Im back

What have I been doing neglecting this blog ?? shame full. I think I know why I'm so bad at any diary type discipline, its genetics. About 5 years ago we turned an unused room here in the farm house into a proper office. Nothing big and glamorous but ideal place to impersonate a productive office person. The room in question had always been known as "The Back Place", what it should have been called was "The Skip". It was filled with the detritus of 45 years of Teague family occupancy.

In this muddle I found all sorts of interesting ( to me ) stuff. A box full of Mums fathers farm accounts from the late forties and fifties, it was reassuring to see that he had whopping overdraft too, more genetics. I also came across a box full of Dads diaries from the late sixties and into the seventies when we moved from Tattenhall in Cheshire to Manor House Farm. I had struck gold, twenty odd priceless tomes of Teague family history. I opened them with anticipation, what great wisdom was within ?. Not much, in fact sod all. A few ear numbers of pigs and cows and the date they were mated , and occasional references to bills payed. So you see we Teagues are poor at this sort of thing but I will try.

The Barley was harvested last week with little drama, the straw baled and the fields cleared. What a relief to have lots of straw again, we have nearly 200 Herefords under 6 months old and they use masses of straw, as they are too young to be outside all the time.

last Sunday Sue took part in the Cardiff 10 kilometer run. It was scorching hot and I had to take shelter in a bar and drink very cold beer while she did her run. She did very well for a first attempt coming in at 1220 out of over 4000 entrants and completed the course in 56 minutes.

The course was around Cardiff Bay, which if you get the chance is well worth a visit. Its a modern entertainment complex on the site of the once derelict Cardiff docks. Its little wonder the economy is in the mess it is when you see the scale of the once massive docks trading with the world replaced with dozens of restaurants and shops consuming wealth and creating very little.

On Monday the 28 th July we were given access to the Blue Tongue Virus vaccine, so this week all the the cattle have had their first dose. Administering the dose is very simple and gave me the chance to weigh quite a few cattle. The weight is entered into a piece of computer software tat calculate Daily Live Weight Gain (DLWG), our young cattle are growing at about 1.15 kg per day which for Herefords is pretty OK.

Before I forget the new Pure Tilth podcast is up, see what you think.