November 23, 2020: We have a couple of new arrivals at the Farm, and the Covid-19 requirements mean we have to keep them isolated for two weeks. Up until now that has not been a problem, but we have now run out of habitable "isolation units". So we're building yet one more compost loo next to a small shed that we have used for many years as "quarantine" accommodation that makes loo no. 45, not counting the flush toilets that are so very last-century. What a waste of fresh expensive drinking water - - surely environmentalists everywhere will soon stop using flush toilets, just like we've stopped using DDT, CFCs, coal, diesel in city centres, single-use plastic carrier bags, etc. Each of those items was absolutely necessary for widespread worldwide use for decades, until our collective environmental conscience dictated their phasing out.
So, now that I've got your attention on compost loos, let me put in a plea for a really constructive Christmas present you can give to everyone you know who can read: Joseph Jenkins' "The Humanure Handbook", now in its fourth edition, having sold about 100,000 copies. Every decade or two there's a seminal work which is a catalyst for widespread social change. This is one of those books.
We're also finally, finally, building a small waterwheel for the spring water that runs at the back of the Mill; historically this water stream was the "spillwater" - - the miller would open a sluice gate just before the water went towards the big mill wheel and all the water would "spill" out and down to the river, so the waterwheel would stop. Our plan is to use the spillwater to drive a 12-volt automotive alternator and employ the resulting power for lights and battery-charging. Sam has added "waterwheel engineer" to his CV. It is an interesting experience building your first waterwheel, trying to design the size and shape of the water-boxes to catch as much water as possible and then retain it for as long as possible as the wheel rotates before spilling it all out. The boxes are built and mounted in a circle; the next phase is the driving wheel for a pulley belt, and then the groundwork to mount the wheel in the stream. We'll use plastic bushings for the axle because they are cheap, easy to install and adjust, and they perform very well under water and don't require lubrication. The load on the axle will be very low because it will not be driving the alternator - - a large diameter V-belt will be attached to one side of the wheel and the pull of the belt will be upwards (alternators don't perform well under water) and so counteracting the weight of the waterwheel.
I've often thought that a floating waterwheel would be an interesting idea for our "flash" river - - it goes up and down two or three metres every time there is a heavy rain, and that makes for difficulties running a fixed waterwheel. But a wheel mounted on a raft that rides up and down with the state of the river, now there's an interesting possibility.
And we're also installing underfloor heating pipes in the top floor of the Mill in the next couple of weeks, yet another project that has ben hanging around as "a good idea" for ten years or so. The heat will come from a ground source heat pump using the water flow of the Cam Brook which runs close to the Mill. The technology suggests that 1 kw of electricity will provide 3 to 4 kw of heat. We shall see. And if the pumps can be driven by 12-volt electricity we might get the river water to provide that as well, following on from our first waterwheel experiment.
All of which leads me on to thinking about how sustainable such ideas really are. Sure, a waterwheel and ground source heat pumps are better than burning coal to obtain the power; and sure, there's no big clean-up problem like nuclear waste for 100,000 years; and they don't involve a lot of embodied carbon in hundreds of tonnes of concrete. But they do depend on a long history of development that made full use of those less-desirable techniques, so the question in my mind is, would we be able to utilise a £20 second-hand 12-volt automobile alternator if there had not been a billion of them built by factories all over the world during the last 60 years? Would we be able to install high-spec underfloor pipes for not much more than the cost of radiators without 80 years of industrial chemistry developing really good quality plastic oxygen barrier pipe that can stand up to 40 years of hot water whizzing around? Would we have affordable solar panels without Bell Laboratories, Nokia, Shell Oil and BP investing millions into the development of quality silica crystals?
September 15, 2020: It's been another hectic week, and not everything has gone as smoothly as it might, despite the weather generally being perfectly delightful. Liz has been exercising Paddy, and is often seen around the lanes in Timsbury, Paulton and Camerton. Hannah is building up to riding out with Misty, but so far she's confined herself to the grassy fields near home. James has traded in his sidecar motorbike for ... another sidecar motorbike, and can be seen and heard scrambling around at breakneck speeds. So far he's only cracked his collarbones twice.
While Jan was taking a well-earned coffee break a few days ago he did a double-take, as he glimpsed through the trees he thought he saw our small tractor slowly descend into the river, and then disappear from sight, with our mower attached. After close investigation he found that indeed the tractor had inadvertently been steered too close to the bank, the driver nimbly hopped off and left the tractor, in very low gear, to very slowly inch its way downwards. No damage or injury anywhere except a somewhat bruised ego, but the front and underside of the tractor is now remarkably clean.
We have a new family arriving to stay with us for the time being: Julien will be engaged in general farm work, strimming hedges and moving timber, and Natasha and two children will be joining us next month; Nina will start at St. Mary's school in October. We've harvested our summer onions and potatoes, and thanks to Trevor we now have our big tractor back in operation just in time for thorough cultivation of our rather weedy fields. The field neaar Mill Lane where we keep the laying hens is due for a makeover with new fencing, and we'll make some in-roads to cultivating the Espalier field (in the middle of the Farm) for Spring vegetable crops. Kale has done well this summer, and we're still picking cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, rocket and coriander, though if the weather turns cold they will all finish. that will leave us with beetroot and leeks, which we are just beginning to harvest. The pumpkins and squash family are the big winners this summer, ideal conditions - - hot weather, warm soil, and enough rain for them to get very big. Oh, and the weeds have done very well this summer, burying the pumpkin patch under a rich green carpet about three feet high.
We're now in the chutney business: Keren and Eleanor have been cooking, along with Liz's traditional recipe, and we now have several different flavours, on our pantry shelves as well as some spicy apple sauce. Soon we'll be pressing grapes, scratting and pasteurising our apple juice, and putting down some bottles of apple cider vinegar with "the mother" included. We've the first batch of sloes in the freezer, and it looks like a very big year for sloeberry syrup, probably the strongest flavour of all fruits.
The horse arena is very slowly coming to fruition; or at least I think it is. Lots of talk, a few fenceposts are up, a tonne of money has gone out to the contractors, a couple of truckloads of materials have arrived, and we'll see where we are in a week or two. The contractor is saying it will be done by mid October. Let's hope the rain holds off until at least he gets the drainage ditches dug, otherwise we'll have another winter with a brown swimming pool for the ducks.
August 16, 2020: A hectic few weeks jumping through hoops with moving goalposts (pardon my mixing of metaphors). We were hoping our Folk Festival (see www.tangledrootsfestival.com) would go ahead for September 4, and we encouraged the performers to hang in there with reduced fees due to reduced numbers of people attending to meet the Covid restrictions. We spent quite a bit of admin time drawing up an extensive Covid risk assessment, planning how to deal with social distancing at a small festival and keep all the people attending and our staff safe, and we submitted all this to the Council, answered their few queries. We got a "no objection" email from the Licensing Team, and two days later we received emails from the "Safety At Events Group" that we had two days to submit an additional application with extensive paperwork documentation, pay another application fee, and then wait to see if the event despite any approval would be cancelled at the last minute with no warning. Faced with such discouraging remarks from the authorities we postponed Tangled Roots until June of next year. The next day we received the official approval for the event. So we wasted another hour or so writing to the very polite people at the various authorities that the right hand really should figure out what the left hand is doing, and it seemed unfair and very unsupportive to handle our requests for advice, etc. in the way they had done.
We received very polite emails from BANES and from the SAEG that they hoped everything would be better organised for next year, though perhaps we should get used to "the new normal". Has anyone ever heard of the "Safety At Events Group" before? Is it reasonable that they (whoever they are) can override local council decisions on the safety of local activities?
So now there's only another many hours re-arranging everything to cancel this year's festival, issue refunds, contact everyone and hope they will transfer their tickets to next year, change our staffing arrangements, and then sit back and relax.
Meanwhile the camping scene at Radford Mill Farm has taken off in a big way - - three or four serious enquiries a.most every day. We have about 38 ptiches, all separated from each other by 10 metres, each pitch is for one family/household "bubble" and about 10 metres square so big enough for several people and two tents. We've installed separate water stand-pipes for each pitch, and a separate compost loo for each. Jan has become known for his rapid construction of three compost loos in a day and a half, and Richard has been singlehandedly loading them onto our big trailer, and unloading them all along the edge of our camping fields. (Ah, the power of modern hydraulics.) We've more or less finished the toilet tasks, except for daily cleaning of all 38 of them. We've installed some new foot-pedal water taps which are good from the social distancing point of view, but they deliver a forceful jet of water if you're not careful. so we'll probably be putting them on a low-pressure header-tank system.`
People come and go at the Farm. Keren is here but still unsure about how long she will stay; she's preparing pickles and chutneys; and her friend Jack shows up now and then to help. Julien, Natasha and their two kids are here for another couple of weeks; we're all practising our French. Perhaps they will make the big move from their lives in London. Adam is hoping to find somewhere else to live; Helga's daughters are here with us for a week or two at a time. and our other permanent resident is Paddy, a four-legged Gypsy cob, frequently seen riding around the lanes or the village with Katy or Liz on board. The grand plan is to get Paddy pulling a cart so we can tour the county in style. Elsie has built a magnificent "Hilton Hotel"for her doggy day-care business, and she's contemplating bringing a couple of horses to the Farm. Tig and Puddles grace our Roadside field with grazing now and then.
The horse arena might actually happen sometime soon. Post holes have been dug for the perimeter fence. Watch this space.
July 18, 2020: It has been awhile since I've found time to write. The virus situation has taken a toll: nearly all of our summer events have not taken place so we've lost a large part of our annual income, and at the same time our wage bill has gone up, as we haven't laid anyone off. We're mostly living in separate outbuildings and most of the Farmhouse is empty, as we are trying to keep ourselves virus-free. so far that seems to be working.
Josh has left the Farm and is now living in Bristol; we were sorry to see him go but he needed more of a social life. The turkeys have arrived and are getting bigger every day; and Olly has brought in more laying hens so our egg productions is climbing up and up. Keren has arrived and is staying in a caravan in the Orchard; she's very keen on herbalism and medicinal plants. Our vegetables are growing at full speed now, and so are the weeds.
A swarm of bees alighted on one of our apple trees two weeks ago, and Tibor swooped in to capture them and get them in a waiting hive. Honey production last year and so far this year has been good, and we're selling it like hotcakes.
Our discovery apples are getting bigger and we'll probably start picking around the first week in August. They are very sweet, the first in our Orchard every year, and they don't keep well, so if the harvest is very big we'll start pressing juice. We get a much richer flavour if we add some more acidic apples such as bramleys with the Discovery, but the bramleys are not looking very ready yet.
the roof of the Mill Cottage came to the end of its useful life so we re-roofed the whole building, replacing quite a few rafters, packing out the large purlin on the west side that had twisted a bit during the last two hundred years, and removing the skylight which needs some attention before being re-installed. The new tiles look very pretty.
Our big construction program at the moment is building six new triple-unit compost loos to provide a separate loo for every family bubble, no mean task. But we will do it - - the first three new triple-units are already built (in two days !). We've set ourselves the task of providing all the campers that have booked pitches will get their own loo.
Elsie has arrived and with help from her relatives is erecting a 6-foot high fence for her "Dog-day-care" business. And there's a rumour that work will start next week on the horse arena - - hooray! It's only been about a year and a quarter since it was first decided upon.
And that's about all there is to comment upon just now.
April 12, 2020: Happy Easter, all. No Easter egg hunts, no picnics despite all the sunshine, just staying at home with your computer. Hmm.
Another lamb popped out yesterday, a male with extremely long legs. He seems fit enough though off to something of a slow start for feeding. We've turned him and his mum out into the Orchard to have a much on some grass, what little there is of it left. Four more sheep to give birth, though it could be one or two are barren - - they're not showing pregnant signs. But it's a bit hard to tell with sheep.
April 10, 2020: Another lamb born this morning, bringing the number up to 13, with four more ewes yet to deliver. So far more females than males, which means our flock will be increasing more for next year. Today's arrival is a very big male, all legs; he's keen to get drinking, but mum is a bit intimidated by his size, so we're having to coax her into feeding. They all seem to get the hang of it after a day or so.
Our delivery service is going well, though we could use more local customers. I get quite a thrill when I see a Timsbury or Paulton or Camerton address on the order form; rather less so as the addresses appear further away from the Farm. We're going to try two sizes of veg box for next Thursday, and see what the uptake is, and we're adding more items - - apples, oranges, cucumbers, flour, rice and pasta.
We experienced a silver Audi estate, license no. WG03 KUL cruising through the middle of the Farm a few days ago; they turned around rather sharpish when I emerged out of the hedge and started walking towards them with my camera. I mention this event as it may relate to some items that disappeared from the Farm a few months ago, including quite a few litres of red diesel being loaded into the back of a silver Audi estate.
Cultivation on the fields is problematic: We can probably just about create seedbeds now for the summer vegetables, but every one of these hot days turns our clay soil into a more solid item of rock-hard clay pieces as the soil gets more and more dry. I will be out cultivating this evening from about 5 pm until very dark. But it is not quite time to plant things yet as there is still a risk of night-time frost until about June 1st. Every time we run over the soil with a cultivator we lose more moisture from the field, and the longer the gap between cultivating and actually planting our crops means more advantage for the weeds to start growing again. This farming thing is not as easy as it looks.
Farm life has become more interesting for several of the folks here. Adam and Josh are going for daily swims in the river. Liz is sharpening her tractor-driving skills. Two volunteers cleared up our immense piles of hedge-cuttings and honed their fire-lighting skills . Jan and Heather have moved into their new chalet home and held a house-warming party round a campfire with 2-metre distancing between everyone. Cody and Rachel are producing wonderful cakes that don't last very long, and I am pigging out on all the wonderful Jersey butter and full cream milk we're getting from Ivy House Farm. Trevor can be seen most days lounging on his new sofa in front of his 1980 Triumph 500 twin, which he has installed next to the bed in his new Dairy barn room.
Our laying hens are on the up. Olly has introduced about 100 new birds and the egg production is starting up again; there's quite a high demand for organic eggs, it seems.
April 5, 2020: Very curious times, with all the endless news about coronavirus. Living in the countryside, with our nearest neighbours several hundred metres away, quiet roads with virtually no noise, we go about our daily lives on the Farm without too many changes. We've cut down on our shopping trips, and the most significant difference is that we're all keeping "social distance" from everybody else. It's developed into a habit, we just automatically step away from the person we're about to talk to. I don't like it much; it's as though we suspect everyone of being dangerous.
There's been a huge increase in walkers across the Farm in the last couple of weeks; it's good to see many more children out walking with parents. My guess is the numbers have trebled.
Our box delivery service is up and running, though with a few very minor hitches. We're now delivering about 50 boxes each week within a three-mile radius of the Farm, and we're adding new items each week. Jersey milk is staring this coming week; all that rich yellow cream on top, oooh.
I suppose the younger generation doesn't really get the little surge of delight when they hear the phrase "top of the milk" I remember developing an addiction to clotted cream and Jersey milk when I spent time in Plymouth in the winter of 1966 - - there was this ice cream parlour I would walk past that served a vanilla cone for one and sixpence, and an extra nine pence for a scoop of clotted cream on top. Although I came from a "foodie" family in California, I had never experienced all that delicious butterfat. It seems that the rest of the world doesn't really know much about Jersey milk and clotted cream. How lucky we are.
The rest of the world doesn't know anything about "bell ringing" either. I notice that there are no more practice sessions in the local church; all gone with coronavirus.
We've moved most of our ewes and their lambs to the Driveway meadow where there is some relatively rich grass. The little lambkins are getting bigger and bouncier day by day. It's a daily treat to watch a gang of four or five get together and race off across the field, jumping and bouncing, and then race back again. Who knows what's in their minds? Liz has a favourite - - it's a female, number six, named "Cherry" by the children on the Farm; she's clearly the runt of this year's crop, but she's a bundle of energy despite her small frame. She's up for head-butting with her brother and she's about the bounciest lamb of the whole bunch - - veritable springs in her legs.
We planted a few different varieties of potatoes yesterday as a test, to see what the possibilities are. We haven't grown many potatoes most years as our clay soil makes lifting them rather hard work. We're looking forward to trying the "pink fir apple" variety, and also the blue potatoes. Frank has added five more apple trees and a greengage tree to our orchard, and several two-year-old oaks have gone into the ground. Our crop of baby oaks has started to sprout leaves - - it looks like a good year, as we've got about 300 or so putting on two and three leaves. We finally figured out how to keep the squirrels from nicking all the acorns. The next danger is the deer who like the tender tops of the trees.
Since last November we've had an unwelcome visitor to the Circle Garden which we keep in specially good condition as it is a central landscape feature for the weddings and other events that we host every summer. Every morning we would observe that an area of the grassy footpaths had been dug over, rather like someone hoeing the grass. Finally Jan solved the mystery by placing a wildlife spy camera in just the right place, and we discovered the culprit was a badger. We're not sure why that particular small bit of grass was so desirable, as we do have about 100 acres of it elsewhere.
March 16, 2020: A date to mark in the Farm Diary - - baby Maya was born about 9 am this morning. Her mother Hannah is doing well, as is Maya. Grandma Lizzie got over-excited but seems to be calming down now. We're all wondering how Maya will take to the delights of the new central heating system installed in the Farm Cottage, as well as the wonderful sunny view of our all rain-drenched fields.
And we have two other small arrivals on the Farm - - baby lambs May and Ash were born on Saturday morning, rather effortlessly. They needed a bit of encouragement to begin suckling, and their mum was not too sure what was supposed to be happening, but they all got into the swing of it and are doing well; they're completely indifferent to the many visitors who come to ooh and aah. So far the lambs have only managed to jump a few inches off the ground, but we will start the high-jump training soon. The lambs are in our Apple Barn, and we expect to have quite a few more during the next fortnight or so. Come and have a look. If you walk up the Farm Driveway the Apple Barn is the old round-roofed barn with a visible apple press; the lambs are behind the baler, in pens.
We've had so much rain the last few weeks that there's some slumping damage to our railway embankment where we excavated last year for tyhe racetrack. We'll be repairing and reinforcing this during the next couple of weeks, and then reinstating the grass on the racetrack so the little cars can do their thing in comfort.
During all of our time here (43 years) we've encouraged people to walk around the Farm, ride their horses and exercise their dogs. We have quite a few footpaths criss-crossing the Farm but we've never insisted that people stay on the footpaths. However, we do have livestock that can be frightened by dogs out of control, so we are asking everyone to respect the signs we put on the gates, and to keep their dogs under control. Nearly all dog owners believe that THEIR dog is always well behaved, and very adorable, and has only good intentions when it chases other animals, and it is just curious and wants to play. We usually call that behaviour "out of control". Dogs all have instincts to chase other animals, and the sheep, chickens and horses interpret this as threatening and they usually panic and run, which encourages the dogs to chase even more. We hope that one or two dog owners will not wreck the situation for all the others who are responsible.
And removing dog droppings from the Farm should be part of every owner's life. Please don't hang your little baggies on our fences or trees or gateposts.
Meanwhile the vegetable season is getting underway with Helga sowing lots of seeds; from now until September we get very busy cultivating, planting out, weeding, etc.
Coronavirus: we are taking this very seriously, and we have contingency plans in place. however, we are not succumbing to Project Fear, and we are trying hard not to let anxiety overtake reason. If you have symptoms (headache, temperature, dry-cough) p[lease isolate yourself; otherwise wash your hands 10 or 15 times every day, minimise close social contact (excessive kissing, hugging and touching), etc. and enjoy the sunshine.
February 19, 2020: A bit of a gap since the last entry here. I could blame the weather, or Christmas excesses, or remark that I've been away on a winter wonderland holiday, but none of that would be true. I've spent several dozen hours getting started on a new accounting system for both the Farm and the Shop; we're using Xero and iZettle at the till. all of this will have almost no effect on anyone else but me, as I'm the one who so far has done the bookkeeping (with a little help from Liz and Heather). The hope is that new software and hardware will lead to the "paperless office" - - remember that phrase about 20 years ago when Windows 2000 came out? Does anyone know of a small business or a big one)that has a paperless office? No, we bookkeepers need like all those trees coming our way.
Big news: we're now selling tickets for the Radford BLUES Festival, August 15. Have a look at www.radfordmillfestival.co.uk. Get on with it - - we've just sold 9 tickets in the last 12 hours, and we haven't even started to advertise yet. Our wonderful Folk Festival, "Tangled Roots" on June 13 has become even more popular thanks to our wonderful programme director Jack Bird; ticket sales are moving rapidly for that event as well.
Another interesting item: we'll have some mutton joints available in about two weeks. If you would like to have one fresh (not frozen) please get in touch so we can book you in - - we only have six ewes, and we'll only keep the joints for two days before pacing and freezing them. We'll also have some mutton burgers for sale. Have a look on the website over the next couple of days for details. While on the subject of mutton, here's an answer to the climate change people who feel we should give up eating meat. Sheep are rather good environmentalists. They graze hillsides and mostly eat grass while they fertilise it at the same time. They eat ivy leaves and twigs, and tyhis keeps the ivy from overrunning the hedgerows and killing the trees. ~They are relatively light on their feet so they don't poach the ground; they're very hardy and are out all winter munching on all the green weeds and a few other things, they save labour as we don't have to spread any manure on the pastures where the sheep have been, and they produce high-class protein with very little input from us. We move them around quite often to keep them healthy and disease-free, and our variety shed their wool automatically so we don't have to shear them. All in all they improve the health of many other green things on the Farm, which make it a more pleasant place for people to enjoy.
Wild animals on the prowl: our resident camera-in-the-wild has discovered what has been digging up the paths round our circle garden, more or less every night. It's the badgers, who seem to have found themselves a feast of worms and other tasty items in the soft grass. We're not sure exactly how to keep them out; we're going to experiment with an electrified "sniff wire" which has done very well tin keeping the foxes away from the chickens.
December 23, 2019: Turkey sales have gone well this year; we have only two turkeys left, all on the large size. Most years we have a few more unsold birds that we bone out and freeze for use in the following summer's wedding barbecues, but it looks like we'll be changing our menu a bit. We sold four "last-minute" turkeys yesterday.
The turkeys generally are quite easy to herd from field to field. Last week we moved them from the Espalier field (in the middle of the Farm) to the Dairy Barn for their final day. The distance is about 400 metres and a few of the the birds got more interested in the hedgerow than staying with the flock, so we had to pay attention and winkle them out and back into the straight and narrow. Well, as luck would have it, one turkey decided to be independent and not cooperate, so we had an interesting chase around "Paradise" (one of the fields along the way). We left Adam to round up the wayward stray while Jan, Steven, Josh and Erin escorted the main flock into the Dairy Barn. Ten minutes later Adam had managed to get the escapee about halfway along the route to the railway track but again stuck in a hedge, and this time the turkey made a serious break for freedom and charged right past Adam's legs and ran away down the railway track, last seen heading east about 200 metres and making for the chicken enclosure. We searched for about 30 minutes and then gave up, leaving bird number 47 to it's fate in the wild.
November 23, 2019: Interesting times, the last week or two. It's the clash between the rural idyllic of lots of wild animals roaming freely and making themselves available for us to watch and coo over. and then there's the rest of their behaviour. For example, there's the pretty deer seen leaping a fence or two mostly at the eastern end of the Farm, and guess what? Deer footprints in the Circle Garden where something has been digging up the grass searching for grubs in the light soil, Frank finds this somewhat irritating as he has to keep putting the turf down again. Of course, deer are very attractive, but we're beginning to think it might be time to produce some venison. And then there's the mink - - we've seen some of their droppings, which Adrian assures us is definitely mink. Very pretty little fellows, and of course their fur is highly prized, or at least used to be before animal liberation became the norm. Well, these little critters are very fast, have very sharp teeth, and are absolutely vicious when they come across anything in front of them such as our turkeys. It's almost impossible to fence against mink as we keep the turkeys in an open field. We would have to net over the entire field as mink are very adept at penetrating fences, So we ended up with seven dead turkeys, all with fatal neck bites, and hardly any of the flesh eaten - - the carcasses are way too big for mink (or even a fox) to drag away.
And then there's the rain. Our electric mini-car racetrack is more suited to swimming competitions, and two or three of our farm tracks are nearly useless even for the tractors - - Olly's Range Rover has no chance of getting to the Egg Packing shed. Mill Lane, that ancient track that has connected Timsbury to the Mill for the last 1,000 years or more, has a veritable river running down the middle of it, and the bottom is a swamp. Our wonderful footpath officer Sheila has promised to make Mill Lane drainage a number-one budget priority for 2020, so we shall see. So far the only progress has been a contractor team showing up and draining part of the water into our Mill Field, which apart from being illegal was specifically against our instructions.
Josh and Steven have finally finished fencing and hedging in the 9-acre and Mill Tyning, so hopefully we won't have to do any more major work there for the next few years. Mill Tyning is now home to the horses for a month or more. And the new footpath steel gate is very functional if not particularly attractive - - one of the many compromises between bucolic romance and practicality.
The horse arena construction is underway, at last. Terry spent three days on the big digger, and we reckon another day this coming week and we'll be ready for drainage channels, and then tonnes and tonnes of crushed rock to be spread, new fenceposts to replace the 200-year-old oak railway posts, and whoo-hoo, soon we'll be sporting an all-weather manege (remember not to say "menage", no French person would understand what you meant).
Our veg department is winding down as the frost has finally put paid to quite a few of the summer crops, and slowed down our production of salad leaves, kale and spinach. We've plenty of squashes and pumpkins to sell, and still quite a few spaghetti marrows, much desired by pasta-loving folks who want to avoid gluten. We've sold about 150 of them in the last couple of weeks, and we have another 100 to go before Christmas.
We're coming up to that special time of the year when lots of people think about the annual turkey celebration. Our Norfolk Blacks are the tastiest variety, and we'll begin the drawing and dressing in about three weeks. Colin, Adam and Richard did the business last year after our magnificent team of pluckers finished the whole flock in record time.
November 12, 2019: Turkey sales are proceeding, slightly ahead of last year's sales so that's good. This year we're offering to deliver Christmas birds via courier so folks who live some distance from either the Farm or our Shop in Bristol can still take advantage of the best-tasting certified organic turkeys at a very competitive price - - have a look at our "Turkeys" page. Meanwhile Heather is busily shoveling manure round the Soft Fruit field and about to plant out 200 raspberry canes, Liz is de-seeding several kilos of our crabapples for a new chutney recipe, Richard and James are designing the underfloor heating for the Mill, Trevor is topping up anti-freeze and oil in all our vehicles, and Steven is putting up the new fence in 9-acre while Forest the ram is out doing his thing with the ladies.
November 11, 2019: We have lost a few turkeys during the last couple of weeks; initially we though t it might have been a fox but we've discovered some mink droppings so that seems the more likely culprit. Mink are very wily and vicious creatures, and hard to control without catching and killing. It does make one wonder if they would not be better appreciated as fur coats. Mink can sneak through almost any fence, and their habit seems to be to kill anything possible, for fun - - they grab turkeys by their necks and hang on until the bird bleeds to death.
The local footpath officer has once again come up trumps, agreeing to upgrade three of our gates. We spoke about two weeks ago, and this morning a bloke showed up with new gates and hardware, and tools to dig the holes. Well done, Sheila. We'll have "equestrian" gates along Jenny's Path which have a long handle extending upwards so they can be opened without getting off your horse or out of your wheelchair. The hinges are offset which means the gates are self-closing, and they can be opened and swing either way. This means we can use the Canal towpath for keeping livestock without having an electric fence along the side of the path.
November 4, 2019: Climate change - - the big concern nowadays. Greenhouse gases and the release of CO2. Very important, of course. But do the "calculations" actually present factual information? There's an interesting article to read; have a look at::
Our red meat is greener than their avocados
October 29, 2019: Hallowe'en is in two days. This is about your last chance to get a pumpkin from Radford Mill Farm Shop, 41 Picton St., Montpelier, Bristol BS6 5PZ. We've sold all the pumpkins at the Farm, and the last few are about to fly off the shelf at the Farm Shop.
October 29, 2019: A new beginning, or rather, at last we have got our BLOG back on track. The last entry was about four years ago, and we've lost the password. One of the problems we've faced over many years in our loose-knit community is that various people take responsibility for a particular aspect of our life here, but people move on, and some of the expertise and useful skills don't get passed on. So we lost the password - - no-one can remember who last updated it. I hope some people find this Diary interesting enough to keep reading.
October 24, 2019: I went to the first meeting of the "Green Action Group" in Timsbury. It's good to know that our local village is getting serious about climate change. We were inspired to hear that another Somerset parish, Wedmore, has declared itself to be carbon neutral, and we're wondering what exactly that means. Watch this space. Meanwhile, we're clearing up the compost loos around the Farm, building more compost heaps in our Soft Fruit field and in the Bluebell wood.
Our vegetable production is tailing off now as the temperature drops; we've harvested about 2 tonnes of squashes and pumpkins this year, most of which are stored in the "Squash Inn". the big producer this year is spaghetti marrows which have achieved some popularity with people who fancy a vermicelli -like base for their savoury sauces without carbohydrates or gluten. We've lots of parsley and we're making "parsley pesto", now that the basil has succomed to the cold weather.
October 20, 2019: "Forest" the ram has arrived, and is getting to know the ewes. He's two years old, and supposedly sired 50 lambs from 30 ewes in his first season, so we have high hopes for lots of little lambkins jumping around in April. Early suggestions for naming those we will keep for further breeding are tree names - - "Forest Oak", "Forest Ash", and so on. It seems the pedigree world requires such names. All our sheep are pedigree Wiltshire Horn, which are supposed to produce very tasty meat. Five of our ewes are kept away from the ram as they are not suitable for breeding; we're trying to improve the genetics of the flock year by year, and we take out the ewes that do not shed their wool cleanly. that means we'll have a small amount of mutton available for Christmas, in case anyone gets bored with turkey.
Some folks nowadays are concerned about using land for producing meat. Our sheep eat grass, and Radford Mill Farm is about 90% grass, all of it permanent pasture, up and down hills. It would be hard to produce very good crops on most of this land other than grass, and the sheep are excellent at converting everything to manure which they spread in very small quantities all day and every day. They also keep the brambles and ivy in our hedges down to a minimum; otherwise we would be unable to maintain the hedges and the land would be run over with dead trees and massive bramble and blackthorn patches. We find that sheep are very beneficial for balancing and keeping the fields looking good and useful for the many villagers who walk the footpaths every day.
October 15, 2019: Frank has transplanted about 300 of the acorns that have now sprouted; they've gone into new pots about 4 or 5 in each pot. It's very exciting realising that these little acorns have nearly all put out their first sprout, which is actually their tap-root as it turns down into the soil. The next thing that happens is a little up-turning sprout comes at the beginning of the taproot, seeking light. I think acorn planting should be on the national school curriculum for every child, every year. It's easy and the oak sproutlings are very tough, it involves very little cost in resources or time, and it can have a big payoff in satisfaction, environmental knowledge, and climate change. There's oaks in almost every parish in the country, and the acorns need collecting during September, just when schools re-convene. And we don't want to leave too many for those pesky grey squirrels, do we? Actually, the squirrels are very good at finding acorns higher up in the trees where it's hard to get our fingers. So get yourself down to the head teacher's office and press the case: an acorn (or two or three) for every child, every year, until they are 16. After that, if they haven't figured out what the environment is all about, there's no hope. And you will also have to get down to your local parish council and get them thinking about where all these new oak trees are going to go in three or four years. Initially they can stay in pots, but around year 3 they will need either very big pots or preferably a permanent location with protection against deer and rabbits and people.
October 5, 2019: Our three horses have been exercising in the temporary Driveway arena, under the watchful eye of our stables manager Liz. There's "Etoile", the 15.2 hh Comtois, five years old, bred in the Jura mountains in France for logging work. She loves to pull things, is very well mannered, and only has a very occasional freak-out momnet when she sees something she doesn't like. Then there's "Misty", a 14.2 hh Connemara who arrived a couple of months ago with somewhat poor hooves. Liz has been treating her with all the latest foot remedies, and she seems to be coming along nicely. Our third horse is "Dylan", a half cob with a very sweet nature, on loan for a few months to see if he is worth buying.
September 30, 2019: We've collected about 1,000 acorns from the various oak trees around the Farm. We soak them in water for about 48 hours, then Frank plants about 20 or so in an 8" pot with compost and leaf matter. We do this every year, and we hope to plant out several hundred every year.
September 1, 2019: The turkeys are now out in the middle of the Espalier field, learning to eat grass, nettles, docks, and everything else that's green. We've put up a six-foot high fence which includes about twenty-five apple and pear trees, so the turkeys benefit from the windfalls when they occur. We've erected one of our events marquees for their night-time perching, and they all figured it out the first day, so it looks like the management this year will be easier than we have had previously. Herding the turkeys in from a field each evening had been a time-consuming and irritating task.
The ewes are happily grazing all the summer grass. Each time we move them to a new pasture they are prone to getting the runs for a day; so we have to balance the amount of rich grass available against a good spread of pasture so they don't have to eat where others have recently walked and defecated and thereby keep their internal worm count very low.
August, 2019: Our day-old turkeys have arrived, and are installed in the stable where we reared last year's flock. Very young turkeys are not very good at looking after themselves, so they require extra heat for the first four weeks or so, even though it's a warm summer. They are much less independent than other very young livestock; and they need some special care every few hours. Very young turkeys can find themselves in the very corner of a barn and be unable to figure out how to get out of the corner, so we have to keep them in a somewhat round pen with no corners. They also have a habit of falling asleep all of a sudden, which looks rather like they are dead. When sleeping they are somewhat oblivious to other turkeys walking on top of them which can make breathing difficult, so the bedding material we use has to be graded to prevent them from getting suffocated. Fortunately we have managed to lose no young turkeys these last two years.
So, now that I've got your attention on compost loos, let me put in a plea for a really constructive Christmas present you can give to everyone you know who can read: Joseph Jenkins' "The Humanure Handbook", now in its fourth edition, having sold about 100,000 copies. Every decade or two there's a seminal work which is a catalyst for widespread social change. This is one of those books.
We're also finally, finally, building a small waterwheel for the spring water that runs at the back of the Mill; historically this water stream was the "spillwater" - - the miller would open a sluice gate just before the water went towards the big mill wheel and all the water would "spill" out and down to the river, so the waterwheel would stop. Our plan is to use the spillwater to drive a 12-volt automotive alternator and employ the resulting power for lights and battery-charging. Sam has added "waterwheel engineer" to his CV. It is an interesting experience building your first waterwheel, trying to design the size and shape of the water-boxes to catch as much water as possible and then retain it for as long as possible as the wheel rotates before spilling it all out. The boxes are built and mounted in a circle; the next phase is the driving wheel for a pulley belt, and then the groundwork to mount the wheel in the stream. We'll use plastic bushings for the axle because they are cheap, easy to install and adjust, and they perform very well under water and don't require lubrication. The load on the axle will be very low because it will not be driving the alternator - - a large diameter V-belt will be attached to one side of the wheel and the pull of the belt will be upwards (alternators don't perform well under water) and so counteracting the weight of the waterwheel.
I've often thought that a floating waterwheel would be an interesting idea for our "flash" river - - it goes up and down two or three metres every time there is a heavy rain, and that makes for difficulties running a fixed waterwheel. But a wheel mounted on a raft that rides up and down with the state of the river, now there's an interesting possibility.
And we're also installing underfloor heating pipes in the top floor of the Mill in the next couple of weeks, yet another project that has ben hanging around as "a good idea" for ten years or so. The heat will come from a ground source heat pump using the water flow of the Cam Brook which runs close to the Mill. The technology suggests that 1 kw of electricity will provide 3 to 4 kw of heat. We shall see. And if the pumps can be driven by 12-volt electricity we might get the river water to provide that as well, following on from our first waterwheel experiment.
All of which leads me on to thinking about how sustainable such ideas really are. Sure, a waterwheel and ground source heat pumps are better than burning coal to obtain the power; and sure, there's no big clean-up problem like nuclear waste for 100,000 years; and they don't involve a lot of embodied carbon in hundreds of tonnes of concrete. But they do depend on a long history of development that made full use of those less-desirable techniques, so the question in my mind is, would we be able to utilise a £20 second-hand 12-volt automobile alternator if there had not been a billion of them built by factories all over the world during the last 60 years? Would we be able to install high-spec underfloor pipes for not much more than the cost of radiators without 80 years of industrial chemistry developing really good quality plastic oxygen barrier pipe that can stand up to 40 years of hot water whizzing around? Would we have affordable solar panels without Bell Laboratories, Nokia, Shell Oil and BP investing millions into the development of quality silica crystals?
September 15, 2020: It's been another hectic week, and not everything has gone as smoothly as it might, despite the weather generally being perfectly delightful. Liz has been exercising Paddy, and is often seen around the lanes in Timsbury, Paulton and Camerton. Hannah is building up to riding out with Misty, but so far she's confined herself to the grassy fields near home. James has traded in his sidecar motorbike for ... another sidecar motorbike, and can be seen and heard scrambling around at breakneck speeds. So far he's only cracked his collarbones twice.
While Jan was taking a well-earned coffee break a few days ago he did a double-take, as he glimpsed through the trees he thought he saw our small tractor slowly descend into the river, and then disappear from sight, with our mower attached. After close investigation he found that indeed the tractor had inadvertently been steered too close to the bank, the driver nimbly hopped off and left the tractor, in very low gear, to very slowly inch its way downwards. No damage or injury anywhere except a somewhat bruised ego, but the front and underside of the tractor is now remarkably clean.
We have a new family arriving to stay with us for the time being: Julien will be engaged in general farm work, strimming hedges and moving timber, and Natasha and two children will be joining us next month; Nina will start at St. Mary's school in October. We've harvested our summer onions and potatoes, and thanks to Trevor we now have our big tractor back in operation just in time for thorough cultivation of our rather weedy fields. The field neaar Mill Lane where we keep the laying hens is due for a makeover with new fencing, and we'll make some in-roads to cultivating the Espalier field (in the middle of the Farm) for Spring vegetable crops. Kale has done well this summer, and we're still picking cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, rocket and coriander, though if the weather turns cold they will all finish. that will leave us with beetroot and leeks, which we are just beginning to harvest. The pumpkins and squash family are the big winners this summer, ideal conditions - - hot weather, warm soil, and enough rain for them to get very big. Oh, and the weeds have done very well this summer, burying the pumpkin patch under a rich green carpet about three feet high.
We're now in the chutney business: Keren and Eleanor have been cooking, along with Liz's traditional recipe, and we now have several different flavours, on our pantry shelves as well as some spicy apple sauce. Soon we'll be pressing grapes, scratting and pasteurising our apple juice, and putting down some bottles of apple cider vinegar with "the mother" included. We've the first batch of sloes in the freezer, and it looks like a very big year for sloeberry syrup, probably the strongest flavour of all fruits.
The horse arena is very slowly coming to fruition; or at least I think it is. Lots of talk, a few fenceposts are up, a tonne of money has gone out to the contractors, a couple of truckloads of materials have arrived, and we'll see where we are in a week or two. The contractor is saying it will be done by mid October. Let's hope the rain holds off until at least he gets the drainage ditches dug, otherwise we'll have another winter with a brown swimming pool for the ducks.
August 16, 2020: A hectic few weeks jumping through hoops with moving goalposts (pardon my mixing of metaphors). We were hoping our Folk Festival (see www.tangledrootsfestival.com) would go ahead for September 4, and we encouraged the performers to hang in there with reduced fees due to reduced numbers of people attending to meet the Covid restrictions. We spent quite a bit of admin time drawing up an extensive Covid risk assessment, planning how to deal with social distancing at a small festival and keep all the people attending and our staff safe, and we submitted all this to the Council, answered their few queries. We got a "no objection" email from the Licensing Team, and two days later we received emails from the "Safety At Events Group" that we had two days to submit an additional application with extensive paperwork documentation, pay another application fee, and then wait to see if the event despite any approval would be cancelled at the last minute with no warning. Faced with such discouraging remarks from the authorities we postponed Tangled Roots until June of next year. The next day we received the official approval for the event. So we wasted another hour or so writing to the very polite people at the various authorities that the right hand really should figure out what the left hand is doing, and it seemed unfair and very unsupportive to handle our requests for advice, etc. in the way they had done.
We received very polite emails from BANES and from the SAEG that they hoped everything would be better organised for next year, though perhaps we should get used to "the new normal". Has anyone ever heard of the "Safety At Events Group" before? Is it reasonable that they (whoever they are) can override local council decisions on the safety of local activities?
So now there's only another many hours re-arranging everything to cancel this year's festival, issue refunds, contact everyone and hope they will transfer their tickets to next year, change our staffing arrangements, and then sit back and relax.
Meanwhile the camping scene at Radford Mill Farm has taken off in a big way - - three or four serious enquiries a.most every day. We have about 38 ptiches, all separated from each other by 10 metres, each pitch is for one family/household "bubble" and about 10 metres square so big enough for several people and two tents. We've installed separate water stand-pipes for each pitch, and a separate compost loo for each. Jan has become known for his rapid construction of three compost loos in a day and a half, and Richard has been singlehandedly loading them onto our big trailer, and unloading them all along the edge of our camping fields. (Ah, the power of modern hydraulics.) We've more or less finished the toilet tasks, except for daily cleaning of all 38 of them. We've installed some new foot-pedal water taps which are good from the social distancing point of view, but they deliver a forceful jet of water if you're not careful. so we'll probably be putting them on a low-pressure header-tank system.`
People come and go at the Farm. Keren is here but still unsure about how long she will stay; she's preparing pickles and chutneys; and her friend Jack shows up now and then to help. Julien, Natasha and their two kids are here for another couple of weeks; we're all practising our French. Perhaps they will make the big move from their lives in London. Adam is hoping to find somewhere else to live; Helga's daughters are here with us for a week or two at a time. and our other permanent resident is Paddy, a four-legged Gypsy cob, frequently seen riding around the lanes or the village with Katy or Liz on board. The grand plan is to get Paddy pulling a cart so we can tour the county in style. Elsie has built a magnificent "Hilton Hotel"for her doggy day-care business, and she's contemplating bringing a couple of horses to the Farm. Tig and Puddles grace our Roadside field with grazing now and then.
The horse arena might actually happen sometime soon. Post holes have been dug for the perimeter fence. Watch this space.
July 18, 2020: It has been awhile since I've found time to write. The virus situation has taken a toll: nearly all of our summer events have not taken place so we've lost a large part of our annual income, and at the same time our wage bill has gone up, as we haven't laid anyone off. We're mostly living in separate outbuildings and most of the Farmhouse is empty, as we are trying to keep ourselves virus-free. so far that seems to be working.
Josh has left the Farm and is now living in Bristol; we were sorry to see him go but he needed more of a social life. The turkeys have arrived and are getting bigger every day; and Olly has brought in more laying hens so our egg productions is climbing up and up. Keren has arrived and is staying in a caravan in the Orchard; she's very keen on herbalism and medicinal plants. Our vegetables are growing at full speed now, and so are the weeds.
A swarm of bees alighted on one of our apple trees two weeks ago, and Tibor swooped in to capture them and get them in a waiting hive. Honey production last year and so far this year has been good, and we're selling it like hotcakes.
Our discovery apples are getting bigger and we'll probably start picking around the first week in August. They are very sweet, the first in our Orchard every year, and they don't keep well, so if the harvest is very big we'll start pressing juice. We get a much richer flavour if we add some more acidic apples such as bramleys with the Discovery, but the bramleys are not looking very ready yet.
the roof of the Mill Cottage came to the end of its useful life so we re-roofed the whole building, replacing quite a few rafters, packing out the large purlin on the west side that had twisted a bit during the last two hundred years, and removing the skylight which needs some attention before being re-installed. The new tiles look very pretty.
Our big construction program at the moment is building six new triple-unit compost loos to provide a separate loo for every family bubble, no mean task. But we will do it - - the first three new triple-units are already built (in two days !). We've set ourselves the task of providing all the campers that have booked pitches will get their own loo.
Elsie has arrived and with help from her relatives is erecting a 6-foot high fence for her "Dog-day-care" business. And there's a rumour that work will start next week on the horse arena - - hooray! It's only been about a year and a quarter since it was first decided upon.
And that's about all there is to comment upon just now.
April 12, 2020: Happy Easter, all. No Easter egg hunts, no picnics despite all the sunshine, just staying at home with your computer. Hmm.
Another lamb popped out yesterday, a male with extremely long legs. He seems fit enough though off to something of a slow start for feeding. We've turned him and his mum out into the Orchard to have a much on some grass, what little there is of it left. Four more sheep to give birth, though it could be one or two are barren - - they're not showing pregnant signs. But it's a bit hard to tell with sheep.
April 10, 2020: Another lamb born this morning, bringing the number up to 13, with four more ewes yet to deliver. So far more females than males, which means our flock will be increasing more for next year. Today's arrival is a very big male, all legs; he's keen to get drinking, but mum is a bit intimidated by his size, so we're having to coax her into feeding. They all seem to get the hang of it after a day or so.
Our delivery service is going well, though we could use more local customers. I get quite a thrill when I see a Timsbury or Paulton or Camerton address on the order form; rather less so as the addresses appear further away from the Farm. We're going to try two sizes of veg box for next Thursday, and see what the uptake is, and we're adding more items - - apples, oranges, cucumbers, flour, rice and pasta.
We experienced a silver Audi estate, license no. WG03 KUL cruising through the middle of the Farm a few days ago; they turned around rather sharpish when I emerged out of the hedge and started walking towards them with my camera. I mention this event as it may relate to some items that disappeared from the Farm a few months ago, including quite a few litres of red diesel being loaded into the back of a silver Audi estate.
Cultivation on the fields is problematic: We can probably just about create seedbeds now for the summer vegetables, but every one of these hot days turns our clay soil into a more solid item of rock-hard clay pieces as the soil gets more and more dry. I will be out cultivating this evening from about 5 pm until very dark. But it is not quite time to plant things yet as there is still a risk of night-time frost until about June 1st. Every time we run over the soil with a cultivator we lose more moisture from the field, and the longer the gap between cultivating and actually planting our crops means more advantage for the weeds to start growing again. This farming thing is not as easy as it looks.
Farm life has become more interesting for several of the folks here. Adam and Josh are going for daily swims in the river. Liz is sharpening her tractor-driving skills. Two volunteers cleared up our immense piles of hedge-cuttings and honed their fire-lighting skills . Jan and Heather have moved into their new chalet home and held a house-warming party round a campfire with 2-metre distancing between everyone. Cody and Rachel are producing wonderful cakes that don't last very long, and I am pigging out on all the wonderful Jersey butter and full cream milk we're getting from Ivy House Farm. Trevor can be seen most days lounging on his new sofa in front of his 1980 Triumph 500 twin, which he has installed next to the bed in his new Dairy barn room.
Our laying hens are on the up. Olly has introduced about 100 new birds and the egg production is starting up again; there's quite a high demand for organic eggs, it seems.
April 5, 2020: Very curious times, with all the endless news about coronavirus. Living in the countryside, with our nearest neighbours several hundred metres away, quiet roads with virtually no noise, we go about our daily lives on the Farm without too many changes. We've cut down on our shopping trips, and the most significant difference is that we're all keeping "social distance" from everybody else. It's developed into a habit, we just automatically step away from the person we're about to talk to. I don't like it much; it's as though we suspect everyone of being dangerous.
There's been a huge increase in walkers across the Farm in the last couple of weeks; it's good to see many more children out walking with parents. My guess is the numbers have trebled.
Our box delivery service is up and running, though with a few very minor hitches. We're now delivering about 50 boxes each week within a three-mile radius of the Farm, and we're adding new items each week. Jersey milk is staring this coming week; all that rich yellow cream on top, oooh.
I suppose the younger generation doesn't really get the little surge of delight when they hear the phrase "top of the milk" I remember developing an addiction to clotted cream and Jersey milk when I spent time in Plymouth in the winter of 1966 - - there was this ice cream parlour I would walk past that served a vanilla cone for one and sixpence, and an extra nine pence for a scoop of clotted cream on top. Although I came from a "foodie" family in California, I had never experienced all that delicious butterfat. It seems that the rest of the world doesn't really know much about Jersey milk and clotted cream. How lucky we are.
The rest of the world doesn't know anything about "bell ringing" either. I notice that there are no more practice sessions in the local church; all gone with coronavirus.
We've moved most of our ewes and their lambs to the Driveway meadow where there is some relatively rich grass. The little lambkins are getting bigger and bouncier day by day. It's a daily treat to watch a gang of four or five get together and race off across the field, jumping and bouncing, and then race back again. Who knows what's in their minds? Liz has a favourite - - it's a female, number six, named "Cherry" by the children on the Farm; she's clearly the runt of this year's crop, but she's a bundle of energy despite her small frame. She's up for head-butting with her brother and she's about the bounciest lamb of the whole bunch - - veritable springs in her legs.
We planted a few different varieties of potatoes yesterday as a test, to see what the possibilities are. We haven't grown many potatoes most years as our clay soil makes lifting them rather hard work. We're looking forward to trying the "pink fir apple" variety, and also the blue potatoes. Frank has added five more apple trees and a greengage tree to our orchard, and several two-year-old oaks have gone into the ground. Our crop of baby oaks has started to sprout leaves - - it looks like a good year, as we've got about 300 or so putting on two and three leaves. We finally figured out how to keep the squirrels from nicking all the acorns. The next danger is the deer who like the tender tops of the trees.
Since last November we've had an unwelcome visitor to the Circle Garden which we keep in specially good condition as it is a central landscape feature for the weddings and other events that we host every summer. Every morning we would observe that an area of the grassy footpaths had been dug over, rather like someone hoeing the grass. Finally Jan solved the mystery by placing a wildlife spy camera in just the right place, and we discovered the culprit was a badger. We're not sure why that particular small bit of grass was so desirable, as we do have about 100 acres of it elsewhere.
March 16, 2020: A date to mark in the Farm Diary - - baby Maya was born about 9 am this morning. Her mother Hannah is doing well, as is Maya. Grandma Lizzie got over-excited but seems to be calming down now. We're all wondering how Maya will take to the delights of the new central heating system installed in the Farm Cottage, as well as the wonderful sunny view of our all rain-drenched fields.
And we have two other small arrivals on the Farm - - baby lambs May and Ash were born on Saturday morning, rather effortlessly. They needed a bit of encouragement to begin suckling, and their mum was not too sure what was supposed to be happening, but they all got into the swing of it and are doing well; they're completely indifferent to the many visitors who come to ooh and aah. So far the lambs have only managed to jump a few inches off the ground, but we will start the high-jump training soon. The lambs are in our Apple Barn, and we expect to have quite a few more during the next fortnight or so. Come and have a look. If you walk up the Farm Driveway the Apple Barn is the old round-roofed barn with a visible apple press; the lambs are behind the baler, in pens.
We've had so much rain the last few weeks that there's some slumping damage to our railway embankment where we excavated last year for tyhe racetrack. We'll be repairing and reinforcing this during the next couple of weeks, and then reinstating the grass on the racetrack so the little cars can do their thing in comfort.
During all of our time here (43 years) we've encouraged people to walk around the Farm, ride their horses and exercise their dogs. We have quite a few footpaths criss-crossing the Farm but we've never insisted that people stay on the footpaths. However, we do have livestock that can be frightened by dogs out of control, so we are asking everyone to respect the signs we put on the gates, and to keep their dogs under control. Nearly all dog owners believe that THEIR dog is always well behaved, and very adorable, and has only good intentions when it chases other animals, and it is just curious and wants to play. We usually call that behaviour "out of control". Dogs all have instincts to chase other animals, and the sheep, chickens and horses interpret this as threatening and they usually panic and run, which encourages the dogs to chase even more. We hope that one or two dog owners will not wreck the situation for all the others who are responsible.
And removing dog droppings from the Farm should be part of every owner's life. Please don't hang your little baggies on our fences or trees or gateposts.
Meanwhile the vegetable season is getting underway with Helga sowing lots of seeds; from now until September we get very busy cultivating, planting out, weeding, etc.
Coronavirus: we are taking this very seriously, and we have contingency plans in place. however, we are not succumbing to Project Fear, and we are trying hard not to let anxiety overtake reason. If you have symptoms (headache, temperature, dry-cough) p[lease isolate yourself; otherwise wash your hands 10 or 15 times every day, minimise close social contact (excessive kissing, hugging and touching), etc. and enjoy the sunshine.
February 19, 2020: A bit of a gap since the last entry here. I could blame the weather, or Christmas excesses, or remark that I've been away on a winter wonderland holiday, but none of that would be true. I've spent several dozen hours getting started on a new accounting system for both the Farm and the Shop; we're using Xero and iZettle at the till. all of this will have almost no effect on anyone else but me, as I'm the one who so far has done the bookkeeping (with a little help from Liz and Heather). The hope is that new software and hardware will lead to the "paperless office" - - remember that phrase about 20 years ago when Windows 2000 came out? Does anyone know of a small business or a big one)that has a paperless office? No, we bookkeepers need like all those trees coming our way.
Big news: we're now selling tickets for the Radford BLUES Festival, August 15. Have a look at www.radfordmillfestival.co.uk. Get on with it - - we've just sold 9 tickets in the last 12 hours, and we haven't even started to advertise yet. Our wonderful Folk Festival, "Tangled Roots" on June 13 has become even more popular thanks to our wonderful programme director Jack Bird; ticket sales are moving rapidly for that event as well.
Another interesting item: we'll have some mutton joints available in about two weeks. If you would like to have one fresh (not frozen) please get in touch so we can book you in - - we only have six ewes, and we'll only keep the joints for two days before pacing and freezing them. We'll also have some mutton burgers for sale. Have a look on the website over the next couple of days for details. While on the subject of mutton, here's an answer to the climate change people who feel we should give up eating meat. Sheep are rather good environmentalists. They graze hillsides and mostly eat grass while they fertilise it at the same time. They eat ivy leaves and twigs, and tyhis keeps the ivy from overrunning the hedgerows and killing the trees. ~They are relatively light on their feet so they don't poach the ground; they're very hardy and are out all winter munching on all the green weeds and a few other things, they save labour as we don't have to spread any manure on the pastures where the sheep have been, and they produce high-class protein with very little input from us. We move them around quite often to keep them healthy and disease-free, and our variety shed their wool automatically so we don't have to shear them. All in all they improve the health of many other green things on the Farm, which make it a more pleasant place for people to enjoy.
Wild animals on the prowl: our resident camera-in-the-wild has discovered what has been digging up the paths round our circle garden, more or less every night. It's the badgers, who seem to have found themselves a feast of worms and other tasty items in the soft grass. We're not sure exactly how to keep them out; we're going to experiment with an electrified "sniff wire" which has done very well tin keeping the foxes away from the chickens.
December 23, 2019: Turkey sales have gone well this year; we have only two turkeys left, all on the large size. Most years we have a few more unsold birds that we bone out and freeze for use in the following summer's wedding barbecues, but it looks like we'll be changing our menu a bit. We sold four "last-minute" turkeys yesterday.
The turkeys generally are quite easy to herd from field to field. Last week we moved them from the Espalier field (in the middle of the Farm) to the Dairy Barn for their final day. The distance is about 400 metres and a few of the the birds got more interested in the hedgerow than staying with the flock, so we had to pay attention and winkle them out and back into the straight and narrow. Well, as luck would have it, one turkey decided to be independent and not cooperate, so we had an interesting chase around "Paradise" (one of the fields along the way). We left Adam to round up the wayward stray while Jan, Steven, Josh and Erin escorted the main flock into the Dairy Barn. Ten minutes later Adam had managed to get the escapee about halfway along the route to the railway track but again stuck in a hedge, and this time the turkey made a serious break for freedom and charged right past Adam's legs and ran away down the railway track, last seen heading east about 200 metres and making for the chicken enclosure. We searched for about 30 minutes and then gave up, leaving bird number 47 to it's fate in the wild.
November 23, 2019: Interesting times, the last week or two. It's the clash between the rural idyllic of lots of wild animals roaming freely and making themselves available for us to watch and coo over. and then there's the rest of their behaviour. For example, there's the pretty deer seen leaping a fence or two mostly at the eastern end of the Farm, and guess what? Deer footprints in the Circle Garden where something has been digging up the grass searching for grubs in the light soil, Frank finds this somewhat irritating as he has to keep putting the turf down again. Of course, deer are very attractive, but we're beginning to think it might be time to produce some venison. And then there's the mink - - we've seen some of their droppings, which Adrian assures us is definitely mink. Very pretty little fellows, and of course their fur is highly prized, or at least used to be before animal liberation became the norm. Well, these little critters are very fast, have very sharp teeth, and are absolutely vicious when they come across anything in front of them such as our turkeys. It's almost impossible to fence against mink as we keep the turkeys in an open field. We would have to net over the entire field as mink are very adept at penetrating fences, So we ended up with seven dead turkeys, all with fatal neck bites, and hardly any of the flesh eaten - - the carcasses are way too big for mink (or even a fox) to drag away.
And then there's the rain. Our electric mini-car racetrack is more suited to swimming competitions, and two or three of our farm tracks are nearly useless even for the tractors - - Olly's Range Rover has no chance of getting to the Egg Packing shed. Mill Lane, that ancient track that has connected Timsbury to the Mill for the last 1,000 years or more, has a veritable river running down the middle of it, and the bottom is a swamp. Our wonderful footpath officer Sheila has promised to make Mill Lane drainage a number-one budget priority for 2020, so we shall see. So far the only progress has been a contractor team showing up and draining part of the water into our Mill Field, which apart from being illegal was specifically against our instructions.
Josh and Steven have finally finished fencing and hedging in the 9-acre and Mill Tyning, so hopefully we won't have to do any more major work there for the next few years. Mill Tyning is now home to the horses for a month or more. And the new footpath steel gate is very functional if not particularly attractive - - one of the many compromises between bucolic romance and practicality.
The horse arena construction is underway, at last. Terry spent three days on the big digger, and we reckon another day this coming week and we'll be ready for drainage channels, and then tonnes and tonnes of crushed rock to be spread, new fenceposts to replace the 200-year-old oak railway posts, and whoo-hoo, soon we'll be sporting an all-weather manege (remember not to say "menage", no French person would understand what you meant).
Our veg department is winding down as the frost has finally put paid to quite a few of the summer crops, and slowed down our production of salad leaves, kale and spinach. We've plenty of squashes and pumpkins to sell, and still quite a few spaghetti marrows, much desired by pasta-loving folks who want to avoid gluten. We've sold about 150 of them in the last couple of weeks, and we have another 100 to go before Christmas.
We're coming up to that special time of the year when lots of people think about the annual turkey celebration. Our Norfolk Blacks are the tastiest variety, and we'll begin the drawing and dressing in about three weeks. Colin, Adam and Richard did the business last year after our magnificent team of pluckers finished the whole flock in record time.
November 12, 2019: Turkey sales are proceeding, slightly ahead of last year's sales so that's good. This year we're offering to deliver Christmas birds via courier so folks who live some distance from either the Farm or our Shop in Bristol can still take advantage of the best-tasting certified organic turkeys at a very competitive price - - have a look at our "Turkeys" page. Meanwhile Heather is busily shoveling manure round the Soft Fruit field and about to plant out 200 raspberry canes, Liz is de-seeding several kilos of our crabapples for a new chutney recipe, Richard and James are designing the underfloor heating for the Mill, Trevor is topping up anti-freeze and oil in all our vehicles, and Steven is putting up the new fence in 9-acre while Forest the ram is out doing his thing with the ladies.
November 11, 2019: We have lost a few turkeys during the last couple of weeks; initially we though t it might have been a fox but we've discovered some mink droppings so that seems the more likely culprit. Mink are very wily and vicious creatures, and hard to control without catching and killing. It does make one wonder if they would not be better appreciated as fur coats. Mink can sneak through almost any fence, and their habit seems to be to kill anything possible, for fun - - they grab turkeys by their necks and hang on until the bird bleeds to death.
The local footpath officer has once again come up trumps, agreeing to upgrade three of our gates. We spoke about two weeks ago, and this morning a bloke showed up with new gates and hardware, and tools to dig the holes. Well done, Sheila. We'll have "equestrian" gates along Jenny's Path which have a long handle extending upwards so they can be opened without getting off your horse or out of your wheelchair. The hinges are offset which means the gates are self-closing, and they can be opened and swing either way. This means we can use the Canal towpath for keeping livestock without having an electric fence along the side of the path.
November 4, 2019: Climate change - - the big concern nowadays. Greenhouse gases and the release of CO2. Very important, of course. But do the "calculations" actually present factual information? There's an interesting article to read; have a look at::
Our red meat is greener than their avocados
October 29, 2019: Hallowe'en is in two days. This is about your last chance to get a pumpkin from Radford Mill Farm Shop, 41 Picton St., Montpelier, Bristol BS6 5PZ. We've sold all the pumpkins at the Farm, and the last few are about to fly off the shelf at the Farm Shop.
October 29, 2019: A new beginning, or rather, at last we have got our BLOG back on track. The last entry was about four years ago, and we've lost the password. One of the problems we've faced over many years in our loose-knit community is that various people take responsibility for a particular aspect of our life here, but people move on, and some of the expertise and useful skills don't get passed on. So we lost the password - - no-one can remember who last updated it. I hope some people find this Diary interesting enough to keep reading.
October 24, 2019: I went to the first meeting of the "Green Action Group" in Timsbury. It's good to know that our local village is getting serious about climate change. We were inspired to hear that another Somerset parish, Wedmore, has declared itself to be carbon neutral, and we're wondering what exactly that means. Watch this space. Meanwhile, we're clearing up the compost loos around the Farm, building more compost heaps in our Soft Fruit field and in the Bluebell wood.
Our vegetable production is tailing off now as the temperature drops; we've harvested about 2 tonnes of squashes and pumpkins this year, most of which are stored in the "Squash Inn". the big producer this year is spaghetti marrows which have achieved some popularity with people who fancy a vermicelli -like base for their savoury sauces without carbohydrates or gluten. We've lots of parsley and we're making "parsley pesto", now that the basil has succomed to the cold weather.
October 20, 2019: "Forest" the ram has arrived, and is getting to know the ewes. He's two years old, and supposedly sired 50 lambs from 30 ewes in his first season, so we have high hopes for lots of little lambkins jumping around in April. Early suggestions for naming those we will keep for further breeding are tree names - - "Forest Oak", "Forest Ash", and so on. It seems the pedigree world requires such names. All our sheep are pedigree Wiltshire Horn, which are supposed to produce very tasty meat. Five of our ewes are kept away from the ram as they are not suitable for breeding; we're trying to improve the genetics of the flock year by year, and we take out the ewes that do not shed their wool cleanly. that means we'll have a small amount of mutton available for Christmas, in case anyone gets bored with turkey.
Some folks nowadays are concerned about using land for producing meat. Our sheep eat grass, and Radford Mill Farm is about 90% grass, all of it permanent pasture, up and down hills. It would be hard to produce very good crops on most of this land other than grass, and the sheep are excellent at converting everything to manure which they spread in very small quantities all day and every day. They also keep the brambles and ivy in our hedges down to a minimum; otherwise we would be unable to maintain the hedges and the land would be run over with dead trees and massive bramble and blackthorn patches. We find that sheep are very beneficial for balancing and keeping the fields looking good and useful for the many villagers who walk the footpaths every day.
October 15, 2019: Frank has transplanted about 300 of the acorns that have now sprouted; they've gone into new pots about 4 or 5 in each pot. It's very exciting realising that these little acorns have nearly all put out their first sprout, which is actually their tap-root as it turns down into the soil. The next thing that happens is a little up-turning sprout comes at the beginning of the taproot, seeking light. I think acorn planting should be on the national school curriculum for every child, every year. It's easy and the oak sproutlings are very tough, it involves very little cost in resources or time, and it can have a big payoff in satisfaction, environmental knowledge, and climate change. There's oaks in almost every parish in the country, and the acorns need collecting during September, just when schools re-convene. And we don't want to leave too many for those pesky grey squirrels, do we? Actually, the squirrels are very good at finding acorns higher up in the trees where it's hard to get our fingers. So get yourself down to the head teacher's office and press the case: an acorn (or two or three) for every child, every year, until they are 16. After that, if they haven't figured out what the environment is all about, there's no hope. And you will also have to get down to your local parish council and get them thinking about where all these new oak trees are going to go in three or four years. Initially they can stay in pots, but around year 3 they will need either very big pots or preferably a permanent location with protection against deer and rabbits and people.
October 5, 2019: Our three horses have been exercising in the temporary Driveway arena, under the watchful eye of our stables manager Liz. There's "Etoile", the 15.2 hh Comtois, five years old, bred in the Jura mountains in France for logging work. She loves to pull things, is very well mannered, and only has a very occasional freak-out momnet when she sees something she doesn't like. Then there's "Misty", a 14.2 hh Connemara who arrived a couple of months ago with somewhat poor hooves. Liz has been treating her with all the latest foot remedies, and she seems to be coming along nicely. Our third horse is "Dylan", a half cob with a very sweet nature, on loan for a few months to see if he is worth buying.
September 30, 2019: We've collected about 1,000 acorns from the various oak trees around the Farm. We soak them in water for about 48 hours, then Frank plants about 20 or so in an 8" pot with compost and leaf matter. We do this every year, and we hope to plant out several hundred every year.
September 1, 2019: The turkeys are now out in the middle of the Espalier field, learning to eat grass, nettles, docks, and everything else that's green. We've put up a six-foot high fence which includes about twenty-five apple and pear trees, so the turkeys benefit from the windfalls when they occur. We've erected one of our events marquees for their night-time perching, and they all figured it out the first day, so it looks like the management this year will be easier than we have had previously. Herding the turkeys in from a field each evening had been a time-consuming and irritating task.
The ewes are happily grazing all the summer grass. Each time we move them to a new pasture they are prone to getting the runs for a day; so we have to balance the amount of rich grass available against a good spread of pasture so they don't have to eat where others have recently walked and defecated and thereby keep their internal worm count very low.
August, 2019: Our day-old turkeys have arrived, and are installed in the stable where we reared last year's flock. Very young turkeys are not very good at looking after themselves, so they require extra heat for the first four weeks or so, even though it's a warm summer. They are much less independent than other very young livestock; and they need some special care every few hours. Very young turkeys can find themselves in the very corner of a barn and be unable to figure out how to get out of the corner, so we have to keep them in a somewhat round pen with no corners. They also have a habit of falling asleep all of a sudden, which looks rather like they are dead. When sleeping they are somewhat oblivious to other turkeys walking on top of them which can make breathing difficult, so the bedding material we use has to be graded to prevent them from getting suffocated. Fortunately we have managed to lose no young turkeys these last two years.
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The Radford FOLK Festival is becoming an annual event, and we've had very good feedback, so we'll continue to plan for yet another year of top quality Traditional and contemporary folk music.
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Radford Mill Farm,
near Timsbury BA2 0QF 01761 479391 |
Last year's programme (July 1, 2017)
12:30 Peas in the Pub
This is a dynamic folk and blues duo, covering some classics and self-penned folk and blues songs.
13:30 Declan Millar
This young songwriter hails from Glastonbury, Somerset. His lyrical songwriting, informed by myths, folk stories and social commentary, combines a strong awareness of tradition with characteristic open-tuned guitar and resonant vocals. For a young artist (age 19 !) he has a strong track record performing at gigs and festivals around the Southwest and as far afield as Whitby.
14:30 Moonlit Poachers
Rarely seen during the day, the Moonlit Poachers are a mysterious bunch. When they're not tickling trout, snaring a hare or netting a rabbit, they're making some of the sweetest most soulful folk music this side of the Mendips.
15:30 The Kevin Brown Band
Taught by Son House, discovered by Joe Boyd, acclaimed by Mark Knopfler, this highly respected slide guitarist has been recording and wriiting, and is now performing with his hand-picked band of accomplished musicians.
16:30 Kara J. Richards
One-woman tragi-comedienne Kara plays Cowgirl Jazz, which is syncopated country/blues/folk/soul/ and jazz. Her perceptive and darkly amusing songs are written from a 21st century perspective that has come out of the folk traditions of England, Ireland, France, Spain and southeast Asia, being countries where she has lived parts of her life. Her show will consist of songs from her recently released album 'A Short Study on the Nature of Love and Drink', plus some older songs and some new ones; and stories that often start with "I met a man in a bar ..."
17:30 Gaz Austin
TA relative newcomer on our programme: let's see what he's got to offer. He's well-known in Mells, and the local chip shop.
18:30 Lost in the Grass
This is traditional bluegrass, ho-down music from the depths of deep southern Glastonbury.
19:30 Band of Pilgrims
The Band of Pilgrims is a new music project with original songs and scores that we are taking out on the road. We're a small acoustic band with vocals and harmony parts and relatively easy choruses that audiences can join in with. The songs are all positve and "up" in the gospel style, however there is equal recognition of the condition of human suffering. Our "gospel style" is more influenced by Celtic and English folk tradition than by the USA versions, although we find some of that American joyous transcendence in our performances. Frank, Kevin and Pat have been playing together since 1981.
20:30 Vervain
This is a Celtic folk band from north Somerset who mix traditional tunes and original songs to create a diverse mix of the old and the new in an exciting and modern way. The quartet bring to the stage an eclectic mix of influences from the folk, rock and classical worlds, and individually they come from professional careers in classical performances. Their collective hearts, however, are firmly established in all the beauty that traditional music has to offer. Vervain are exciting their audiences wherever they perform, bringing all the love and experience they individually hold to bear on their dynamic performances.
21:30 Darren Hodge
Darren James Hodge is a young man from Taunton, somerset, who is regarded by his peers as one of the top up and coming young guitarists in the country. After picking up his first guitar seven ears ago at the age of twelve Darren has been astounding audiences up and down the land with his ability and instrumental style of playing. Darren has been very busy over the last couple of years and has already graced the stage with some of the top guitarists in the world, including Tommy Emmanuel, Clive Carroll and Ben Hughes, and these guys who are at the top of the field have all praised Darren as a fuure star.
22:30 to very late: Acoustic jam session round the campfire.
12:30 Peas in the Pub
This is a dynamic folk and blues duo, covering some classics and self-penned folk and blues songs.
13:30 Declan Millar
This young songwriter hails from Glastonbury, Somerset. His lyrical songwriting, informed by myths, folk stories and social commentary, combines a strong awareness of tradition with characteristic open-tuned guitar and resonant vocals. For a young artist (age 19 !) he has a strong track record performing at gigs and festivals around the Southwest and as far afield as Whitby.
14:30 Moonlit Poachers
Rarely seen during the day, the Moonlit Poachers are a mysterious bunch. When they're not tickling trout, snaring a hare or netting a rabbit, they're making some of the sweetest most soulful folk music this side of the Mendips.
15:30 The Kevin Brown Band
Taught by Son House, discovered by Joe Boyd, acclaimed by Mark Knopfler, this highly respected slide guitarist has been recording and wriiting, and is now performing with his hand-picked band of accomplished musicians.
16:30 Kara J. Richards
One-woman tragi-comedienne Kara plays Cowgirl Jazz, which is syncopated country/blues/folk/soul/ and jazz. Her perceptive and darkly amusing songs are written from a 21st century perspective that has come out of the folk traditions of England, Ireland, France, Spain and southeast Asia, being countries where she has lived parts of her life. Her show will consist of songs from her recently released album 'A Short Study on the Nature of Love and Drink', plus some older songs and some new ones; and stories that often start with "I met a man in a bar ..."
17:30 Gaz Austin
TA relative newcomer on our programme: let's see what he's got to offer. He's well-known in Mells, and the local chip shop.
18:30 Lost in the Grass
This is traditional bluegrass, ho-down music from the depths of deep southern Glastonbury.
19:30 Band of Pilgrims
The Band of Pilgrims is a new music project with original songs and scores that we are taking out on the road. We're a small acoustic band with vocals and harmony parts and relatively easy choruses that audiences can join in with. The songs are all positve and "up" in the gospel style, however there is equal recognition of the condition of human suffering. Our "gospel style" is more influenced by Celtic and English folk tradition than by the USA versions, although we find some of that American joyous transcendence in our performances. Frank, Kevin and Pat have been playing together since 1981.
20:30 Vervain
This is a Celtic folk band from north Somerset who mix traditional tunes and original songs to create a diverse mix of the old and the new in an exciting and modern way. The quartet bring to the stage an eclectic mix of influences from the folk, rock and classical worlds, and individually they come from professional careers in classical performances. Their collective hearts, however, are firmly established in all the beauty that traditional music has to offer. Vervain are exciting their audiences wherever they perform, bringing all the love and experience they individually hold to bear on their dynamic performances.
21:30 Darren Hodge
Darren James Hodge is a young man from Taunton, somerset, who is regarded by his peers as one of the top up and coming young guitarists in the country. After picking up his first guitar seven ears ago at the age of twelve Darren has been astounding audiences up and down the land with his ability and instrumental style of playing. Darren has been very busy over the last couple of years and has already graced the stage with some of the top guitarists in the world, including Tommy Emmanuel, Clive Carroll and Ben Hughes, and these guys who are at the top of the field have all praised Darren as a fuure star.
22:30 to very late: Acoustic jam session round the campfire.
