ooo - a bit stressful

Lots going on at the moment and I can't help thinking we have taken on a bit too much (and none of it even started yet!). I'm sure it will all be fine and even though there is a lot to think about it is really exciting.

The Council have come back to us saying that basically if we knock our proposals down to 8 stables then we should be ok, depending on any local objections etc.  So we are going on to the full planning application, for this we need technical drawings, a flood risk assessment and a few other things but it should be no more onerous than the pre app stage. This is really good news, but having to cut down to 8 stables has taken the shine off it a little - it is so so so so so hard to make any profit out of the riding school  as it is, with 2 less ponies it may prove impossible in the short term.  Add to that the horrible realisation i had this week that we may well need to pay business rates on the yard and manege. plus I am nervously getting some quotes for insurance from a couple of on-line companies. I have only budgeted for £3.5k for insurance, and I am really hoping I am not too far off the mark.

The only answer I think of at this stage is to apply for lottery funding. There is no money in running a riding school and I do not want to be another name who sinks a shed load of cash into a smallholding / stables project only to declare themselves bankrupt a few years later.  We hopefully would not be bankrupt if it all went wrong, but I would hate to lose the money!

Then I look at the business plan again and I feel a bit more positive, no one offers lessons round here and there must be a way, if we are good, to make a succeeful business out of this.  And if there is no business, then we will have v posh facilities to use ourselves!

I am having Dolly, a pony I have seen for Luke, vet checked tomorrow and all being well i will pick her up on saturday.  Due to the bad weather we are not ready for ponies on the field yet (long grass, no fencing , no field shelter etc etc) and so i am looking into alternative stabling in Furneux Pelham for her. the pressure id on to be ready here by the 26 May, which is when I am picking up Thistle and moving Dolly home.  The fencing man and the paddock man are on the case! i am also busy digging up nettles / bonfire patches / filling in rabbit holes in preparation. Good news this week is that the council have said we can have a field shelter, whilst we wait for the stables. I have ordered this from Redmire Stables and it will be delivered and erected on 22 May.  yeah!

After school tonight I am taking the kids to get kitted out for riding  - hats, boots, johdpurs and gloves, which will no doubt cheer us all up quite a lot :-)


xx

Christmas Turkeys

The one day old turkey poults have been ordered.  I am getting 25 chicks from Rutland Organics free range poultry farm:

http://www.rutlandorganics.co.uk/

They are £7.29 each, organically raised and produced heritage breed turkey chicks.  The heritage breed means they are the traditional Norfolk Black or Cambridge Bronze turkeys - they take much longer to raise to full weight than more popular commercial breeds.  The longer growing time (8 months as opposed to 2 - 4 months) and the fact that they will free range on our grass paddocks will mean that they are beautifully succulent, moist and tasty when served on Christmas day.  As we are compassionate farmers, these turkeys will have the best of lives.  I just need to make sure their paddock is fox proof - I am currently investigating different sorts of electric fencing for them.

There is v little profit in producing meat this way, after having done the sums we will just about break even this year (with a few hundred pounds deficit probably, due to the cost of the fencing and housing) and that does not include any sort of payment for my time! However, we need to get some income to the farm this year, and income is good - even if it doesn't result in profit in Year 1. If I love doing turkeys then next year we can grow the business and raise 50 birds.

Pat Taylor from Rutland organics has been  so helpful to me and talked me into slaughtering and producing the birds here, rather than transporting them off to Hare street.  It will be much less stressful for the birds (they hate being transported) and I will be able to oversee the whole process and know that it is done as humanely as possible.  Plus, the plucking, hanging and dressing needs to be professionally done (top notch!) and so again better that I can make sure this is the case.  Pat will show me how to pluck, hang and dress if I go up to her farm in December and work for her for a couple of days.  Seems reasonable to me, to get trained by a professional and get to practise under her supervision before doing my own birds sounds fair for 2 half days work.  I still can't actually kill the birds myself, there is no point in me even pretending or hoping that I might, and so I have enlisted the help of Fred next door - he used to work on a turkey farm nearby and is looking for more work.

I've lost a bit of sleep over this - should I shouldn't I, should I just get 10, should I wait till next year, what if the fox gets them, what if no one buys them, what if I am haunted by their little faces ......... but now I have placed the order with pat (and paid my deposit!) I am (fairly!) sure I have done the right thing.

Off to watch the Apprentice to brush up on my business skills.

xx

My thoughts

Keeping animals is really good for emotional well being.  Even the chickens can be a real joy, with their funny little ways and their individual personalities.  I appreciate that talking about ones chickens is probably even more boring to others than talking about ones children, but this is my farm blog and so I will (a little).

I have two chickens who constantly jump over the fence from the hen enclosure to roam about in the garden. When the dog goes into the garden, they scuttle around and the yellow one can fly over the fence back into the safety of the hen enclosure, but the slightly fatter one, the grey one, can't.  Jack has had this chicken in his mouth numerous times, he shakes it and the chicken plays dead and goes all floppy. When I see what is happening I rush out into the garden shrieking  "Jack! Put that chicken down!" and he does.  The chicken lies still on the ground for a little while, then gets up, shakes itself off and I open the gate to let it back in the hen enclosure.  I think the chicken must like it.

The cockerel is also amusing, he is still learning all aspects of being a cockerel (if you know what I mean) and is trying to man up to the bossy hens.  He has trouble catching a couple of them and I have seen him once or twice on one of them the wrong way round - i.e. he is facing their tail feathers.  Now I have to admit to not being totally familiar with the whole chicken mating thing, but I'm sure that's not right.  Unless he has read the Kama Sutra.

Not laugh out loud anecdotes I admit, but it brightens my day.  If you have the space in your garden i can really recommend keeping some chickens, they are lovely and it is a real pleasure to see them all happy and scratching away, knowing that you are doing a good job in looking after them.

I caught a news programme the other day, a feature about Spain's struggling economy and it sort of jolted me a little.  There was a time when I thought and also cared about the state of the euro zone, we certainly talked about it a lot when I worked at the Bank of England.  But watching this news programme I realised that for the past few months my horizons have shrunk to the boundary of our land and I have thought and worried about nothing other than (the kids of course), the paddock growing, the cost of fencing, planning permission, riding exams etc etc.  The wide world is still out there, with all its huge problems  and I have been losing sleep over how much weed is growing in the paddock.  Perspective needed :-)

xx

xx

Riding and Road Safety Test

Well I took my Riding and Road Safety Test at the Colchester Garrison Saddle Club on Monday and I passed!  Yeah! Some last minute revising and getting Russell to test me on the highway code on Sunday night paid off.  In fact, I was a complete swot and got 20 out of 20 on the multiple choice theory section of the test.  Ha.  Mind you, I shouldn't be so cocky, kids as young as 14 can take the test! My neck is still quite sore from so much turning round to look behind me whilst doing the ridden sections of the test.

On to the Stage 2 Horse Management and Riding exam in June. I was pleased to pass the road safety as it is a pre requisite for the Stage 2 exam.

The chickens are now outside.....

And loving it.  You can just catch a glimpse of the infamous "Russell Seddon Quail Enclosure" in the background.  He is constructing the door now so I think it may be ready in the next few months or so :-)

The baby chickens are using the run, so the older chickens' enclosure now looks like this:

The dog has been a constant source of worry and anxiety to me over the past couple of weeks, his tummy hasn't been right (I won't go into details but its been messy) and I was scared in case he'd eaten something horrible or got something struck in his digestive system.  Anyway i took him to the vets today, thankfully he's fine but the vet asked me what i was feeding him.  When i told her it was Bakers, she said that isn't a v good brand and that I need to feed him on more expensive food that is better for his digestion. So he is now on James Well Beloved and he does seem to like it more.  I thought bakers was a really good make, just shows you the powers of advertising :-)

We are STILL waiting to hear back from the Council regarding our application, I do think the council officer has got cold feet, it did all seem too good to be true.  Still, the Highways Agency have get back to us saying our proposals are fine from their point of view.  One down, two to go (the Council and the Environmental Agency).

I'm spending loads of time searching horse and hound and horse quest looking for another suitable lead rein / first ridden pony for Luke.  I've phone a couple, but they sound too forward going off the lead rein - I don't want Luke's pony to be bombing off across the field with him when he gets off the lead rein, it might put him off riding for life.  we can't have that, I have big equestrian plans for these kids!

I am going to the Nationals with the Riding for the Disabled Association on 20 May, I'm leading the ponies for Sarah Barker (the regional chair of the RDA here in herts) so that should be really good. I think its great that children with disabilities can be given something to aim for and to achieve, and going to competitions with ponies is so much more exciting than just having lessons in an indoor school.

More next time x x x x

1 April

I have bought our first pony! He is an 18 year old, 11.2 welsh section c, grey gelding called Thistle.  He currently lives at Whitebarns Farm in Furneux Pelham but will move down to us as soon as we are ready.  I just need to have the grass cut, more fencing put up, get a friend for him and a field shelter. I am far more excited than the kids, a bit over excited to t ell you the truth.  Lets just hope the kids actually like riding :-)

Tomorrow I am off to Colchester Garrison Saddle Club for my Riding and Road Safety training, the test is there on the 16 April.

Other news - the chicks are doing fine and in a week or two will be ready to move out of the "baby" home with the heat lamp.  Russell is still spending every waking moment he is free on the Quail house - I will post a picture of it once it is finished, it is an architectural masterpiece (and is taking as long as one!) but it does look good. The veg (onions, cucumber, sweetcorn and chillies) and coming along in the garage, I need to get on with sorting out some veg patches for them to go in on the field.

One thing that is being neglected is my on line course in Agriculture.  To complete my next assignment I will try to do one question a night after the kids are in bed. It will be a bit slower over the next couple of weeks as it is Easter holidays and so the kids are out and about doing things and keeping me more busy than when they are in school. They are loving the field in the warm weather and just run and run and run out there.

Hope everyone is enjoying the spring and the hope and sunny spirits it brings x x x

Planning - pre application phase 1

Well I had a very positive meeting with the Planning Officer from East Herts Council on Monday. I was really pleased , as well as quite surprised, at how it went. We've still got a long way to go, but so far so good. There are a couple of issues we need to address and we also need to consult the highways agency, the environmental agency and also rural England.
The field is really coming into its own in this gorgeous weather, the kids and the dog have spent so much time just running around out there. I'm going to leave a couple of acres just by the bridge for them to run around in. I'm still worrying about the grass, the agronomist recommended headland spray which we are putting on it but it now also looks patchy and straggly. Not sure whether to have it cut or wait for the sheep to graze it . . .

Happiness

"Attaining lasting happiness requires that we enjoy the journey on our way toward a destination we deem valuable.  Happiness is not about making it to the peak of the mountain; happiness is the experience of climbing toward the peak". Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD

"Expressing Gratitude.  In research done by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullogh, those who kept a daily gratitude journal - writing down at least five things for which they were grateful - enjoyed higher levels of emotional and physical well-being.

Each night before going to sleep, write down at least five things that made or make you happy - things for which you are grateful.  these can be little or big, from a meal you enjoyed to a project at work.  If you do this exercise regularly you will naturally repeat yourself, which is fine.  The key is to keep the emotions fresh, imagine the experience and what it means to you as you write it down.  Doing this can help you to appreciate the positives in your life rather than take it for granted."Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD

I'm afraid I had a lie in for mothers day this morning and had chance to read some self help happiness book, which I loved and felt compelled to share on here.  For me this links to the whole self sufficiency lifestyle we are building and I may well find self help motivation techniques helpful when struggling to cover costs and getting v dirty and tired on the field!

xx