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..it's more 1993 than 2013.
Happy New Year! We hope your hangover isn't quite as epic as this...
W-otter l-otter excitement
Look who's joined us on the farm!
Very excited at my very first otter sighting today on the farm. Humbug (excellent but fortunately aquaphobic otter finder) and I rounded up the troops and work was abandoned to watch them play. They have been living locally for a while, but this is the first-time we've seen them on our little stretch of the Stour - a definite highlight of 2012!
Boxing Day calf
Not an 'Angel' but an 'Angelo', born this morning at 01:00.
Hopefully, a calf with better table manners than the delinquents in the background.
Merry Christmas from all at Lower Dairy Farm
We may be expecting Noah... 
...but, the tractor lights are up,
...our choirboy is practising his 'Once In Royal..' solo, 
...and Teasel is about to calve, so bring on a baby Angel!
Wishing you a Happy, Dry and Merry Christmas !
Ploughing at Wiston
(Don't show the Nuffield, it might get jealous)
A Sty with a View
The piglets are now happily ensconced in their new quarters - open plan studio apartment (ark) with uninterrupted views across the river to Nayland Airfield, cricket bat willows and general Stour loveliness. 
Ever considered living in a sty? I have.
This 'pig's-eye' view of the world shows how perfect the site is for the trio, but they'll have to work for that view. In fact, once they make it to the end of the track, they add Wiston Mill to the panorama.
To thank them, we generously removed the Take Put 
found beneath the brambles. And if you were wondering what this does, Dad's description "You take things, and put them somewhere else...somewhere you forget about them." is pretty accurate. He's been searching for this for some time, so has taken it...and put it somewhere else. Circle of Hell right there.
Thank you to Fryers Farm Shop for the huge quantity of windfall apples. Like ill-disciplined children, pigs like to play with food and are enjoying rolling them under the fence as an excuse to retrieve them. We believe they too may be trying to get to Wiston to play with Reggie.
With the piglets settling in, we were joined by a festive offering:
Farmers' luck, calving started 20 minutes before we were due to leave for the carol service. Fortunately, 'No 1's Calf' is a pro and it was born and up within minutes, so Humph escaped to deafen the dignitaries of Colchester with a piccolo 'Top G' in 'Angels from the realms...
A performance praised by the Mayor himself. It never ceases to amaze us that even after a lifetime of farming, with farmer hands hewn from endless baler twine knots, he is able to play the piccolo so well. To show our appreciation, when Humph's piccolo services are required, we briefly allow him to practise in the house, before realising this is a terrible idea (Farm Dog wails) and banish him to the barn - all a little Thomas Hardy until you catch a riff of a sea shanty amid the carols!
The Musee de LDF
December is bustin' out all over. Another calf, and whilst we love all of God's creatures, I have to say, this is the most attractive shot I could get of our latest arrival...
Poor calf. When I become a River Stour Pirate he will come into his own in my skull and crossbones diorama.
But luck was on our side. Whilst waiting for his unfriendly mother to calve, we were joined by a ferocious stoat. This stoat has a reputation as a performance artist and will hold up the traffic on Water Lane whilst he/she (stoat sexing not my forte) drags the latest kill down the centre of the road. Show-off; but pretty amazing to watch.
And speaking of artistic performances, Christo and Jeanne-Claude may have wrapped The Reichstag, but life is a conceptual art piece here at LDF. Introducing, for a limited time only: "Sugar Beet Heap, Wrapped".
Performed at night, preferably in driving rain. I'm pretty sure Christo and team of helpers didn't complete their wrapping with a personal head-to-toe mud pack and multiple bruises - whilst sliding down the heap may seem the most efficient way to get to the ground, high altitude sickness can make a wrapper forget a heap of beet makes for a lumpy descent.
But anything to protect those precious sugar beet from the December frosts. British Sugar, take note; everything I do, I do it for you.
The Fifth Day
Who needs a smaller tractor when you've got plenty of your own? The fifth day starts with a dusting of snow, glorious snow...
Far prettier than my present left by the Snow Queen herself...
Me and the Snow, we have an understanding.
(A girl can dream...)