Old roof, new roof
Old barn roof. New barn flat pack roof. Excitement.
Welcome to...
...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!