Off To Llangranog

It's 6.00am and I'm up drinking my Ginger Tea and putting together the last of my pile because I 'm off to Llangranog with my son's school, Trefonen, today.
It was the most beautiful day yesterday, the sun was shinning, it was warm, the grass grew in front of my eyes!, I spent all day outside (apart from the obligatory shopping, and a few phone calls from the office). I cleaned and hoovered the car (well overdue) I planted some corn and some beans and flowers in the little green house, I began to clean out the large green house. When the children came home James cleaned out the hen house and then went shooting, Jessie cleaned out the Guinea pigs, and Hannah cleaned out the stable and then went riding, they didn't even want tea until 6pm - what a difference some nice weather can make.
So today I've woken up, been awake since 3am actually, have come downstairs, let the cats in- they are terrific mousers now, and looked outside and it's raining!!!!!!!!, so Llangranog is a wet start.

What and where is Llangranog well.........
Llangrannog Urdd Centre was founded in 1932 as the Urdd’s first permanent residential camp. The land was given by a gentleman named J M Howell, and as appreciation for his generous gift, the first building on the site, a wooden cabin food hall, was named after his Mansion - Plas Penhelyg. Penhelyg acted as the focal point, and became the heart of the Centre, Four weeks of summer camp was held during that hot summer for 150 people. One gentleman that attended the camp during the summer of 1932 has written an account in a local newspaper in Cardiff. During the 30s the Centre grew from strength to strength, with Social Services, Council and the Jubilee Trust grants in 1936 providing assistance to develop further the facilities in the form of more cabins.In 1938 the first mixed summer camp was held, where previously two separate camps were held. Also during that summer, a summer camp for adults was held as a change for them to relive a little of their youth on the Ceredigion coastline.In 1939 with the aid of The National Fitness Council a gym was built, which opened the gates for Llangrannog Urdd Centre to develop educational courses for children and schools. This was the start of combining educational courses and outdoor activityDespite the war a summer camp was held in 1940 with many restrictions, one of which saw no tents being erected.The summer camps were cancelled for the next few years until a campaign in 1944 to re-open the summer camps gathered force. Below is a complaint that was posted in the editorial of the Aelwyd that year:"The loss of a year's summer camp isn't only a loss of holidays, but the loss of a part of life, an experience that does more than any other to prepare young people for being leaders and complete citizens in later life."In that year over a 1000 campers were welcomed of all ages, including many from the ‘Young Wales Clubs’, non-Welsh speakers, that spent two weeks at the Centre.

Check out the website at http://www.urdd.org/ but I am certainly looking forward to having a go at Skiing speak to you again soon.

Trefonen Have an Educational Visit

Ysgol Trefonen visited the lambing sheds on Tuesday this week. They arrived in the morning and had a brisk walk down the hill to Nantleach, whilst i pointed out on the way the damage the badgers were doing to the roadside and how they could all be countryside detectives if you keep alert and look at everything that is going on around you.

After arriving at the Lambing sheds they helped to water and feed hay to all the ewes in the shed. they bottle fed some of the tiddling lambs (Lambs with no mums) and also gave Nemo his first feed of the day. He was very pleased to share his pen with four children at a time who scratched his head and legs for him, and he just loved trying to suck on someones wellies or coat!

Some of the children would have sat the whole time and just cuddled a lamb, I'm sure - what all of we farmers take for granted is a little bit of heaven for many children and older people.......

It was a good opportunity , in my opinion, for the children to see a dead lamb. They had the opportunity to see that there is nothing to be feared in seeing death, and that the body of a dead lamb looks the same as a body of a live lamb but is cold. All stepped back when I said of here's a lamb which has died in the night, but when I said it was alright to touch him and feel him they all stepped forward and soon everyone had come running down from the first shed to share in the knowledge of the dead.

They saw the Cattle and Calves in the sheds, and also one of our bulls, they met Saffy, our hound dog who is back for the summer, and had the opportunity to play on some large stacked bales of straw. they had a wonderful time, and I actually had to throw the teachers out as it was well over the time when they should have left and they were still looking on at lambing pens.

They were fortunate to see a lamb being born,(with a little help from farmer Len) and they named him Trefonen. he will be going out side today with his mum we have marked him with a T so we can keep them informed of his growth and maybe they can see him again next time they come to visit us on the farm.

I have to say the next day a parcelforce man came to deliver a parcel to us and said he believed we had had a school visit yesterday, apparently he had a niece who had come out, she was full of it last night he said couldn't stop talking about it, but mainly she was most talkative about the dead lamb!!!!!!!

TB Test Results Are Much More Hopefull

Just a quickie before i go and fetch Jessica from off the School Bus.......
We read our TB test today from the first day of testing on Tuesday. Wonderfully the only 'INCONCLUSIVE' result is for our youngest newest Bull. We have been advised to keep him isolated from all the other cattle until the next test which will be in 6 weeks time.

the reason this is wonderful is that all of our cows, most of whom have now calved will not have to go away to slaughter and therefore neither will any of their calves, which makes it a lot easier for us, as we do not have to make the decision to send the calves for killing, or to to try and keep them, knowing they would probably suffer as they would not take easily to being bottle fed, so for another 6 weeks we have a reprieve.

On a much more hopeful note as well, just before we started to read the TB test one cow gave birth to twins...... let hope the bad luck is all behind us - fingers crossed.
I

What A Sad Week

You haven't heard much from me over the past few weeks, as many of you will know, if you've been able to catch up with me at one of the farmers markets, or meet me at school, or have a quick chat on the phone, we are in our main lambing season.

This means all hands to the pump......... crotchety men, tired staff, and lots of heartache.

The first really cold Saturday we lost several lambs out on the fields who had yearling mothers (first time mothers - not always the best as they don't always know what to do for the best). One lamb, which the children had called Saddleback, died as did his butty - brother on the night just froze out on the filed as their mum had stuck them in the coldest windiest place she could find.

Then last Thursday my cow, Lisa, started to calve, but had problems and finally the three men had to go over with the calf pullers and get the calf out, they feared it would be dead, it's tongue was sticking out and as hard as a bullet, but amazingly it was still alive and came around fairly quickly. Unfortunately Lisa was not so lucky, she could not get up, eventually they gave the calf some artificial collostrum, and milk, the vet sent some anti-inflamatories and painkillers, and I treated her with homeopathic remedies - rescue remedy, arnica and hypericum. On Monday she still had not got up, we had rolled her over several times, and she was still eating and drinking. we had to find a hoist to borrow from somewhere and the vet helped us to source one. Monday evening they attached the hoist to the JCB and managed to get her up for a few minutes. they took the calf away on Monday evening to put him under the infra red light as it was supposed to be a freezing night and he was beginning to show signs of a naval infection for which we had to get antibiotics.
The next morning I was taking my motley crew of dogs for their 6am morning walk and I found her dead in the building, I cried all the way back home, what a terrible way for her to die, and she hadn't even once fed her calf.
Nemo as the children named him, (photo above with Louise feeding him) had gone through a sticky patch during the night, but I think that the infra red light had got him through, and he was still alive - but not yet over the worse. I thought today I could here a rasping on his lungs, and he was very listless so we took him into he vets. Where she suspected bronchitis on his left lung, he had a temperature of 105 degrees. So it was a jab of antibiotics, a pain killer, and a dose of selenium - poor babs, he too has had homeopathic remedies including aconite for his breathing, and to boost his immune system and rescue remedy.

Lets hope he makes it - fingers crossed.