January 2007

January allows us to catch up with our social calendar. It's generally a fairly quiet month market-wise, so we took time to reconnect with friends for suppers and laid some plans for the coming year - not new year's resolutions, we can't trust ourselves with those!

As the haze of Christmas cleared and we began to stretch out and reconnect with business again, the uncomfortable realisation has dawned that in spite of all our efforts last month, we have some outstanding bills we are unable to pay. We filed our tax returns... the cars broke down... the printer packed up... the rats came out of the walls... I disappeared into a sock-knitting frenzy... and Steve & Emma managed to sort out the veggie garden and do some hedge laying. So starts another year on the farm.

The good news is our "money plant" is flowering (never seen that before) and a friend of ours suggested that this might be like the Tree of Gondor in Lord of the Rings, which flowers when the King has returned... perhaps our money plant is flowering because the money has returned... we just need to find it.

We also had a visit from the local Health & Safety man, called out because someone made a complaint about (among other things) hay bales not being stacked safely and kids riding on the footplate of the tractor. It was a most interesting visit which highlighted in some ways the craziness of the "let's sue them" culture. He was quite clear that everything was in order here so that was good news. But there are many grey areas and we welcome many people here, including some enthusiastic young local boys, who like to help with whatever's going on. They of course have permission from their parents and we are mindful as to what they are involved with but they love playing in the hay, collecting eggs, helping with strawing the barn and feeding the animals... and of course, being around the machinery, especially the tractors. As we all know, farms are dangerous places (as indeed is the world), but it would seem to me that legislation means we are encouraged to overprotect people and prevent exposure to experiences that could be quite thrilling - such as the opportunity for a young lad to drive a tractor, or climb a haystack, or be close to pigs, or fix some electric fencing. So our number one rule on the farm has been, is and will always be to take care of yourself first and not do anything you feel uncomfortable with. How sad it would be if we had to close the doors to those who are getting so much out of visiting the farm because of legislative red tape over-ruling common sense.