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Yesterday was not a ‘remembering remarkable holiday’ day. It was a full-on farming work day.
Every year, about half way through the winter housing period, I muck out the cow palace. I do this for several reasons – the dung is beginning to build up, to make sure that parasites or fungal growths such as roundworm, lice and mites that thrive in moist warm dung are removed; and, most importantly, to help get rid of any bacterial build up before calving. This seems to be more important during recent winters as we no longer have any sustained cold spells to inhibit the growth of pathogens.
And every year I look at the job in front of me and think ‘it’s never going to be done in a day’ ‘how have I ever managed before?’. This year Olly was my helper and, taking on board what was expected, he just looked at me and said “You gotta be joking! It’s impossible! We won’t do all that!” With false cheer I replied “Yup, I, we, will. It’s done every year. I know it looks daunting. But we’ll get in done. And in plenty of time too”. Read the rest of this entry »
Busy, busy, busy. I’ve been catching up on all those little problems that happened whilst I was away.
Ginny developed a bad foot the day before I arrived back (foul-in-foot) and needed treatment. Several of the cows and the bull have a nasty case of mites and are driving themselves crazy with itching. It’s extremely contagious and the whole herd has to be treated – similar to children getting head lice. So this afternoon I had great fun trying to aim 40mls of the appropriate chemical along the backbone of all the cattle, who were convinced that I had devised a homecoming gurgle-torture…they are paranoid about white plastic bottles that gurgle!
This morning after a prolonged feeding, tidy-up and general check over of all the stock it was onto the bobcat for a-shifting and a-building of the dung heap in preparation for mucking out the cows on Friday in readiness for calving.
The dogs are dillirious with excitement at resuming their daily walks with me, and even the deer in the wood sounded their wierd ‘dolphin-barks’ as I passed by.
And what a gorgeous day! Cold, but dry with sun from dawn to dusk. Desk work will have to wait till tomorrow.
panama post 23rd january
Today’s my birthday! We celebrated with an early morning swim. A full moon white and bright played hide and seek behind low streaked clouds whilst the sun erupted above the horizon changing the smoked-glass sea into an oil smooth mirror. Kingfishers craaked noisily skimming low over the water. Herons, silhouetted against the pale sky, flew with long steady wing beats. Far out in the bay a dolphin breaks the sea glass, leaping fast and furiously chasing his morning breakfast. I slowly glide out into the bay reveling in the sensuous warm silk of the water. Robert signs - come back, come back! I shrug my shoulders – why? ‘Predators’, he mimics, ‘this is the time’. I lazily pull homeward enjoying the flipper-like feeling of my limbs and instinctual harmony with the sea and swimming. As I near the landing stage I feel a long-past remembered tingling sensation along my arm – jellyfish - a million minute stinging cells shed as she drifted past left to cling and sting tender white northern skin! Read the rest of this entry »
He’s bonny, bright and doing just fine. Despite his mum being a little over excited at his first clumsy movements, they have bonded well and Jemima is turning into an adoring, gentle mother. Read the rest of this entry »
jemima calved early this morning
Jemima is a young first calving heifer and the daughter of Desiree one of the herd’s senior high-ranking cows. I wrote about Jemima back in the summer, in the Social Life of Cows, explaining how she was beginning to take on some herd responsibilities and appeared to be turning into a scout cow – the animal the herd relies on to find new and better pasture; this, in their domesticated state, generally involves making their herdsman, me, know that the grass is getting short and it’s time to move on. Jemima was always a friendly happy-go-lucky youngster though has taken her new responsibilities seriously and as many young upwardly-mobile heifers, became slightly more aloof to humans during the course of the summer. Read the rest of this entry »
Gill asked if I could write a post on the economic side of farming. Wow what a subject and one I don’t feel I’m fully qualified to write on. But I can maybe give you slightly more understanding.
Farming is in a state of change and flux. It could be said that’s always so, but never more than at this present moment. Farming will survive for as long as we need food, it’s knowing what form it will eventually take. Pressures come from society’s changing needs and perceptions, new laws, free trade and the influences of climate change and depleting energy sources. It’s certainly a tough and unknown path to be trod but I believe there are opportunities for those that can see them, though I also think the casualties will be great. Read the rest of this entry »
Apologies for being absent - my lurgy morphed wildly and weirdly. It became a huge swollen head, or that’s what it felt like, with severe shocks waves running from hip to ankle.
“Aha” said Olly “that’s because you’ve given up tea”. Read the rest of this entry »
We were like a cartoon characters – exploding out of the duvet, sitting bolt upright, eyes wide open and hair seemingly standing on end. The colossal crack-bang-clap of thunder shocked us awake, the simultaneous lightning flash floodlit the bedroom in a bluish light, the heavens opened and hail hammered down, pounding at the windows and ricocheting off the corrugated roofs of the barns. Wow! Robert leaped from the bed and ran round the house franticly turning off all sensitive probably-blasted-to-the-heavens-by-now stuff, bounded back into bed, snuggled down and pulled the duvet over our heads as we waited for the next explosion, and waited and…waited. That was it, just the one mega blast.
“I think we should wean the calves today” I mumbled from under the duvet
“What?”
“The calves…wean them…today”
“Yes, I heard, but why, what?”
“Well it came to me. Suddenly. Just like that. In a flash of lightning!” I giggled.
So we did.
Damn, blast and bugger…I’ve succumbed. Yup, I’ve caught, completely and with no mistake, the ‘thing’ deftly between my two ears and a little between my ribs too. The ubiquitous, the compulsory, the obligatory, the very one…yes - the seasonal lergy.
Well, what could I expect? I have been shut in a house for the past two weeks with most of the family coughing, sneezing and snorting so I guess the good old immune system was a bit fed-up with being Mr Strong-and-Aloof, therefore deciding to step down off his pedestal and join in the general furore. The problem is that they’ve all gone and I’m left coughing and spluttering on my own (apart from husband and Olly). Read the rest of this entry »
With the family are still clustered around the home fire, we were able to bring in the New Year together and even better celebrate Ben and Berengère’s engagement! Read the rest of this entry »
I hope you’ve had a good Christmas. We have, time has flown and I’m having difficulty knowing which day of the week it is. Family is still gathering making every day an excuse for celebration. And the realisation it’s New Year’s Eve the day after tomorrow is just dawning on me.
I’ve just spent two days battling with the frenetic, crazy, commercial side of Christmas. Yesterday I was working in the shop and after I’d finished Robert and I had arranged to meet up to do some late night Christmas shopping. Icy cold, sparkling lights and a band playing Christmas carols, Exeter felt festive and surprisingly inviting. Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday was strange. Jilly was all about the place. Not weird, not spooky nor particularly sad – she just was about the place. I caught imperceptible flashes of her out of the corner of my eye, saw a glimpse of her moving alongside the bobcat by the cow palace, heard the rustle of her in some leaves on our walk and, strangest of all, I felt and heard her whiz past me into the truck, her most favourite spot of all. Read the rest of this entry »
Through all this seasonal excitement and disorder there is a constant – the stock – and the twice daily routine, come hell or high water, is as about as grounding as you can get. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s a week since Jilly died and I’m beginning to be able to remember her in a softer, gentler way without so many of the sudden punches to the solar plexus of raw pain and horror. Skye and Ness, though still clingy, seem chirpier too and are beginning to reinvent the pecking order between them. Read the rest of this entry »
Sitting resolutely in my office yesterday trying to put my mind to various troublesome bits of paper work, bill paying and a thousand other niggly annoying things that had been put on the back burner - for so long that they had begun to bubble and boil - I became conscious of heavy furniture being dragged along above my head.
Half listening, I wasn’t taking too much notice when there was a great crash…
“Olly? Olly…is that you up there?” No response. The dragging resumed.
I got up, stuck my head round the door and called down the corridor
“Hey Oll, you getting Christmas decorations down from the attic or something? Okay? Need some help?”
I’m going away for the weekend.
I’m getting on well with things I have to do before I go.
I’m returning from having lunch with my mum, and choosing her some warm, cosy clothes. I stop at the top of the lane to let the dogs out, collect the post and say ‘hi’ to a neighbour who’s passing. The dogs are already making their way down the lane as I jump into the truck and pull away.
A soft thunk and the front wheel bumps. My stomach falls a thousand feet. An unearthly howl. I stamp the brakes, tear the door open…my dog, my Jilly, writhing in a small ball of frantic pain; she can’t stand she flails around and around in a macabre nerve jerking dance. I scream for help, hoping my neighbour will hear. Nothing. I try to still and calm Jill’s frantic movements, she grabs my hand and chews frenziedly…I’m yelling, shouting, screaming for someone to come, someone to help – nothing. Jill’s jerking subsides, she quietens, her eyes mist and plead. I lift her gently into the truck, sobbing. Skye and Ness look on in confusion. Read the rest of this entry »
Indigo-black, dark, chill-cold streets. Pavements which glint with iridescent oil-slick wetness in the yellow light of street lamps. Oblongs, diamonds, squares and triangles… kaleidoscopic layers of glowing patterned colour, thrown out into the dark night from the open doors and windows fronts of festive shops, luring you into warm inviting interiors.
Five things to do on a rainy weekend.
1. Fluke the calves and young stock 2. Fluke the bull 3. Fluke the lambs
4. Fluke the rams - and for a bit of variety…5. Dehorn a six month old calf
Fasciola hepatica - liver fluke Read the rest of this entry »
My ‘hoarding and squirreling’ of nuts and fruits for cakes and puddings didn’t pan out as planned.
I was late setting off from home as several farm matters needed seeing to. Then road works slowed down any reasonably speedy progress into Exeter. Shop matters absorbed another couple of hours and when I eventually managed to start on my less and less well-planned shopping foray it was only to find that I was struck with ubaniphobia which had me wandering around in a semi-mazed state, wide-eyed, gormless and perfectly useless at making a single decision or purchase. To cap it all, the one shop where I knew exactly what I wanted (nuts and fruit) was completely out of stock and waiting for delivery… Read the rest of this entry »
Today I’ll gather and squirrel away a cache of nuts and fruit. Plump toffee-sticky raisins, sweet sultanas, button black currants, glistening prunes, sweetly-sticky cherries, thick sugar-cracked halves of candied lemon and orange peel and soft translucent slices of citron - the palest of pale lime green. Nuts – hazel, walnuts and almonds…ground, whole, flaked; creamy kernels and rust velvet skins. Curled sticks of sweet cinnamon bark, cloves, vanilla pods, hot, spicy ginger roots and aromatic nutmegs and allspice berries. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s cold. It’s wet. The land gave up. Suddenly. We brought the cattle in.
