A 'Porky' summer and a new puppy.

I sat down over a week ago to start this blog. It was all about making the most of the last week of the summer holidays before the small girl goes back to school. And ZAPP...its like someone pressed the skip button on a remote control and BAMM, a whole week flew by in an instant. Its a bit of a concern.  I know there are theorists out there who are convinced time is speeding up. And I know I'm not alone in experiencing this time warp momentum that is jogging us along at a pace that makes me just slightly uncomfortable.

An American biologist has devoted a large part of his life studying this subject and doing experiments to see if time really is speeding up. He has concluded, along the way, that the older we get the less accurate our judgement of time is, therefore a minute when you are twenty seems longer than a minute when you are forty. So, what is the answer – I'm always solutions driven....be a Buddist and 'live for the moment'...there again there are the times that you don't want it to be slowed down, like when your child has a really high temperature, or when an animal is in pain. I guess it is what it is. Watching nature helps - although the rate our beans are growing is alarming in itself. We did manage to balance the holidays with fun family time, friends to stay, a few breaks away and all the while keeping the wheels turning on the farm.


I had the privilege to be asked to shoot a very traditional farming activity right at the beginning of the summer. It is a family run farm that has continued this tradition for many, many years and is very specific to this area. The farm grows a special variety of wheat which is used for thatching. The wheat is cut with an old fashioned binder, and tied into sheaves. The sheaves are then 'stooked' in the field and left to dry. The dry sheaves are then put through a threshing machine to remove the grain and combed to produce the end product. It was back breaking work - a little like old fashioned haymaking....its mainly manual work and requires many hands. It is work that needs doing until its done, ie: if the weather looks like it is changing they work through until after dark to get it done. By hand! The binding machine could have fit well into the agricultural section of a museum. It was an amazing looking beast. The whole experience was incredible and I was glad to have been there to record it.


It's been a porky summer so far! In fact it was a friend who coined the phrase, in a thank you letter after staying for a week with her three children. At the end she wished us a 'fun and pork filled' summer. We laughed at the time but her prediction was quite right. A week before the summer holidays began we took our pigs off to the Cornish Farmhouse Bacon Company. The process of getting them ready was quite a farce. I got back to the farm one afternoon to find the Ologist red in the face with a pitch fork, combing through the straw bedding in the pig pen looking for the proverbial...

I'll expand. The night before the big day we moved the pigs into a pen in the big barn so that they would be easier to handle into our trailer. The pen doubles as a pony stable and was bedded down with fresh straw....last night comfort for our piggies - mistake number 1! The law states that you may not transport pigs unless they have ear tags and we had left the tagging until the very end. The Ologist was charged with the duty and duly loaded up the tag applicator with the first ear tag. The tags were ordered specifically with our herd number issued by DEFRA - having only three pigs he had ordered 3 tags. Mistake number 2!

The first tag went in smoothly. Picture a hand rivet machine loaded with a small clip engraved with a long number. Ping.....and it was in. Pig number one ran to the back of the pen squealing to the others to keep well away from the human. Then the job got tricky - as fast as the ear tags went in, they were rubbed out. So within 10 minutes two of the three tags had been rubbed out and lost in the thick straw bedding. The third tag pinged out of the tag applicator and was lost as well. Never has the phrase 'needle in a hay-stack' been more apt. This is when I arrived on the scene. My suggestion was to ring the abattoir and explain that we had a major emergency on our hands. The Ologist already knew what their answer would be.

Our ear tags had taken 3 weeks to order from a local agricultural store - cancelling the pigs departure was not really an option. The abbatoir was very helpful. They informed us of another supplier of ear tags that are able to manufacture on the spot. So off the Ologist raced to pick up some more tags. Moral of the story...? Order more than one tag per pig. It seems obvious now, but at the time made perfect sense.   We collected over 1200 sausages, as well as numerous joints, bacon and burgers.

We recently took the glamorous sounding Cornish Rivière express from our local station to the 'big smoke.' We had a two night/three day stay in London to show the small girl around and take in the sights. We walked a lot, used the underground, went on the top of the double decker buses, saw most of the major sights we thought a small girl could cope with in two days. We saw the Queen's bling and her Beefeaters. We saw the London Eye. We went to H.A. Rods and bought a bear. We saw jugglers in Covent Garden. We climbed on the lions under Nelson. We stood outside The Palace with hoards of other tourists and watch the soldiers with bear hats on horses carry a flag around. It was a blast. It was hectic. It was mind blowing sensory overload. It was beyond amazing to come home and remind myself that London is a great place when you are young, but I'd struggle to live there now and raise a child there having gotten used to my country mouse existence.


Onto other exciting news of note. Phase One of our planning application has been granted and we've been given a green light to GO on our building project. Phase Two has just been validated and will be another six weeks or so before we hear about what we may have to negotiate on. This phase involves getting a license from Natural England to carry out demolition works within the scope of the law around bat habitats. We are planning to demolish a whole section that currently links the farmhouse to the farm cottage. The roof within this section houses bats, so our batman will need to be on site to ensure our furry friends don't get hurt during the demotion stage. Phase Two also involves re-roofing the main farmhouse where there are more bats so another license is required.


The pre-building stage has already started. It is the renovation and restoration of one of my favourite bits of the farm. It is called Great Meadow, and sits to the west of the farmhouse. It is just under six acres and at the bottom has a natural pond. The pond has been untended for over 30 years, like most of the landscape surrounding the farmhouse. The great thing is that it is naturally fed by two water courses so will always stay topped up. Willow trees romp from one side to the other, using the island in the middle as a rooting point to then shoot across to the other side.


Our crew arrived at the beginning of the week with two woodsmen (one is a water specialist) and a man with a big digger. What a mess within a few short hours! Huge towering piles of brash appeared together with neat piles of trunks logged into 8ft bars. By the end of the first day we could walk right around the perimeter of the pond and get an idea of what is involved with the restoration. Our plan is to make it into a 'swimming pond'. One area will be over two meters deep to enable fish to live in it, while a good proportion of the surface area will be shallow margins to allow all the pond plants to establish and act as our filtration system. We will have a small jetty for leg dangling and pond gazing. Or small children to fish off. Or brave people to jump off.

The other exciting development on the farm is the introduction of our new flock. We have bought, in conjunction with the 'Shepherd', a small flock of Wiltshire Horns, from which we intend to breed. The Shepherd is a veritable gentlemen. A local man, of many talents and interests, and has had a yearning to breed Wiltshire Horns for some time. He grew up on his father's farm with this particular breed many years ago, and now having been introduced to us via local friends has some land and facilities at his disposal from which to do just that. So most days the Shepherd comes to tend his flock, and we learn a bit more about sheep husbandry. Today I became a fully qualified sheep 'tipper'. Our plan is to find a suitable ram later in the year and hope to be lambing next Spring.

I am still getting a good harvest from my growing room. It will be the last summer of production from here before the demolition makes way for a new holiday barn. I entered the local village Garden Show and won First Prize for my beetroot and broad beans. Woo-hoo!
The small girl entered one of the children's classes and won First Prize as well for her figure made from fruit and vegetables. One of my marrows had grown undetected and was so huge she could barely carry him. Nevertheless, Mr Pumpkin-Head was a winner!

Last, but certainly not least is the newest member of the family. She arrived in week two of the summer holidays and has settled into farm life with ease. She is going to be a working dog, to help us move sheep around...but mainly a loved member of the family. She has a soft and gentle nature and is already responding well to a bit of obedience training.



Working training doesn't start till she's over a year so there's plenty of time to practice my left and right whistle!



Autumn beckons, although we are promised an Indian summer. I'm already thinking of where I can put some more leaf-mould bins, and how much more Runner-Bean chutney we can cope with. We jarred 20lbs at the weekend and the beans have no sign of slowing up yet. We can't give them away, everyone else is already doing that. Along with marrows. And courgettes. Luckily onions are a winner. They store so well that you don't ever need to give them away.  Good thing that, our onion glut will hopefully last us well into the winter.