Country Burbles

I might start treating this as a bit of a blog, but that might not materialise so you will have to watch this space.

I have to admit to getting fed up with the so-called authorities which make such a mess of problems they have to solve. I might also make comment on the weather, work, nature, or anything else that catches my interest.

20th Feb

Surprise, surprise, it's me again!

We had snow, and it has gone, I have got the new labelling website up and running www.foodlabelling.info a labour of love as the protected section is duplicated within the Food Solutions site as well. I am very impressed with the security system. It took me a little while to find something I thought would do the job, but I have managed to set it all up and it works! Great satisfaction and relief - just need some customers now!

I have also been working on a site for the village shop www.villageshopgreetham.co.uk. It has become larger than I initially anticipated, I suppose I got a bit carried away! I have decided though, it is the setting up and designing I really enjoy. From my point of view, using wordpress is somewhat frustrating. I can't have things exactly as I want them without having to do a lot of research into plugins and templates (which I am getting the hang of). I have been thinking while doing this it would have been much quicker to design it all myself, but then I would be stuck with updating it all so.... compromise is acceptable.

My niece and nephew came for a flying visit on Friday - Simon was driving!

I suppose it helps if your Mum is a driving instructor!

Charis has had a lightning demo and tour of her website so I shall have to check if she has updated it! www.4charis.co.uk

23rd Jan

Hmm... Christmas has been and gone. Remarkably smoothly! The weather helped a lot. There were the odd awkward moments - blacklist is out and published for next year! Mostly customers were fine and nearly all the turkey were collected on the right day.

Basil did take up some significant time on Christmas Eve after he went awol in the huge bonfire heap that is waiting for a north wind before we can burn it. Five hours after he vanished I eventually tracked him down as he had got well and truly stuck.

Apart from that, Christmas was good, turkey was fantastic we had one from last year, but I couldn't fault it despite a year in the freezer.

Did the Village New Year Walk with Bas, about an hour and a half I think, Bas doesn't do slow!

Been back to work and a spot of clearing up, finishing off huts for separating the rarebreed hens to lay in, next will be mucking out the shed for the turkeys. Breeding time approaches and it all begins again.

I cannot believe we are going to get away without some grotty weather, but so far we seem to have done......

Maybe I will get a chance to add a bit more in less than a month - don't hold your breath. The FS labelling thing has to go live in the next week or so......

13th December

I am sure many who have a website have had emails from search engine optimisation (SEO) companies or those who say they are. "We found your Google listing on the backpages/way down etc, wouldn't you like to be on page one/at the top? Contact us/reply to this email so we can discuss how to improve your ranking."

So,

• if they are so good, why aren't they flooded out with work and too busy for unsolicited emails?
• they found my site on google, probably not having dug for so long, so what is the problem?
• I know I am on google
• why would I believe they could get me to the top of Google listing anyway?
• if I wanted SEO by someone else, I would much rather choose a company with a proven record
• if you use adwords you will get on the first page, but at what cost and will you get any return on your probably large investment?

Bit of a minefield, I know keyword research and SEO is time consuming and can be expensive. Does your site warrant it, what do you expect and can the company you engage deliver, references are always useful!

I can't claim to be an expert. I have no certificates and websites have just become a hobby. The technology is moving way beyond basic html and people often want to be able to update their own sites. Personally, I am still of the opinion that no matter how many bells and whistles a site has, it should still be easy to navigate. It should have contrasting text so you don't go cross-eyed trying to read green on red or other dreadful combinations and it should do the job it is set up to do, be that inform, sell entertain or whatever.

Enough web babble, we are into the countdown to Christmas, the vac packer is proving temperamental despite its service last week. We are sold out of birds and people keep calling with requests we can't fulfil. Too late! Not sure what we will get for Christmas, it depends what is left!

6th December

Just a short break since my last burble... good squash harvest, been to Rome, a christening, winter is here, Christmas is nearly here. Done another website www.victoryvintagehire.co.uk. It is all go, turkeys, geese, cockerels, venison, potatoes, facebook. I think the poultry is winning at the moment, the plucking machine motor keeps overheating so with the last 50 odd birds to go it's fingers crossed and don't run it too long at once! Food Solutions will be launching a new product in the new year so more web design for that, just about sorted the design, just the info to put on.....!

Had trouble with getting lambs done a few weeks ago. The Easy Care sheep seem to be living up to their name and living on nothing. Finally decided must get rid of lambs before Christmas and oh joy, everyone is busy. One place could kill them but not cut them up till after Christmas, another had no space. The new place near Melton said yes, it would take them, cut them up a week later and vac pack - for extra money, but it's worth it.
Off Pat went with them at the crack of dawn and we thought all was well. The collection day arrived and no, they wouldn't be ready for another 2 days. Half way to the place another call, they won't be ready till Monday. On Monday, they should have told you Wednesday. Finally 5.30pm Wednesday, still one to cut up but finally done only not as requested and not vac packed. When we looked closer we were only sure one of them was our lamb. The label on the other was not the right number, slaughtered a week later and from the market. The third had no label at all.

So much for full traceablility and a new service for small holders. They had 200 pigs and 2 butchers and 2 packers cutting up and packing so it is no wonder the small holders lost out. I would be surprised if Pat was the only one not to get her own lambs. Compensation is promised, but it makes a mockery of a multimillion pound facility for the locals.

Christmas - no cards done yet, few presents oh dear! Best go, the shoulders need some rest before tomorrow's plucking!

24th July

The fete has been and gone and there have been several garden do's. I am awash with photos needing to go somewhere, but they need editing etc... it all takes time. The car thing is still hassling me. Hindsight is not so great! I keep saying to myself it is only a car and not life threatening..... Hard lesson learned I think!

Anyway, Harry Potter 7 tonight... Hope the fizz has gone by then. The fete slideshow is up and running on the church website www.greethamchurch.org.uk/greetham-gallery.html.

I really should get some pics on from the Plant Fair, Gardeners World and the Cottesmore Open Gardens. I could probably put them all on facebook really easily, but being a glutton for punishment, I won't! My new border and the potaotoes I planted next to the new fence are looking pretty good. Squashes ate taking off and the tomatoes have huge numbers of flowers. Cucumbers doing well and we had our first courgette yesterday! Whoopee!

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12th July

Thought for the day

Learn from your mistakes, especially the expensive ones. Put them behind you and aim not to make the same ones again! Difficult at times, but very apt for me just at the moment. Ho hum!

25th June

I am back, if only briefly. Sadly, my last three sheep have gone - 16 or 17 years old is not a bad age. End of an era really.

Plant photos permitting I shall put a slideshow or so on shortly, there have been some marvellous displays of flowers and things what with Open Gardens, and Plant fairs and shows. The Village fete is rapidly approaching and I am still planting in the garden. Broad beans are nearly ready and I have the most ENORMOUS radish I am letting go to seed as the seed pods are supposed to be delicious!

Too tired for more tonight, maybe tomorrow - there is the phone saga to relate yet!

30 May

It has taken me most of the afternoon sorting out the scroller, just use the one you have instead of trying to sort out another!! One day I will learn. We had a fantastic day on Saturday. Didn't raise quite as much as we were first told, but still a good lot.

I will put some other pics on facebook, but so all can see, not just Facebookites (or whatever they are called). Here is my first effort. Having over 200 to go through has taken some time. They are in random order as the gallery picks alphabetically and I forgot to name them as such, still happy viewing. These are optimised so won't print as well as my originals if you are tempted!

More rain today, I will have to go and plant things in it. Must not complain, it held off on Saturday and we need it. How many more dustbins can I find to collect water in??

Greetham Music Ale Festival

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7th May

Playing with facebook now. I think it could get quite addictive. The way it keeps badgering you to update your profile and things...

Anyway, we have had some rain today. Hooray! Not enough yet, but typically just as it has come we are removing and replacing the hedge/fence in the garden.

We seem to have gained at least three feet round the garden. Now just the fence to take down. Unfortunately, the posts are well concreted in. Having taken three panels out and the gate, Bas is confined to the house unless he is on a lead!....

The extra complication is a chainlink fence on the other side that we are obliged to keep. It makes things more awkward still!

29th April

So, it's all over, Kate and William are married and it all went off to the second! Amazing timing, the weather held, a wonderful dress. Best wishes for the future to the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!

Yep! I am now on facebook, mainly because I wanted to do a page for Food Solutions. I am on a steep learning curve with like buttons and such like, but, playing with technology does give me a buzz, specially when it works occasionally! Watch out world! I can see how easily it could get addictive.... I am NOT getting messages to my phone....

23rd April

St George's Day and more gorgeous weather.. I have finished wool washing and it all dried outside, luckily Bas left most of it alone. He has a thing about wool under normal circumstances. I think there was too much of a good thing this time!

Yesterday, the Good Friday Cross Walk happened round our benefice of churches. Walkers did the round of the 6 churches (about 17 miles), carrying a large wooden cross, ending up for the last part of the service just before 3pm. I only did the last mile or so, I walked in the direction I thought they would be coming and turned round and came back with them!

20th April

I have been working, though not at this! I am now doing a few pages on fleece selection and washing as I have just got round to a major wash of last years wool! Making the most of the drying weather. It is beautiful, but I hate to say it, too dry for the garden....

31st March

No it isn't cross browser compliant. I think you either have something that will play in most browsers but is not W3 XHTML code compliant, or it shows an error in some browsers but is compliant. Ho hum... choices!

War Horse

Went to see War Horse at the New London Theatre today. Well worth a visit if you have the chance. Good view of the stage where ever you are, we were in the rear stalls. No problem hearing either. An excellent show, not quite following the book, but they never do! The book was written from the horse's perspective - Black Beautyesk.

You forget the puppeteers as they all wear hats and avoid looking up at the audience. Some strange not quite horsey noises at times, but someone has spent time studying horse psycology. The legs are not always coordinated, but the movements are not off putting.

They managed to use bits of brown cloth and people to give a good impression of horrendous mud and wet conditions in the scene with the gun being drawn to its new position.

A terrifying tank and emotional portrayal of the waste of men and horse lives gave the production added depth.

It was not without humour though, when Alfred brought the sketch of Joey out of his pocket to show to the Sergeant and said he had joined the army to find his horse, had he seen him? The retort was along the lines of 'No, did he look like an equine enthusiast?', before a few home truths!

A shame in someways they avoided the auction and Emilie's Grandfather at the end, but maybe an emotional reunion back at the farm wasn't such a bad ending!

Definitely go and see War Horse if you get the chance!

19th March

A quick plan to embed an mp3 player that is cross browser compliant - using the object and embed tags. I'm trying it out to see if it works!

17th March

Spring is not quite here, though there are signs of it - daffodils etc. It is St Patrick's Day, I have launched a website for the irish band McGoo who is playing at the party in the loacal pub. See McGoo gigs for more.

I have also bitten the bullet and set up a blog for McGoo. I took me hours, though installation was quick and went very well, it is not difficult, just there is so much to look at. I have never used Wordpress before, but I am impressed. It is open source code, meaning it's free and anyone can amend it.

I suppose, like anything else, you have to get used to a new project. There is certainly plenty of help and I probably dived in too soon! Still, I have managed to link the blog theme to the main website fairly effectively. More so than if I had used the 1 and 1 blog in the package I suspect.

Still loads of settings to sort out do you want to moderate every comment before it goes on?....

14th March

Eek, I'm a geek!

I spent a very interesting day on an e-marketing course. Susan Hallam, a web guru was in charge and it was run by Discover Rutland.

Google analytics featured heavily, website design and search engine optimisation along with e-marketing in the form of facebook, twitter, blogs and various other options.

I have to say I was in my element, I was pronounced a geek for deleting cookies periodically. I was the only web developer there and there was some scepticism about Dreamweaver and MS Frontpage especially as far as web design goes. Content management systems (CMS) are the way to go.

That is why I tried Wordpress. Steep learning curve, but I love it. I enjoy the "messing" with HTML code and seeing what can be achieved on the page. I don't do php or javascript, but it is possible to find scripts and get them to work. HTML yes!

I immediately downloaded the google pagerank toolbar - fascinating. I missed the page rank thing in Analytics when they removed it, I didn't know it had been incorporated into a toolbar.

You have to activate the page rank bit - I googled how to, then you can see straight away how google ranks a page from 1-10. 10 never happens, the press, government sites and the media are generally trusted by Google ranking 8.

Search Engine Optimisation is a minefield, Google will keep changing its algorithms, but one of the best ways to get ranked highly after all the titles, page headings etc etc is to get somone google trusts to link to your site - for a reason, not just a reciprocal links. Quality, not quantity!

 

4th March

We had a session on venison yesterday, it went quite well, maybe we haven't forgotten everyting yet. More next week, but they are bigger and have been hung longer so at least will take longer to skin...

More farm sitting! Still no snowdrop photos, they are on my phone. However Bob took Dad and another gentleman from the village to the "farewell harriers" do at Cottesmore. It was freezing, but the painted tail harriers were on display and loads of people went apparently.

Sadly they had sold out of the commemorative harrier mugs, so Dad got a boring one with swords on it, still....

27th Feb

Back again finally. Went for a long walk yesterday and saw pussywillow and catkins for the first time this year. The snowdrops are still in abundance and I took some photos, so I'd better get them on!

Just been and had a look at the video of "Stand by Your Ham" on UTube. It was the pig farmers call to consumers in 2008 to support British pig farmers. It is no better now, infact it's worse. The video is here. Watch and smile - or cringe, but do support. There is threatened a new "song" on March 3rd so I wait with bated breath. I favour "From rasher with love".

Chucking it down with rain again, I wonder when it will be fit to dig? Haven't ordered seed potatoes yet - may be a trip out shopping is called for.

The Plough didn't win the pie competition, but it was good to be nominated.

May have some butchery to do this week or next as there are some deer to do. Our master butchery class on the pigs helped significantly. We just spend too long faffing! Trouble is lack of practice as we just get to remember what to do by the last deer and then have a six month break.... Not much to be done, may be we need a course!

14th Feb

Valentine's Day. Might just go and do some quick cakes!

On a different subject. Well, linked to last weeks activities - www.pigsarestillworthit.co.uk new campaign. Feed prices through the roof and fuel, British pig producers are losing £21 on every pig they produce. EU laws allow other European countries to continue using sow stalls that are banned here. Having said that, our pork reared outside will be much tastier than any indoor reared prok could be - the pigs grew more slowly too. However, I would if I have to eat pork from a supermarket, still always choose British because of the welfare implications. On taste - British outdoor reared wins!

10th Feb

Spent the day today cutting up pigs! A master butcher class arranged very rapidly after it took us a whole day to cut up one pig on Tuesday. We learned a lot - most importantly, stop messing about trying to get every bit of meat off a bone, it is not economical use of time! Also, a meat saw only cuts away from you, saw with attitude. We need a bigger cleaver and a block and better quality string!

The pigs led a very happy life until last Thursday when we lured them with food into the trailer for their final journey. Stress does not come into it and the meat is beautiful, with the best crackling ever!

It is very satisfying to see a box of joints, chops and steaks appear from half a pig. Tomorrow we have a marathon sausage making session. My recipe for Lincolnshire sausage came from sausagesource.com. It worked very well when we had our first attempt last year. This time, whether we failed to mix the seasoning up properly and it was what I used last time or whatever, the mix was plenty salty enough. Still a million times better than the sausages the butcher did for us - they were just inedible without 3 hrs soaking to reduce the saltiness. Yuk! Hopefully I will get the calculation right tomorrow. Probably something to do with converting from imperial to metric...

30th Jan

Finished the farm sit and back home again. May have another website to develop so finding some bits to liven things up. Trouble is I'm not really up on the dynamic site design, steep learning curve coming up I can tell!

20th Jan 2011

Just had an email from the landlord at the local pub. They have a pie nominated in the Great British Pie competition. If you would like to vote go to the British Pie Week website.

There are two Plough pubs the Greetham one is ours, they do make a mean pie! Go and try one and see for yourself.

18th Jan 2011

Ok, I know it's been ages. I have been out with my camera though and looking through the kitchen window I spied a thrush. I am impressed with my camera, I would have struggled to even get the thrush visible with my other one, especially as it has now stopped zooming!

I have managed to take some quite reasonable pictures of the deer without spooking them unduly.

I was wondering what had got caught round the antlers of one of the bucks and having spotted them with my zoom, I could see he was sporting a fetching lump of red string from somewhere!

They are being a bit destructive what with undoing water pipes, pulling wire around and shifting things down the hill.

20th December

Well, plucking done etc we had a day off yesterday to go to a wedding. In this day and age, you would have thought a dual carriageway near Oxford misght have been ok. No. Between Northampton and Oxford there was a single track, very icy in some places and bumpy, where the snow ploughs had not quite cleared properly. Lorries were jack-knifed and some parked on the road side, varous cars were abandoned along the road. About a foot of snow in places.

We made it, just, the bride was late so that was ok. We were persuaded to stay for the reception that we had said we couldn't. So many had not come, there was plenty of room for us. A good meal, though it was a long time from breakfast to 5pm. Thankfully, the return journey was better, but the windscreen washers still froze which made for blurred vision at times.

I think we were bothe pleased to get back, as was Bas who had a rather boring day and two short walks between sitting in his crate with lots of blankets.

Only 4 days now...

6th December

Why is it just when things are getting busy, the weather makes it worse? It is very pretty, but freezing temperatures and snow does not make working outside easier. Everybody suddenly drinks more water when you have to carry it all. Supplementary feeding is needed as they can't see the grass let alone get any goodness from it. You suddenly find the most timid beast becomes your best friend because you bring the food and water!

We have started plucking, so I suppose the workload of feeding is being reduced but creeping about with extra care on glass-like surfaces is not conducive to "getting things done".

It will soon be Christmas! Better get on with some Christmas cards then! I got waylaid last night as there was a nativity festival in Church. Bob was in charge of photography since I was plucking turkeys, so I spent my evening organising a slideshow for the website. Nativity/crib festival

I'm off to sit in front of the fire!!

20th November

I have to admit to having drunk just a smidge too much wine tonight! We are farm sitting and went to thre farmers market at Oakham this morning after letting things out and feeding. Tonight, a bottle of Yellowtail chardonnay, my favourite, but the excuse that it is a pre-screwtop bottle means I am not seeing totally straight!

Ellie and Chris are coming to Mum and Dad's tomorrow so we will be there for lunch before rushing back to shut theturkeys in before they go to sleep outside.

I did the craft/christmas fayre last week with my calendars and sold a dozen, but having ordered 30 more, with only the History of Greetham Church event to sell them at next week, I am wondering if I have bitten off more than I can chew.

Having said that the village shop and the pub - Plough Greetham has got them to sell.

Weatherwise, it has been rather grotty the last couple of days with fog predominating.

On another note, I have bought a new camera. Spent ages looking at revies and things and plumped for a Panasonic Lumix FZ38. It seems quite easy to use and results so far look good. It wil just take some getting used to. I have mad my Nikon 2mp camera for some time and even now have only only just got to grips with it. I have managed to take some quite impressive pictures with it so i hope the new one proves as good or preferably better! We shall see....

Surrounded by 5 Jack Russells at the moment - there is some ominous growling, but we had a quiet night last night, much to my surprise. Wait till January, we have a three week stint - Christmas first - orders are coming in.... We start plucking in a week and a half! I won't have much time for this in December!

8th November

Went to see the puppies again. They are galloping about as pups do. They look well grown and Tia has done them very well. They can now escape from their amended box, despite the extra height additions and have take over Mum's fluffy bed!

Getting tired now, time for a nap!

I have got the calendar on the website and my reprint came though today, so I have spares! See the church website.

31st October

It was the judging of the pumpkin carving competition at the Plough last night. We went down, having missed the initial pumpkin growing judging. There were quite a few there from large to minute. Proceeds are going to Help for Heroes and Friends of Greetham Church.

Hopefully I will get the calendar set up for sale from the website today. (See below)

28th October

Things are getting out of order now. Bas is a dad and I did take photos but it is only now - they are 4 weeks old I am getting the pictures on.

There are four puppies, three tri-colour and one brown and white. One bitch, three dogs. They are lovely and doing really well!

I also harvested all my squashes before the frost hit. They did really well this year, despite the weather. I had a Kabocha and Turk's Turbans and Patty Pans for the first time with 3 varieties of butternut. There wasn't much difference between those in the greenhouse and those outside, especially the ones over in my bit of garden over at Mum and Dad's. I had some huge ones. Not as big as the ones at work. They were in the poly tunnel and even the pattypans were massive.

27th October

Well, I have now seen the Rutland Panther.

There has been a lot of hype about it and sightings in most parts of Rutland. I was just coming home from work last Wednesday and there it was. Jet black, I only saw its back end, but about labrador size with a long tail curling like a cat's. It leapt into the hedge just outside Ketton - heading back towards the quarry. I stopped the car very quickly and leapt out nearly forgetting there might be a car coming, which there was. I shot across and peered through the hedge, but nothing. I should have taken Bas out to see if he could smell anything, on second thoughts maybe not! It was definitely a cat - big and black. So there we are. Maybe I will take my camera now, the phone would not be good enough quality even if I managed to operate it in time!!!

Off on another tack, I have managed to produce a calendar for the church. I will be putting it on the website shortly. www.greethamchurch.org.uk probably on the marathon page. You will understand if you look!

8th October

We had a really good time in the Scillies. We went via Chipping Camden. Why? I hear you cry. Bob had a conference there, so Bas went into kennels and we stayed in Chipping Camden.

I had a free day, so I decided to investigate Shipston-on-Stour.

I had a wonderful time! First I walked round to get my bearings and found a marvellous needlecraft shop. Actually, I think there were two. Anyway, this one was an Aladdin's cave of stuff. Knitting, cross stitch and crafts. It went from one room to another with cross stitch kits, books, cottons and silks, wools galore, rug kits, knitting patterns, knitting needles - it was amazing.

I found this fantastic yarn for knitting, from Noro, it's Japanese 45% silk, 45% kid mohair and 10% wool. It was an end of line, but still quite expensive - though I only found out how expensive when I came to the till!

I stopped in a little tea shop for a coffee, then I found another gem of a shop. This one was antique/secondhand/bric-a-brac - a bit like Auntie Wainwright's. Books, pictures, baskets, tools, coal scuttles and fire things - brushes, pokers and tongs. Loads of stuff, so little room, you could hardly move through the shop. I found a very nice toasting fork with a horse's head handle. I nearly bought a poker for the woodburner too, but resisted. There was an outside bit too with tools for the garden and outside stuff. You could spend hours there!

I bought a pair of trainers in Shipston too. Good place to visit.

Back to Chipping Camden, I had a look at the church and a strange folly thing nearby. I went into a museum thing which was a bit disappointing really. Still, culture is not always exciting!

We went on and stayed in a B and B near Stroud and then off to Cornwall on Saturday. More later.

If you are in a giving mood, our church secretary is running a half marathon in aid of the church roof fund. I have just set up paypal account so we can take donations online. See Sylvia's page - she promised a picture, but it hasn't materialised yet! www.greethamchurch.org.uk/marathon.html

4th October

Ho hum... well we have been on holiday. It is a great time to have our camera or phone with you. You never know when you might just see something stunning like the fabulous leaves , or just the autumn colours.

3rd September

Crystal Fountain and the Fete

I managed to photograph my clematis - Crystal Fountain. It is doing well!

It was the village fete on Saturday. Despite black clouds, the rain kept away and we had a beautiful afternoon, if a little breezy.

Basil did his bit and came first in the working dog class - out of six. I didn't like to tell the judge - the local dog warden, it was a good thing he wasn't a vet! Bas has decided he knows what happens - usually a jab and he dosn't like it. The vet had to tell Bas to stop growling as he couldn't hear his heart.

There were vintage/classic cars, motor bikes, a routemaster bus and a tractor on show. Archery, games, competitions, books, cakes and bric-a-brac. The annual go-kart race down the road was made slightly more interesting by the speed table that has been installed.

I have now got the church website up and running to a degree, trying to get people to write information to go on it is proving a challenge.... PCC meeting next week so you never know. See www.greethamchurch.org.uk - there is a slide show of the scarecrows - look at the gallery page.

18th August

Fuchsias and clematis

I am delighted with the way my fuchsias are doing this year. I think I have fuchsia spelled right this time! Ellie gave me six which could have been all different, well I think I have Beacon, Army Nurse, two Shrimp Cocktail, a Hawkshead and Garden News, not bad. The garden Centre in the village is being taken over so they had a sale to clear stock. I could not resist the odd clematis and a few more pots. I have a Crystal Fountain and a white one I can't remember the name of and some lovely pots. I will take photos when I get round to it. The fuchsia are all supposed to be hardy, but none, sorry only one survived even though I put them inside. It was very cold. Ellie tells me I should have put them next to the wall and fleeced them, so this year I will.

I thought I had lost my clematis and passion flower completely - they were next to the shed, not in pots, but blow me if they didn't come back from the dead. The Passion flower is not as vigorous as it was, but it is still hanging on in there.

Turbans

My Turk's Turbans are pretty rampant and growing well. I first saw them at a farm in Cornwall when we were on holiday a couple of years ago. I have grown butternut squashes for a couple of years now, but I fancied the turbans. They do look like turbans too. They start small and round, then the lump starts to form and they are away. They are by far the most rampant squash I have come across, though I have some patti pan summer squash too. They are vigorous, but more like a courgette, upright not spreading. I am hoping the turbans will taste as good as they look. I also have a kabocha squash for the first time so we shall see.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth

All I can say is something about gift horses and their mouths. I am beginning to wish I had not offered to do the website for the church at all. I should keep my big mouth shut and I will do in future. I offered to design, set up and host a site for the cost of the domain name for two years (£7). Most people seemed enthusiastic, but the inevitable one seems determined to put the kybosh on it. I feel like saying forget it. If you need a meeting to decide whether you want a free website, why bother.

Ho hum...That will teach me. It is still online at present, I suppose may be I should not have gone ahead, but I thought the best way to let people see what I had done was to put it online rather than send blurb round by email not displayed properly. Besides, I have a bit of time spare now, but probably will not later in the year - strike while the iron is hot - or not...

I'm now getting fed up of sitting in front of the computer, though I do enjoy website designing. It is nice to take a break and take Basil out for a walk.

11th August

Talking of Basil, he is likely to have become a Dad last week. His girlfriend came to see him three times before he actually decided she was ready. So we will see in 9 weeks. Since then he has had a bad attack of hormones and has become my shadow.!

We had a morning on the sheep last week. Tagging the lambs - very complicated now. Red tags (well, they looked pink to me) for slaughter, double tagging with blue and yellow for the girls.

The pigs went and we had a jolly time cutting up. Made some (though I say it myself) marvellous sausages - the ones the butcher did last time were disgusting! If you are interested in some fabulous pork...www.rutlandorganics.co.uk/rare-breed-pork.html

The harvest is underway, though a bit broken as we keep getting showers, not enough to do much good though.

5th August

Rain but not much

We had the odd shower of rain in July, it filled up two of my water butts, but no where near enough to make a difference.

Turkey breeding is about over with just the last few stragglers to be delivered.

Food Solutions has been busy and we have a new book out Food Hygiene and Safety Regulations made easy for Food Handlers. We have deliberatedly kept it short and concise, aiming it at employees rather than food business owners or operators. I have spent many hours setting it all up for printing.

Pdf software

I have some new pdf software. I found a comparison site which said Nitropdf was good value for money and for what it does. I had Deskpdf before which is fine for pdffing things, but you cannot edit pdfs. It does have various quality settings and a very useul facility of allowing pdf creation in black and white or colour. Nitropdf does allow you to edit pdfs and it is quite good at that. My problem was it did not allow black and white pdfs. With the booklet I needed colour on outside cover and black and white throughout. I thought to save me having to do it in three bits and combine them I would make the bullets into arrows instead of those multi-coloured jobs and then just do the whole lot at once. Wrong!!! The digital printing tried to make black from three colours and totally went into decline. Every page with a graphic on it came out with no text, not even in the footer. I had to go back to Deskpdf and save in three goes to get the whole document. Another glitch with Nitropdf is that it doesn't always convert links and when it does they are not necessarily on the word they should be. I looked in the forum (which is quite good) and it was one of the posts - word links not always converted. The answer was to use the pdf maker in word as add-ins are always less reliable. A feeble response and one that demands a rapid fix to my mind. If it does convert links, you can edit their position relatively easily and make sure they are over the text they should be, just a bit annoying to have to do it.

8th July

Still no rain!

Still little in the way of rain and none on the farm at work. Local showers is the order of the day - or no local or otherwise showers to be precise.

I came home tonight to find an enormous RAF fire engine in the carpark area entrance. Turned out the gearbox had gone. They emptied out the water - a shame to let it all go down the drain, I could have had my waterbutts brim full++!

We went to the plough for a meal - definitely to be recommended. Prawns and sweet chilli sauce, tagliattelli and creme brulee. Mmmm!! The fire engine and three pretty fed up blokes were still there when we returned - a low-loader on the way.

Tomorrow is another day, may be it will rain!

Open Farm Sunday

We had a successful Open Farm Sunday farm walk on 13th June. We saw turkeys hatching, collected eggs, then walked up to the field and saw the deer and the growing turkeys in their huts. On our return and after washing hands we polished off tea and cake!

The deer kept well in the distance and refused to produce the first fawn until the following day!

See rutlandorganics for more.

Shearing, hay making and no rain

I managed to get my three old girls sheared at the beginning of June. I was pleased not to have done it the week before as there was a really cold wind. They are relieved now the weather has hotted up!

I was debating whther to bother cutting the hay at all, it is very light land and dries up to nothing. I had a phone call from someone asking if I had any hay this year so i trotted up the field for closer investigation. I decided it was worth cutting - just to tidy it up if nothing else. Luckily, the mower appeared the same day and we spent two days turning and scraping rows together before baling all of 36 bales. I shall have enough for the sheep but none to spare. Hay crops seem to be down by at least a third - two thirds in our case and this dry weather means feeding hay to some stock now. It doesn't bode well for winter feed stocks. Feast or famine.

Yesterday I busily installed a couple of steps onto the lawn for Mum. I got the chainsaw going and hacked up a sleeper.

The garden is suffering from lack of rain. My potatoes are dying off despite watering. I did dig a couple of plants the other day, they are hardly ready, but did taste very good.

Chicks

Mum's broody hen produced two chicks, but we found one dead, probably because she had about a dozen eggs other hens had laid while she was sitting. I thought Mum had shut the others out! Anyway, we now have a hen and chick.

Bit like the last of the turkeys to hatch. Rather than set up a hut for 13 we shoved them under a broody turkey hen and are hoping for the best. Surprise!!

Bas rabbitting

Bas caught a rabbit and refused to leave it, he was determined to bring it home to eat! I had to be very sneaky to get it off him and throw it out of reach!

16th May

Gardening

The two tone tree has been blossoming again and blow me if there wasn't a picture in the paper of a very similar one down south somewhere. A bit grafted onto a white flowering one.

Loads of stuff going on now. Potatoes and onions are in and coming up. Sadly, I just covered up the potatoes the other day and the frost caught the leaves that I missed. It was really quite chilly down to -3C. Not good for May!

My tomatoes are still on the window sill, but I did plant out broad beans. Hope they are ok. I have some more still in trays just coming up. Ellie came last weekend and broaught me some fuschias and things for my birthday. More plants to look after, still. I am feeling quite pleased as I have planted two lots of carrots and parsnips and 3 lots of radish. Whether, this spate of continuous planting will continue remains to be seen.

Don't parsnips take an age to come up? Two or three weeks, in loo rolls with vemiculite to keep them moist. My neighbour said he'd read you should soak the seeds overnight in warm water before planting.

We have a break from hatching this week, so we are plucking chickens. The first lot for this year are about ready. They will hang for a week in the cold room before we dress them.

We have had a couple of single chick hatches, some eggs Pat got from ebay. Jury out at the moment, 1/6 for the first two lots, not brilliant. White Arauacanas and the others were cream legbars and something else very dark brown. I suppose it is always a risk buying on ebay. If someone only has a few birds, the eggs may not be very fresh which can affect fertility. Sending them them through the post probably doesn't help much. It depends, some turkey eggs we sent to Scotland produced 13 chicks out of 16 eggs.

The open day is coming up, Pat was putting some eggs in this weekend, so there should be turkeys hatching for that. I may be putting details on the website nearer the time.

Election?

Nah! Not much to say really, let's just hope they sort things out and don't get bogged down with bickering over things that don't really matter. Glad Brown has gone though.

26th April

Could be worse, only 20 days since the last burble.

Election fever is upon us, well actually it all seems quite subdued somehow.

I watched the first debate on tv, then forgot the second was on, don't think I missed much. I just don't want labour back in. They made such a mess of foot and mouth and the rural voters seem to be totally ignored. Lib Dems have some odd ideas, I don't fancy going into the euro at all. The Channel tunnel was a step too far as far as I'm concerned. So far through the letter box we have had 2 UKIP, Lib Dem, Conservative, BNP and Independant leaflets, but no sign of actual people. I am afraid if there is a hung parliament, Labour will be back again...Get rid of the hunting ban and bring back common sense, down with the nanny state!

The first turkeys hatched today so we rushed round getting accommodation ready for them. Oh, joy!

I have busily planted seeds in loo rolls (broad beans and parsnips), carrots, radish, climbing beans and squashes galore. Summer ones, autumn ones and Turk's Turban, which funnily enough do look like their name, multi-coloured too!

The potaotes and onions went in a couple of weeks ago. No signs yet.

I am delighted with my new laptop, it has windows 7 and runs my old graphics program beautifully. Vista spat it out and told me it was incompatible. Ha! We like Windows 7!

Did enjoy the handbell rally. Learned a lot and tried out some new techniques, though I don't think I will be rushing all round the country to ring handbells. I enjoy it, but I'm not a fanatic.

Best go...

6th April

Ah, I know, it's ages since my last burble.

Easter is over and turkeys are laying like mad. The new ewes have lambed, the last one today I hear. I am working tomorrow, so I shall see them then.

If you happen to have a tennis court that is looking a bit shabby, try hccourts for cleaning, painting, refurbishment and maintenance. I have gained another website to "maintain".

We had caravans galore in the village over Easter as the Community Centre played host to a rally as well as the big caravan site.

It is rapidly drawing near to the handbell ringing rally a week on Saturday...I wonder how I shall enjoy the first I have ever been to. It is all a bit daunting. I am assured the local rallies are not nearly so expensive, just as well. This is the National one. I'll just lurk in the background then... I may burble about it sometime.

Finally the snowdrops and daffodils made it and even violets I noticed yesterday, just when Iwas thinking I hadn't seen any.

Gardening is late, I did a bit of digging this afternoon and I have so far put potatoes to chit and planted my broad beans in loo rolls. We'll see how things go.

Mum and Dad have finally got their new shower. The cubicle eventually came it took over a month from the order. Instructions were brief o say the least, but it is in and seems to be working ok. Phew!! We had to hire a big drill to go through the wall for the waste. The previous shower, apart from one being tiny had a 12" step up into it mainly because of the waste. The new one has a low profile tray and a much more manageable step. It is bo-fronted too, so plenty of room inside. Not sure whether Dad has been in it yet but Mum christened it the other day.

Lots to do tomorrow, candling eggs and swapping turkey stags round -just to make sure they don't get exhausted. It also helps to if a stag is sterile. We usually have more than one in a pen of hens anyway, but if alot of eggs are infertile we have quite a lot to lose as the season is very short. Not sure if you know, but turkeys are seasonal layers, that is why you don't see many turkey eggs for sale.

Turkeys naturally breed in the spring so the intensively reared ones are usually kept in darkened sheds so they do not come into lay too early. There is not much natural breeding there either, it is all AI as the stags are too big and wobble off the hens.

Thankfully, that doesn't apply to ours, all natural breeding under natural light conditions. Our turkeys all get to make luuvv!

On that note, I will finish for now!

12th February

Surprise, surprise another burble!

I had 3 days at work this week (my full week!), mostly spent skinning and cutting up deer. I have to admit I think I am getting better at it, but not necessarily much quicker. It takes me about 45 minutes skinning. It would I am sure be much easier if done when the beast was warm, but if we hang without skin there is a lot of waste because the whole thing dries out so much. Unlike lamb, venison is not covered in a layer of fat. Still, that said, it is quite satisfying to see a whole carcase turn into joints and casserole, steaks and mince.

I decided to do some pruning at Mum and Dad's, Mum said she wanted the elder out and the ash trimming also the willow tree reducing somewhat. May be I got a bit carried away - there is still a bit left but the elder is out. I have never seen quite such a large tree of ivy. I didn't think it grew on its own I will have to get a picture. It was six inches thick with branches of four inches - absolutely incredible. Admittedly the whole area is swamped with the stuff, but really - I was speechless! Triffids eat your heart out!

We did have a break from butchery at work as the sheep were scanned. It seems Boris has not done his job, nobody is in lamb. There is no excuse, he only has seven girls, the one with the serious raddle mark was a wether! Boris goes back next week as he's guaranteed, sadly a replacement tup will not make up for a lack of lambs this year.

Don't get me started on the weather, we've had the lot this week, rain, snow, wind, frost. You never know what is next.

There is a problem in the pond, I picked out 3 dead fish yesterday. The water is black and smelly. I am wondering if it is all the weed that went mad and got caught by the frost in January. I have filled the green bin with it for recycling, but I am not minded to venture into the pond to clean it out till the weather warms up. The fish will have to take their chance.

2nd February

Not much of a blog! Christmas is well over and it's not as though I have been rushed off my feet...

The hand bell ringing has started again. It is very cold practising in the Church of a Monday evening. Still, it can only get better weather-wise, if not our standard of ringing. Most of the team is going to the Handbell Ringers of Great Britain (HRGB) national rally in Leicester in April. We have the music for the massed ringing (loads of people all ringing the same tune, hopefully), which should be an experience to hear if nothing else. So we are practising!! We are sharing the music, each of us rings two bells, the music is marked green for two bells and orange for the other two. We have been used to having a green mark for one of our bells and orange for the other. Having the same colour for both is confusing - as is this explanation.

That's it for now!!!

6th November

Italy

It seems a while ago now, but we did have a few days in Italy. Bob's conference meant a swanky hotel in Ischia for a couple of days. That is a little island in the bay of Naples. The picture on the right shows Ischia Castle in the afternoon sun. We decided to go to Pompeii, having got as far as Naples it seemed silly not to. Unfortunately, the hotel we found didn't have air-con and it was HOT. Also, despite being October, there were mosquitoes. Funnily enough, I only got about 12 bites, but Bob has the wrong kind of blood and he got bitten hundreds of times. Luckily, we discovered chemists open on Sundays and they speak English, so we were able to get some suitable cream.

Pompeii

We spent a whole day in Pompeii, we walked miles, saw numerous villas and pools, resisted the temptation to have a personal guided tour, we just listened in when the opportunity arose.

All the time we were there, we were aware of, though we could not always see, Vesuvius. My guide book said the Italian authorities had offered 25000 Euros to any family in the area to move elsewhere, because of the risk of another eruption. So far, only half a dozen people have taken up the offer.
All the streets had high pavements, sometimes several feet high, there were stepping stones in the roadway at intervals. The guide book explained - sewage was funnelled out of the houses into the street. Because Pompeii was on a hill, it ran away, but you would not want to walk in it! There were also grooves in the road way near the stepping stones. We heard guides explaining that these were left by the chariots and wagons as the drove around. Bob's explanation was that they were dug specially to ensure the wagon wheels went between the stones. This sounds much more plausible as the grooves were not everywhere, but only near the stones.

Maintain or rebuild?

There was a bit of a dilemma - the authorities were busy rebuilding both Pompeii and Herculaneum. It was difficult sometimes to decide what was original and what had been rebuilt. We met an American couple at Pompeii, one of whom was a post-grad archeology student. She had actually done some digging at Pompeii and said there was a lot more to uncover, but the authorities were not getting on. She thought it was because they were afraid of another eruption. There is one due - luckily Vesuvius kept its top while we were there. Our American archeologist told us she had met a man from Egypt who was horrified at all the rebuilding. He said in Egypt they strived to keep the finds as they were when discovered.

Herculaneum

We decided to see Herculaneum on the way back to Naples. It was a short walk down the hill from the station.

It was interesting to see how much excavation had been done.

The beach is now a mile further out than when the eruption took place in AD 79.

The difference was amazing. Pompeii had been covered in hot ash which had burnt all the wood, whereas Herculaneum had been covered in cold ash, it apparently started as pebble-sized nuggets of pumice.

There were more upper storeys of the houses left at Herculaneum and pipes inside the walls which our tame archeologist said were either heating or plumbing from upstairs facilities. Fascinating either way.

We spent our last night in Naples - heart of Mafia country, but survived unscathed. We did see some of the back streets by accident. We were trying to find the museum. I would not want to live there if there was likely to be a volcanic eruption - no way would everybody get out. The museum was interesting when we found it. All the best bits of Pompeii's artifacts had been brought there. Fair enough, but we would have liked to see a print of the pictures they had removed, in situ, so you could see what had actually been there. There was nothing in Pompeii saying where stuff had been taken from, just notes in the guidebooks that special items were in the museum.

Overall, definitely worth seeing, but there are three other sites near Herculaneum and Pompeii which had we had more time we heard were better preserved. NB even if you go out of season, get an hotel with air con and take mosquito repellant! Oh, yes, choose a time when Vesuvius is dormant - that would not be worth seeing!

16th Sept 2009

Success

I am delighted to say I found my card reader, so now I have photos from my camera.

We have been mucking out one of the sheds, well, it hardly classifies as a shed. It is an old fibreglass lorry body, about 6' x 8'. I hadn't mucked it out before, as we only started to use it for feeding hay fairly recently. We got 2 trailer loads of muck out. Bas discovered a large rabbit burrow and proceeded to enlarge it significantly. There is a two foot hole in the floor now, it was only an earth floor. Stones required I think.

The butternut squashes are coming on, I think the bigger one might be nearly ready, they should sound hollow when you tap them I gather. They go yellow and lose the stripes too. The leaves are dying off a bit, but I keep watering and feeding regularly.

The tomatoes have done quite well too. I did have to make some chutney though as one had broken off and the toms were not ripening. I found the most enormous slug on some tomatoes last night. I thought something was attacking them, so waited till it was dark. It won't eat any more of my tomatoes! The Tagetes - baby marigolds are supposed to stave off all sorts of pests and diseases. I have to say there were white fly earlier on, but they seem to have gone - coincidence?..... obviously don't work on slugs though.

Fuschia

Ellie gave me some plants for my birthday and a couple of them were fuschias. Shrimp Cocktail has stripey flowers and has done really well. I can't remember if it is a hardy variety or not. I will have to ask. Army Nurse was the other but although it started much more slowly it has caught up remarkably well.

14th Sept 09

Greenhouse

I am amazed at my strawberries in the greenhouse. I have them in grow bags. They are still producing the odd fruit. I tend to eat them while I am watering. We have had a beautiful week, dry, warm well, hot actually - better than July and August. It does mean more watering, but I have now 4 varying water containers, two dustbins and two proper water butts. The dustbins are about empty. My squashes are reasonable, not that big, but more seem to be setting now. The ones in the garden seem to have produced one each. I will take some pictures, but I have lost my card reader - no idea where it has gone, I did look under the bed where Basil sometimes takes trophies to chew, but I couldn't see it there.

Work

I have a few days spare at the moment, so I am planning to do some mucking out. We have a railway carriage and an old fibreglass van back that the sheep go in to eat hay and shelter from the rain/sun etc. I have not mucked either of them out for some years, so the time has come. Also it is coming up to hedge trimming time, although the farmer who owns the hedge has threatened to come with his hedge cutter, I won't hold my breath, he said that last year.

Turkeys are beckoning and we will be starting plucking on 30th November I think. They are certainly growing and do their rush across the field now and then. Thankfully they have not yet flown from the top into the wind like they did a few years ago, ending up 2 fields away.... I dare say there is time yet!

Ellie's felt seems to be coming on and she has a couple of little craft fairs to do in November. Let's hope it takes off, she is working very hard at it. www.feltabluous.co.uk

6th Sept 09

Fantasy Funds

Incidentally, I am taking part in the Fantasy Funds Manager thing. I am nowhere up with the leaders, but running at a profit so far. September update, I'm still at a profit - about 20% which doesn't sound too bad till you see the leaders at 360%+! Having said that if my ISAs were running at 20% I would not complain. Not in the running for new fund manager of the year, but so what. I'm enjoying it and its not my money!!

Basil and Cornwall

Basil (Jack Russell) is now over a year old. He is quite a character, he goes into hunting mode when we go to see Mum and Dad. There are so many rabbits. He has had a rat before now, but we haven't come across any recently. We had a holiday in Cornwall for a few days. There he was playing very nicely with 3 flat-coat retrievers, then he smelled a rabbit. Two hours later, having had glimpses of him as he raced from one patch of gorse and brambles to the next, he did catch a rabbit. It was a few minutes later we tracked down the crunching. Unfortunately I was only wearing sandals, so did not relish Basil retrieving, but we finally caught him. Despite ferocious growls he did consent to be captured. We decided after that to only allow freedom on dog-friendly beaches, without sand dunes.

We did plan to see the Lost Gardens of Heligan, but after an hour + drive we discovered they only allow dogs in winter.

Luckily, Trewithen was dog-friendly, so we spent a pleasant few hours there. Wonderful trees.

Basil enjoyed the walk. It was good to find somewhere we didn't have to leave him in the car, or not go because it was too hot to leave him.

We saw this hydrangea in Trewithen too. There was a camera obscura, which is a victorian invention, using mirrors to reflect an image onto a flat surface in a darkened room. There was a lever to rotate the mirror and you got a 360 degree view of the tops of the trees. We nearly missed it on our map, I wasn't sure what it was, but I'm glad we found it.

Gardening

The garden has done us proud this year, though we think the rabbits ate the potato tops and started digging up the potatoes. I have had courgettes and marrettes verging on marrows, carrots, onions,the strawberries in the greenhouse are still going, but they were a triumph. Grow bags seem to suit them and we netted the door to keep the birds out. My butternut squashes in the greenhouse were a bit close together. I think 2 per grow bag would have been better, but they have some reasonable squashes. The ones outdoors suddenly seem to have produced large specimens from nowhere. The sweetcorn is about ready. Beetroot and carrots have been hammered by mice - they are all chewed leaving just a bit like an apple core. Hopefully they will leave the parsnips, and I did get some before they really went to town.

Miscellaneous

We had the village fete last weekend - Bank Holiday Saturday. I wandered up, though I think I had a dose of Cornish 'flu or swine flu as I kept going hot and cold, coughing and had a dreadful headache when we got back. It lasted about a week so may be I'm now immune.......

I did assist Mum with the scarecrow for the competition - we had one sitting on the wall with a fishing food and a tiddly fish and a small boy in a buggy with a huge fish.

It will soon be christmas now, the supermarket had mince pies in today - it's only just September.

I'm hoping to see some of the Burghley Horse Trials tomorrow, I haven't been for years. I did once do the messengering on horseback. We had to ride between fences we were allocated, collecting scores as riders completed the fences and take them back to the scoring headquarters. I think we got free Sunday tickets for doing it. Quite an experience though.

Useful Links

Felicity Salmon

Original Feltwork by Ellie made with my sheep wool www.feltabulous.co.uk

Buy a Puggle puppy - what is a Puggle www.puggleuk.co.uk

Food regulations explained
Food Solutions

Food regulation handbook

Puppetry in Lincoln
Lincoln Puppet Theatre Co

Holidaying in the South west
Tavistock, famous Stannary and Market Town in Devon

Lydford, Devon historic Anglo-Saxon village

Oakhampton, Devon market town - gateway to Cornwall

Countryside matters
warmwell.com

Exclusive cross stitch designs
stitchtastic.com