May 2004

At the end of last month, Mark was asked if he'd do some horsemanship lessons with The Young Presidents Club. An networking organisation for company presidents and high fliers. What started out as a possibility of a few days work got squeezed down to a 20 minute demonstration at Castle Ashby in Leicestershire. The thought of getting himself and Crystal there and back for 20 minutes seemed rather less than exciting, so when asked to quote a price, he gave a figure which worked out as a sensible hourly rate (including preparation & travelling time) and quoted that plus expenses. It seemed a ridiculous amount of money to us, and Mark was completely detached from the job, in fact sort of hoping it wouldn't happen! Well, you can guess I expect... they came back right away with "OK, let's do it!". So on the morning of the 2nd May, Mark, Crystal and our friend Nicky took off for an adventure. We have a delightful video of a rather dashing man on a very splendid white (OK, grey) charger - complete with spooks and rears and snorts - doing a 20 minute presentation on creating partnership. He used his ongoing work and learnings with Crystal to parallel some of what happens in business partnerships. The crowd was attentive and there was plenty to engage those who knew something about horses, and those who didn't. Not only was it good experience for them both, but the money was a real bonus and put Mark's hourly average up to a respectable amount for May!

I spent a day at Yatesbury Farm digging up the compost preparations with prepared and buried last September. These are part of the Bio-Dynamic treatments for land which are worked with to energise and encourage life forces. In my enthusiasm for the processes and the strong positive feelings I get about Bio-Dynamics, I volunteered Vowley Farm to be the focus for a Wiltshire Bio-Dynamic group. We have made a date in October (2nd) for a community Bio-Dynamic preparations day, so if you're interested to find out more, please do come along.

We had a beef crisis in the middle of the month - none ready :-( After some considerable discussion too and fro, we decided that we would see if our friend Arend, from Upper Burytown Farm had any that might suit (and luckily he did!), and that to stop the gap, Lorraine would make pies and pasties from the beef that's in our freezer. The result is that we now have a new range that's selling like hot cakes... err... pies & pasties actually! Not one to stick with the norm, we have come up with a range of "alternative" pies... Beef Cobbler pie, which has a herby scone topping... Beef Curry pie, made with whole spices... Sweet & Sour Pork pie... Beef Stroganoff Pie, with sour cream... just means I've now booked a day in my diary for butchering and another for baking each week.

The first of our regular stream of Gloucester Old Spot piglets arrived mid month, just as the sun came out! They are 6 weeks old and very cute - I hadn't realised how much I'd missed the pigs, such lovely grounded animals with a great deal of energy and sense of fun and satisfaction. We have found a lady in Somerset through the Gloucester Old Spot Breeders Club who breeds the pigs to show and we are buying the ones she doesn't want to breed from... a nice arrangement which should mean we have a regular supply of pedigree pork and bacon from September... watch this space!

By mid May, the weather cleared up and the sun came out and the grass grew overnight... along with huge patches of dock. We are now on a mission to find out how best to remove this tenacious and unpalatable weed from our land without resorting to chemicals. If you're reading and have any suggestions, please do get in touch.