September 2002

We celebrated the beginning of this month by paying the mortgage and being in the black afterwards! We've started to re-write some of our beliefs about money and abundance so watch this space...

Two days into the month, as Mark was off on a mammoth mission to help the boys next door bring in their straw before the rain came down, Jules and Lorraine found Crystal in the front field looking very sorry for herself. On closer inspection she seemed a bit lame and our conclusion was that she had a touch of laminitis. This is inflammation of the lamellae in the hoof wall and can be a serious condition. It's said to be brought on by grazing on rich grass and the horses had been in our front field, laid to rye grass, for the past couple of weeks. They were running with the cows but the grass was doing it's autumn flush and this seems to have upset many of them. Needless to say, we moved them all that afternoon and Crystal has been on a hoof soaking, trimming and walking regime since then and she's looking good. Mark managed to borrow a horse to ride in the Craig Stevens clinic at the end of the month. He's on the look out for another horse to train and ride as this has rather put him out of action and that's been somewhat frustrating.

Gary Holter came to visit again and ran a wonderful Holistic Pasture Management workshop. He cast his eye over the meadow we reseeded earlier this year and gave an approving nod - the horses like it too. It's full of milk thistle, chicory, wild clover, lucerne and some other yet-to-be-identified stuff. Looks pretty too.

The great beef sale continues and this month Lorraine started to make burgers and beef olives to sell at the markets. These have been going down a storm and I wish I'd had a tape recorder at some of the markets... prize comments like:

"That was the best beef I've had in 40 years!" and "This looks lovely... I think I've been a vegetarian long enough (12 years)... can I have a pack of those burgers?"

We're reviewing our pitch at Greenwich Market. It's a long way to go and we're taking less than we do at our local market in 4 hours. So we're currently looking for another local market on a Saturday, then maybe we'll do Greenwich once a month. The truth is we can probably supply beef until Christmas, then we don't have another animal ready until April or May so we've got a bit of a gap... open to suggestions as to what we can fill that with? We scored some additional brownie points with customers at some of the markets by being able to supply fresh lamb boxes. This came from our friends Sian and Maurice who live behind us and run some sheep on their countryside stewardship land. They don't use chemicals and so whilst it's not our lamb we felt quite happy to endorse it. Mark's still not keen on us having live sheep here!

The turkeys are growing and looking good. They've given up going into the turkey house, the peck and scratch around the field during the daylight and at nighttime they roost on the roof! They are so funny to watch. They flap and sort of take off but don't seem to have much directional control and if a gust of wind catches them, they find themselves the "wrong" side of the netting and stand their, necks stretched high making an alarmed "pick, pick" kind of sound expressing surprise! We've taken orders on nearly all of them and expect we could have sold double the amount if we'd made a bit more noise. However, when December is over we'll have a better idea of what it takes to prepare and deliver 30 birds and then we'll decide if we feel confident taking on more next year.

We had a quiet helping hands weekend and did lots with horses. Jazz just had enough and sat down as our session was coming to a close. She was wearing Jules' new £1000 saddle, so that was a bit worrying, but in truth, I don't think Jazz was going to roll, she just wanted to declare the session done for now. As we review what we were doing, we can see that we asked quite a lot of an unfit horse and since that session have noticed that she doesn't properly use her back... so exercise is the order of the day for her and we'll get Gavin to have a look at her when he's next here.

Join us if you can for Helping Hands in October/November/December as (among other things) we're planning and planting woodland. Hope to see you soon..