The county show, more planting and some other excuses..

Sorry we have been away from the blog for over a week, things are starting to get extremely busy for us.
We had a great day at the county show catching up with customers old and new, even getting chance to watch a bit of the show ring happenings. Its a great event for people to get an insight into farming in Northumberland although it seems a divide is growing between the farmers present and 'punters'. The blame does not lie with any party alone, with the organises needing to appeal to a massive market to keep the show financially viable and this means adding attractions that are more suitable to the mass market. So we end up with more people in the crowd outside the waitrose freebie tent than watching the cattle judging??

As usual it was disappointing to see all the franchise style catering vans selling outstandingly overpriced rubbish, most of them coming from outside the county and some even having the nerve to sell meat that wasn't reared in the UK. As is the norm these days the same farmers who complain about the price they get paid were queuing at the stands with the cheapest burgers or shortest ques not the stands advertising local or British and thereby supporting the intensive, substandard farmers that they would otherwise criticise.

On a lighter note things have been moving on with the vegetable activity, we now have 600 pumpkin plugs planted out and a further 400 seeds in the ground. We have 1000 courgette plugs desperate to get out of the tunnel and into the field and with all the watering they get, we want them out too. B's now up to 20 mins at a time in the tunnel watering, which would have me on my knees. We have carried on with the last of the carrots and peas all but finished.

Looking ahead we have ordered our turkey chicks to get ready for Christmas, we will take delivery of them in July. The brussel sprouts we sowed in the tunnel a few weeks ago are being pricked out into plug trays and will hopefully go into the field in the next few weeks. We are trying to clear space in the tunnel so we end up with space for the cabbage plugs we need to get on with and give the tomatoes, peppers and chillis room to grow.

Away from the farm we have been awaiting the exciting news on a planning decision to allow us to get on with the roads and putting our packing shed up, only to find that the council have rejected the plans and want another full planning application and so we must go up to another 8 weeks before work can commence. We rather naively thought that keeping four people employed, developing a locally biased sustainable business that generates thousands of pounds for the local economy and providing a service to local people that otherwise wouldn't be there would help our application but these things seem to have no bearing on the ever important decision makers that seemingly wish to grind this country to halt. We'll keep you posted with whats happening and may try to set up some sort of online petition to show support of our business.

It was a sad day on Friday due to our beloved Landrover being sold. We had a nice drive up to Edinburgh and handed her over to a great guy who seemed really pleased with her. The train journey home was reflective and quiet as we had planned to keep her till she passed away but we just couldn't justify the horrendous mpg any more without the vast amount of pigs and other stock we used to move around we just didn't use her enough. B's not relishing the thought of another van as the family transport, although I've promised seats for everyone in the next one. The boys never complained about sitting on the spare wheel in the back with the three dogs in the little van but I did feel guilty, and could see the horror on B's face.

Speaking of dogs, treacle the black lab is a few weeks of having her first litter of puppies. She has calmed down a lot lately and tends to spend most of her time sleeping, which though not unusual for Labrador's is very unusual for this particularly sprightly doggy.

The pigs are still disappointed with there new living arrangements and not a day goes by when one doesn't have to be ushered back into the pen we have for them. A bigger battery for the electric fence is added to the ever expanding wish list!