Farm tour

An even quicker dinner than last night ( toast and a few crackers ) as we were off to meet up with a group of locals to take part in a tour of a local farm. First we had to walk there, on footpaths that run through the farmland.

The owners of the farm are the uncle and cousin of the organiser of the walk, who is a long standing mate of mine ( we met at one riding club or another, probably around the age of 10 or so ... It's so long ago, we can't remember, but it was her 50th we went to back in March ). She also organised the walk I blipped on June 5th, when her uncle gave a talk on the Crater.

This time it was her cousin who took the tour. We had an interesting talk about the chickens and then the cows, before wandering along to meet them. The eggs are sold via a 24 hour vending machine, which I use from time to time. There are 8,000 free range chickens in each 'shed' - they can roam around in huge fields so I guess they just know which shed is theirs when they want to lay eggs or roost for the night. I didn't think to ask that! However, I do know that one person picks all the eggs in one shed, which takes between 3 and 4 hours a day. There are 4 sheds. I need to buy more eggs!

The cows are a cross between Holsteins and Jerseys, and the milking parlour ( a herring bone, for those interested and added as an extra pic ) holds 40 down each side. Milking takes 4 hours and is done twice a day.

After the talk We wandered back to the village and invaded the chip shop! About 9.30pm we began to disperse, and we were invited to the pub by a couple of our friends ( the Ramblin' Man festival couple, July 24th ) so had a swift one before heading home ourselves.

Not a bad day considering I'm having a series of migraine attacks! Oops, just realised I inadvertently pumped myself up with drugs AND alcohol tonight!