With his love of woolly hats, dungarees and baler twine, should we enter Farmer Humph?
Let sleeping cows lie...
The cows are in! They are greatly enjoying being tucked up in the barn, where the prospect of fresh straw is enough to get the oldest and, shall we say, most 'heavyset' cattle kicking up their heels with joy! Before settling in for the night, when all is quiet in the barn...apart from the chewing of cuds, snorting and that one annoying cow with a deviated septum. There's always one. 
Snoring aside, it is warm in the barn, and if fuel prices get any higher, I will be blogging from there. Or maybe just select a nice clean one to bring indoors. No. 100 would do.
It has been a mixed month, a new muckspreader is gracing the fields of Lower Dairy Farm, Dad's been patching up machinery left, right and centre, the JCB got stuck...again, and there's an annoying hole in the Stable courtesy of Jude.
Thanks Jude. It could have been worse, but is another job to add to the list before winter sets in. Fortunately, a scaffold tower was erected in record time, and is ready for the repairs when a tired Farmer Humph and Steeplejack Humbug have a spare moment.
We think he's dreaming about our last sugar beet harvest...! A joyous event coming soon to LDF - Christmas has nothing on that celebration.
(For the record, the women of the farm are still working. Girl power.)
Moo-delling 101
Use nature to your advantage. Find a frame. Work it. 
Blitzen
Father Christmas, worry not! Our latest Caribou calf, Blitzen, joins the elite LDF Sleigh Backup Team. 
He's brought his friend Donner along too, with amazing thunder clouds rolling across the valley today.
It promises to be a noisy evening. But worry not, good news for Humph's sartorial followers...the woolly hats and dungarees are BACK! Autumn is officially here!
Introducing Ballerina...
Foraging bumblebee
Enter the Supaseeder
This, is not just any drill. This is a Vicon Supaseeder LZ401.
And that is Dad obediently drilling grass seed, shortly before I banned him from attending Harvest Festival - you must have something to harvest in the coming year before you give thanks for the present. Farming with your children is fun.
Farmer Humph got his own back as his helpers enjoyed a Sunday afternoon trot behind the tractor, brandishing hoes to unblock the drill coulters (left) as they encountered trash on the headland.
And so today, I'm giving you the opportunity to live the dream...the wind in your hair, a hoe clutched tightly in your hand...feel the rush in 14 seconds of incredible agricultural footage...
Before the chickens ruin everything...
Harvest 2013
We're reaching the end of a calving bonanza!...A blissful, unattended calving patch which has caused Dad undue worry as another calf appears in the field, but as they were all planned, we say bravo to easy calving.
British Food Fortnight has gone back to it's roots and is celebrating Bringing Home the Harvest, so we're joining in with a long awaited Harvest 2013 Round-up! And this year, you get to see the Mighty Mercator in action.
The Mercator's friendly Silverback Gorilla emerged from hibernation and roared into action...
..and the Mercator glid gracefully into the fields like it wasn't a day over 30.
That is, after the damage caused by LDF's bionic mice - who eat and line their nests with copper wire, was sorted out. 
Well'ard mice.
This year we were able to take advantage of the perfectly timed spells of fine weather to complete the harvest in record time relative to the past few years.
Despite being short on horsepower, all was gathered in safely and Hallelujah! Praise the Heavens!, the bales were beautifully stacked in a high heap to avoid the horizontal formation of last year...and the year before. S
ometimes, I like to think He listens to us.
With the Mercator tucked safely into bed, we were on to bale hauling, multiple calvings (more about those soon), with Dad subsoiling, hedge cutting and prepping everything to start all over again! Plus, the start of the Christmas orders in the farm shop! But best of all...the milkstand is back!
Bring on Harvest 2014! 