Jim Webster's Blog, page 11

A rotten wet day.

Well is it wet enough for you? It’s been interesting so far. I wandered out this morning to feed dry cows and heifers. Some of them are handy around the yard, some less so. As I fastened my current battered hi-viz jacket against the rain I looked across to where Sal lives. She peered out …

Young ladies of uncertain temperament.

When you work your way down the list of jobs you have to do on a busy dairy farm, you’ll notice that one that somehow has to get fitted in is ‘looking dairy heifers.’ As soon as there is grass and the heifers are old enough, I always tried to get them outside onto it. …

Hunting for a way to make a living

I never felt I had all that much in common with the Arab nobility who used to hunt with a hawk on their arm and a cheetah sitting in front of them on the saddle. But I too have moved into the big league. Admittedly I haven’t got a hawk or even the horse, but …

A Protestant virus and dancing cat food tins.

As somebody commented to me recently, Corvid 19 is a very Protestant virus. It’s perfectly safe to work but under no circumstances are you allowed to enjoy yourself. As another person said, “You know what, it’s been a pretty crap summer so far.” To be fair, he was thinking in agricultural terms. First the year …

Farm sales

Here I’m not talking about selling farms, but the sale that occurs on the farm when ‘everything must go.’ This is normally because the last tenant or previous owner is retiring. Traditionally round here there were three components. They’d start off with the ‘small tools’. This was the miscellaneous rubbish out of the workshop and …

‘Opening your village hall?’ Or ‘Any muppet can manage their multi-use community facilities’

It struck me that you might want to open your village hall or community centre so I thought I’d guide you through the new rules which are at https://www.gov.uk/government/publica... First there is a series of warnings. Many community facilities are also workplaces and those responsible for the premises should therefore be aware of their responsibilities …

Now we know why they wanted all that toilet paper!

The Lake District National Park Authority held a Visitor Poll on the 30th and 31st of May. They asked interesting questions.   Before your visit which of the following things did you do? Use the LDNPA website to check how busy areas were.  35.5% Plan your destination AND end up at that destination.  38.7% Plan …

Kettle wedges and zoom

Back in April we had a tree blow down. I suppose it’s arguable whether it was our tree that blew down or our next door neighbours, but either way it made sense for me to be the one who cut it up. This is the tree that blew down and we ‘stood up again.’   …

Dry grass and cats running in flip flops.

People struggle to understand why I can get so interested in grass. After all it’s green and normally wet. But really, my life has been spent creating optimum conditions for grass. That way I had enough to feed to cattle or sheep, and somehow we made a living. In a perfect world, when making silage, …

Killer on the loose.

It has to be said that whilst Billy our cat is a charming character, he is a killer. He’s a cat so it goes with the territory. When he arrived, a rescue kitten, feral and vaccinated to the eyeballs he didn’t particularly like people. To be fair, you can understand his point of view. But …