September 2005
Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, NHG, over committed, courses start, Kenco's short reprive, building chicken houses for new babies, Mrs chicken hatched 6... we hatched another 15!!! Pop cleaned the drains, Emily moves home, American visitors, looking for a home for Prospect and a replacement, Travis came to stay, Anne came for work experience, starting to sell pork and bacon again, inspection from the BWCS and judge from the herd competition this year...A stupidly busy month! Organising the Natural Horse Gathering, teaching, making sausages and bacon, markets, Horse Gathering, cooking, feeding animals and humans, fixing and mending, publishing the Natural Horsemanship magazine, looking after a friend's dog, negotiating the moving of pigs, entertaining Mum and Dad, daughter moving back home, entering the British White Cattle Society herd competition, keeping the fox out of the turkey paddock, hatching eggs and rearing the babies, managing the WWOOFers, shopping, horsemanship, dogmanship (!) ... well, you get the picture?
The main event from our point of view was the Natural Horse Gathering which took a lot of organising but went like a dream on the day. You can read all about it and book your place for 2006 at the NHG page.
Our friend Prudence keeps the sows and breeds Gloucester Old Spot pigs for us. This month we discovered that her boar, Gerald has been firing blanks, so he went to the great pig sty in the sky and Kenco (can't remember how he got that name) had a short reprieve and returned to her woodland with a view to siring some piglets. But boars are like buses (!), you might have to wait for ages, then several come along at once, and Prudence found a man of more appropriate size, age and breeding to woo her ladies, so Kenco came home and will be joining the celebrated sausage crew very soon.
We were encouraged to participate in the British White Cattle Society herd competition this year. The society sponsor this event to encourage breeders who don't show their cattle to be seen and participate and be honoured for the work they are doing. It turns out that one of the prizes is to visit the herds that enter the following year, and given how stretched we were feeling this month, we were actually rather glad when we were not awarded top prize! As well as being visited by the judge, we also met the man who bred Prospect, our bull. He and his wife came to the farm and were delighted to see the old boy still looking lively and satisfied with life. When we bought Prospect 2½ years ago, it was suggested that he probably wouldn't be up for another move after us and we were beginning to get concerned about how to say goodbye to this very affable and devilishly handsome fella. As it turns out, the general feeling is that he's got a few years left in him and so we are actively seeking a new home. He needs to move on 'cos we now have a group of his daughters who are ready to breed and for them we will need a new bloodline.
Finally, whilst in my busy-ness here I have had little or no time to think straight this month, I am very aware of the devastation that has occurred in New Orleans with hurricane Katrina. Of course, the loss of human life and property is horrendous... and as a farmer, my heart goes out also to those animals who have died or been terrorised by this experience. We are living in interesting times.