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24/11/09 11.57 GMT More rain but so far the fields aren’t too wet and Andy is busy hedgecutting on the river meadows. My project today is new fuel filters on the 784 and empty the muckspreader and if I don’t make any ruts spread more. Tonight is back to the quiz see you soon PHIL.
19/11/09 17.54 GMT After Yesterdays wet start and wet day the cows have stayed in. Today has just been windy and is actually drying up again but for next few days forecast isn’t good. All the works expirience team have been doing their mock GCSE exams this week so good luck lads. In the shed ( classroom) we have started to install the ceiling over the kitchen area. So far we have installed the stairs which might seem premature but they will give us a working platform when we fit the joists. They are currently christened the “Stairway to Heaven” and some wag has written ZOSO on them. More soon PHIL 
14/11/09 17.58 GMT The last two days have seen about 20mm of rainfall but on Thursday just before the downpours Les the spraying contractor sprayed the barley with a spray that should control the weeds during the winter and discourage the slugs.. Last night was the annual dinner and presentation for the Cheshire County farms competition in this farmers are juded in various classes from best dairy herd best crop of potatos and also our entry which was two classes Farming and wildlife in which we came in third place. I had also entered the roadshow in the diversification class and was not placed. However the judges had removed it from the class and put us in a new ( only created last year) class of farming ambasador. This was won last year by Dennis Parton a real Great in the NFU who has served the farming comunity on various national, regional and local committes and once Chairman Rob began describing this year’s winner I knew I had been set up. Given the calibre of my peers that enter this competition I am very humbled and honoured to be the 2009 winner particularly to follow in footsteps such as Dennis. Back to the farm and we have started on a ceiling for the kitchen the initial idea was a suspended ceiling but we have now decided to go for a loft giving us a new farm office space as my aim for 2010 is to restore the old dairy from office and junk store to a 1940’s dairy compleate with equipment to show to our visitors. I’m currently looking for a milk bottle filler should anybody reading this have one in any condition plese get in touch.
More soon PHIL.
07/11/09 08.23 GMT Last night was the last night out in the fields for the cows the cubical shed is ready for winter and we turned the milking parlour round yesterday for winter use. The winter barley is all poking through and next move for that will be a spray of weedkiller and some slug pellets as the weather has now turned wetter just suiting slugs. More soon PHIL.
1/11/09 08.33 GMT The morinig is starting off wet but we have only had 38mm of rain during October. Looking at our neighbours this has allowed them all trouble and mess free maize harvesting and talking to Alan the contractor last week he only had 160 acres left to harvest for his customers. Alison the parlour engineer came last Friday and the parlour had a clean bill of health apart from a split in the rubber on one of the milk reciever jars in the dairy. This was fixed with a stainless steel one from the now un-used parlour at Norcroft. Final touches to the cubical shed as I don’t think the cows will be outside for much longer now the spell of good weather has now broken. As in a conversation with a fellow farmer yesterday we both said we will pay for this mild spell as silage clamps ar all VERY full this winter. Followers of this site will have noted my comments on our weather forcasting service and they predicted a hotter and drier than average summer. Grey and damp I would say the worrying thing is that now they are predicting a MILD winter. More soon PHIL.
25/10/09 08.22 GMT. The barley has been sown on the 22nd and given the current warm weather should soon germinate scaring off the crows and pigeons should be the job for the next few weeks. We have finished fitting the new woodburning stove in the dining room and it has had a run up to temperature to “proove” it and all worked well. As the temperature is currently reaching 16c during the daytime however I can’t see it being run much at present. The cubical shed is nearly finished apart from moving out some of the summer stored things so next move will be fencing to prevent any escaping cow/heifers when they are grazing on the long field and rancho on to the barley field. More soon PHIl.
21/10/09 19.20 BST The drive field has been spread with muck and Andy ploughed it today so I should get it sown by the end of the week. The summerhouse should also be finished soon and we have taken the ford 6600 back for Tom to fill in a drain at Norcroft while we were there we put the Forager undercover for the winter. Next move cubical preperation as the cows will soon be in for the winter. More soon PHIL .
15/10/09 08.20 BST. The footbridge is now finished although I visited another farm project on Tuesday and saw a walkway that had been constructed in a once overgrown gully with a brook in the bottom and this made our efforts look positivly feeble !! Back to the farming and muckspreading has been slow due to a blocked hydraulic filter but I should get done tomorrow. Graham the joiner and Mick are currently putting up the base for a summerhouse in the garden ( Sarah and Simon’s idea) and Paul our decorator friend is painting the dining room after we fitted the new woodburning stove More soon PHIL.
11/10/09 21.41 BST. The tractor is hooked up to the spreader and tomorrow’s aim is to empty the summer’s muck collection on to the Drive field ready to plough and sow winter Barley. We have virtually finished the footbridge and after muckspreading the next job is some repairs and winter preparations for the cubicle shed.
More soon PHIL.
03/10/09 18.07 BST Yesterday was spent with Bill or friendly digger driver and we have moved our stockpile of excess rubble from the back yard and I think it will end up as a new topping for part of the back drive. The ploughing match was very well attended and the view from the farm was superb making it an excellent location. The weather apart for some drizzle stayed more or less dry this brings me to last months rainfall which was only 24mm. Besides moving rubble we have also moved some soil to the back edge so I think in the spring we will be able to plant some more hedge. Also Bill has dug a 7ft deep hole in the garage as Simon wants an inspection pit for cars and tractors. More soon PHIL
28/09/09 12.01 BST I have been on a course down at Stoneleigh park in Warwickshire as part of an update for my CEVAS ( countryside educational visit accreditation scheme) and this is to do with a new secondary school qualification ( part of the national curriculum) called land based learning and once I have done my homework and it has been marked we hope to be approved for any school to use us. Back on the farm and half of the deck on the footbridge so it should soon be finished well done to our team. Last week was our annual inspection which went well with the usual few small things to finish. This Wednesday is the ploughing match so more soon. PHIL
15/09/09 07.34 BST Silaging is finished and the sheet is back on the clamp. The first cut looks and smells nice so I can now forget the clamp until November. Starting last week we have been working with the Cheshire Youth foundation with dis-illusioned school pupils and yesterday we re-started the footbridge project and they worked hard and the basic frame of the base is now in place. More with the second group today. PHIL.
13/09/09 07.17 BST Finally got going with the silaging yesterday and a short afternoon saw us clear the milestone field. Breakdown free we should finish today. I seem to have aquired the buckraking job I’m sure that wasn’t part of the deal with Simon and Peter. More soon PHIL.
11/09/09 07.28 BST Silaging starts today as we have nice fine DRY weather forcast for the next few days.
Yesterday I attended a course to improve my skills for working with secondary ( High if you are a US reader) school pupils and so now I have some home work to do. More soon PHIL.
1/09/09 16.44 BST. Silaging is still on hold yet August has been a month with showers of “just enought to stop you working” the monthly total being 41mm. I have brought up a large ash branch for the logging as we will need some shorter logs for our new log burner ( our main one will take a 24″ long log). Yesterday saw me out at Margaret and Micks Summer Fayre with Macclesfield NFU’s Keith and Leek’s Claire and we got our display trashed by Heli-med 8 the air ambulance responding to a call for a lady taken ill at the event. I must point out that part of the funds raised go to the air ambulance service. Here is Keith un-phased continuing to chat to a customer literally a couple of minutes post damage. Daisy our have a go milking cow literally flew and landed 5yds away in folded down state. Keith and Claire had moved our leaflets but the lightweight tables ended in a pile as the photo shows. Keith said it was the most exciting event of the day but I disagreed WE are that I told him. More soon PHIL
25/08/09 14.23 GMT Silaging is on hold due to the wet weather so I’m hoping to get on with fitting the new woodburner in the dining room. Quiz night tonight at the Three Greyhounds and one of the subjects ( dear to my heart) is the Ashes WE WON !!!!!!!!! Now on to Give the Aussies a good thrashing in the 20/twenty and one day series. More soon PHIL.
22/08/09 18.40 GMT The log stores are now full and I’m hoping to silage next week. On Thursday we spent the night without electricty in the house due to a shower fault. While Simon the electrician was here he has serviced the dirty water pump electrics so I can now pump the tank out instead instead of just using the tanker. Sarah’s 20th birthday on Monday as if we are allowed to forget it !! More soon PHIL
12/08/09 08.56 GMT. On Sunday the forecasters gave out a dry week and tody it has been revised to rain and showery with strong winds for the weekend. Rather a mistake if you are like some of our neighbours and are trying to make some hay or bale some straw(22mm rain so far this month). Yesterday Emma and I spent the afternoon electric fencing the top paddock on the long field and the cows will be on it today and at present I’m on logging ready for Winter assuming the rain stops. More soon PHIL.
04/08/09 18.18 GMT A compleatly dry day today the first for about 4 weeks it shows with the fact that we had 104mm of rain in July. Today and yesterday had been spent on the playdays events at Northwich and Winsford and they were both very well attended and I must thank the two ladies who helped me with the trailer. I have 15 chicks with me and spent several times with an empty box this is my defenition of busy.
Back on the farm we have nearly finished grazing the farmside half of the drive feild and have grazed the middle banks off ( again). I think weather and staff permitting we should get our trailers unloaded this weekend. I’m also planning to put the sawbench on and finish cutting up the final pile of wood on the orchard and stack it ready for next winter. More soon PHIL
30/07/09 20.24 GMT The hay is still on the trailers but we have now got as far as pulling the elevator out and it has been test started and it went without a hitch. The cows are grazing on the farm side of the drive field and Anthony along with Emma our latest victim who has just finished A levels and wants to be a vet have also repaired the fence on the middle banks which have grown like mad due to this wet spell and need the heifers back on them. Today has seen Emma helping de-horn a heifer calf and we have been collecting log wood ready for cutting up for the stove next winter. That is another job we have now started putting another log burner in the dining room as it has had a slight damp problem since the double glazing was installed and re-opening the chimney willallow better air circulation and the dining room is below our bedroom (Dorothy likes this idea) More soon PHIL.
22/07/09 18.17 BST Sorry for the lack of posts for the last 20 days but I’m on Dorothy’s laptop as my usual machine is refusing to talk to the internet. We baled the hay two weeks ago tomorrow and it is still under the cubicle shed on trailers as it has rained nearly every day at some time since and the guage at present says 72mm. We had a successful day at the opening of the refurbished Sandbach cobbles and the morning’s drizzle cleared to a nice day with a similar story at the Blakemere craft centre however sadly Sunday’s second day of the Romiley young farmers show was rained off. I had dropped off the trailer the previous evening and met torrential rain on the M56 on my journey home and the A556 was down to two lanes as the outer lanes were awash as the drains couldn’t cope. I really feel for Romiley as bad luck with the weather had dogged them for the last 3 years in succession. Our quiz night’s at the Three Greyhounds seem to be a success with 15 teams competing last night. Next weeks request has been for “younger” questions. Several teams have already learned to be careful what they wish for so we’ll see next week !!.
Back on the farm and I need to do some more fencing on the top of the middle banks so tomorrows job seems to have sorted its self. More soon PHIL :0
2/07/09 08.49 BST 51mm of rain for June quite dry for the last two years and we have now cut our hay the weather is certainly hot enough at over 28c yesterday and so far we have avoided the thunderstorms although we have heard of flooding in town centres only 4 miles away from here. The topping is more or less finished on the meadows and there are just two paddocks on the key field to finish. Part of todays jo however is to fix a weld on the haybob’s headstock and collect two escapee heifers from Chris next door.
More soon PHIL .
