My Farming Week: Hereford Calves, Baking Cakes and an Ideal Farm Wife

I used to be a reasonable baker.

I quite like baking as you can put everything into the mixture, put in the oven and just presume it will turn out alright. If it doesn’t, there’s nothing you can do about it at that stage. That’s what I liked about it – there was no expectation that this seasoning or that herb could be added during the cooking to improve the taste. Mix, put in oven, eat. Simple.

Before children, I hardly ever [...]

My Farming Week: Flighty Calves, Paper-Eating Heifers, Red Spray and The End of an Era

Between the bank holiday for St Patrick’s Day, the children being off school for two days and the fact that I wasn’t doing any training or mentoring, I’ve had a pretty full on farming week. I’m doing 2.5 days of training next week and I know I’ll probably end up with a croaky voice as a result. Teaching requires a lot more talking than the occasional chat with calves and cattle!

Telepathy Alternatives

16 cattle went to the factory on Wednesday morning [...]

Farm Safety Day

Did you know that farming is the second most dangerous occupation- second to mining? I would have thought farming came much further down on the list but this profession, which can seem to idyllic in many ways, is realistically highly dangerous. Anyone brought up on a farm can probably remember near misses. I know I can recall falling from the front of a tall trailer load of hay, luckily I hit the ground without coming into contact with [...]

Memories Are Made Of Days Like These

Today was one of those days when memories were made, an ordinary day yet very special in its own way. Maybe it seemed all the more special because I was made more aware yesterday of the fickleness of life, of taking life day by day, of knowing that nothing about the future is certain, not even our continued existence.

Moving Cattle

I went to the Embrace Farm service yesterday, a [...]