September, 2004

As always, September has been a very busy month, with little time for us to catch our breath.

The first weekend saw Mark and Jules with the youngest members of the Vowley Farm team with their ponies doing a demonstration at The Brinkworth Show. It was quite something to watch Aimee with Nutmeg, Jessica with Spirit, Kim with Bobby and Ross with Mr Jones doing a series of "tests" and demonstrating with consumate ease and energy the skills they have developed working with horses. De-spooking with umbrellas and pom-poms, squeezing through narrow gaps, riding over a bridge, building confidence in the horse and themselves at every turn. They made it look easy and it belies the work and enthusiasm they put into their relationships with their four legged friends.

The following weekend we were off to the Natural Horse Gathering at Brackenhill Stud. An event that Lorraine organises through Natural Horsemanship magazine along with Lucinda McAlpine. The event was threatened by gales and rain, but it all held off an apart from a few billowing gazebos, the weather was kind. Aimee was the star of the catering tent, taking over the Vowley Farm home made burger stand and cooking for most of the day... delicious and wonderful... !

Just before we left for the event, we went, as was our usual routine, to turn the eggs incubating in the airing cupboard... and there was a little, newly hatched chick! What excitement... we put him/her under a light in a box on the side in the kitchen and dared Brandy (the dog) to go anywhere near it. But the time we returned, this little fella had fluffed up and was chirping away to himself, singing for the joy of being alive. What a miraculous happening.

Meanwhile in the fields, we found one of the little boy calves, Sunny, out on the track a couple of times. We couldn't see how he was escaping (or why?) and he seemed somewhat scratched, presumably from climbing through the barbed wire. It only occurred to us on closer watching of the group that the little heifers (now 5 months old) were increasingly interesting to Prospect (their dad)... and that we had not done a complete job castrating Sunny in the first few days of his life. Consquently, this little guy was trying to challenge the man of the herd for the little girls' attentions... and losing! A visit from the vet with a sharp knife and some antiseptic put paid to his antics and to his sparring sessions with Prospect. We also promptly moved the girls to a far and distant field for safe keeping.

The first of our three home-grown heifers (Primrose, Snow Moon and Saffron) had her calf this month. Snow Moon produced Moonlight Sonata one damp and windy afternoon, choosing the edge of the field under the hedge. All is well and whilst the little one needed to train mum to stand still whilst she was suckling, nature is taking it's course and Snow Moon is being a model mum.

Mark is especially pleased with another new arrival this month... our John Deere tractor... four wheel drive with a bucket... WOW is the correct response!!! Knowing that we will not easily get through another winter without something that will handle the mud in the farmyard, we have taken out a loan to get this beastie. Although only 6" bigger all round than the little yellow Leyland, it feels HUGE... and has working windscreen wipers, a radio, a padded seat, heating in the cab and windows you can see through and that keep the rain out!!!

Our dedicated Helping Hands visitors got stuck in this month in an attempt to make some headway clearing ditches and drainage channels. We have so much water here in wet times, we don't know what to do with it all. Most of it lies on the fields out of harms way, but as the farmyard is pretty much the lowest part of the surrounding area, the puddles can be quite a headache for everyone living here. The sump and pump we put in the back yard last year has proved invaluable for keeping the back yard relatively clear... a very hands on effort ensured that the end of the rainwater drainage pipe, which seemed not to work last year, was located, cleared and the ditch free'd up... well, let's keep our fingers crossed. Messers Heath and Robinson seem to have done a fine job (?) on another rainwater drainage challenge from the barns to a ditch and left a gap between the end of one pipe and the beginning of another, which, funnily enough, means we get a big puddle, not helped by the fact that the beginning of one pipe is higher than the end of the other! Humm... back to the drawing board.

So... as you see, life goes on... and on... and on...