On the home front we have been slightly hit by the Foot and Mouth problem. We were due to collect two new weaners (piglets) to fatten for Christmas last weekend. However, due to the foot and mouth outbreak there is a nationwide ban on all stock movement. And although we are about 90 miles from the area in accordance with the guidelines from DEFRA we checked every one of our animals very  carefully. The good news is we have a small amount of foot rot in the sheep due to the wet weather which we treated and everything else is fine.

 The lambs are fattening well and we are still hatching chickens we currently have 97 of them.. Our two new pigs Doris and Agatha are settling in nicely and we think Brenda is pregnant. We spent most of the weekend outside as the weather was great, we were clearling one of the island beds which is full of trees. I think a previous owner did a great job of planting dozens and dozens of trees, unfortunately they did not consider how big they would all grow a nd we are having to thin them out. We have tried to move some of them but they are to big, we have also had professional tree surgeans in to do the more dangerous work, but we do the rest.

I quite enjoyed the UK Kick Off last Thursday, even the rain did not ruin the day. I had a chance to catch up with old friends and new friends that I hadnt seen for a while. I caught up on all the gossip and found out who had resigned and who was still with us. This to me is always the great benefit of these occassions. I am not very athletic and really am not the sort of person who enjoys "games" team ones or otherwise, so I dont participate.

The presentations were the usual stuff and given the current UK position they were what I expected. But as I looked around the big top I do wonder though why so many of our good people are leaving. Most the people I started working with at Sun seven years ago are no longer here. I joined the UK Managed Services team and there were eleven of us at that time. Of that eleven only three of us our left today some have moved on to new pastures, one retired and others were RIF'd. Still I suppose that is life everything changes.