Muddyboots

Follow the fortunes of Muddyboots & Family on their East Yorkshire farm which has changed from dairy farm to luxury ice cream manufacture

Thursday 31 May 2007

paperwork & yet more paperwork



Being married to a farmer has made me weather obsessed. First thing in the morning there l am peering out of the window, inspecting the sky for signs of clouds & the garden for signs of rabbits. Do l perhaps need some sort of anti weather therapy? Well, today has been a good one, the sun has been shining more or less constantly since about 6 am. Yipee! Not that l have seen much of it.

Today has been The Office Day. The boring stuff, bills, bills & yet more bills, payroll, VAT, customer statements & rude letter sending. It's taken me all day, with just quick breaks for caffeine top ups & a salami & philly sarni on brown. Anyway at least its all done now without too many problems, though there was one, trying to register to file my VAT online. It seemed to think l had not entered the correct details. Oh well, l'll just keep using the overland route!


One of the things that keeps me going whilst sat in the office surrounded by invoices, bank statements & timesheets is the wireless, or should l now call it the cyber / online radio? Mornings it is R4, from 12 it's R2. I enjoy a good listener phone in, & today's was no exception with comments being taken after discussing the release by animal activists of wild boar. Well, what a load of misinformed idiots. We are all entitled to have our own views but when those infringe on the rights of others that is, in my opinion wrong. If we all become vegans, to save the animals, there will be no farm animals except in zoos & that's cruel isn't it? The best comment was made by email. On being harangued by activist as to why pheasants were being shot, the gamekeeper replied that they, the pheasants didn't like being put in the oven alive!

Harry, see yesterday's blog, had had a great time last night getting wet! Apparently he received a bit of a ribbing for having the wet suit kit, but dear boy had the last laugh as his mates had to wear hired suits. Shame the sun wasn't out.

Lucy-Piglet has at last caught her first juicy little bunny of the spring. We are suffering from A Plague of Rabbits, falcons, guns & ferrets seem to make no inroads on the exploding population. Every morning Gordon & Lucy-Piglet race out at top speed just in case a little bunny falls in front of them. No luck till this morning & woof, L-P was in like a flash. All Gordon could do was stand & drool; to make matters worse L-P kept teasing Gordon with the tasty morsel, casually sauntering up to him then racing off at top speed. What a little madam!


Gordon nearly had the last laugh on this evening's walk. Deer have been spotted on the farm during the past few days. excited out of breath children have been racing in to tell us all about them. Well, Gordon saw deer in the country stewardship fields, much bigger than a rabbit. Labs aren't supposed to be a chaser & getter more of a trot & collect. Gordon thought otherwise, stupid or what, & sped off in full pursuit. Large dog & deer - no contest. So it was his turn to get the strop. He had to give up. That was it, never seen a dog throw a paddy. Gordon returned to heel then sulkily marched off home on his own, no swim, no snuffling the high tide zone for anything dead, just home. Boyz!

5 comments:

Bluestocking Mum said...

Gordon sounds a character! I have a yellow lab who is just wonderful.

Sounds like a good phone in-I tend to sit in silence in the day time but may try radio 4. The comment about everyone turning vegan/veggie Reminds me of an excellent programme few weeks ago on a Channel 4 about farming and our farmers being exploited and it made the same point very well too (as well as others, for example pro fox hunting.)I am sure you may have seen it.

I must admit-I only have to think about meat and I could easily turn veggie. But I do so appreciate the plight of our farmers and it is an excellent point you make.

warm wishes to you Muddyboots
x

Milkmaid said...

Have missed you going on one of your rants, that little squirt they interviewed on R4, really got up my nose too, I'm sure Farming Today find them on purpose just to put farmers in a bad mood

Vanessa said...

I too was yelling at the radio during the Jeremy Vine programme while that daft vegan chap wittered on - at one point he said that the wild boar were his brothers. You reckon??? And apparently it didn't matter that some piglets died when the released the boar because they would have been killed anyway for meat when they were older - logic passes these people by!

Love the blog by the way.

Pig in the Kitchen said...

ha ha, still giggling about the pheasant!
Don't you squirm when the dog kills a rabbit, or am I just soft? I just saw a stoat or weasel get hit by a car and I'm still feeling a bit sad about the loss of life...(that makes me sound like a lentil-eating hippy)
Pigx

lixtroll said...

You have the same radio habits as I used to have - don't get radio where I am now believe it or not - good to hear a snippet of what's going on though here on your blog!
Love the dog paddy - described so beautifully - my dog also prone to interest in deer, the daft thing!

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