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.