June 2007

That's it... enough is enough... I'm throwing in the towel! Well, that's how it feels at the end of this month. Our finances are tough at the best of times, but this month's markets have been really poor and we've lost a lot of ground. We've been here before but it's exhausting to work as hard as we do for such a lack of results in the accounts.

Anyway, that said, life goes on and there have been, as always, many blessings this month.

Monty, our new bull, arrived. He's a 2 year old toy boy for our girls and wandered onto the trailer at his place of birth in Wales and off the trailer here in our yard. We were a bit concerned that, as a young lad, he might take off across the countryside in search of more skirt than we have available here, but he's keeping all four feet in the field and behaving impeccably. He's totally gorgeous and it's good to have a friendly man back in the fields.

He was shown off at our Open Day on 10^th of this month. LEAF - Linking Environment and Farming organise this day nationally each year. It was a great success and we had lots of visitors in the beautiful sunshine. In the midst of the day-to-dayness of life we sometimes lose sight of the gift we live here and it's always great to welcome people and see the farm afresh through new eyes - with delight and joy and wonder.

So on that theme, we welcomed Ali and Jeff who are interested customers and have thrown themselves into lending a helping hand - fixing tractors, clearing ditches, moving stuff, getting plastered (well, walls mostly!). Along with Jen, our rather nervous WWOOFer, who did a great job on the Open Day inviting people to "Guess the weight of the Sausage", they are helping to keep things moving along here.

Of course, life on the farm would not be complete without the little ones. We continue to welcome new chicks as they hatch and grow. And this month Princess and Orion were born in the field. These are the first of Mr Parrot's calves and they are totally beautiful. Princess is the first calf of Elegance. (In my more glum days when I consider life beyond Vowley, this is one of the cows I would take with me!). We noticed things happening and brought the cows into the barn - just in case... but Elegance handled everything beautifully and she and Princess took to each other as if nature had intended it! Orion's birth was a bit of a different story - more because I got in a bit of a panic than 'cos of anything else. One night as we were going to bed, we heard a rather hefty "moo" from outside the bathroom window. Knowing that Venus was due to calve and that she'd had a bit of a tough time last year, I headed out there rather smartly with the torch. I did get stuck in and radioed Mark to come and help... but actually there wasn't much need. By the time Mark arrived with straw and calving ropes, Venus had deposited this lovely HUGE steamy white calf on the grass. By the morning they too had sorted out how to feed and be fed. Orion is the 39^th calf we've had... amazing.

On that positive note, I'll sign off and send an order to the cosmos for a more financially abundant month in July.