Happy Herefords

   The calm before the storm on the farm at the moment.  Mum and Dad are busy fixing, winter-proofing, feeding, cleaning, littering and keeping the animals in the luxury to which they have become accustomed.

We await the calving of Caramel (why is there never a full moon when you need one), so watch out for a sleep-weary Farmer Humph if you're driving up Water Lane in the dark.  And we're on tenterhooks as the wait for the sugar beet harvester goes on.  Rumour has it, the beast may head our way soon...and then you'll never have met a yokel (me) so happy to be hand-scraping sugar beet mud off a road...as it will be for the last time.

Over in the shop, it's time for Shop Local Saturday on December 7th!  Part of a campaign to encourage folks to support local traders, look out for signs across the nation, and show your support for independents of all shapes and sizes.

Forget the pre-Christmas supermarket crush, love where you live and Shop Local.#ShopLocalSaturday

Boo

Introducing Baby Boo, our new arrival complete with H&S approved white flash.  Yard safety for dark winter nights!

Return of the Mincemeat

It may be autumn outside, but when the need for a mince pie (or two) hits, Hannah's delicious mincemeat is waiting for you in the farm shop.

Yum!

Britain's Sexiest Farmer...

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...

Queen of all she surveys...like her Mother, Queenie:

And with legs like Darcey Bussell - hence the name!Definitely a keeper!