October 2008

So, after last month's foray into world-righting... here I am, back to earth again, with a bump as our little chiller van finally keeled over and failed it's MOT (I know the feeling!). This month I've been feeling in need of an MOT myself and have had some blood tests and a general check over - I'm fine, so that's that excuse out of the window! The doc suggests I have a weekend away at a health spa... when I picked myself up off the floor from laughing...!!! Anyway, that van wasn't so lucky and, needing to move swiftly on this matter, I "borrowed" the money I've been saving for some decorating in the house, to get a new one. You can now see me driving around in a lovely shiny white Vauxhall Combo chiller van (hopefully soon to be sign written) with a big smile on my face. If you are in need of such a thing, we recommend Carl Mallinson ... a nice man to do business with!

Monty also left the farm this month. Sad to say, there was too much conspiring against him. He was a bit small, his feet were bad (a trait that is often passed on to offspring), and we haven't had nearly as many calves as we would have expected from an active bull. So the net result, especially as he's still young, was to turn him into juicy steaks.

Of course, the demise of Monty means we are one bull short of a breeding herd, so our enquiries connected us with a lovely lady in Norfolk who had a boy who looks like he'll fit the bill perfectly. Cumulus is his name. He's BIG and MANLY and charming. We also have some customers who are eager to be involved in "food production" in a very real way, so they have bought him with us and he is now ruling the roost in the yard with a group of adoring girls and we're all very happy and looking forward to seeing what calves come along in nine months time.

We are again reviewing our farming business and having started with 4 cows, we now find ourselves with nearly 30 breeding animals, plus calves, plus beef boys!!! No wonder we're rushed off our feet! So, any which way you look at it, we have too many here and have decided to sell some of the good ones. The breed society has indicated that we have some rather good stock and bloodlines, so we're hoping that the 10 we have earmarked will go to good homes... more likely in the spring than at this time of year we expect, but if you, or any of your friends are in the market for a lovely cow or two, do let us know!

Dougal and I took a well earned day out to take some sheepskins I'd salted to an organic tannery in Herefordshire. What a fascinating place. We were able to see the process and saw some absolutely beautiful skins. I'm very excited to see how our little Shropshire skins turn out. It was a lovely journey over the Severn and through some stunning autumnal countryside. We even took a bit of time in Hereford to see the Mappa Mundi, something we'd seen on the TV last year and had caught our interest. The day was marred slightly by being stuck in a closure on the M4 on the way home... but we were in the nice new van, with radio and heating and opening windows... so all was well with the world!

A day we had waited for for a good few months arrived this month... the 16th October, auspicious for two reasons:

• It was our 15th wedding anniversary... and
• There was a major planetary conjunction which meant it was the perfect time to burn the rat skin we'd been saving and make a biodynamic rat pepper. This we will use in the barns and around the farm to control the number of rats... watch this space :-)

To wrap this month up, Mark and Anna took the natural HORSEMANSHIP magazine to the Holistic Horse Show on the last weekend. It was a long weekend and perhaps a little slower than we'd have hoped, but Mark made some really good contacts including some people who are interested in helping develop the magazine and take it to more people. We are planning meetings early next month, before we get silly with preparations for the "C" period, so this could be a whole new opportunity opening up.

My, what a busy month! We hope this finds you well in your life.