After a very wet and chilly Saturday, today is bright and sunny if not very warm.  In fact, the weather this week has been behaving rather like a yo-yo (a toy I never could make work!) but now the pastures are very wet indeed and it’s not at all clear whether we will be able to do more spraying in the coming week or indeed finish topping the last thistles of the year.

Chris was away for 36 hours last week, and arrived back late on Tuesday evening beginning to wonder why every time he is away we have an emergency which requires the vet to visit. She came because yet another of our cows was rather poorly. The cow now seems well thank goodness, and all but the very latest calves and IR’s have had the necessary drench (to deal with the ‘husk’ issue) and their annual clostridial vaccination.

The weather let up sufficiently to allow the horn manure to be made and the filled horns to be safely buried to mature over the winter. We were not entirely sure how Sebastien would take to this activity – collecting cow poo from lactating animals, stirring a full wheelbarrow for an hour and then carefully filling about 100 cow horns – but happily he felt able to describe his experience as ‘cool’.

Sebastien had his own adventure last weekend when he had car trouble on the M5 motorway and ended up stationary in the fast lane! Fortunately, the highway’s agency was on the scene quickly, stopped all traffic while they moved his car and as importantly were not only helpful but kind and jovial. He is a skilful mechanic, and when his vehicle was trailered back to the farm sorted the problem out in no time.
Earth Energy are now clearly approaching the end of their installations. Their two large blue containers that came on site last week, after much noise and evil smells are now joined together as one unit. At the same time other members of their team were working on readying the units – it was of course expected to be completed by now!

Alessio joined us on Wednesday, his home is in Umbria but he has come to us via a month’s work on a pumpkin farm! He has settled in very quickly and has shown himself to be a dab hand at the tasks put in front of him. Once again we have had nothing but good experiences with all our woofers this year and I think without exception they have felt the same way. We are already getting the first enquiries for next year which is rather exciting.