How do you stop grazing animals walking up streams where they cross fields? By installing water gates.  Before we came here it was a problem we never even knew existed, but if you look after cattle sheep or goats in a place where fields encompass flowing water, it’s a real issue. Here our Iron Mill Stream can now rise to over 4 feet deep owing to the extra drainage work carried out on the moorland which feeds it and yet in the summer, in dry spells, can be no more than 6″ in places. Animals will often just limbo dance under  barriers .

Water pouring down the valley now carries heavy branches and even trees in the flood and we have lost all our normal hurdle type barriers recently. Ian, who has just completed our fencing of the Culm wetland area for us, is a local man born and bred and knows instinctively how to deal with this. A couple of Ian’s “Specials” should  deal with most problems. The problem is to stop cattle walking upstream and out of your land, and yet allow the water and any debris flow through. This is the solution.

It looks solid, but in fact, if you look under the top log you will see that the two down bars are attached by chains. The whole lot is suspended below the oak log so that it moves in the water and will be pushed up and out of the way when debris pushes through.  The animals will not challenge it. It’s such a neat design and yet Ian knocks one up in no time at all to fit every conceivable awkward crossing point. Here he has even used one of our own oak trees as the top log. Why use a telegraph pole when you have loacal oak? It’s cheaper and will last about 4 times as long!

I stand in awe of people like Ian. He thinks WE are the clever ones because we have spent years studying and sitting in offices or in front of computers but there is more than one form of cleverness. His is the raw, basic commonsense problem solving ability of the true countryman and farmer – something you rarely find in those born elsewhere.  It’s skills like these we should support and nurture as well as the more academic kind. We never know when we might need them!

No, I’m not talking about attacks from foxes, dogs or anything else – but from wholesale slaughter by DEFRA in the event of another outbreak of Foot and Mouth or something equally horrific. I have today applied to be put on the “Special Genetic Worth” list which DEFRA allow these days to cope with one off populations of animals which are irreplaceable.

I hope my case for the Bowmonts and the Cashmeres will be fairly cut and dried, and of course, it’s no guarantee they won’t be slaughtered in an outbreak, but it should at least mean the authorities will think twice before coming here with guns. It’s yet another way of trying to preserve these precious animals.

Tomorrow I must stand up at a Public Enquiry and defend our precious Iron Mill Stream and our 2 County Wildlife Sites here. A wind farm development is proposed and whatever your views on wind energy, the developers admit that the consequence will be pollution of our stream and our valley.

If I have been a little quiet these past days it is because something as important as this deserves my full attention.  Once it is over, (and the thought of standing in front of 100 people, trying to make a case for Atlantic Salmon and Otters  is making me quake in my boots) I shall get back to normal and blogging about less contentious issues.

These are some of the little guys which depend on the ultra clean water here.

On Thursday I had some R and R on Dartmoor. Jane Deane took me through the technical process of creating a dye “library” using my cashmere. 5g samples of yarn were dyed to different but standard strengths of the primary colours, the secondaries and then “odds and sods” of colour combinations.

The results (or some of them) are here.

This was an extremely useful business. Jane’s approach was relaxed and full of fun but underneath all the laughter was a disciplined approach  which I would never have adopted at home on my own. I had to concentrate very hard at times to remember which solution to put in which jam jar etc (Jane has a neat method of doing lots of 5g skeins in different jam jars at one time) and this would have been impossible with the phone ringing or a goat demanding attention.

The result of it all is that I have a good collection (which I can now add to) of baseline colours with which to experiment or, if I wish, I can just repeat them. Knowing how to make up accurate stock solutions is so useful. We also discussed how to increase the numbers of full size skeins you can dye at any one time – one of my biggest problems. I now have all sorts of ideas involving Baby Burco boilers and metal dustbins!!

I chose to use Acid Dyes from  Kemtex  www.kemtex.co.uk but Jane would also have taught me using natural dye extracts. I have many of these from Pure Tinctoria  http://pure-tinctoria.designsales.co.uk and hope to try the same method on them here at home.

Here is Jane “wetting out” the cashmere for me while I did battle with jam jars, plastic measuring beakers, syringes and all the other bits I needed to do this methodically.

All this took place in Jane’s studio in The Duchy Square centre in Princetown on Dartmoor. If any of you are close enough then do visit this. It’s a beautiful building which I feel fits very comfortably into its prominent position in the village. There were also some amazing other artists working there with Jane and I felt very privileged to share tea with them in the afternoon.

http://www.duchysquare.org/

Princetown is a fascinating place in its own right. Home to Dartmoor Prison and the place around which much of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s  “Hound of the Baskervilles” story is set. You can experience all 4 seasons in a day in Princetown. Fortunately it was warm and sunny on Thursday but I have been there in June and had snow before now! Thick fog is very common. If you go, take appropriate clothes!

Today I have a day free for me!! I am going to spend it with Jane Deane (see links) at Duchy Square centre in Princetown on Dartmoor learning to dye “properly”! I know Jane will question my use of “properly” since, as with all artists, she will question the implication that there is a correct and incorrect way to do things.

Perhaps I should say, learning to dye “technically” rather than in the haphazard way I’ve done it so far. Jane will be showing me how to reproduce dyebaths for repeat batches of colour with consistent results.  This will mean I can produce more than 8 skeins of one shade which will be a huge advantage.

In preparation, I have wound 60 skeins weighing 5g each of my precious DK cashmere yarn. We will be test dyeing batches to form a library of colour for me to refer to in the future. In the process of course no doubt we shall set the world to rights, have a moan as well as some fun, and find time (I hope!) for some lunch in the pub!

I need some R and R at the moment. The last cashmere kid was born yesterday without mishap and we can now sit back and relax (?) until the next season starts in only two months! Yes, by August I must be moving animals into breeding groups and getting ready for my buck to go to Innovis for semen donation to Canada.

It’s not free time of course because now we have hay making just around the corner and everyone is watching weather forecasts anxiously and checking equipment to make ready. We have the barn swept and cleared ready for the next crop. All we need now is the next window of opportunity to do it. We are hoping to use a large baler this year meaning that big bales lifted by the tractor rather than us will be the norm. We will still make some small bale hay though – about 200 bales. As each year goes by I find the lifting and stacking of these onto the trailer to get them off the field and then into heaps in the barn more and more difficult. Surgery on my wrist in a month’s time will make it impossible so we have to get the hay crop in before then. My neighbour makes over 2000 small bales each year with some help from two farm workers but even so, he puts us to shame. He has spent his entire life doing the hardest possible manual work so I suppose we have some excuse.  It’s back breaking work in the heat which is of course essential for hay making. When the job is done, there is absolutely nothing more satisfying than sitting, exhausted, on top of the load on your trailer as it’s hauled into the safety of the barn.

Anyone in the UK who reads The Independent on Sunday – we are featured in a small way in the magazine tomorrow. Emily Dugan came down to see Finisterre in Cornwall and stopped off to see me as well because we are supplying the Bowmont wool to them.  It’s mainly about Finisterre of course but there is a  piece about us.We will be ear tagging and worming a batch of goats tomorrow so will have to make time to slip out and get a copy. Trouble is – it’s a 12 mile round trip for a paper!

All the 2009 kids and lambs received the first of their Blue Tongue vaccines today. They are like pin cushions by the time I have finished with them all in July but it is for their own good. Fortunately the sheep only need one but the poor goats need two of everything!

Blue Tongue has yet to appear here this summer and I think we must thank the French from the bottom of our hearts for that. They have run a very effective compulsory vaccination programme. So far so good although we cannot and must not be complacent. Most of my neighbours are not bothering at the moment but its a risky strategy.

I am constantly humbled by the ability of readers of this blog to “hit the nail on the head”. While I fumble about trying to find a clear way to express my views  in a balanced way, one of you invariably goes straight to the heart of the issue.  Jane in her comments on “Bemusement” and “What is a Farm Shop” has done just that. Helen too.

Both point out the practical difficulties of buying ethically when it clearly doesn’t provide the quality you need (not just WANT) for your task or requirement. Then there is the very clear summing up of my problem with Riverford (and all other large scale ethical companies I might say) where the vision has been lost in the whirlwind of expansion. Both Jane and Helen are committed and passionate supporters of ethical and local purchasing but are tempering that with commonsense. They, like me, have the good fortune to live in the countryside and can see clearly  the realities of food/fibre production  going on around them every day. Those who live a city life can not and must necessarily rely on advertising and personal research to find answers. That’s a tough call for people leading busy lives.

We are all swept along on a tide of smug, self congratualtion at times when we buy something which we believe will help save the planet. If we are honest with ourselves, deep down, we know this is likely to be nonsense. Not buying “it” at all is probably better for the planet’s resources but then, that’s not good for the people who made it who may be in desperate need of an income!

Government too is caught up in all this and is a prime mover in perpetuating the cycle of guilt followed by self-congratulation. It’s incredibly rare for someone in authority to step off this treadmill and take a long clear look at ourselves. There’s too much at stake politically.

I feel we reached another level of silliness yesterday however. The government has commissioned the Met Office to produce weather predictions for the next 80 years for the UK. Since they cannot predict the weather here for the next 5 minutes I found that highly amusing! We were told that Government is providing this as a service so that local authorities can plan their strategies well ahead. “It is the first time that a probabilistic approach to predicting climate change” has been taken it says on the website.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2009/pr20090618a.html

This project was reported in detail last night on our news programmes. I have looked at the website today and was struck immediately by something not apparent on the news reports. This is a commercial selling project. The Met Office is now a business and is required to sell its services like any other. This new “Climate Change Predictor” is principally aimed at businesses which must do risk assessments either for insurance or for future business planning. Like everyone selling a service, they want to make the most of themselves but its clear when you get into the detail that everything is hedged with “ifs, buts and maybes”.  As such, I see this in the same way as any other company providing a service for business involving risk assessment.  In other words, probably a complete waste of time and money but something we have to do to tick boxes.

I have absolutely no doubt that we need to conserve world energy and cease polluting our living breathing earth but I also have no doubt that very little of what we do here in the UK is making or ever could make one scrap of difference. A whole industry has grown up to help us wail, beat our breast and nash our teeth over this, whether its organic food production or climate change prediction. We must step back and think. The first victim in any campaign meant to change our thinking in a radical way is always commonsense.

I am not for one moment saying we should continue in the bad old ways – not at all but I am asking us to be realistic in our views of what is really possible and, dare I say it, to stop being so arrogant about the influence of man.  James Lovelock’s view of Gaia as a self balancing system is one I subscribe to. Extremes are part of that view. The problem modern man has is that we can now understand and to some extent predict this whereas in the past events and trends were seen purely with hindsight.

By all means live ethically as I hope we all strive to do, but let us stop pretending that it is going to save the planet.

Despite the fact that my Bowmont sheep have been treated with Clik I just can’t rest easy on  a  day like today. It’s hot, humid and thundery – perfect blow fly weather. I’ve been walking among them for the last few minutes observing and making sure all is well. Clik is not a fly repellent – instead it disrupts the growth of fly larvae so in theory, a fly egg which hatches should not develop into the flesh eating maggot which causes all the problem. Most repellents don’t last more than a couple of days and certainly wouldn’t cope with the torrential rainsotrms we get here in the summer sometimes.  Unfortunately this makes them impractical once you get above half a dozen sheep.

As a consequence the blow flies still worry the sheep as do biting flies – the same ones which torment us on a day like today! I felt so sorry for my animals  They were tense, heads down standing rigidly whenever they heard a buzz. All looks well in respect of signs of “strike” but the sheep are still paranoid!

The goats by contrast are unfussed. Blow fly strike in goats is very rare. For some reason even the Angoras with their long coats are spared. The only time I have ever had it is on one occasion in the foot of an Angora which was very sore.  All the goats are annoyed by biting flies and at times can be driven to distraction by the huge horseflies we have here. The bite can be very painful. We try to get round this for them by offering fields with distinctly different areas such as tree shade, dry open slopes, valley bottom etc so that a t different times of day the animals can retreat to less fly infested spots.

Summer weather is wonderful but hot humid days are good for neither man nor beast.

My post on the “local” and “organic” issue  has thrown up some interesting comments.  I’d love to open this up wider. What constitutes a real Farm Shop in your opinion? And, while we are on the subject, what is a real Farmers Market?

I was in Bristol at the weekend and went to Waitrose at Portishead on the way home where there a very small rather poor Farmers Market right outside in progress. I thought to myself if it couldn’t do well in an affluent area like that on a brilliant sunny day then there was something seriously wrong. Plenty of Waitrose shoppers were wandering past the stalls but hardly anyone was buying and it wasn’t hard to see why. The stalls were not inspiring and one in particular stood out. It seemed to be selling prepacked lumps of very ordinary cheese from all over the country. The only thing local as far as I could tell was that the packing plant was in Somerset. Not my idea of what a stall should be.

The whole thing is a real can of worms so let’s open it up and see what everyone thinks.

I’ve been trying unsuccesfully to knit a cashmere beanie in the round without a “bump” where the round starts. Trawling round on the internet for an INTELLIGIBLE solution to the problem I came across this great Knitting Blog

http://techknitting.blogspot.com/

I really like this. It’s full of excellent sound technical advice but doesn’t make you feel an idiot for needing the help in the first place! There is an interesting piece about “handedness” and knitting style and loads of other goodies to read through. The author is from Wisconsin in the USA and writes for Interweave Knitting  but apart from that I know nothing about her. If anyone does I’d be pleased to hear from them. In the meantime, if you are out there Tech Knitter – THANK YOU!!