Oh heck, only a week to go until the big day! Why does everyone go mad under the pressure to produce such a perfect family day? It's only like cooking a big Sunday roast dinner, which I try to do every week. The shops are ONLY closed for one day! If you've forgotten anything or not enough, then tough! We won't starve or miss out because we have all taken one day off!
Well some minority occupations won't have a day off, they have to keep on working throughout! Livestock farmers must tend to their animals every day of the year and Christmas Day is no different. So it's a fairly short event for us. Having milked, bedded, fed and cleaned up after our 190 herd and youngstock BEFORE breakfast, we have a short time to open presents, eat a fairly big meal (always at 1pm sharp) then an after lunch snooze, wake up for the Queen's Speech then back outside before the daylight runs out to feed everything, clean up and milk the herd! As I've said before, it would be so much better to have Christmas in July for us, when the cows and youngstock are all outside feeding and spreading manure themselves. In fact, an antipodean Christmas would suit us better. As I'm about to find out.
For me this year, the festive period is going to be even shorter as I'm off to Australia on Boxing Day afternoon to visit our daughter Charlotte, who's working out there for six months. I fly in to Sydney Airport on 28 Dec, and together we will have three whole weeks of fun in the sun. Unfortunately, I'm leaving Mark hard at it at home with the help of our Kiwi student, Jayden and Harry will be home from College to help out too. So I don't feel guilty at all!!!!
Harry is having the time of his life at College in Cheshire. Tonight he's gone to the Winter Wonderland Ball in his first Dinner Suit! As it's his birthday on Thursday (he turns 17) he got the dinner suit he wanted. My only concern is the food and beer fights that I'm sure will happen during the evening at some stage. He looks fabulously handsome in his DJ, with red bow tie and braces. Those girls at the Ball will be fighting for him I'm sure - then again I would be biased wouldn't I?
Anyway, hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! I shall be a bit ahead of you this year celebrating the arrival of 2014 in Sydney Harbour 11 hours before you do. Weird but really looking forward to the experience!
Happy Christmas readers!
Tuesday, 17 December 2013
Monday, 11 November 2013
Fireworks and thats nothing to do with Guy Fawkes!
As the seasons come and go, life on the farm changes. Work loads change. Thankfully, we have extra help these days with Jayden and some work experience students who are coming regularly every weekend to gain experience and help us out!
Moving calves around this weekend which prompted me to explain to the students, that "there might be some shouting and swearing, so don't take it personally, its just part of the job!" But I need not have worried so. With some careful planning, we moved three calves through to the next door pen, making that pen hold 15, then three from the older pen into the middle pen,(now up to 11) and then fetch in the 5 yearlings from outside, who now live with the older calves (8 months) making them 10 and with the seven in my yard, that makes it 43 heifers for next year!!
I also got the Saturday team (don't forget Harry's home at weekends and he does loads of work with the new tractor, bedding, feeding silage, scraping up muck and loading dump trailer to move the muck away down the fields), to do some physical brushing up, and clearing drains so all this rain water from the roofs goes straight down the drain and not into our mucky yards!
November began last week with a couple of talks. One to Southwell U3A on 5th November to approx 280 in the audience. Wow, that was a big one! On the stage with my headset microphone and the remote for the slide projector, I whizzed through the talk and left 20 mins for questions, which I think worked really well. 2kg of Stilton cheese was sampled and hopefully, everyone enjoyed hearing of my tales from our farm. One lady asked if she could tape record my talk so she would do a write up later. Here is an extract:-
"When I first knew we were to have a talk from a farmer's wife I didn't expect to hear anything of particular interest. Her opening remarks were, ' I am Jane Barnes. I am a farmer's wife from Melton Mowbray in Leics in a village called Somerby. I'm married to Mark and Mark is a rare breed!' I realised immediately that I was about to listen to someone with a good sense of humour who would hold my attention and interest.
I wasn't disappointed!"
That was a relief then!
The next day I visited Trent Valley Mens Probus group of about 60 in Colwick, Nottingham. Mr President stood up and introduced me finishing with the words ".......now listen and learn. Jane commands your attention at all times, I know, I've seen her before......"
Quite worried I've turned into a monster on the stage! Well I've always liked to make an impression and enlighten the room, just like Guy Fawkes!
Moving calves around this weekend which prompted me to explain to the students, that "there might be some shouting and swearing, so don't take it personally, its just part of the job!" But I need not have worried so. With some careful planning, we moved three calves through to the next door pen, making that pen hold 15, then three from the older pen into the middle pen,(now up to 11) and then fetch in the 5 yearlings from outside, who now live with the older calves (8 months) making them 10 and with the seven in my yard, that makes it 43 heifers for next year!!
I also got the Saturday team (don't forget Harry's home at weekends and he does loads of work with the new tractor, bedding, feeding silage, scraping up muck and loading dump trailer to move the muck away down the fields), to do some physical brushing up, and clearing drains so all this rain water from the roofs goes straight down the drain and not into our mucky yards!
November began last week with a couple of talks. One to Southwell U3A on 5th November to approx 280 in the audience. Wow, that was a big one! On the stage with my headset microphone and the remote for the slide projector, I whizzed through the talk and left 20 mins for questions, which I think worked really well. 2kg of Stilton cheese was sampled and hopefully, everyone enjoyed hearing of my tales from our farm. One lady asked if she could tape record my talk so she would do a write up later. Here is an extract:-
"When I first knew we were to have a talk from a farmer's wife I didn't expect to hear anything of particular interest. Her opening remarks were, ' I am Jane Barnes. I am a farmer's wife from Melton Mowbray in Leics in a village called Somerby. I'm married to Mark and Mark is a rare breed!' I realised immediately that I was about to listen to someone with a good sense of humour who would hold my attention and interest.
I wasn't disappointed!"
That was a relief then!
The next day I visited Trent Valley Mens Probus group of about 60 in Colwick, Nottingham. Mr President stood up and introduced me finishing with the words ".......now listen and learn. Jane commands your attention at all times, I know, I've seen her before......"
Quite worried I've turned into a monster on the stage! Well I've always liked to make an impression and enlighten the room, just like Guy Fawkes!
Monday, 28 October 2013
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!
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!
Monday, 21 October 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
New Toy on the Farm!
Although it looks new, and is new to us, it is in fact 8 years old. But as it's arrived via an Agricultural Machinery firm, they've repaired, cleaned and replaced bits and pieces to make it look as new as possible. Not bad for £38k! (We did have a VERY old Massey Fergusson to part exchange though to soften the blow!) Let's hope the milk price stays above 30ppl for the next 5 years to help pay for it!
Harry besides himself and can't wait until he's back from College this weekend to "play" with it. I wonder how long before its gets dirty?
Boys and their toys hey?
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Stilton Cheese Milk!
The world famous Stilton Cheese from Long Clawson.
We are proud to sell all the milk we produce from our Pedigree Ayrshire herd, to Long Clawson who process it into Stilton. This gets exported all over the world but it can only be made from milk where the cows are grazing in the three counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.
As dairy farmers, we have to produce the right sort of milk the dairy wants and at the right time of the year. That time in now. The dairy is in full production because the milk we're sending now, will become the Stilton you will eat this Christmas!
Long Clawson Dairy needs milk with high protein and high butterfat content. We have a standard to achieve of 4.1% butterfat and 3.3% protein and our Ayrshire ladies are producing that in abundance. Thanks to the ideal weather pattern this year and the fact that we now calve most of our herd in March, April, May and June. Once a cow has calved, she will produce the most milk in her daily yield during the first three months of lactation. So all the June calvers are in peak of production in Sept.
I give a lot of talks about dairy farming and also have groups round our farm regularly. At each event I always bring along some Stilton Cheese fresh from the dairy, so my audience can taste it. Everyone loves it and thats because you have to serve it at room temperature. Let the cheese breath!
Long Clawson Dairy has an excellent website, with great ideas for Stilton in recipes and you can even order online! You will find it at www.clawson.co.uk They also have facebook and twitter pages.
So on the run up to Christmas, please buy British Cheeses and give them as gifts but especially Stilton with a bottle of Port perhaps!
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Our farm on Local Radio
Yesterday, a recording made recently, whilst a group visited our farm on a Farm Walk, went live on GravityFM radio station in Grantham, Lincs. I thought it a very good piece so if you wish to hear it, click on the link below!
http://webmail.tiscali.co.uk/cp/ps/Mail/ExternalURLProxy?d=tiscali.co.uk&u=jane.barnes&url=http://www.youtube.com/watch!!v~~07NMG2IebMI^^amp;feature~~c4-overview^^amp;list~~UUojvxvQM-g8pRXqEi-urV9A&urlHash=-1.7981179234359022E195
http://webmail.tiscali.co.uk/cp/ps/Mail/ExternalURLProxy?d=tiscali.co.uk&u=jane.barnes&url=http://www.youtube.com/watch!!v~~07NMG2IebMI^^amp;feature~~c4-overview^^amp;list~~UUojvxvQM-g8pRXqEi-urV9A&urlHash=-1.7981179234359022E195
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