Farm Diary
November 28
A lovely morning and a very warm day. It clouded over in the afternoon, but it is unseasonaly warm.
I started the day unpleasantly, cleaning out the pig-stye (it's where the dogs have been sleeping). Malcolm arrived and with Gabriel we spent an hour or so barricading the track below the stye with cow hurdles and sheets of corrugated iron (so the pigs wouldn't see there was a way through, making sure the doors in the stye were pig proof and blocking all other exits from the track. The move itself only took 15 minutes, as they ran happily after Gabriel who was carrying a sack of food. They look very comfortable in there, snuffling around in the straw. Megan is sleeping in with them tonight (in a seperate section!) and Jess and Patch, who could not be trusted to leave them alone, are sleeping in a well-strawed-up kennel.
Here is a rather fuzzy picture from yesterday. I tried to take some photos this morning and the batteries were flat.
We had an early lunch and then set up a sorting pen outside the cows' field. We were successful in keeping Andrew the bull back in the field, and then it was just a question of putting the 5 heifers back in with him. A certain amount of waving of arms, and Gabriel opening the gate at just the right time, and it was done.The cows and calves look very comfortable in the shed.
Then I walked with Mary and Christopher in the pram, down to Lezant to see Mrs Knight in the shop and back again. It's a long hill when you're pushing a pram. We walked the circuit, a bit under 2 1/2 miles. We saw a few other people and stopped for a cup of tea with some friends. Christopher was much admired. It was getting dark when we got back.
I forgot to say yesterday that James had his letter printed in the Western Morning News.