The housemartins have now emigrated for the winter, so we can claim back our porch!

Yet again, many apologies for not updating the farm news page more regularly. A lot has happened in a few months - so much that I haven't had time to write about it.
Our best bit of news is that we've got permission to have an Iskra Evance 5kW wind turbine, and it should be up-and-running by Christmas. It will be a dream-come-true to lie in bed on a stormy night counting kilowatt hours and multiplying by pence per unit!
Our worst bit of news is that, for the first time ever, we had a reactor in our TB test a few weeks ago. I suppose it was only a matter of time because most of our neighbours have come down with it, but it's still a terrible shock. The implications are many and varied, but the main ones are we'll have about 20 more cattle to over-winter than we were planning on, we'll have to buy in extra feed and we will have a severe cash flow problem without the income from the 20 animals we were going to sell. What a worry.



Our best-and-worst bit of news is that we have two puppies: Bramble the Cocker Spaniel and Ben the sheepdog. They are great fun, but we'd forgotten what hard work puppies are. Our lives now revolve round their sleep, feed and excercise times, and we have to be vigilant when walking around with socks on in the house - anyone who has had a puppy in their house will know what I mean.

They're lovely when they're asleep! (Farmer included.)
Chris and I went to Sarah's graduation at Cirencester last weekend. She now has a Foundation Degree in Agriculture and Farm Business Management, but she's staying on for this year to study for a BSC Honours Degree.

She still comes home quite a bit to see her dog (Ben) and to ride Winaway - who's doing well, touch wood. Winaway's sarcoids were becoming a real worry, and we were spending a fortune on vet's fees and Liverpool cream. In desperatation, I turned to homeopathy - not believing it would work - and amazingly the sarcoid on her nose has disappeared and the cluster on her leg has reduced to a pimple. The bare patch around her leg sarcoids now has black hairs growing over it. I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but many thanks to Geoff Johnson, our homeopathic vet. I haven't a clue why homeopathy works, but it does seem to have almost magical properties if you get the remedy exactly right.

Sarah riding Winaway