Sunday, 23 December 2012
Here comes Christmas!! and our BBC TV programme!!
After all that over indulgence during the festive season, you might like to laugh it off by watching the Barnes family on TV in a weeks time. The East Midlands version has a section at the end featuring the effects of the wet summer, autumn and winter has had on our dairy farm in Somerby.
This BBC programme will be aired on Sunday 30th December at 5.30pm on BBC One and its title is "Wild Weather in 2012". They filmed Noel (my 82yr old father in law) on his memories of past wet seasons of weather over his lifetime, my husband Mark on the effects the present rainfall has had on the land, my son Harry (15yrs) on his thoughts of the weather can have on this farm and myself, who had the nice warm Aga in the kitchen for the interview. Countryfile's Adam Henson, eat your heart out!
Talking about this wet year, we've had another deluge over the past couple of days. My rain meter in the garden can't take more than 1.5 inches so we've had more than that. Consequently, we are daily underwater throughout the outdoor yards and with 120 cows housed inside, we've been unable to scrape out the muck to the muck store. Mark's getting rather stressed about it and has now got a cold to boot. Why can't Christmas be in July when all the cows are outside feeding themselves, spreading their own muck and don't need a daily bedding with fresh straw? We'd have time to enjoy the celebrations instead of having to fit Christmas in before afternoon milking. Barely time to open all my presents, eat a roast dinner and have a glass of something alcoholic!
So it's the day before Christmas Eve, Charlotte and I have finally found one of the last Christmas Trees available at the local garden centre and decorated it before lunch. "So Santa now has somewhere to put all my presents!" exclaimed Charlotte. No help from the boys in this household, just Beattie the puppy who took off as many baubles as we were putting on!
Just been Carol Singing around the village, which was fun and definitely filled us with alot of Christmas Spirit. Or was that the Mulled Wine and mincepies.
Anyway, don't forget to watch "Wild Weather in 2012" next Sunday at 5.30pm on BBC One, for a good old fashioned belly laugh!
Have a good Christmas and New Year. Roll on a much drier 2013!
Thursday, 13 December 2012
I should be ironing but it will soon be Christmas!
Can't believe how close to Christmas it is! With all the yard jobs done by 4pm, I'm in the house and plan to catch up on the huge pile of ironing whilst we've got dark nights so early. But here I am, finding another job (distraction) to do instead - writing my blog!
Most of the Christmas shopping done online this year, so just waiting for some extra presents to arrive and wrap. Christmas cake made and iced (we do love rich fruit cake - I always make ours but have to hold everyone back from eating it before the big day), two dozen mincepies in the cake tin as well as a chocolate log (homemade of course, I bet that doesn't last the week!). All this baking is because we're still getting four fresh eggs per day from my White Leghorn hens - think we'll call them after the Telly Tubbies - Tinky Winky, Dipsey, LaLa and Po. You can't tell them apart but every morning I let them out of the hen hut, three have already layed their eggs, and one (Dipsey - I think) runs as fast as she can to the straw barn, as if in desperate need to lay her egg! Sure enough ten or so minutes later, she announces she's laid her egg in a feed bucket of hay!
Back to Christmas preparations. I always worry we'll run out of heating oil, tractor diesel, cow cake, horse feed etc as everyone will close down on Christmas Eve for the holidays! It seems that most of the world is having a few days off work and we're the only ones still working on Christmas Day. I've been brought up with it of course. All the cows need milking, feeding, scraping out and bedding down before we can open a present! Usually breakfast comes before that too so its well into the morning when we can think about sitting down as a family to open our presents together. This has turned into a family tradition. I've done this all my life and it's funny to see my teenage children still want us all to sit together and see each present opened.
Christmas lunch is always at 1pm in our house. That's because we're outside again just after the Queens Speech to do the milking and feeding round. We have my parents coming round this year - who are semi retired farmers now - and my in-laws will join us for lunch too. So cooking for 8 this year. I don't mind as it seems easier to have everyone here than rush off to another house for lunch which might not happen until 4pm! I usually cook the "bird" overnight so its cooked by breakfast anyway. Just leave it to rest in the bottom oven of the Aga whilst preparing the rest of the meal.
It's sad we just don't have time to go to Church on Christmas morning which would be nice as we would see some of our neighbours and we live on Church Lane. Some years ago we went to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, which was lovely but again, we're up early next morning with so much to do before breakfast, it just doesn't fit in.
This cold snap we've had these past few weeks has been a blessing in disguise. We love the dry, solid ground and only once has the parlour frozen up during the night. Some of our yearling heifers are still outside and we're taking hay to them daily. Some have turned alittle wild and nomadic as they've got so many acres to graze and shelter from. Sadly the forecast is for more wet weather and warmer temperatures this weekend, which is bad news. Sometimes, baby calves hate the change in temperatures which can lead to them getting pneumonia. If left untreated they can die from it. So listening out for any slight cough or runny nose in the youngstock.
Well, this is not getting the ironing done. I wonder if I can pay Charlotte with cakes to clear the ironing pile.
Most of the Christmas shopping done online this year, so just waiting for some extra presents to arrive and wrap. Christmas cake made and iced (we do love rich fruit cake - I always make ours but have to hold everyone back from eating it before the big day), two dozen mincepies in the cake tin as well as a chocolate log (homemade of course, I bet that doesn't last the week!). All this baking is because we're still getting four fresh eggs per day from my White Leghorn hens - think we'll call them after the Telly Tubbies - Tinky Winky, Dipsey, LaLa and Po. You can't tell them apart but every morning I let them out of the hen hut, three have already layed their eggs, and one (Dipsey - I think) runs as fast as she can to the straw barn, as if in desperate need to lay her egg! Sure enough ten or so minutes later, she announces she's laid her egg in a feed bucket of hay!
Back to Christmas preparations. I always worry we'll run out of heating oil, tractor diesel, cow cake, horse feed etc as everyone will close down on Christmas Eve for the holidays! It seems that most of the world is having a few days off work and we're the only ones still working on Christmas Day. I've been brought up with it of course. All the cows need milking, feeding, scraping out and bedding down before we can open a present! Usually breakfast comes before that too so its well into the morning when we can think about sitting down as a family to open our presents together. This has turned into a family tradition. I've done this all my life and it's funny to see my teenage children still want us all to sit together and see each present opened.
Christmas lunch is always at 1pm in our house. That's because we're outside again just after the Queens Speech to do the milking and feeding round. We have my parents coming round this year - who are semi retired farmers now - and my in-laws will join us for lunch too. So cooking for 8 this year. I don't mind as it seems easier to have everyone here than rush off to another house for lunch which might not happen until 4pm! I usually cook the "bird" overnight so its cooked by breakfast anyway. Just leave it to rest in the bottom oven of the Aga whilst preparing the rest of the meal.
It's sad we just don't have time to go to Church on Christmas morning which would be nice as we would see some of our neighbours and we live on Church Lane. Some years ago we went to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, which was lovely but again, we're up early next morning with so much to do before breakfast, it just doesn't fit in.
This cold snap we've had these past few weeks has been a blessing in disguise. We love the dry, solid ground and only once has the parlour frozen up during the night. Some of our yearling heifers are still outside and we're taking hay to them daily. Some have turned alittle wild and nomadic as they've got so many acres to graze and shelter from. Sadly the forecast is for more wet weather and warmer temperatures this weekend, which is bad news. Sometimes, baby calves hate the change in temperatures which can lead to them getting pneumonia. If left untreated they can die from it. So listening out for any slight cough or runny nose in the youngstock.
Well, this is not getting the ironing done. I wonder if I can pay Charlotte with cakes to clear the ironing pile.
Friday, 23 November 2012
Cows don't wear wellingtons!
One and a half inches of rain fell yesterday and last night, according to my rain gauge hanging on the washing line post! Enough, enough!
Mark wanted to move some in calf cows from the fields today, luckily the sun came out and we decided to deal with them on Owston Lane, making motorists wait. The gateways are bottomless. You try turning a cow sinking through a foot of rain drenced soddon mud in wellingtons. The cow will always outrun humans. They don't wear wellingtons!
Anyway, we got the ones needed out and walked them home to the shed in time for calving in the dry. Nightmare bringing in a newly calved cow and hours old baby calf if we don't move them in time. One calved this week the day after bringing in to the shed!
Spoken to the BBC Producer today, who's busy editing the programme about the weather. Its possibly called "2012: worst weather ever" or something like that. He still doesn't know when exactly it will be aired, but either first week of December or the very last week. He prefers the last week of December, as it's looking back over 2012's weather. I will keep you posted.
Looking forward to a nice log fire, feet up and watch a nice film on TV tonight. That's fine until Mark starts snoring loudly half way through.
Mark wanted to move some in calf cows from the fields today, luckily the sun came out and we decided to deal with them on Owston Lane, making motorists wait. The gateways are bottomless. You try turning a cow sinking through a foot of rain drenced soddon mud in wellingtons. The cow will always outrun humans. They don't wear wellingtons!
Anyway, we got the ones needed out and walked them home to the shed in time for calving in the dry. Nightmare bringing in a newly calved cow and hours old baby calf if we don't move them in time. One calved this week the day after bringing in to the shed!
Spoken to the BBC Producer today, who's busy editing the programme about the weather. Its possibly called "2012: worst weather ever" or something like that. He still doesn't know when exactly it will be aired, but either first week of December or the very last week. He prefers the last week of December, as it's looking back over 2012's weather. I will keep you posted.
Looking forward to a nice log fire, feet up and watch a nice film on TV tonight. That's fine until Mark starts snoring loudly half way through.
Sunday, 18 November 2012
First Frosts, Autumn Leaves and the BBC!
Woke up to a white frost this morning which was a shock to the system. The garden looked lovely with the sun shining on the frosted autumn leaves. It was great watching Beattie playfully prancing about in them. Her first frost. It's not going to last though. More wet weather to come tomorrow. God it's saturated out there.
We've got a couple of weaned calves suffering a bit with a cough. Mark injected them as we don't want to loose any to pneumonia due to the changing temperatures! Wished the weather would make up its mind and stay cold, to kill some of these bugs.
My husband is working so hard, he's milking 13 times a week AND doing all the yard jobs. Our relief milkman, John, usually comes every morning thoughout the winter, so Mark can do the bedding, feedings, mucking out whilst the cows are being milked. A couple of weeks ago, John fell and has fractured his arm! Another relief milkman we use, is fully booked and can only offer us one milking per week. I wonder how long before Mark needs an injection against pneumonia!
On a brigher note, we had our crew from BBC filming us again last Monday. This time they brought Kay Forester with them. She's a regular weather girl on East Midlands Today (EMT) who said it was her first time interviewing someone! She was very good and very pretty. I had to run upstairs and do my hair and makeup. We sat in front of my Aga in the kitchen and Kay interviewed me about the weather and the effects it's had on our farm this summer and now. Later we went out to the calf shed to feed them together. It took a number of "takes" to do. Boy those baby calves had so much milk that day, they were very bloated! I will let you all know when it's on TV, sometime in mid December they said. Not sure of the title of the programme but it is a local programme with weather in the title. They also came with me to be filmed whilst doing one of my "Tales from a Farmer's Wife" talks, in Oakham. I always start with an introduction like "my name is Jane Barnes and I'm married to Mark who's a rare breed"!! That line will be in the programme for sure!
Sadly we've lost another chicken, so down to four now. No sign of the carcus so I'm hoping its run away to another friendly home rather than being chased and killed for the fun of it by "charlie the fox"! Only had two eggs this morning from the remaining chickens, so where are they others laying around the farmyard.
Charlotte and I went hunting with the Cottesmore Hunt yesterday. The meet was in Sewstern near Buckminster on the Grantham road from Melton. God it was wet and deep. We mainly walked over the fields and around the boundary hedges to keep Mr Farmer happy. Hounds were silent all day though, no sent and no foxes about we think.
The picture above is me on Nemo who we are currently selling. We look smart don't we?
As I'm writing this, Beattie the puppy is busy in my waste paper bin, taking out envelopes or A4 sheets of paper and shredding them all over my office floor! Anyone want documents shredding for free? Keeps her busy while I'm typing away.
We've got a couple of weaned calves suffering a bit with a cough. Mark injected them as we don't want to loose any to pneumonia due to the changing temperatures! Wished the weather would make up its mind and stay cold, to kill some of these bugs.
My husband is working so hard, he's milking 13 times a week AND doing all the yard jobs. Our relief milkman, John, usually comes every morning thoughout the winter, so Mark can do the bedding, feedings, mucking out whilst the cows are being milked. A couple of weeks ago, John fell and has fractured his arm! Another relief milkman we use, is fully booked and can only offer us one milking per week. I wonder how long before Mark needs an injection against pneumonia!
On a brigher note, we had our crew from BBC filming us again last Monday. This time they brought Kay Forester with them. She's a regular weather girl on East Midlands Today (EMT) who said it was her first time interviewing someone! She was very good and very pretty. I had to run upstairs and do my hair and makeup. We sat in front of my Aga in the kitchen and Kay interviewed me about the weather and the effects it's had on our farm this summer and now. Later we went out to the calf shed to feed them together. It took a number of "takes" to do. Boy those baby calves had so much milk that day, they were very bloated! I will let you all know when it's on TV, sometime in mid December they said. Not sure of the title of the programme but it is a local programme with weather in the title. They also came with me to be filmed whilst doing one of my "Tales from a Farmer's Wife" talks, in Oakham. I always start with an introduction like "my name is Jane Barnes and I'm married to Mark who's a rare breed"!! That line will be in the programme for sure!
Sadly we've lost another chicken, so down to four now. No sign of the carcus so I'm hoping its run away to another friendly home rather than being chased and killed for the fun of it by "charlie the fox"! Only had two eggs this morning from the remaining chickens, so where are they others laying around the farmyard.
The picture above is me on Nemo who we are currently selling. We look smart don't we?
As I'm writing this, Beattie the puppy is busy in my waste paper bin, taking out envelopes or A4 sheets of paper and shredding them all over my office floor! Anyone want documents shredding for free? Keeps her busy while I'm typing away.
Thursday, 11 October 2012
We've found EGGS but still empty nests!
Hurrah!! This morning we are celebrating our breakfast with our first freshly layed eggs from my 5 hens! Charlotte and I each had a boiled egg which tasted sweet and fresh, even though they were a little small in our eggcups. Four eggs found in the straw barn, not in the nesting boxes I've provided for them. These four little eggs have cost alot of money so far (£50 for buying the hens, £200 for the hen hut plus feed costs)!!! Ah well, as my daughter commented, we know where they've come from!
It's been a hectic week this week and it's only Thursday. I've done many talks in Nottinghamshire this week so seem to be going out on the same roads everyday. It made me think that I don't usually have to commute to work as most others do, driving the same journey everyday, twice a day. The best thing for me is the return journey home! I love coming home, to my new puppy waiting for me, to the calves and horses all waiting for me to feed them. It's a kind of love they all have for me! Perhaps I'm feeling the "empty nest" syndrome, now may daughter is 18 and totally independent of me and Harry away at boarding school. So my dear "Beatie" cocker spaniel has filled that gap somewhat, as well as the horses and the baby calves. I don't think Mark has the same "empty nest" feeling, especially when he comes in for his mealtimes as Beatie jumps all over him and he isn't the greatest dog lover.
New purchases arrived on the farm this week. We've invested in some rust - as Mark puts it. A new sheargrab for the John Deere tractor to cut into and grab silage from the clamp then take to the feed troughs. The top jaw is like a serrated knife and cuts the silage so it has a flat surface face at the clamp. Meant to keep the clamp face fresher........ or that's what they've told me. The other new equipment is a dump trailer to do the muck carting from the farmyard to the fields. I'm not excited about these as much as our boy is down in Somerset. Keeps texting me, "has it arrived yet Mum?". He's home in a couple of weeks so guess what he's doing when he comes back!
We've got another school visit tomorrow, although in two groups and shared with Saya in Owston who does the same scheme as we do but for arable farming, it's 65 junior aged children plus teachers and assistants. Think it could be fun and hope they all wear wellingtons as its very wet today and plenty of puddles around the place.
The milking herd stayed inside last night for the first time, so this is it, the winter routine has started! They have still got the option of going out into the fields during the day after morning milking but the grass has lost any fresh growth and no feed value so we're feeding silage daily in the feed troughs. The milk yield has dropped since mid Sept and we're down by 600 litres. Makes a big difference especially as we're meant to produce 2000 ltrs daily for Clawson Dairy. They are desparate for milk and can't get enough at the moment, according to them, the whole country is short of milk. Funny that when we still only get 27p per litre!
It's been a hectic week this week and it's only Thursday. I've done many talks in Nottinghamshire this week so seem to be going out on the same roads everyday. It made me think that I don't usually have to commute to work as most others do, driving the same journey everyday, twice a day. The best thing for me is the return journey home! I love coming home, to my new puppy waiting for me, to the calves and horses all waiting for me to feed them. It's a kind of love they all have for me! Perhaps I'm feeling the "empty nest" syndrome, now may daughter is 18 and totally independent of me and Harry away at boarding school. So my dear "Beatie" cocker spaniel has filled that gap somewhat, as well as the horses and the baby calves. I don't think Mark has the same "empty nest" feeling, especially when he comes in for his mealtimes as Beatie jumps all over him and he isn't the greatest dog lover.
New purchases arrived on the farm this week. We've invested in some rust - as Mark puts it. A new sheargrab for the John Deere tractor to cut into and grab silage from the clamp then take to the feed troughs. The top jaw is like a serrated knife and cuts the silage so it has a flat surface face at the clamp. Meant to keep the clamp face fresher........ or that's what they've told me. The other new equipment is a dump trailer to do the muck carting from the farmyard to the fields. I'm not excited about these as much as our boy is down in Somerset. Keeps texting me, "has it arrived yet Mum?". He's home in a couple of weeks so guess what he's doing when he comes back!
We've got another school visit tomorrow, although in two groups and shared with Saya in Owston who does the same scheme as we do but for arable farming, it's 65 junior aged children plus teachers and assistants. Think it could be fun and hope they all wear wellingtons as its very wet today and plenty of puddles around the place.
The milking herd stayed inside last night for the first time, so this is it, the winter routine has started! They have still got the option of going out into the fields during the day after morning milking but the grass has lost any fresh growth and no feed value so we're feeding silage daily in the feed troughs. The milk yield has dropped since mid Sept and we're down by 600 litres. Makes a big difference especially as we're meant to produce 2000 ltrs daily for Clawson Dairy. They are desparate for milk and can't get enough at the moment, according to them, the whole country is short of milk. Funny that when we still only get 27p per litre!
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
New life on the farm and a feature on East Midlands Today!
Alas, the other recent additions to our farmyard, the chickens, are still not laying! As my mother is such an expert, I asked for her opinion last weekend and she stated it's because they're not old enough! Getting quite impatient now as I need eggs to bake cakes with for my Farm Walks refreshments and also for the school children to find them in the nesting boxes!! Will have to be patient then.
Talking of school children, last week East Midlands Today filmed us for Somerby Primary School visit to the farm on World School Milk Day. They brought their iPad so they could zap Lady Shamrock's QR code, (which I stencilled on her side for the day) and learn more about the cow and how she produces milk for us. Lady Shamrock is so used to this attention now, she was calm, stood still and took it all in her stride. The children behaved for the camera too and some were asked why they like coming to the farm. Bringing their breaktime milk to drink whilst on the farm, made the item a success. I was well proud of the overall result! Next stop Countryfile!!!
Monday, 10 September 2012
Hectic Holidays and Anniversary Treat
Wow, what a busy August and first week of September! It's our 20th wedding anniversary today, so to celebrate Mark took me out for a Burger King lunch - with Harry on route to Somerset, romance is lost on him. We took Harry back for his final year at Brymore School. He is now a Senior Prefect, so has some duties of responsibility, which include looking after the new intake of year 9 boys.
We've also been away for a few days to western Ireland, Gallway and the Connemara mountains. That was a beautiful quite place although we did spend a large chunk of one day viewing a marvelous herd of dairy cows! (I'm quite used to it now after spending our honeymoon in Scotland visiting herds).
With all the fine weather over the past few days, it was go, go, go on our farm. Fetching bales of straw, for the winter bedding, stacking them in the barn and when that was full, a huge stack of round bales outside! Using our rather ancient tractors day in, day out, put them under alot of strain - so one broke down on the main road with 24 round bales on the trailer! After clearing the dirty fuel filter, they got it going again, but it highlights how old our Massey Fergusson is. Anyway, the boys are happy that all is "safely gathered in" on this farm for another year.
Last week we (Mark, Harry and me) ventured to the NEC to visit the Livestock and Dairy Event show. We spent most of the day talking to people we already know! Visiting these wonderful stands of pristine milking plants and robots, wonderful new implements to deal with manure or dirty water, ordering 6 new water troughs and getting a quote for a new youngstock shed, was like supermarket shopping for dairy farmers. Harry likes spending money we haven't got so the wish list just got longer and longer. As the event is sponsored by Barclays Bank (our bank) they have the Premier League Cup on display accompanied by two guards! It was good to have a close up look.
After a tiring day out, I drove the hour it took to get home with two sleeping boys! Arrrrrr, they missed their afternoon nap again. I, on the otherhand, had something to eat, then went straight out again to give a talk to Crick WI that night.
It's all started up again this week. Four more talks and two farm walks this week so need to keep going. I've enjoyed having my August break, taking the kids out on their horses competing and seeing old friends. Charlotte and I are Autumn hunting this Saturday too, so another hunting season approaches.
We've also been away for a few days to western Ireland, Gallway and the Connemara mountains. That was a beautiful quite place although we did spend a large chunk of one day viewing a marvelous herd of dairy cows! (I'm quite used to it now after spending our honeymoon in Scotland visiting herds).
With all the fine weather over the past few days, it was go, go, go on our farm. Fetching bales of straw, for the winter bedding, stacking them in the barn and when that was full, a huge stack of round bales outside! Using our rather ancient tractors day in, day out, put them under alot of strain - so one broke down on the main road with 24 round bales on the trailer! After clearing the dirty fuel filter, they got it going again, but it highlights how old our Massey Fergusson is. Anyway, the boys are happy that all is "safely gathered in" on this farm for another year.
Last week we (Mark, Harry and me) ventured to the NEC to visit the Livestock and Dairy Event show. We spent most of the day talking to people we already know! Visiting these wonderful stands of pristine milking plants and robots, wonderful new implements to deal with manure or dirty water, ordering 6 new water troughs and getting a quote for a new youngstock shed, was like supermarket shopping for dairy farmers. Harry likes spending money we haven't got so the wish list just got longer and longer. As the event is sponsored by Barclays Bank (our bank) they have the Premier League Cup on display accompanied by two guards! It was good to have a close up look.
After a tiring day out, I drove the hour it took to get home with two sleeping boys! Arrrrrr, they missed their afternoon nap again. I, on the otherhand, had something to eat, then went straight out again to give a talk to Crick WI that night.
It's all started up again this week. Four more talks and two farm walks this week so need to keep going. I've enjoyed having my August break, taking the kids out on their horses competing and seeing old friends. Charlotte and I are Autumn hunting this Saturday too, so another hunting season approaches.
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