Farm Diary Archive
All Clear on the TB Test & the Power of the Sun Makes Lots of Lovely Silage!
Great news on the TB test front - we had the reading last Friday and all the cattle passed clear so great relief all round.

The contractor came last evening and baled up all the clover silage which Roger had turned twice to dry it out a little and promote the correct fermentation. In all with the two cuts so far, the land has produced 2 tonnes of dry matter per acre without any artificial input. The clover will grow up again and could possibly provide more silage and if not, several months of grazing to fatten the lambs.

Several of our guests are enjoying the lovely walks around the area. Walking fro Little Comfort to West Down to enjoy supper at The Crown Inn is a great way to end the day. For those of you who might think the initial hill is a bit steep, one family with a 2 and 4 year old went singing up it in the sunshine this week! Another family are parking at Putsborough each day, setting up camp on the beach, then walking to Woolacombe or Mortehoe for lunch and walking back for an afternoon's bodyboarding - probably followed by a snooze!!

Ruby's 1st Birthday and Some Welcome Rain! 22nd July 2010
Ruby our chocolate cocker spaniel was 1 on the 3^rd July she is still full of beans and great company and is being really enjoyed by all our guests as she just loves to play and be stroked. She is so fast at running that she has earned herself the nickname of the chocolate rocket! This morning she went so fast through the dewy grass that she appeared soaking wet and looking more like an otter than a dog.

We have had some very welcome rain after a prolonged dry spell, whilst the sunshine is great for holidays and the spirit, if it goes on too long the grass and fodder crops stop growing and the situation becomes very serious for feeding all the animals. So, after the rain, everything has greened up again and the panic is over. Roger needs to conserve forage (silage and hay) for the winter to feed the animals when the grass stops growing all together. He has grown a field of red clover, a legume that fixes nitrogen from the air and so without any additional inputs produces high protein forage. The clover is looking great and all we need now is the rain to stop and then it will be harvested. Then the nitrogen fixed in the roots will produce more growth and help the grass seed that was grown with the clover to thrive.

Yesterday we were subject to yet another TB test on the cattle; we are on 6 monthly testing now to try to eradicate the disease. They were inoculated twice with a small dose of the serum and a control, then on Friday the vet will measure the difference between the bumps and if there is a large difference the cow is said to be a reactor, sent for slaughter and more testing; the rest of the herd are then tested more regularly. There is a massive debate in the uk about the correct method of tackling this disease, which, it is simplest to say, is ongoing!!!

Little Comfort Farm is bathed in Sunshine! 22nd June 2010
We have been enjoying a week of unbroken sunshine at Little Comfort farm which has been great for the beach and sunbathing but not so good for the farm. With the heat and lack of rain the grass is losing so much water in transpiration that it is not growing much at all. It has the effect of making it flower earlier as the plant races the elements to set seed for another generation. Once the grass sets seeds its nutritional content drops and it stops growing altogether. Roger has made more silage but the yield was 50% down on what he hoped which is worrying as we need to store enough food for the animals next winter.

On a more positive note!! The moorhen, who made her nest right beside the path to the lake and has sat tight on her eggs while we all admired her, has hatched five fluffy little black chicks and was last seen heading down the river Caen towards Braunton.
In the garden the produce is coming thick and fast now with gooseberries and strawberries taking over from the rhubarb; cucumbers, lettuces, spring onions & tomatoes for salads and baby carrots, courgettes, beetroot, mange tout and spinach in the main garden. All very delicious and a pleasure to pick and eat.
Our youngest daughter is home from university and is loving showing her friends North Devon in between swimming, body boarding, rock pooling, sunbathing, cycling, reading & chatting. They have also made the first batch of this year's elderflower cordial which is a great family favourite.

Fun Music at Oceanfest, Brilliant Local Art on the Art Trek and the Countryside Looking Sensational - North Devon has it all! 14th June 2010
This month you will be spoilt for choice in North Devon as there is so much going on. The Art Trek offers us all the opportunity to visit local artist, potters, weavers etc in their own homes and studios to see their work and talk to them. Last year friends and I had a great day out visiting several studios with lunch on the way round. I came back with a basket to add to my collection and the friends with a perfect picture to go above their newly refurbished fireplace - I wonder what will be the essential purchase this year....!

Croyde will be alive with Goldcoast Oceanfect this weekend - lots of live music, beach sports, fun and stalls.

At the farm the wild flowers are amazing. I have just taken Ruby for a walk around the lake field where the whole field looks like a painting with swathes of yellow and red and sharp spikes of the marsh thistles and hard heads standing up amongst it all. When they open the colours will change again and the purple hues will take over. The common spotted orchids which grow in two patches in the field get stronger every year. One of my abiding memories is of our youngest daughter, aged 9, with a long blonde plait dancing behind her, running more than waist high through the flowers the year we moved here and thinking 'what a truly amazing place to grow up in Little Comfort Farm will be'! She's 20 next week and several of her university friends are coming to stay and she can't wait to share it all with them.

Shearing time at Little Comfort Farm 8th June 2010 

Now that the hot weather has arrived it is time to shear the sheep. They grow a thick wool coat which contains lanolin; this prevents all but the heaviest rain getting through to the skin so they have warmth and protection from adverse weather.

However what is a bonus in winter becomes a burden in summer so the shearer cuts off the wool for them - just like a hair cut for us and, like us, by the time next winter arrives they have regrown the wool. The fleece used to be the most wonderfully useful product and was of great value to the farmer at some points in history, being worth more than the meat. However, with the use of oil to make much of our clothing, the price paid for wool has plummeted; so much so that it costs us more to shear them than the wool is worth. Such a shame, still hopefully one day the fantastic properties of this natural product will be rediscovered and valued once again!
Bathed in early summer sunshine....... 3rd June 2010 

Warm sunshine, a new calf and great surf have all been part of the story at Little Comfort Farm this week. We have enjoyed a week of fabulous weather with blue skies and temperatures in the 20s most of the week and just one night & morning of very welcome rain - 15mm! - ideal for encouraging the garden to flourish and keeping the grass growing for the cattle.
Roger has made his first field of silage and was very pleased with the high quality product that the red clover and grass mix yielded. All the bales are safely wrapped to prevent air entering.
Our last Devon cow has calved and produced a lovely heifer (female) calf. She was very late calving so she and her calf are enjoying the quiet field of Comfort Close away from the rest of the herd. The cycle begins again for the rest of the herd as Bombadier, our Devon bull, joins them this week which should produce another batch of good calves next March.
In the kitchen garden we are enjoying the first broad beans, beetroot and carrots and still cropping lettuce, strawberries and spinach. With the last of the frosts hopefully behind us all the tender squashes, beans and tomatoes have been planted out. This morning I have made a great batch of rhubarb jam for the house and the shop which looks wonderful all stacked up in rows in the kitchen - VERY satisfying!

The One that DIDN'T get Away!  13th May 2010
 

There was much interest and excitement on the coarse fishing lake recently when 12 year old Richard Webber caught a 'monster'. He had a new rod and had spent all day getting tangled and snagged. Then he hooked a big one which leapt out of the water - but stayed on the line! It took some time to land and then caused even more excitement as it was most definitely not the expected carp, rudd, roach or bream; in fact no-one knew quite what it was. So thank you to Richard's dad Mark for supplying the lovely photos and to Bob Collett of the Environment Agency who identified our 'mystery fish' as a cock (male) brown trout. He weighed 3lb and put up a tremendous fight. A great story to tell for Richard's first day fishing with his new rod.

We have been enjoying watching the swallows and house martins as they return for the summer, and having read an article about the rapid loss of returning swifts, were thrilled to see them in three different areas locally this week. The RSPB are asking us all to let them know where they have been seen. If you got on to their website www.rspb.org.uk just type RSPB swift survey into your computer and then you can fill in an online form and return it to them. They are fantastically aerobatic birds to watch in the air and if there is anything we can all do to help increase their numbers it would be great. 

The cattle are out & Bracken has come home! 4th May 2010
 
May is here with very welcome showers and warmer weather which will help the grass to grow - it has been very slow this spring with just enough for the ewes and lambs so we have only recently been able to put the cattle out. They have been enjoying the fresh grass in the sunshine (and rain!) with their lovely new calves.

Long lane field has been ploughed and re-seeded with grass and clover after a year hosting the pigs and we look forward to the new pasture developing over the summer. The sowing is an experiment using white clover with Timothy and Meadow Fescue grasses (no rye grass) which should produce a long term grazing ley.

After a long absence of many years on loan to friends in Cornwall teaching young people to ride, our pony Bracken has returned home to Little Comfort to retire aged 30. We're sure she'll receive lots of love and attention from our guests here and after the sad loss of our old horse Zari it is lovely to have a pony on the farm again.

Geocaching Galore and all Egged Out! 20th April 2010
 
 
Well after 3 Easter egg hunts here on the farm, all in lovely weather with blue skies and spring flowers everywhere, I think we are all 'egged out'! Thanks once again to Green & Blacks for the lovely chocolate eggs and the Soil Association for the Easter booklet.
Daisy Robbins, one eager egg hunter, wrote the following for us and we thought it was so lovely we'd include it here- thank you Daisy!

Original Farm
Rusty red cows
Grasses spreading North, South, East & West
Animals by the dozen
Neat rows of Spring flowers
Icy waters flowing fast
Country smells breathe through the trees.

Do you know what Geocaching is? Well I didn't, but I do now as daughter Jenny's boyfriend has introduced us to his hobby. It is like a grown up treasure hunt where secret 'caches' are tracked down using Global Satellite Positioning (GPS), you then sign the roll call on the cache and enter the find on the website. The West Down area and Little Comfort have suddenly become the centre of a great hub of Geocaches set unusually close together, this has led to lots more people enjoying the footpath walk down from the village in search of their caches.

We have had an amazing three weeks on the farm, with piglets, lambs and calves all arriving and lots and lots of guests returning, some for their eighth visit - it was lovely to see you all again. Last week was Lilah Hymans's birthday, Jo & Toby Moores' 10th Anniversary and the 10th Anniversary of our arrival at Little Comfort Farm. So a lovely way to celebrate 10 VERY HAPPY YEARS!!!

The Swallows are Back! 6th April 2010
 
I am on the early morning shift in the lambing shed and as it got light on the 24th March I was greeted by the fantastic sight of a pair of swallows swooping over the orchard - a real sign that summer can't be far away. The other great news on the ornithological front is that I have been watching a kingfisher making a tunnel to nest in by the lake. In 2001 when we extended the lake we deliberately left a tall clifflike bank which we were advised should be the right habitat for kingfishers to nest in. They are frequent visitors and have bred in the valley before but, never on the lake so we are very pleased. Our bird table is also frequently visited by a greater spotted woodpecker family who, along with blue, great, longtailed and coal tits, dummocks and sparrows, are all a pleasure to watch.

Lots of New Arrivals! 30th March 2010

Lambing is now in full swing and all are doing well - so far. We have one ewe who has mastitis which means her milk production drops off so we are supplementing her twins with bottle milk at the moment. Hopefully, with medication, she will improve enough to rear one or both of her lambs.
We had a successful but dramatic calving this morning with a calf being born in the wrong presentation so her back feet were coming first. This can cause major problems as the cow does not receive the right stimuli to push the calf out - the calves ribs are all facing the wrong way and this can make for a difficult and long delivery, the calfs head will still be in the womb when the umbilical cord breaks so it is very important to deliver quilckly so they don't drown. All went very well and, to our immense relief and pleasure, a really good sized heifer calf is lying on her bed of new straw with a very proud mum licking and loving her.
Easter weekend will certainly be a time of new birth at Little Comfort Farm and, by the look of the huge pile of chocolate eggs in the office, a pretty 'chocolatey' time as well! We are holding Easter Egg Hunts in partnership with the Soil Association and Green & Blacks on Tuesday 6th & Tuesday 13th April starting at 10.45am with all welcome for an egg trail then a farm tour and you are most welcome to picnic on the farm afterwards - please ring to reserve places.

Spring! Spring! Spring! 24th March 2010

Spring is finally coming to the farm after a long, long, cold spell when we had what someone locally called a 'Finnegan' wind with all the grass that had started to grow being 'Blown back in again' (Begin again...!) Now, after a warmer weekend and some rain, the fields are greening up and there is a welcome bite of grass for the very pregnant sheep to supplement their silage. They will be coming into the barn soon so that we can keep a closer eye on them as lambing approaches.

There are now four healthy calves in the barn who will be getting their first taste of fresh grass soon as the weather warms up.

It has been frog and toad city here recently! When the temperature rises above 10^o to 11^{o C} and we get rain, every amphibian for miles around makes their way down to our lake and pnds to breed. It is quite a spectacle with frogs, toads and newts all on the move. We have been out with a torch on several occasions in the evening, amazed at the range of markings and colours. (This is considered very 'sad' as far as our children are concerned!)

Bombadier's First Calf! 14th March 2010

Bombadier, our first Red Ruby Devon bull, came to Little Comfort last June and his first calf, a lovely little heifer (female), has just been born.

The Red Ruby Devons, which are very much associated with North Devon, can trace their heritage back to 1884 when the Devon Cattle Breeders Society was founded. The Devon Ruby is recognised internationally for its ability to produce the very finest beef on a low input system.

'Lambing Live' as on BBC2 will soon be starting 'Live' at Little Comfort. Roger has brought the ewes closer to home and is giving them some additional food to make sure they and their unborn lambs are both in great condition. Watching the television last night brings it all back as this is one of our favourite times of year on the farm.

A Marathon Effort for Sunarma Jan 2010
Having seen first hand the wonderful work that Sunarma are doing in Ethiopia we are absolutely thrilled that our ever intrepid daughter Jenny is planning to run the London marathon this year to raise funds for this fantastic charity which promotes and facilitates sustainable farming in the rural community. Jenny ran the marathon in 2008 (never say never again!!) and having done it in a particularly good time, true to form, is hoping to improve on it this year. She can be sponsored via the Just Giving website   http://www.justgiving.com/jenny-milsom If you would like to learn more about Sunarma then please take a look at their website http://www.sunarma.org/  Our own trip to Ethiopia is recorded in the Farm Diary Archive
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Season's Greetings from us all at Little Comfort Farm!!! December 2009
Gosh where did 2009 go?! In a blur of amazing holidays, great guests, lots of sunshine when you expect rain and quite a lot of rain when it really ought to be sunny! We are looking forward to all three of our children coming home for Christmas as well as other family visiting so, with all our cottages full, Christmas will be well and truly celebrated at Little Comfort Farm. We would like to wish you and yours a very Happy Christmas.

On a sad note we end 2009 with the news that our lovely and much loved collie Jess has died aged 14 3/4. We are terribly sad and miss her lots but she had a fabulous life, was enjoyed by so many and loved the fuss you all gave her. She was born on Christmas Day on my brother's bed (her mum Judy didn't fancy the other arrangements that had been made) so it seems fitting that we say goodbye to her at Christmas.





Farming in Ethiopia
Roger and I have just returned from a trip of a life time to Ethiopia. We had the most enormous privilege of travelling with great college friends of ours Piers and Liz Langdon to visit the project areas that the charity Sunarma is working with in the highland areas about a hundred miles from the capital Addis Ababa. Sunarma stands for Sustainable Natural Resource Management Association, and helps bring sustainable solutions to Ethiopia’s poorest communities. Their web site sunarma.co.uk is well worth a look because it can explain much better than I can the work that they do and has some fantastic photos to look at. Piers was brought up in the country and his passion for the people and the countryside is in infectious, he is also an Amharic speaker which means that we were able to find out so much more about all the amazing things we were seeing. Amongst so many hugely memorable moments are two that will live with us forever. True life changing experiences.

Roger and Piers walked in to the Wof Washa forest to look at the work that is going on in the tree nurseries. There is a major shortage of fuel and farming land in Ethiopia which has resulted in the native forests being cut down. Sunarma is working with the local areas to help plant Eucalyptus (a fast growing tree that provides timber for construction and fuel), and to help increase the native juniper tree.
For every batch of trees grown and supplied by Sunarma 30% must include the native Juniper. In order to visit the tree nursery Roger and Piers walked for three days through the forest with men from the Sunarma team and forest guards. The forest is 6000- 8000 feet above sea level and is stunningly beautiful, there are no roads and the only means of transport is to walk with a donkey to carry your packs. They were guests of the village people and slept on the floor of the houses where fresh hay was scattered for them. Hopefully the pictures below will give you a better impression than words can.

Another project is to grow vegetables for families to eat to help improve their food security and to provide a small surplus to sell at market. This, as a vegetable gardener myself, was something I could understand and relate to. The Sunarma project officers work with the women and talk about the different vegetables that might be possible, then they grow them, starting in one person’s home area and then spreading out through the group. This area has never traditionally grown vegetables so they have cooking and tasting sessions as well to make sure that it is acceptable to their diet. The results are amazing and the women are thrilled with the extra food they can grow for their family and the money they can earn from the surplus. We were taken to a market where the women were selling their surplus and they welcomed us in such a way that we were completely humbled by their achievements and the change it has made to their lives again there are some photos below.

On our return we found the farm and cottages were all in great order and it was raining!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! November 17th 2009

Going Bats & Nuts!! October 28th 2009
The mild weather has been a wonderful Autumn bonus with the colours of the trees glowing in the sun. It has allowed the bats to keep feeding on the still present insects and we have been watching a large species of bat feeding regularly over the cottages and the pig field. On the bat detector it is sounding the loudest on  25 frequency and this, along with its flight pattern and the time it emerges before sunset, suggests it is most likely a 'Noctule' bat. However we are not completely sure as it could also be a 'Serotine'.

This week we took part in Natural England's 'Golden Great Nut Hunt' looking for evidence of dormice on the farm to help in their efforts to establish the distribution of dormice throughout Britain. http://www.greatnuthunt.co.uk/ A group of us went and collected fallen hazel nuts in a couple of sites which we then counted and checked to see how the nuts had been chewed as this tells you what animals have been eating the nuts. The possibilities are Dormouse, Woodmouse, Bank Vole or Squirrel. We found no evidence of anything other than squirrels from the nuts. However we had found a dead dormouse this summer (sadly killed by the cat) so we know they are here somewhere - perhaps we were just looking under the wrong trees!! We are hoping to go out again and search some more.

Sheep
All the ewes have had their feet trimmed (just like having toenails cut) and Roger has sheared the wool from round their tails to help keep things clean at lambing time.
The rams have also had a trim & they are now next to the ewes so they can talk through the gate - this stimulates the ewes howmones so that when the rams go in with the ewes we get lots of pregnant sheep very quickly!!

Continuing Stewardship
Roger and Mark have been working on the riverbank trees. The Alder tree is a fast growing waterside tree which quickly forms a complete tunnel over the river. This prevents light reaching the water and without sunlight, the water plankton and plants cannot thrive as they are unable to photosynthesise. By removing the trees in a controlled rotation we are letting more light into the river which is increasing the plant life and in turn the food for fish and invertebrates which then increases the food for birds and mammals - and so the food chain continues!
Since we started this form of managements 9 years ago we have seen increased fish numbers in the river and successful breeding of Dippers and Kingfishers.

A Fond Farewell to Zari - 3rd September 2009
A rather sad farm diary this week as Zari our lovely old grey Arab mare has died aged 33 years. Zari has been a member of the Milsom family for 30 years - longer than I have!! (Jackie). During that time she has had 8 beautiful foals, has enjoyed success in the show ring and been a really fun horse to ride.

She retired to Little Comfort in 2002 when Roger's parents moved to Scotland, since when she has been much loved by all our guests to the farm. She is buried on the hill overlooking the valley - a beautiful spot for a very special, kind horse.

Updated 3rd September

Blackberry & Apples!! 15th September 2009
We have just started harvesting the apples to be pressed into juice for our own use and for guests to buy from our Farm Office. The Discovery is an early fruiting tree which we have been enjoying since the middle of August with very pink flesh. Although delicious, the fruit do not keep well at all, so juice is a great option. This will be mixed in equal parts with the Laxton Superb apples and a lovely high yielding great tasting tree from the garden that we have no name for!

The lambs have been weaned now from the ewes and moved on to a recently sewn field with a high clover content which they are really enjoying and growing well on.

Blackberry has produced 11 lovely spotty piglets who are extremely fit and healthy. She lay on one the other day and luckily the Raysom family spotted the piglet in distress, called us and Roger was able to breathe some life back into it. It then started to breathe on its own again and is now doing really well.

On the garden front we are enjoying a season of plenty with the vegetable garden producing
carrots, beetroot, tomatoes, courgettes, spinach, beans, potatoes, scorzonera, cabbages, apples, sweetcorn, onions etc.

August 24th 2009
Bats, Moths & Mice!
This week we had a very successful farm walk with the Devon Wildlife Trust which included an evening bat session where we listened to several species of bat with bat detectors including Daubenton's and the Greater Horseshoe bat. Members of the Trust also set up three moth traps and a very enthusiastic expert was able to identify and show us a large number of different moth species.

Another great discovery this week was a dead (unfortunately) dormouse which had been brought in by one of our cats. This is good news all round as we have been working to improve & create habitats around the farm to encourage wildlife - it is lovely to see it is working.

August 13th 2009
The Bees Are Back!
Roger has been keeping bees for 20 years now but over the last two summers lost the last of his colonys. There has been a lot of speculation as to why so many bees have died; two appallingly wet summers could have been a major factor. The hives build up a massive number of worker bees in the spring to gather in all the nectar and pollen then, just when the hive is at capacity needing a lot of food to sustain themselves, it has rained for 6 to 8 weeks which prevents them flying.

Anyhow, we have now restocked with two new hives of bees which were bred about 3 miles away at Pippacott and are safely installed in our warm and sheltered orchard so, hopefully, in a few years we will have honey again.

Hedgerow Harvest
In the winter of 2001-2002 we planted 4,500 hedgerow trees on Little Comfort including rowan, blackthorn, wild plum, cherry, hawthorn and hazel, hoping that their fruits and nuts would feed lots of birds and small mammals. This year, only seven years after planting, they are laden with fruit and will provide a bountiful harvest for all our wildlife.

4th August Rain, rain, more rain and sunshine on its way!
We've had our share of rain recently - just like everyone else. The Davies family got stuck in last week when one of the drains was blocked creating a lake on the drive and Ella and Adam were very excited at being able to help save the beach from being washed away by the stream. Better weather is on its way this week which will be very welcome although I think we've all grown accustomed to the damp and have adapted our activities accordingly - that's not say some of that bright yellow stuff shining down us won't be very welcome!