Kids Connect campaign blog

Martha writes:

The first week in July has started off really wet, it has rained so much that all our fields now look like lakes.

The weather has been horrible - it has flooded all of our fields and there is a massive big puddle in our yard and there is a pond in our garden where there shouldn’t be one.

We had to take the sheep in, but the cows decided to take themselves into the silage clamp when they broke out of the field.

All of our Christmas ducks and geese were in their elements - they have been swimming in the yard all week.

On Monday I went to Young Farmers. We went bowling in Scarborough, it was so much fun and on my team won the game.

I have been going to Young Farmers for about six months - it has been really good, we get to do all sorts of different things, one of my favourite visits has been the birds of prey centre.

We got to have a go at calling the birds down onto our arms. There was an eagle owl there and also lots of different types of birds to see.

On Saturday it was my Dad’s birthday and one of my hobbies is making and decorating cakes so I made him a Claas forklift-shaped cake.

My Dad said it was “first class”!

Martha writes:

I went to the Yorkshire Show last week and it was brilliant.

My favourite part was looking round the animals - there were all kinds of different sheep, some of them had really long wool.

There were some North Country Cheviots which are the ones that we breed so we had a really good look at them as I would like to show ours one day.

We got to have a look around the cows and bulls, when they were being all brushed and pampered before they went into the ring, some of them were massive.

Martha writes:

It is now the end of Snainton Young Farmers for the summer, so on Monday night we had a social evening.

We played golf, tennis pool and darts, they also had a jacuzzi which we could have a go in. It was a really good night and I shall miss not going for the summer.

We have broken up from school for the summer holidays - it was really sad because all of my friends have left to go to secondary school.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Martha writes:

I've gone back to school.

I am now in my last year at primary - it has been a bit strange as all my friends have already moved onto secondary school.

My dad has been really busy leading all the bales he has done into the Dutch barn for winter, there seems to be a lot of them.

Soon we will have to start sorting out the pigs to go to the bacon factory, a man who keeps an eye on them comes and puts a red mark on them when he thinks they are ready to go.

Me, my dad and mum and sometimes my sister (she doesn’t like doing pigs, they smell) then have to get these out and put them in a separate place for when the wagon comes for them.

This sometimes involves a lot of running around which the pigs seem to enjoy, but not me. When they go onto the wagon my dad has to give them a tattoo so that the factory knows which farm they come from.

Martha writes:

I’d like to tell you about our two cats called Pumpkin and Smoggy.

Pumpkin the ginger-and-black one was found by my dad when he was moving some bales so we brought her into the house and she has been in ever since.

My sister has adopted her and she even knows what time she goes to bed and sneaks upstairs and into her bed before my mum sees her.

The grey one is mine and she was living under the garden shed with her brothers and sisters but we managed to catch her, she was really vicious and was hissing and spitting for ages and she bit me really hard on the finger.

We took her into the house and she spent two days hiding under the welsh dresser in the kitchen, but she is really friendly now and they both get on really well. She likes to sleep on my sofa bed in my bedroom.

Unfortunately we could not send any pigs last week due to the movement restrictions because of foot-and-mouth but hopefully we will be able to send some this week.

Martha writes:

have had to move our turkeys from their rearing shed into something a lot bigger as they have started to escape.

We have 50 at the moment which are for Christmas, but we are taking orders already so I think that we will probably have to get some more.

At the moment they don’t look very big, but by Christmas some of them could weigh about 24lb which is a lot.

We also have some large black American turkeys which are huge and ugly and I think that they look just like vultures and I am not quite sure why we have got these.

Martha writes:

I've been busy and have had a sleepover with all my friends who have moved on to secondary school.

This was for my birthday - we had lots to eat and we played a game that I got for my birthday, we didn’t get much sleep!

We have had two calves born this weeked. They came as a bit of a surprise as they were from cows that we had bought-in so we were not quite sure when they were due.

They were both born outside and with no problems which was good, they are both Charolais crosses so they are a creamy white colour, and both of them are bulls.

Martha writes:

We have had to have some work done at the back of our house with a digger - unfortunately when they did this they chopped through our phone line so we have not had a phone for a few days so I didn’t think I would be able to send this week's blog.

It is not so bad now as we all have mobile phones but when this happened a few years ago it was worse as we don’t have any close neighbours and the nearest phone box is about 4 miles away.

Our farmhouse stands on its own surrounded by fields which is nice as we don’t have to worry about disturbing anyone, and when our dogs decide to have a barking competition they only annoy us.

Martha writes:

We have all been very busy this week getting ready for the little pigs coming. They have come in two batches and we have 740 in total.

My cousin Harry came at the weekend to see them. He is three-years-old and has always called pigs ‘kibs’ but when he saw the small ones he called them ‘kibblets’.

He thought they were great because they are so inquisitive if you sit among them they will come up to you.