This weekend Tony hosted the Buckinghamshire Invertebrate Group June field trip. I learnt a lot throughout the day and got to scrub bash for insects which involves hitting a tree with a special net laid beneath it. After lunch I went down to Northend for the annual inter-village rounders match. The weather was glorious and the game was good fun; we won and I didn't get batted out until right at the end! We had a barbeque and listened to some live jazz in the sunshine, before returning back to the farm for drinks on the deck. At midnight I walked across the common to find the B.I.G. crew mothing; we saw many, many species of moth (over 80 in fact) and I didn't get to bed until 2.30am! On Sunday we had a party for Leah's 21st birthday - we had yet another barbeque and made a water slide in the garden with plastic sheeting and washing-up liquid. It was great fun, although my ribs still hurt from launching myself at the slide! We finished the evening off with a chiminea and yet another late night. On Monday, Will and myself sheared the 5 rams and some of the wethers from the common. Shearing the king ram was quite an ordeal, with Will pinning him down and me shearing as fast as possible! The end result was rather handsome:
Yesterday I helped with some fencing and took some photos of the calves. Here is a photo of the second female to be born, shortly after bank holiday Monday. She is a beautiful brown calf (now one of four), from two black parents!
Today Will and I finished shearing the wethers from the common and returned them to a very grassy paddock across the common. We really are speeding up now, and with a new sharp cutter we were almost unstoppable!
Tomorrow we are clearing out the barn ready for next week and making some plates for the event from an old silver birch tree.
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