On the first day of December, a lovely heifer calf for the herd.

On the second day of December a trip to Mersea gave to me, three marvellous piglets.

On the third day of December, I drew the short straw when Dad said "So, you get in the muck spreader..." and wandered off to find tools. Ever wanted to know what the inside of a muck spreader looks like? Well now you know.

On the fourth day of December, what's that coming o'er the hill? Yes! It's the sugar beet harvester. At long last.

On the fifth day of December, 'Lord Sugar-beet' himself (Mr Brooks), had promised to send a smaller tractor to reduce the risk of barn-tractor collisions. Fitting Twenty First Century equipment into our "bijou" yard is, as so diplomatically put by the traumatized-looking youth driving the tractor, "quite hard work". Cue another 8 point turn.

And whilst I would have been most grateful for this, the harvester mined the sugar in record time and they'll be back at a later date for our other field...which requires drier conditions.

Clearly, this is shaping up to be a month of excitements. Perhaps by the 31st we'll have a new gutter and my definition of rain (water falling from the sky) and that of the Met Office will match up? Oh, we can live in hope...but too much excitement before Christmas is bad for a farmer.