About two weeks ago my neighbour managed to get a young fox that was prowling round the hen house.
This was in the early hours, around 1.30am, they still are sly little devils in the countryside, not like the town fox that knows he's safe even in daylight raiding bins etc.
Even though that's one down, a young fox raiding hen houses is going to be bad company all the time until he is caught, only thing is mummy, daddy and brothers and sisters are still lurking around.
With the grass growing very well down here this spring, an early silaging was on the cards and with Philippa winning a two-night stay at the Raven Hall Hotel's new lodges they were booked for the end of May and as we hadn't had a break for well over two years we were really looking forward to them.
Then it rained for 10 days and the contractors had to wait for the weather along with six or seven other farmers all chomping at the bit to get the grass brought in, at its peak condition.
Thing looked bleak the day before – and so the grass was still in the field.
Just before lunchtime the machine landed in the yard.
We mixed the additive to assist with the fermentation of the grass.
The big John Deere forager set off down the road and started gobbling up the grass in the fields, chopping it into small lengths and filling three different trailers which carried the grass back to the farmyard to be expertly laid onto the silage pit by another tractor with large buck rake on the back of it (the buck rake is a machine with 20 or so 5ft tarns on it to lift the grass from where the trailer drops it to its resting place in the clamp).
The faster the grass is ensiled, it is supposed to be better for the fermentation, which makes it better for the cows, eating it in the winter months when the grass is not growing.
Even with some fields a mile from home the lads were making good progress, along with some crops being heavier than any they had picked up before.
By 7 o'clock the sixty acre of grass was cleared and by 8 o'clock after tidying up the clamp and rolling down the grass on top of the clamp with the tractor, the silage sheet was being pulled on to try to keep the air out for a first class fermentation and a layer of tyres on top of the sheet to stop the air getting underneath the sheet.
An absolutely first class job well executed by top class operators, my thanks to Dave Hill and his team.
We had to make a small detour the following day via Lockton, yes completely in the wrong direction but Mr and Mrs Todd had some pedigree Blonde d'Aquitaine cattle and we needed another bull. On arriving we had the choice of five or six smart young bulls.
We picked out one that we thought would do a good job for us.
And no we didn't take him to Raven Hall with us!