Better weather

Well we put the tent away at the end of the summer holidays and the weather has finally turned. Everyone I talk to seems a lot happier with the better weather that we have had this week. The wheat was very wet at the beginning of the week (25% moisture) and we have left it to dry in the field. The combine was getting stuck in the field it was so wet. Hopefully the weather will hold. If we have to dry the wheat because it it is too wet to go into storage then we have to burn a lot of diesel in the mobile drier and that adds to the production costs so fingers crossed ...

I miss lying in the tent at night and listening to the owls calling ... there is always next year.

Spring is finally coming

This week the hedges are starting to thicken up and spring finally feels like it is coming. We had a lovely walk after mothers day lunch and enjoyed the natural renewal of the farm as we look forward to another year. The gales had had their impact in the wood with the upper limbs of some trees torn off and others uprooted. Another storm is due this week. Hopefully it won't do too much damage.

Water, water everywhere

Well it continues to rain here on the farm, my vegetable garden seems to be growing wildly and as it is the first year that I have grown cabbages, I now understand why they have to be grown so far apart - I'll follow the instructions a little more closely next year. There aren't many birds around - the swifts and housemartins have stopped throwing their chicks out of their nests. I wonder if perhaps they did not think there were enough insects about to feed them all?

We had forty pairs around the house last year - we would be lucky to have ten this year and they seem to be struggling to look after one brood - shows the dramatic impact of the weather. The family of crows seem resilient as usual - every year the pair seem to have three chicks and they are in full voice now on the mornings that it is not raining!!