May 2003

It's a tough old world, especially if you're Mother Goose or Mrs Duck. Last year you may recall, we lost all but one of our 5 goslings when the rats cornered them in the goose house and ate them. This year, we thought we'd got things sussed when we put the ducks and herded the geese into the home paddock surrounded by electric netting. Here they'd be kept safe from the fox and could pretty much please themselves where they nested and roamed. We had not counted on the rooks & sparrow hawk and although the geese started with 5 goslings and the ducks started with 6 ducklings, somehow in the space of a few weeks, we are down to one gosling only and Mrs Duck is on her own. It really does challenge our neutrality! This autumn we will be planting some trees which hopefully will grow to create some cover for these very vulnerable little beings. Even the wild duck and drake, often seen swimming in the slurry lagoon or in the ditches are without little ones this year.

The beginning of this month saw the birth of our first calf to Mum, our worldly wise, "I'll sort it out" Belgian Blue who we bought with the farm in December 2000. She produced a good sized boy but he was stillborn. This year though, she had an udder full of milk and we took a young British White calf from a nearby farm. The calf had been born to a very young mum, neither of them were doing too well so it seemed like a good idea at the time. The truth was, this calf was in fact nearly a year old and beyond being interested in suckling... and Mum was not wildly enthusiastic about the idea either so, although they definitely created a bond and stood together, the whole milking idea was a no go. Undaunted, Mark and I thought that we'd see if she'd let us milk her. It took a few goes, but we progressed quite quickly from her kicking out and running all over the place to standing quietly and letting us milk her without restraint. She is currently in the field with Prospect, our bull, flirting with him and hopefully working up to having his baby next year!

To date, the rest of the calving has gone smoothly. Patsy loudly announced the arrival of her calf, Pat, unceremoniously produced in the muckiest part of the cow yard on a wet and windy night about 11:30pm and in the morning there were 2. Welsh Rarebit had produced a cute little girl, Myfannwy. This was just in time for our daughter, Anna's 21st birthday party. We'd planned a BBQ but the weather was not kind so we took refuge in the house and watched the calves from the conservatory window.

A week later, Celia and Morning Glory quietly produced Winnie and a little boy calf we call Flat Pack because he looks thin and flat like a self assembly unit. These two were born out in the field. It was raining as Winnie was born and as there's no shelter in the field and as the heifers are still due to calve, we have been bringing them in at night in case of problems. Celia was quite happy to wander in, but Winnies legs weren't quite up to it. So Mark got a wheelbarrow lined with straw and wheeled her into the yard. Celia was most bemused by the fact that her calf had sprouted wheels!

There are 2 more to come, we hope. The heifers, Phyllis and Pattie... watch this space!

In conjunction with the WEA (workers educational association) we ran a Permaculture workshop here. The participants mostly came from the Swindon area and brought fresh eyes to what we're doing here. Permaculture is about lightening our footprint on the planet, optimum use of resources, living simply and sustainably, recycling and managing life without waste... well, that's part of it anyway! It's a philosophy that we've long been living with and one we are developing and implementing in farm life too. Along this theme, we are running hedge laying courses in the winter and are looking for someone to teach about reed and willow bed construction for filtering of dirty water and slurry off the farmyard.

And I guess last, but by no means least, the greenhouse has exploded in a profusion of green things - tomato plants, cuecumbers, courgettes, aubergines, beans, peas, sweet peas, pumkins, lettuces, sunflowers... phew! Auntie Mary (who gave us the greenhouse) visited for Anna's birthday party and gave it all the seal of approval - thanks to Sarah's careful weeding and tidying up the weekend before!