also lined up Paul Harper of wide renown to help out, but he can only do the week commencing 18th Feb. Any ideas?

AB: Hmm, not really Steve. Its half term and most sensible people will be away!

SP: Exactly. So we need a filler!

AB: And the weather's improving so everyone will be outside getting jobs done, and not have time to sit on a computer.

SP: Would Matthew do it?

AB: That’s the best joke you've sent for a long time!

SP: Very funny. Would you ask him?

AB: Well if you think its worth it. I'll tell him to do it. He owes me a favour or two. He's hardly been in for the last month. Reckons he's been helping Skelton YFC with their entertainment. But he can't dance, can't sing, and he certainly isn't very funny. Can't see why they would want him! Bloody traitor and all. Why isn't he helping my old club Raughton head?

SP: Easy petal, I just want a blogger for next week.

AB: Sorry precious, I'll tell him he's doing it!

SP: You are a star

AB: Anything for you!!!!!!

So here I am, your blogger for the week. I am a Tasmanian by birth, and remain proudly an Australian (yes Tasmania is part of Australia. We are one of the 6 states of Australia, and the current Aussie cricket captain is a native Taswegian). I came to the UK as a Rural Youth Exchangee in 1991, (Rural Youth is what we call YFC in Tassie), where a young lady stole my hat on the very first night at Stoneleigh. During the next six months she added the letters E.R. to hat, and stole that as well. Next thing I know I am married to Miss Wales (The lads back in Tassie were very impressed.... they thought I had landed the winner of a beauty competition waving daffodils and leeks about!!!). We currently live on Alison's folk's farm, with our two lovely children, Oliver 10, and Emilia 7.

I have lived in Cumbria for 14 years, two months, 3 days and 15 hours (but who's counting?) I currently work at the University of Cumbria, and before that I worked for University of Central Lancashire, and before that I was at Newton Rigg Agricultural College. Amazingly, I haven’t had to move location for these jobs. I just stay put and then every couple of years get paid by a different pay-roll!!

When not at work, I am involved with Caldbeck cricket club, helping out as a governor at the children’s school at Raughton Head, provide help and assistance to Young Farmers Clubs (Raughton Head, Skelton and Thirlmere at the moment), plus occasional Dad and taxi for the children, and even more rarely a loving husband to a very understanding wife. (Note to self, this week is Valentine’s Day, must organise a card that is bigger and more expensive than the one that will arrive from Streethead!!!)

But for the most part of this last month I have been producing Skelton’s Entertainment. Each year the YFC has a competition that moves on rotation between drama, pantomime and entertainment. Drama and Panto are pretty self explanatory, but the Entertainment is like a cabaret/ music hall show. The clubs have 30 minutes to put on a show. How and what they do is completely up to themselves. This is a national competition, so if a club does well they have the chance of progressing to the National Finals. For clubs in the north of the Cumbria we have to compete against each other, followed by a county final. The top two clubs then represent Cumbria at Northern Area (taking on Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, Lancashire and Isle of Man teams) and if successful there is a the National semi-final (north) before progressing to the National final.

I first came across Entertainments when I helped Raughton Head over ten years ago with ‘An American Tale’, produced by a certain Ian Blamire (who is currently producing Raughton Head’s entry this year). We were lucky / talented enough to get all the way to National finals with a very young cast, and that year we had to travel all the way to Torquay for the final. Four year’s later Raughton Head got to National Finals at Blackpool (once again under Ian’s direction) with ‘Let’s Dance’.

In 2005, the very young cast had grown up and decided to produce their own show, so I was asked to help Skelton YFC out as they had no experience in producing entertainments. It certainly raised some eye brows having a ‘Raughton Head-ite’ working with another club, but for me the experience and enjoyment of putting on a show was something that needed to be shared. In this year Skelton progressed to the County final at Theatre by the Lake (which is a magnificent set-up, and incredible opportunity for young people to tread the boards on such a stage), while Raughton Head took all before them before being knocked out (controversially and wrongly I might add) at the National Semi-Finals at Stockport.

The competition at all levels is littered with stories of injustices and upsets, but at the end of the day, the judges decisions is final. If you float their boat, you get through, but if you encounter a judging team that doesn’t like it, then the end of the road comes along!!!

So after 5 weeks (which is not that long really, especially as we have never had a full cast to a single rehearsal), Skelton’s production of ‘Are We There Yet’ was on stage second at Caldew tonight along with Longtown and Kirklinton. It never ceases to amaze me the talent that is evident in all the clubs. Young people on stage, wearing costumes they would not be seen dead in normally, acting the fool, singing solos in front of 300 people, and putting on a great show is a tribute to the hard work of the clubs.

For my part, the mad dash after work to get home, shovel in my food, and leave the house five minutes later is part of the thrill. The hour before curtain up is manic as the lights were not working, and the sound check needed doing. All the while, 40 Skelton YFCs are getting changed into Lederhosen, spice girls outfits, and having make-up applied. A quick run through some of the songs, and dance routines, and then sit quietly in a classroom as Longtown perform. This is always very hard as it would be great to view our competitors, but it is important that we keep our costumes and makeup a surprise so that the audience enjoy our show.

Once I am happy that the cast are ready, I go ‘front-of-house’ and watch. This always is a difficult thing to do. I know what I expect, and the hope is for smiles on audience faces, and hopefully a laugh or two. I also know what should and shouldn’t happen on stage, but the hope is that any mistake is not noticed by the audience! Alison, Oliver and Emilia are in the audience so I sit with them. The 30 minutes fly by, and a quick change means the whole cast can all watch Kirklinton.

Once the final show is over, a quick tidy up of costumes and set, and then we adjourn to Bridge End at Dalston for a well deserved half! The Raughton head cast and crew are in, and they have the joy of performing on Tuesday night at Whitehaven’s Civic Centre. I really enjoy the fact that the clubs can be fierce rivals during competition, and then have a beer together at the end of the day. The Skelton crew organise lifts and car sharing so we can be in the audience tomorrow night cheering and clapping. But once Drigg and Raughton Head have been on stage, we await the judges who will keep us waiting, and then announce the winners. Just the fact I am typing up about this gives me butter-flys. The sensation as the judges make their comments on stage about your production is one I don’t handle too well. If I’m nervous now, what will I be like on Tuesday evening.

Tune in tomorrow for the results!!! Time for bed.

The VetBlog Sunday 10th

2008-02-11T16:18:00.000Z

Today has been a glorious day of sun and skiing – the slopes are much quieter that we would expect at half-term, the chalet is great, and my only outstanding job is to find a wireless access point or internet café, which I am about to do. So if you are reading this, I was successful – if not you’ll never know!!

So this is David Black and The Vetblog signing out!!

The VetBlog Saturday 9th

2008-02-11T16:17:00.002Z

Saturday saw us taking our eldest daughter to a rendevous for a school trip to China (I reminded her that in my day a trip to Culloden Moor was as exciting as it got!) and then Becca our middle daughter was dropped off for her to leave on a school ski trip. I shot off quickly to help a colleague post-mortem a cow, and to give another opinion on the cause of death (which appeared to be an abscess at the outflow from the fourth stomach) before setting off with Sue, and Isla our youngest to Prestwick for our own, last minute ski holiday with four old friends from Brampton. Somehow in amongst all this Sue had managed to coerce me into throwing some stuff into a bag while she undertook (as usual) all the other domestics – I’d be lost without her!!

We made it to Gerona, shoehorned us all into a Santa-Fe vehicle, having tied some luggage to the roof with an impromptu arrangement of children’s skipping ropes bought in the airport shop and made it to Val D’Isere in the early hours.

The VetBlog Friday 8th

2008-02-11T16:17:00.001Z

Friday started at home ploughing through e-mails via an interactive link I have with the practice computer which is really useful as it allows me to get a lot done without distractions. Went in mid-morning to go through some plans with a local builder, as we are currently exploring the possibility of creating some more space at the Dalston site – we seem to have outgrown the current client facilities, but are always bound by the constraints of an old, and very solid sandstone building. The weekly invoice run was then checked through and signed off before I gathered up some drugs and a scanner for an afternoon herd fertility and health visit. There were one or two other little jobs to do while I was there – cases to follow up and others to check over – and then I was very kindly provided with a cup of tea and a couple of sticky cakes to take with me in the car and keep me going! I filled up at Tescos and put the car through the car wash, as I had been forced off the road earlier today by a short-sited neighbour and the car looked like I had been rallying!

With us heading off on holiday tomorrow, the rest of the evening until very late was taken up with sorting through my “in-tray” and trying to ensure I had left no loose ends – unfortunately the Blog did not get done up to date that night!!

The VetBlog Thursday 7th

2008-02-11T16:14:00.001Z

The Great Orton Women’s Institute seemed to enjoy their evening – they are a lively bunch and full of fun – I did a brief, light-hearted presentation on what its really like being a vet, they had a short business meeting and Karen and Diane showed them around the veterinary hospital. Unfortunately I had to leave them at 8 oclock to participate in an XLVet conference call that went on for well over two hours!! Finished off the days paperwork and headed for home.

Thursday started with some e-mails before setting off to the game plant and did a few hours there before being relieved by a colleague. I called into a family farm who has been a client since I returned to Cumbria and came to Dalston in 1992. They have become good friends, but have been going through a rough patch recently. I often think it is easy to forget that many farmers are relatively isolated on their farms, and that it must be difficult to be able to stand back and take a fresh look at how things are going and whether anything can be done to improve things. I spent a couple of hours there and we chatted about several veterinary issues and we started to put together a plan to look at the nutrition and health of the cows, which we hope to roll out over the next few weeks.

I then had a meeting with a pharmaceutical representative, or “territory manager” as they are now know and we talked about some new products and about how these could be rolled out through XLVets. Several of the vets in the practice who do mainly large animal work then chatted through some the current cases and ongoing disease issues we have on some farms, before I was back in front of my PC. I saw a dog with a bite wound on behalf of one of my other young colleagues who was rushing off to view a house – and reminded myself how much I enjoy the client interaction and the satisfaction of a job well done. The rest of the evening was taken up with Skype calls to other XLVet Board members and updating the XLVet website.

The VetBlog - Wednesday 6th

2008-02-06T15:15:00.001Z

Got my (green) wellies back on today and spent the morning on one of my routine health visits - this is mainly based around cattle fertility work, using ultrasound scanners to identify pregnancies and check out cows that are not yet back in calf. It is vitally important for dairy farmers to get their cows back in calf as soon as they can in order for them to remain efficient milk producers. There is some admirable enthusiasm and optimism amongst some dairy farmers - the one I was at this morning has just completed a new shed with cubicles for 270 cows, complete with the latest cow mattresses, and this morning the steel was arriving for the next one of the same size to stand alongside. It is a pleasure and priviledge to work alongside farmers and to be part of their businesses - working together to keep animals as healthy as possible so that the industry can renmain as healthy as possible. Then back to the office to catch up on the financials from January which are just being completed - we need to keep a very tight reign on the business, and each month we look at and compare the profitability (or otherwise) of each cost centre and each species discipline.

After that I need to get prepared for Great Orton Women's Institute who are visiting the practice this evening for a talk, tea and cakes (of course) and a tour of the practice. One of the favourite activities is to wire up one of their members (a volunteer) to some of the anesthetic monitoring equipment (or "ping machines" as some of us call them) to show how we monitor pulse, breathing, blood oxygen levels etc - that usually gives them a good laugh. I will let you know how it goes!

The VetBlog - Tuesday 5th

2008-02-06T14:51:00.000Z

Another early start as I had to be in Edinburgh for 8.30am. As vets, we now have to do a minimum amount of CPD (Continuing Professional Development) and we have to keep log-books of what we do - these points might be gained by being on the receiving end of information - reading journals, attending meetings or conferences etc., or might be by giving talks and lectures, or writing articles or papers. The course in Edinburgh was associated with meat hygiene, and was a compulsory one that I needed to attend in order to maintin my qualifications to work in abattoirs. Then in the evening (killing two birds with one stone) I gave a lecture to the Edinburgh Veterinary Students about whether rural veterinary practice had any future and about XLVets. The title of the lecture "Rural Practice - Is It Dead?" was an interesting one, and I presented the case why I do not think it is, but that there are several issues that we have to contend with - such as critical mass of small businesses, the type of graduates (very clever, intellectually curious, mainly female, and often looking on a veterinary career as a job as opposed to a vocation), the nature of modern farming, the expectations of clients. We are extremely fortunate at Paragon to have attracted vets who still do have the desire and ethic to work hard in a small rural practice, but these people are getting fewer. But overall, I feel that where there is change there is opportunity, and we as a profession must embrace the drammatic changes we are seeing in rural practice. I then told the students about XLVets which is an exciting initiative that we at Paragon are involved with; - Formed in 2005, XLVets is a group of independently owned, progressive and expanding veterinary practices operating across the UK committed to UK agriculture. Our vision is that by sharing experience, knowledge and skills we can deliver an excellent and comprehensive service to all our clients, achieving best practice advice in disease prevention and health management. I told them about how I felt this concept might be the way that rural practices might be able to remain viable.

It was a strange feeling walking back into "The Dick" which is what the vet school in Edinburgh is nicknamed - officially it is the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, with the "Dick" being in memory of the founder - William Dick. It was 28 years ago since i first walked up those steps as a student and into the oak-panelled foyer, and it was spooky how little had changed. However, when I was a student, there were 62 of us who started the course while the current intake at The Dick is 155, around 50 of whom have already achieved one degree and many of whom are foreign students. However I thoroughly enjoyed the trip down memory lane, and the evening ended with a relaxed chat over sandwiches and drinks before I set off back to Carlisle, leaving the students tucking into yet another round of Nachos and Beers!!

The VetBlog - Monday 4th February

2008-02-04T16:43:00.000Z

Well, I have never been involved in a Blog before, so this in itself is a first - I have resisited being a contributor for quite some time now because I do not think I will have anything earth-shatteringly important or novel to say, but here goes...............! I had quite a bit of feedback (mainly positive) after the article written by Anna Burdett in the Cumberland News and quoting me on Bluetongue. Clearly we will not have vaccine available till May, but we really could be doing with vaccinating prior to the risk period which will be when the midges start moving again. It would also be useful to know what the governments startegy and roll-out of the vaccine is going to be - I hope we will find out soon. So, then after a 2am finish last night, I listened to Farming Today on my way to one of the only small butcher's abbatoirs left in the UK, where we as practice are still Official Veterinarians. The programme was about seafood fishing - whelks, mussels etc in The Wash, and I was made aware of two things - a) not only agriculture is under the cosh, and b) things tend to go in cycles. The Norfolk fishermen were describing how the cockle gathering used to be done by hand, and then as the market changed the process became gradually more mechanised, with dredging techniques, but stocks fell drammatically, and so they are now back to a more traditional system that is proving to be sustainable. Of course this depends on markets - supply and demand! The abattoir I was in attendance at would once have been a very normal setup - a local butcher buying 3 or 4 cattle and 8 or 10 sheep locally and then taking great pride in the end product. However during the 90s, the EU regulations drove most of these small units out of production meaning the larger number of animals were sourced from anonymous farms, were travelled many many miles to slaughter, through a larger facility before the meat was travelled all the way back again. Couple with this the "old" way of the vets spending 90% of their time "on the shop floor" with a small amount of time recording numbers, diseases found, problems in the plant etc., but now that is reversed - may abattoir staff report that they rarely see the vet "on-the-line", and when they do see them they are engrossed on their laptops, completeing paperwork or on their mobile phones. The days when the vet would report back to the local farmers if they found anything of note in the animals is now extremely difficult to do and less likely to happen. So although there is now a drive back to locally sourced and produced meat, it seems unlikely that there will be new abattoirs opening locally again.

After my work there, it was a bacon and sausage butty from a roadside van before attending briefly another local "game plant" producing very high quality produce to the catering trade as well as retail - another impressive bit of farm diversification and of adding value to a relatively low value product (such as game) and selling it on as a premium product.

Back to the office then to the usual deskful of paperwork and a full e-mail inbox! We have had a busy day on the farms with the farm vets returning to base late afternoon, and with the small animal vets having their usual catch-up day after the weekend. very sick animals are seen over the weekend, but clients tend to keep the less urgent cases over till Monday - cat bite abscesses, lame dogs, dogs with sore ears etc. The nurses had a "Lunch and Learn" a format that is becoming popular - sandwiches and cakes (of course) are provided, while a subject is discussed - often led by outside speakers. This may be on the latest drugs that are available, small animal nutrition, vaccination initiatives etc. Then with a group presentation to Dalston Discussion Group tonight it is a matter of gathering up the presentations from each of the vets that is contributing tonight - Kath is doing a bit on kayaking - which is her passion, and looking at some of the photos, I think she must be mad!, Vicky is talking about sheep ET and AI, Bruce is talking about the financial losses associated with BVD and I will do a short piece on Bluetongue, and if time show some photos of when I was working as a vet in The Gambia, while my wife Sue was working as a Health Visitor. SO I probably wont see any of my daughters today - as they will be in bed by the time I get home - I will let you know how the talks go when I report in tomorrow.

Traditional Bulgarian Village Life

2008-02-01T10:19:00.000Z

I guess village life here in Bulgaria is much as it was in Cumbria 50 years ago. Everyone is self-sufficient and has vegetable patches, not gardens. They grow a vast array of fruit and vegetables from peaches, apricots, melons, apples and grapes to carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, chillies, peppers, sweet corn and marrows. Their vegetable gardens are immaculately attended to and it is often the old women who go out into the garden daily to weed, turn over the ground, plant seeds and pick the ready vegetables.

The fruit and vegetables for sale on the large outdoor markets reflect very much the seasons - early June there is an abundance of cherries and strawberries, late summer brings melons and peaches, cucumbers and tomatoes.
Autumn sees carrots, apples, pears, courgettes and peppers. And as we progress into winter you get cabbages by the thousands, potatoes, horse chestnuts and mushrooms.

And of course late summer and autumn is the time for picking the grapes and making home made wine and Rakia to be consumed in copious amounts through out the year on any and every occasion.

And most people in the village will keep a couple of cows for milking, a few goats and sheep for milk for cheese and chickens for eggs. Each morning, they will open their yard gates to allow the goats and cows out into the street, where the village shepherd or herd's man will collect up all the animals from each house, to take them to common grazing on the edge of the village. There are no fences, no walled in fields, the animals simply slowly graze and move around, while the herd's man keeps a careful eye on his animals to ensure they do not stray on the road. The herd's man will also have a couple of large dogs with him for protection (from bears and wolves and wild dogs in the more rural mountain areas) which sleep in the sun with the sheep and cows and help round up the animals and take them back to the village in the evening. The animals then slowly plod along the village streets in the direction of home, where the owners will be waiting to open the gates and put the animals back in the barns for the night.

There are no slurry tankers or muck spreaders in the villages. Mucking out is done by hand on to a cart and then the donkey will pull the cart to the vegetable gardens where the muck is spread on the ground. The same with hay timing - while there are a few small balers around, most of the grass is scraped up by hand into large mounds (often round a sturdy wooden pole) and then either covered and left in the field or carted back to the barn by donkey and cart.

It is a very peaceful, laid back and friendly way of life.

Thursday 31st

2008-01-31T19:42:00.000Z

Today I want to touch on why many British are choosing to relocate to Bulgaria and the opportunities here in terms of farming, smallholdings and rural crafts.

Bulgaria first came to the attention of the majority of the British population following the property program - 'A Place in the Sun' and the boom in tourism to places like Sunny Beach and Golden Sands in the summer and Bansko and Borovets in the winter for skiing. All these destinations offered cheap accommodation, cheap food, cheap alcohol and sun and sea or snow and skiing, depending on your preference. The increase in tourism was quickly followed by an enormous amount of building work and new apartments and hotels started springing up everywhere. The much anticipated accession to the EU of Bulgaria only fuelled this development further. Soon British newspapers were full of adverts and articles about purchasing cheap front line apartments with sea views or ski apartments right by the lift stations. But with this hype and over development, came the problems - lack of adequate infrastructure, poor build quality, over inflated prices and soon the papers and TV shows were full of horror stories. But while many British (and other nationalities) have found themselves saddled with apartments they cannot rent out or cannot afford final payments on, there is another 'type' of property owner here.

This latter group came to Bulgaria for the life style. They moved here to rural village houses because while in the UK, 10,000 pounds will struggle to buy you a decent car, here it will buy you a lovely (if in need of some renovation work and definite TLC) country property, set in half an acre of fertile land with outbuildings and barns. These people then set about creating their dream home in the country, renovating a traditional Bulgarian village house, cultivating their vines to make the yearly supply of Rakia (potent local drink) and wine, growing vegetables, maybe owning a goat or sheep or two. The summers are hot and the winters, cold but mostly sunny with spells of snow.

And what of the opportunities for farming and rural business here - I know of one guy who has his own small beef heard and offers whole, half and quarter carcasses for sale. He sells privately to the expat community and to local restaurants and hotels. It can be very difficult to find proper cuts of meat here - you cannot go into a butchers or supermarket and buy a nice RibEye steak, sirloin or fillet (pigs ears or trotters or tripe no problem though!) and beef is not hung at all really and tends to be from very young cows, termed veal here but not the crated kind. So this guy currently has the niche market on providing beef carcasses for you to cut and trim as you wish.

Another friend has teamed up with a local Bulgarian in her village to produce rustic wooden furniture and also to sell fantastic woolen rugs and bed throws. Another is looking to source old vineyards and produce specialist wine. And of course many expats run bed and breakfasts or offer self catering accommodation in renovated village houses, where you can experience true Bulgarian life.

With rural property still very cheap and agricultural land available for a few hundred pounds an acre, if not less, the opportunities to become involved in farming and smallholding and rural life here are endless.

Tuesday 29th

2008-01-30T18:02:00.000Z

Well it is a glorious sunny day here in Bulgaria, although still a little chilly with snow on the ground. But that said much warmer than it has been as it is now only a degree or two below freezing and not 10 below as it was a couple of weeks ago. I currently have builders here repairing the plasterwork around my terrace as the heavy snows and frosts caused severe cracking and for the plaster to fall off. At the moment, as with any new house build, there always appears to be something that requires fixing, repairing, re-newing....And I think finally, after much pointing and use of my limited Bulgarian vocabulary, I have succeeded in informing them as to exactly where I want the path to be placed. Now we will have to wait and see and keep our fingers crossed....

Since moving out here to Bulgaria I have been considering expanding Gofarmer into Bulgaria. A year or two back, after receiving enquiries from a few expats in France, I added the option to register and post adverts if you lived in France and while these members make up only a very small percentage of the Gofarmer membership base, I believe it would be interesting and useful to open up the service for expats (and locals) in various European countries. And seeing as I live here and work here....why not Bulgaria.

There are currently around 40,000 non-Bulgarian home owners here in Bulgaria. Granted, a large number of these have purchased apartments along the coast or in the ski resorts, but there are still many thousands of British living in Bulgaria full time. A number of these are involved in or looking to become involved in farming or smallholding here and others are setting up selling rural crafts and traditional Bulgarian items such as sheep skin rugs and throws, colourful woolen rugs and wall hangings, carved wooden furniture and so on. And of course many expats here have rural houses that offer accommodation to holiday makers and a large number of British are involved (like myself) in selling rural village property and smallholdings.

So with the above in mind I approached my web developer (also Bulgarian based by coincidence) about the possibility of expanding the database to include Bulgaria. I opted to split to Bulgaria into 10 regions, each encompassing 2 or 3 main towns and government districts. I received the quote for these website changes the other day and have given the go ahead for this work. I hope to have Gofarmer up and running in Bulgaria by the beginning of March.

Rachel

Rachel Gawith - GoFarmer

2008-01-29T13:52:00.000Z

Gofarmer was set up in 2003 / 2004 by John Dixon and myself, Rachel Gawith. At the time we lived on a traditional Lakeland style hill farm which had been in John's family for 3 generations and included around 73 hectares of pasture and rough grazing. The farm ran around 50 suckler cows and about 120 sheep.

John had stopped milking a couple of years before and I was just completing my training as a Solicitor in a local high street firm. The idea for Gofarmer was initially conceived in the spring of 2003 after we considered various diversification routes for the farm and saw that there was a gap in the market for a farming portal whereby farmers, smallerholders and rural businesses could advertise and market their products and services directly to each other and to the public. During Foot and Mouth, we had also seen farmers making more use of the internet to showcase their stock and thought that this provided a good alternative sales strategy to taking stock to auction.
The site took nearly a year to develop but in Spring 2004, Gofarmer was ready to accept its first customers and slowly built up the membership base, starting with local press coverage and extending to more national farming and smallholder publications.
As the site and membership grew, new features were added to the site such as an automatic picture resizer to make it easier for sellers to upload their photographs, a forum for members to get to know one another, a news and article section and statistics for sellers to see how many people have viewed their adverts. Plus at the beginning of 2006, Gofarmer went international, accepting members from France as well as the UK to aid the smallholder, expatriate community in France source and sell produce.
As Gofarmer grew and increased in popularity, there were more email enquiries to answer, more press releases to prepare, more advertising to organise and so in May 2005, I left my job as a Solicitor to concentrate on the day to day running of Gofarmer, while John continued to farm. John and I then spent the summer of 2005 attending over 25 agricultural shows, rare breed shows and sheep dog trials promoting the website. During 2006 we revised the list of shows we attended and went only to the more successful ones from the year before including the Rare Breeds Show at York, the Royal Highland Show, the Royal Show and the Great Yorkshire show.
The site continued to go from strength to strength and through careful and persistent internet marketing and offline promotions receives over 100,000 hits a month and between 4000 and 6000 unique visitors each month. There are over 600 members from right across the UK and a few in France.
However in summer 2006, John and I parted and in October 2006 I moved to Bulgaria, where I had become involved in the property market and had several investment properties, as well as a new house built. Myself and John did not want to see Gofarmer simply shelved as we had both put in so much work and felt that we owed it to our membership base to continue the website. We agreed to continue the business partnership with John fielding telephone enquiries back in the UK and I would oversee the generally running of the website from Bulgaria.
In December 2007, John opted to sign over his share in Gofarmer to me and so I now run Gofarmer and am the sole owner. I am currently milling over various ideas to increase visitors to the site and achieve more popularity and thus more sales for advertisers. I have placed long running adverts in the Smallholder Magazine and The Rare Breeds Survival Trust Magazine - the Ark. I am now happily settled in my new home with 5 rescue dogs and a cat and so in 2008, you can expect Gofarmer to bounce back.
The philosophy behind Gofarmer was always to bring the farming community into closer contact nationally (and internationally) and in turn closer to the ordinary public as they are the usually the final customer, especially if farmers are doing bed and breakfast, holiday cottages, farm shops or even home deliveries. I want to create a portal for farming and rural communities in the UK and possibly elsewhere, somewhere to promote goods and services, meet others, find resources and hopefully benefit from being part of a wider community of users. Watch this space....
Rachel
http://www.gofarmer.com/
________________________

Thursday 24th

2008-01-25T08:36:00.001Z

Have spent the day relatively quietly, recovering from the trauma of having to do a full days work yesterday!! The rain, hail, snow etc continues to plummet from the sky at regular intervals, but at least there have been some sunny intervals to break the monotony. I don't know about anyone else but it can be a bit hard to summon the will power to do jobs outside when the weather is so bad. Everywhere you go is a mess and I just try to close my eyes to where there is stock to feed. I guess six months down the line you may not be able to remember how bad it really was, well here's hoping anyway, god forbid we have a wet summer as well, I might be forced to emigrate!
This morning was spent doing the routine work with the cattle and sheep as well as shifting some of Lynne's horses around to avoid them poaching too much of the farm. I'm in the process of converting an old hard standing area into a ménage come wood chip corral so that the horses can stand and be fed there when the weather is bad and possibly use it to lamb a few sheep on. Its got to be better than everything standing up to their knees in mud. The rest of the morning was spent on the computer catching up on the endless paper work. I've had a few problems with the Soil Association lap top not doing what it's supposed to, but I managed to get one of the IT anoraks at Bristol to fix it remotely using the internet - amazing what you can do without actually having to sit next to the computer in question. We usually get called to the office in Bristol half a dozen times a year for training etc and I think one of those days is due shortly so that'll be another day off - sorry away. Its a good job Lynne can drive the skid steer and feed all the cattle and sheep etc, well I wouldn't want her to get bored or anything! My neighbour always seems to come down when I'm away to see if Lynne is copping OK. Strange he never seems to come down so often when I'm there!! Our own inspection is due on Monday which is always a bit of a challenge. I know all the other inspectors of course and because of that they usually try their best to find as much wrong with the place as possible, while I, on the other hand, make life as hard as i can for them. Oh what fun, the endless enjoyment of being an organic inspector!!
Went to the dentist this afternoon, which was a complete waste of time, as the work that was supposed to be done couldn't be done cause the person wasn't there and nobody decided to tell me and so avoid a wasted journey! Never mind.
Another inspection tomorrow, a new entrant again, this time a bit more local, well in Cumbria any way. There have been about 10 new entrants a month converting to organic over the last year, which is certainly good for my work and possibly a sign of a trend in the way of organic farming. The ultimate test is always whether they stay organic after the 5 compulsory years are over.
Anyway that's about it for now - speak more tomorrow.

Wednesday 23rd

2008-01-24T10:02:00.000Z

Well its 8:30 pm and I've just got back from doing the inspection at Scarborough, having left at 7 this morning, the inspection itself lasted 7 hours but that did include and hour chasing around after his escaped sheep! The travelling can be a bit of a killer, especially in the pouring rain and at night, so I'm about ready for an early night. My only consolation is I get paid for my travelling time, so I can just about live with it. The inspection itself went pretty well really with the farmer knowing what he was doing and what was expected of him, which is always a relief. I must admit I enjoy the chance to see lots of different farmers and different farming styles, you always pick up new ideas and meet interesting people.
I've just had a quick look in the diary to see what's on tomorrow and joy of joys I've got the dentist in the afternoon, who'd have thought you actually pay a small fortune to go through such pain and discomfort.
Well I'm feeling a bit brain dead tonight, so I'll call it a day and sign off. My wife has just asked me how I can tell the difference!! I'll spare you my reply

Tuesday 22nd

2008-01-22T20:33:00.001Z

Well Tuesday evening and I have just gone through the nightly battle of helping get the kids to eat / bed / wash etc - why didn't anyone warn me it was like this before I had them?
Any way sent 30 of my poorer store lamb to Longtown this morning, should have been 60 but I bottled out thinking buyers and numbers would be down after yesterdays floods and the freeze up this morning. Numbers of lambs were certainly down but I came back having averaged £35/head for them and when you consider the fat price wasn't far off that not so long ago, I suppose I haven't done too badly. The way I'm feeling about sheep at the moment, I'm just kind of glad to be rid of them. You may be wondering why an organic farmer is selling his lambs through Longtown Mart, well the answer is that the trade in organic lamb is as bad as conventional - possibly worse - and as I write there is not much confidence in an immediate improvement, consequentially no demand. Add to that the additional transport costs and you have, as they say 'a no brainer.' Its a good job the beef trade is OK, at the moment you can expect about between £3.00 and £3.20/Kg deadweight with most of ours killing out at about 320kgs. We generally send the Blue Greys away as stores cause we cant get them very heavy, but we do buy in a few Angus cross stirks from an organic neighbour and you tend to be able to get them fit at about 24-26 months.
Spent a good proportion of the afternoon booking up appointments for organic inspections over the next couple of months. Having to do 2 or 3 a week at the moment to catch up after Xmas and last years FMD when we couldn't inspect at all. Off to North Yorkshire tomorrow to see a new applicant, the first visit is usually the worst, for the farmer at any rate, as it begins to dawn on him what sort of commitment he has agreed too! It never ceases to amaze me how many people sign up without really knowing what is involved and the standards you have to comply with. The inspection is basically assessing whether the licensee has complied with all the standards set out by the EU and the Soil Association for their particular farming, processing or farm assurance. As with at lot of these things there's a lot of paper work, sadly and we all know how we love that!! I have a week inspecting in Northern Ireland at the end of February which should be quite interesting and a change of scenery, other inspectors have told me how hospitable the farmers over there are, which is a relief. Not to say that farmers over here are not hospitable, although I have had one bad experience.
Last weekend saw the arrival of a new dog on the farm, a rescue grey hound who was no good for the track and was to be put down. I've got to admit, having never had much to do with Greyhounds before, he is a hell of a good natured animal and despite his size, you wouldn't really know he's around, such is his gentle manner. The resident Jack Russells and collie dog are not entirely convinced this new arrangement is a good thing, but they slowly seem to be getting used to the idea. Unfortunately Grey hounds are not renowned for their brains and this one is no exception. They seem to have only two speeds, asleep and flat out, and when you consider that they are the second fastest mammal on earth, this does lead to problems. Walking him on Sunday was a case in mind when he took after a hare in one of the fields. Now our hares are a casual bunch and not used to even breaking sweat, usually doing a lap or two at a jog in order to shake of the irritation of one of our dogs before settling back down to do whatever hares do. To see a grey hound catching up rapidly must have been quite a surprise for the hare, and I have to confess to a twinge of excitement to see the race unfold. However the hare, who's sense of survival clearly out ways a greyhounds brain power, had obviously decided that a short cut directly into the next door field was the better course of action, passing easily under the gate. I think your probably going to guess what happened next. Repairing gates because the bull has leant on it is one thing but removing a dog shaped bend in it, is quite another. To add to this stupidity, the following day he took off in the pony paddock, for no obvious reason that was clear to me and went straight through the electric fence, using the bottom strand as a cheese wire to take a layer of skin of the inside of his leg. I wish I could say he was going to learn from these experiences but I have the sneaky suspicion he not going to!
Bye for now

Jon Perkin - The Organic Blogger

2008-01-22T08:49:00.000Z

Hi, I'm Jon Perkin from Whiteholme Farm, Roweltown in North Cumbria and I farm a 200 acre organic beef and sheep farm with my wife, Lynne, and our two sons Matthew (4.5) and Alex(3). We are one year into our Higher Level Stewardship agreement.

The farm has 20 Galloway suckler cows producing Blue Grey cattle and about 200 Scottish Blackface ewes producing Texel cross lambs for fat and store sales. We also grow about 20 acres of kale/stubble turnips and about 30 acres of cereals either for arable silage or as corn. We are currently 6 years into a 15 year Farm Business Tenancy having come here from the Devon / Cornwall borders where my parents farm a similar farm. I also work about 80 days a year for the Soil Association as a contracted organic inspector covering the North of England.

Well I'm sitting here at lunch time, having spent the morning attending to all the varying needs of the cattle and sheep and getting very wet and cold in the process (no change there then). Having come up from the Westcountry I regularly get asked two questions; Firstly why? and secondly, Have you got used to the weather yet? To answer the first, well the opportunity was there. Basically we were, at the time, managing a farm in Berkshire and were looking for a farm of our own. Whiteholme was available and it also had an on farm butchery that we have, until recently, used to market our meat direct to the customer.
To answer the second question, well the Westcountry is also very wet, so the rain is nothing new, what is hard to get used too is the lack of daylight in the winter - this can amount to about an hour less than the South by mid winter. I have to confess to not being a morning person at the best of times but when it's barely light at 8:30 in the morning and the rain is beating on the windows, you have to beg the question whether its entirely necessary to get up at all! It's just as well I don't have to milk cows!! To add to the doom and gloom I've just heard on the radio that some psychologist has worked out that this week is the most depressing of the year, amazing, I wonder how much he charged to work that one out! I must tell my sister, its her birthday this week!
I've just had to take a break there to pacify Alex who wanted to watch his latest Tractor Tom DVD, but clearly has yet to learn that dragging his toys across the disc is not a good way of going about this. Who ever invented CD's has a lot to answer for. Weren't they supposed to be able to go through hell and still play perfectly? In reality you only have to look at them the wrong way and they foul up, the average life span of a child's DVD must be countable in seconds!!
Organics is something I've been involved in now for a number of years and not always for the most obvious reasons. First and foremost I enjoy the challenge it posses. The difficulties you face in production and marketing are never straightforward and the solutions tend to be longer term, incorporating a number of disciplines and forcing you to expand your knowledge about soil, nutrition, genetics, breeding and nutrients to name a few. Don't get me wrong, conventional farmers need this knowledge as well but it is usually based on the short term and all to easy to resort to a 'quick fix' solution. I'm also a bit of a conservationist at heart, as are many farmers I know, and just don't think that putting sprays and fertilizers on the land is especially good for the biomass of a farm and its immediate environment. As to whether organic food has a beneficial effect on our health is a debatable point I know, certainly I wouldn't attempt to make such claims for my meat products over that of my neighbours, I value their friendship apart from anything else! But I would certainly be happier feeding my growing children knowing that what they consumed had not been treated with a man made petro-chemical at some stage.
I still get asked, or rather confronted with the question 'Can organics feed the world? Well in truth I don't know but I do know that the widely held assumption that people starve is because we don't produce enough food is incorrect. The UN currently estimate that we produce one and a half times the amount of food required to feed the entire world, people starve because of inept and unsustainable political and economic systems. They starve because the free market ensures everything goes to the highest bidder not to the people who need it most. Its also a fallacy that organic farms produce 50% less than conventional farms, a recently converted intensive farm can drop by that much initially but soon climb back up with sound farming techniques.
Well I'd better get on with some work, we're sending some store lamb to Longtown tomorrow as the price seems to have improved slightly so its off to get cold and wet again! That's if the sheep dog hasn't decided to go into early retirement now the rain has turned to sleet!