Seasons Changing and a break to Sunny Hunny!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........  storms, heavy showers and the north wind!  So we've just had the worst storm in years, knocking trees and branches about.  Having just had our hedges cut, little shelter for the cows and youngstock out there.  So tonight the cows are staying inside.  Yippeee!!! (for the cows not for us).  That means the work load has just doubled.

Mark and I had a short break away from the farm last week in Sunny Hunney (Hunstanton, Norfolk for those that don't know the lingo).  The fresh sea air, the clear blue skies, great meals out every night and change of scenery revitalizing our wellbeing.  We had a great rest, leaving Harry and Jayden to do all the work at home.  (Harry was on half term break from College).   Trevor came to do most of the milkings but they had to milk several evenings, so there's a milestone achieved too!

My niece Catherine, has just turned 18 and we were invited round for supper to celebrate on Friday.  Met her new boyfriend and watched the first video recordings of Catherine as a new born and my Charlotte (who's just over a year older).  It was a very tear-jerking moment for me and one that pulled at my heart-strings because a) she's all grown up and b) I'm missing her now, it's been  two whole months since she left us to go to Australia.  Thank God someone invented Skype which seems to keep me going and lots of emails and text messages too.

Harry's back at College now and really has settled in well.  He  seems keen to get on with the work and turning into a thoroughly nice young man!  Quite impressed with him at the moment, long may it continue, especially as he's now turned his hand to the odd milking when he's home.

So Monday morning has seen a hive of activity in the farmhouse.  We've had the central heating boiler serviced and repaired, new tank of oil arrived, chimney swept ready for lighting the fire in the sitting room, cleared out some dining room furniture to the local saleroom (as the cattle trailer is spotlessly clean after Cousin Tom's power washing it last week) and a new lad Silas has come for a weeks work experience.  He wants to be a vet.  Haven't we enough vets in the country?  We also have a school girl coming most weekends to help out to gain work experience to work in farming!  She seems unfazed so far but a long way for her to go.  Now I've picked up a message from our local Vicar, who's son is also keen on getting work experience on our farm.  Wished we could earn money out of all this "work experience" going on!

Only got one talk this week but it's a first.  I'm off to Southwell in Nottinghamshire to give my talk to a WI "Group" so up to 60 members present.  I've got a load of Stilton waiting in the fridge to take for them to taste.  Always a favourite especially at WI's.

Opening Meet for the Cottesmore hounds tomorrow.  Although I'm not hunting this season, I might go along to see them all and say hello.  Its always a special meet at Johnny Weatherby's at Preston Lodge.  They meet in our village on Saturday too, and the Master has been to see Mark this morning.  Oh I wish it would dry up a bit before all those thundering hooves cross our land on Saturday.

Fingers crossed!

Living without broadband.........never again!

Sorry for the delay in getting another blog on my page.  It's has been quite a while since I last added some news to life at Southfields Farm but we have been interrupted by broadband breakdowns.

It's half term week this week, so Harry is home for one week from Reaseheath College and Mark and I have taken this opportunity to jet off...........to Hunstanton for the week!   Well, Mark's getting a week of lazying about, with 6 morning a lie-ins! 

So this morning, up early (5.30am) to leave Hunstanton and return home (did it in 1hr 45mins - hope the highway coppers were still asleep) as there has been a pressing need since Friday to get our broadband up and running again.  BT Openreach visited us this morning, to repair yet another loose wire inside the house, making our broadband connect a 100 times better than it was!   I'm now a happy person again......phew!  

Life without broadband makes you feel you've lost the use of both arms.  We have become so used to all its multitasking, I'm sure my computer is a woman!  Like all things on our farm, the females are working hard, multitasking and producing the goods, even if sometimes a little tempermental.

However, the boys Harry and Jayden are home alone this week (maybe not, cousin Tom has arrived tonight to stay for a "while"!)   Three young men home has brought life back to the place.

In case you're confused....... I've left Mark (not in the sense of marriage separation) in Hunstanton and returned back to do a "Talk" in Southwell this lunchtime.  I hate messing my bookings around just to fit in a holiday, so I've returned back for a couple of days to check the farm, the cows, host a farmwalk tomorrow, make sure Trevor our relief milker is OK and feed the boys.  They did manage two nights feeding themselves.  Oooh and to see our little dog Beattie too and the horses, who are living like kings in heaven, the amount of long grass they've got in their field. 

As the nights are drawing in, the chickens went to bed this evening at 5.45pm cos they hate all this rain and very windy tonight.  We opened up the cubicle shed to offer bed space for the cows, and they didn't say no.  About 30 or so, went straight into the stalls, to relax on the bed of straw even though the gate is open for them to walk out to the fields.  It's not cold, just very, very wet!  The milk yield is dropping rapidly - we've been feeding our silage from the clamp for 5-6 weeks now and are expecting more cows to calve shortly.  Winter is only around the corner, hence Mark's quick break to the "far east" to get him fit and well for the months of hard work ahead!

Hopefully, it won't be too long before I report again, about life down on Southfields Farm.