Kids Connect campaign blog

Felicity writes:

On the farm the one-day old turkeys chicks were picked up from a Norfolk farm ready us to raise ready for Christmas.

The oilseed rape from the field has been harvested and taken into the farm buildings. It has to be dried out due to the wetness of the land.

The older farm barns near to my house are being converted into useful buildings, one of the rooms is going to be used as Thurleigh's sorting office, as the local post office is closing down.

Martha writes:

My Dad was getting the last bales of straw out of the Dutch barn, when he came across a nest full of kittens.

There are six of them altogether and they belong to my cat, Squirrel, we think they are about a week old because they have their eyes open.

They are all different colours; my favourite one is the tabby which is just like its mother.

We have had to make a new home for them in a large tree tub in a shed near the house as there is no more straw in the barn, and we need to handle them every day to make them friendly.

In about eight weeks time, we will have to find homes for them, we usually advertise them in the local shop and at the vets and the pet food store. People always seem to like cats from farms as they always make good mousers!

We have been weighing the lambs to see if any are ready for market, but they were not quite ready.

My Dad thinks it is down to all the wet weather we have had that has made them a bit slower to get fat, but I don’t mind because we get to keep them a bit longer.

Emily writes:

This week one and a half fields of grass have been made into hay. Also my dog Spooky is on a diet.

We got the combine harvester in to harvest the wheat but my dad did the moisture test and it turned out to be too wet so the combine had to stop.

I’m not sure how the moisture test works, but I think the wheat is grinded up and if the moisture level is higher than 15% then it is too wet.

Craig writes:

At last we have baled all our hay.

It feels ages since we were cutting the first lot of hay and the turner has certainly done a lot of work this year.

It’s been a fairly busy week and we’ve managed to get the set aside cut as well as trying to fit in the turning of the hay.

Thursday was the Black Isle Show day so that morning was spent there.

It was very interesting and I really enjoyed looking round the various breeds of cattle, sheep, goats and hens - although it was lucky the show was before the foot-and-mouth outbreak down south as otherwise there would have been no livestock.

In the tent with the hens there were also rabbits and some of them were huge! I never knew that you could get rabbits so big.

Felicity writes:

On the farm the first of the hay has been cut and sold, the first of the raspberries and pinks have also come out.

Me and my sister also saved a goose after a fox attack. We made it a pen and put some water and food in there for it and named it Coco.

We also went to the seaside, and enjoyed the nice weather!

Martha writes:

At last the weather has dried up enough to start harvest.

On Wykeham Estate, who we rent our farm off - and who my dad contracts for - they have managed to cut 375 acres of oilseed rape with out having to dry any.

This is good because drying costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time.

The combine only got stuck once and it was easily pulled out, and we have managed to bale enough rape straw to bed up the pigs, which will keep them happy for a while.

Craig writes:

On Friday my Dad had some spare time so we went up to Strathconon for the day and although there was the odd shower it was a good day out.

Molly our dog came with us and spent the whole time swimming in the river and running around – she seems to have endless energy.

I got a new bike a few weeks ago and got a chance to put it to the test on a forest track with one of my friends who also got a new bike.

Emily writes:

I am very sad because rabbit was put down due to a problem with his brain.

But on a happier note, my uncle came today and he brought his toy helicopter.

Basically my uncle is a big kid and loves his toys. His garden is too small so he brought it here. The first time it flew it went on the road but we found it before it got squished.

After about a million flights I finally got the hang of it, my dog went chasing about after it and like he does rabbits.

Martha writes:

On Wednesday I went to my next door neighbour's house because he let me have a go on his horse and carriage it was great fun.

You need at least two people to go so that there is someone to hold the reins at all times.

Before we went we had to brush them and wash them down to make them look posh.

Felicity writes:

On the farm we have been hay making, but the combine has been broken so we weren't able to start combining as soon as we would have liked.

The turkeys are settling in well and we are starting to get a few punnets of raspberries.

Due to the foot-and-mouth, some of the animals that were supposed to go to market last week were not allowed.

Martha writes:

My sister and I went to a free concert called 'Beached' at Scarborough.

It was really good - I was paddling in the sea most of the time while my sister and her friends were listening to the music.

They were handing out drum sticks and my sister was really close to getting a one but somebody else got there first, the weather was really nice and there was lots of people there and the music was very good.

Craig writes:

I’m back at school now and it feels like I’ve never been away!

The vegetables in the garden are now ready and I’ve already lifted some carrots and potatoes.

I’m really pleased with how the veg has turned out this year – especially the carrots, as they are huge.

I did a sponsored walk in Poolewe called the ‘Great Wilderness Challenge’ in aid of Highland Hospice, Children First and the Children's Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS).

Poolewe is on the Northwest coast of Scotland near Gairloch. I was one of hundreds of people that walked 13 miles on road, over hills and even through a bog.

Felicity writes:

These are the silky bantan chicks that were hatched last week.

Emily writes:

Hello from Wales!

My family and I have driven to south Wales to see my grandparents.

They live in an 18th century farmhouse and live next to the highest point in south Wales called Pen-y-Fan it is just under 3000 ft and we climbed it last year.

They have a lot of rain and sheep round where they live. They have a dog called Ludwig (my grandpa named him after Ludwig Van Beethoven the famous composer).

Emily writes:

I don’t know if you remember but I told you a couple of weeks ago that my rabbit had died. Well we have a new baby bunny that's less than five months old.

We’ve named him Joey and he’s gorgeous.

We also went to the Windsor evening races which were totally fun. There was one race that we saw start and we had to run over to the other side of the track to see the finish, my brother fell over in the process of doing this which was very funny.

On the farm my dad has been preparing the ground for the oilseed rape to be planted. Also, all the hay has come in and we have discovered a wasp’s nest in the bales. This has not stopped my brother from climbing them.

Martha writes:

We set off from our house to Pickering to get a coach to our hotel in France. We were staying there because we were going to Disneyland the next day.

It was a long way we got to go on the Eurostar to get to France.

When we got to Disney it looked really good. I was really excited when I saw the big pink castle - it was good inside, we went to go on the Dumbo ride. We waited an hour, it was really fun then we went to go and look round the shops and I got a jumper with Tigger on it and a teddy of him.

Craig writes:

I have seen plenty of combines around so I suppose that marks the start of the spring barley harvest in our area although as I write we haven’t started yet.

Some people have only just sheared their sheep surprisingly enough.

We sprayed all our spring barley off with round-up recently so hopefully by it will soon take full effect on the crop and we will get harvesting.

Round-up kills and ripens the crop to the same stage so that there aren’t some parts of the field that are still green or just not quite ripe and therefore not ready to be harvested.

Felicity writes:

On the farm we had started combining, but the combine broke!

The chickens had their wings clipped and had foot rings put on for them so they are ready for their new chicken house.

The turkeys had to have some medication for a cold and some multivitamin medication.

This week enough blackberries have ripened for me and my sister to pick for a pie and plums for some chutney.