...the Lower Dairy Farm Tropical Paradise Resort.
Where the only sound is the water lapping against the shore, and you'll find Farmer Humph sitting by the Stour drinking rum from a coconut.
Make it stop Mummy!
King Coal: Milk is for babies, perhaps I should try silage just like Mum...chews...chews...BLEURGH!
Silly King Coal.
King Coal
Our princely first calf of 2014.
Complete with haughty stare and bodyguard!
Beyond beet...
The sugar beet harvester has rolled away into the sunset and we no longer wake up to this inspirational screensaver (feel free to download):
The last sugar beet lorry left the farm a couple of weeks ago, clearing the yard for the final time. Next year, we will be able to walk straight across the yard, siginificantly lowering the number of steps required to circumnavigate the beet heap. Imagine what we can achieve with all that extra energy! Without a doubt, the cows will miss their Christmas sugar beet treats, but we will not miss hauling tarpaulins, scraping the road by hand, nor the verbal abuse we, the harvesters and hauliers received whilst working day and night to keep the road clean.
Special thanks to Mr Brooks' and Mr Hogger's teams for patiently sticking with small farmers like us, we will miss their annual visits to Lower Dairy Farm.
But fear not for the future of sugar beet sans Farmer Humph, we've passed the baton to future Dorset Beet Oligarch and Chairman of the NFU Sugar Board, Oscar. Sadly he's declined the generous offer of our Standen Rapide Tanker, Mk 2. 
Should anyone else require the perfect first harvester, do contact us otherwise Dad may be tempted to keep it forever.
Whilst the Standen wheels itself off to sugar beet fields new/in the sky, we're distracting Farmer Humph with an exciting farm re-modelling. To ease the pressure on the old farmyard system, we have just completed the footings of a new cow barn. Updating the farmyard unit will allow us space to work on existing buildings, mend tractors and most importantly become gloriously fat (like arable farmers) with an easier management system and no beet heaps to walk round or clamber over. More Horkesley Pork Pie anyone?
Farmer Humph's newest fan
Our newborn calf, King Coal, is Dad's little shadow as he follows his beloved Farmer Humph round the barn.
Hedgerows Anonymous
I am a plant geek, so this ash shoot caught my eye whilst out chasing rabbits with Humbug. As you can imagine, Humbug is always delighted when I stop to take pictures of trees. Now I know this twig's location, I'll be monitoring the progress of the multiple buds (known as 'fasciation') through 'til summer. Don't worry, I'll keep those photos for my personal collection.
One of my favourite things at this time of year is the reappearance of tiny pink hazel flowers in the hedgerows. 
The showy, male catkins are easy to spot, but look closely, and you will find pink female flowers concealed in the buds.
Humbug is again, underwhelmed, but when it is grey, muddy, windy or pelting with hail, look out for these pretty little flowers, they're a sign spring is getting closer!
Curly Locks
New Year in the company of...
GUTTERMAN!
What better way to end the old, and start the new year than a little guttering. 
Check out those fascia boards! We're taking a flexible, non-Gregorian approach to the definition of the year given this particular stretch of guttering was started...well the last blog post I can find is from November 2012, so we'll say around 18 months ago.
The return of the dynamic Longm
oor Farm Duo, and a lot of patience-maintaining chocolate biscuits, kept woolly-hatted Gutterman on track through mud, rainstorms, and the loss of Gutterman's secret weapon: the red spirit level.
But, the day you've been waiting for has arrived...the gutter is flowing. Monumental news. Gutterman and family were also delighted to introduce Dairy Farmer Stuart to the joys of sheeting sugar beet. (Not a typo.)
Wind and rain are no match for Gutterman. Before Christmas, our brave aerial superhero worked into the night to replace roofing batons and tiles which slumped in the recent storms.
I joined him in the driving rain to sort tiles, but most importantly, provide Christmas cookies and make sure the solar-powered radio remained dry and played calming Classic FM - luxury is never far away at Lower Dairy Farm.
Sometimes, being the custodian of old buildings can be frustrating. Every extra hole in the roof or similar, takes time away from the restoration process proper. However, with the Stable once again watertight, preparations are already underway for 2014's timber frame course. Watch this space for more information.
The end of the year saw Gutterman complete his Soil Protection Review ahead of time - High Five! Gutterman; further secure the roof of the Pole Barn - High Ten! Gutterman; and muck out the bullock yard on Christmas Eve...moderate five Gutterman (perhaps high ten for finishing it).
We hope your New Year is filled with health, wealth, effective guttering and not too many unwelcome surprises!
More from Gutterman later this year...we hope.