Hey guys, haven't been on here for a while but hey ho,

If you've seen the ITV Yorkshire 6pm news yesterday you would have seen that the Prince of Wales and his Wife were in Lincoln yesterday and I got to chat with Charlie himself! Most of the Lincolnshire Young Farmers where able to meet and greet him at Riseholme, to talk about how the funding from the Princes trust has helped our clubs and careers. It was scary when you're told you get to speak to Royalty, What do you say? How should you behave? Should you bow or not? What if I say something stupid? What if you say something wrong? (and most importantly) Does your hair look ok?

But when he came up to my club and shook our hands it was actually quite easy to chat with him, (he must be really used to people going silly when he's around), we talked a bit about hunting and what we've been up to this season, I found out that he's not allowed to go hunting at all - just in case something looks like what it's not and the press take it the wrong way. We also chatted about the training sessions we've had from the funding, bit of an awkward moment when we said we'd had an alcohol and drugs talk, he asks if we listened, 'nooooootttt reallllllyyyy'...  (You can tell from the last ball we had, I didn't get to go, but it sounded crazy man!) Then he did a speech to everyone and then left, taking his scary buff police/security and camera guys, leaving us to demolish what remained of a great buffet (cupcakes and everything!)

So yeah - that's my claim to fame :)

~Meggiewes~

Helloooo everybody!

I haven't been on here for a looooooooong time as I have been using my prolonged school holidays as a period of recouperation and relaxation (which is a cover up of saying I haven't been bothered to do anything but sleep) so sorry about that if you missed me.

 I will first begin with a bit of what's happening in my world, I've become 16 years of age and have already emptied my new debit card, I have had all of my exam results and am moderately pleased with them, I have been organising my YFC's 2012 calendar which includes a brewery visit and finally I have got a job but I will have less time to earn money when I'm back at school, so that's not very good. Also at the start of the holidays was the lincolnshire show, which I spent the full two days at participating in my first YFC water and flour trailer fight, which was made even better by the freezing cold weather and rain.

Also It's getting towards the time of the chop of our lambs (and it seems like some of the ewes too because of the lack of hay this year) and my family have met a fork in the road of the usual plan - I say we should take them all to the butchers and put our prices up to reflect the supermarket prices and sell to friends and family, my dad says to butcher them and sell them through a farm shop and my mum says we should take them to market to be sold as lambs to bring on. Choices choices, which has the most profit?

~Meggiewes~

The YF rally went well again this year, I got a HC for my handbook cover, and I think my team did well in the egg and spoon race (I don't know the score yet though) beating the other team to the finish. The club we support in the tug of war won too even though the ground gave nothing to push against being as flat as concrete.

Which leads us onto the next big event of the year, the Lincolnshire show, which is in two days time. It's very exicting as it's my first year doing a trailer and it has been an experience seeing how much detail goes into the construction,(even though we have left it all to do on the night before it has to be at the showground.)

So if you're at the show, look out for an almost life sized model of Thomas the tank engine and I'll probably be on it!

~Meggiewes~

Hello all,

My rather amateurist first attempt at stock judging is over! It had to be the quickest speech to a judge ever and my order of four butchers lambs was completely different to the girls who looked like she knew what she was doing... Oh well there's a first for everything, and it's points for the rally this weekend!

Hopefully the weather will be ok for Lincs YFC rally and my eggandspoon race, breed challenge and handbook cover, it's always a good event and it should be better this year!

In other news I'm in the middle of my GCSE exams now and I think I'm doing ok, I'm not getting stressed and using the exams as an excuse to do very little...

~Meggiewes~

So out of 12 ewes we've had 20 live lambs, and 6 that have died. And there's still one left to go, at three weeks over due, hope there's no problems there.

Polaris, the first live lamb is doing really well, she looks really healthy and chunky, a good texel cross and enjoys running up and down the field with a bunch of other lambs

.Sunny the Godzilla Lamb had her first this year, not as big as I'd hoped so will not be kept, but maybe next year Sunny will have the perfect Lamb to keep on, and perhaps go to the Lincolnshire show with.

Tinker of course had triplets again this year one of them being a little weedier so we started bottle feeding it, but then its sister wanted some as well. Now the two lambs are a lot fatter than their brother... oh dear...

Now I have a difficult decision to make as to which Lamb to keep this year (we always keep one, to enhance breeding stock) Polaris, who is very chunky and a good shape for breeding. Or Markab (Sprite) who was bottle fed, comes from Tinkers line (very good mothers) and is more tame than Polaris. Hmm...

The YFC Rally is coming up in May and somehow I've signed up for some very strange things, egg and spoon race, know your farm breeds quiz and sheep judging as well as the handbook cover again, I must have been half asleep when my name was being put down.

Also my GCSE exams start mid may, eep! I should be revising but I've been busy over the holidays, and the times when I'm not busy I really cannot be bothered to do anything but sleep, Oh well I shall do my revising the proper way; all on the night before the exam.

~Meggiewes~

Two ewes birthed today, four lambs, but one died during birth because it was huge. Hopefully the lambs'll come thick and fast now as most of the first time mothers have lambed.

Bellatrix, Betelgeuse, Sirius came into the world to join Polaris, she'll be really happy that she now has some friends to join her bouncing round the pen.

~Meggiewes~

Muliphen - the fifth and hopefully last lamb to not survive this year.

And again.

There's a lamb in the field just as I get there and it seems to be fine, the ewe is licking it and encouraging it to get up. But, hang on, that's not its mum, this older ewe had stolen a young ewes newborn lamb and was keeping the young ewe away. Later on we manage to get the right sheep with the lamb but as she's young she has little idea what to do, so everytime the lamb trys to suckle she sits down. Eventually we get it to have a drink and they're both well away, everything is fine. Untill six hours later the ewe starts having contractions, and another lamb appears, but just the head and neck, no feet or legs. So after a bit of pulling and pushing we have another lamb, but dead. Having died during the birthing.

Five Lambs, four dead. At least the one we do have is thriving.

~Meggiewes~

The name of the one surviving Lamb is Polaris, and her brother was Kochab. (Names of stars in Ursa Minor/Little bear/Little Plough)

We've had a ewe with a calcium deficiency (sp?) for a few weeks and she's had treatment and is very weak, we knew she was full of lambs and that if there was going to be trouble it would be with her, well, unlucky us, she starts to lamb but gets into trouble and in the end produces three dead lambs, one of them being our first black one ever. And we find out that if she'd had lambed 24 hours earlier there would be three happy lambs, and the ewe would be more encouraged to get better.

So I dug the three graves and the ewe is lying in a pen looking like she's lost the will to live. Great start to the lambing season.

~Meggiewes~

The lambs are called Alnitak, Mintaka and Alnilam, strange names I know, but those are the names of the three stars in Orions belt.

Most of the ewes are getting round now, hopefully that means a lot of lambs. They've had a year off so there'd better be a lot of lambs :P

Plus the Godzilla Lamb from 2009's lot is pregnant this year! Sunny is a huge sheep and the ram (Boris) was huge too so hopefully we'll be getting some massive lambs from those. :)

Exams are around the corner now... *sigh* guess I'll have to start revising...

~Meggiewes~

Hey all,

Short news: Boris has gone back home, awww, I'll miss him because he was so cute!

New chickens are laying VERY well now, about 30 eggs a day! We're running out of fridge space.

And the sheep are looking fatter, can't be the grass can it? They haven't got much to go on with all this mud.

Picked out my prom dress! Don't know which colour to get though

~Meggiewes~

At my YFC last night Mr Piper of Pipers crisps came and gave us a talk - and eight boxes of delicious Crisps! Not that I'm advertising or anything, it's just, Free Crisps!

That's my packed lunch sorted!

~Meggiewes~

Big butch texel from my friend came today.

He's very cute for a sheep shaped like a brickhouse and loves his ears being scrached, when we let the ramp down he just wandered out and calmly walked to our ewes like a real gentleman.

I think we'll nickname him Boris, as he doesn't have a name and Boris suits him.

~Meggiewes~

First shoot of the season last saturday, so I have a nice £20 note now sat in my purse from a days hard labour. I also took the dog who was very good. Not forgetting that she's a cavalier KC lapdog, not really a shooting dog, but at least she doesn't chase hares over the next hill!

School is loading the pressure on, exams in November, with an extra music exam for me, plus eight hours controlled coursework that starts today...

How I long for a nice long sleep...

~Meggiewes~

In a few days I will be a year older (15) and well into my second year of GCSE's.

In a way I'll be sad to be an age where you sound grown up, instead of being a child that can prat around all the time, but being the youngest of all my friends I'll be glad not to be the baby of the group. Untill they have a birthday...

We are all having a sleepover in a tent in the Garden, so if you hear any disturbance near Lincoln on the evening/morning 10th/11th August, that's probably us.

~Meggiewes~

Yep, I am.

With the budget cuts coming in, my mum is probably gonna lose her job as she works in the public sector of the council. Great. That's most of our income gone.

Say goodbye to university Meggiewes, say goodbye to the chance of having the career you want, say goodbye.

And my mum was saying last night that we will have to sell our home and just live on our 7 acre smallholding with no electricty, hot water, plumbing or house. That's great. Now I'll be shot at for being a gypsy.

At least the animals have it easy, they get everything they need before we do. I'll be taken away by the RSPCA before they are.

Thanks Mr Politics, thanks for ruining my life, all those dreams of my future lie shattered among the dirt.

~Meggiewes~

Walking through the horses paddock to check the water through as the ponies are spooking at it. Look over the edge, oh there's a dead bird in there, I'll have to get it out and refill the trough. Put my hands in-

SHHHHHHUUUUUGGGGGAAARRRR!

IT'S ALIVE!

So I runs to dad because I know that wild birds have big talons and I don't want to get cut, he fishes it out and sets it down, it starts shaking, awwww. Then we realise thet ants are crawling on it, so we grab him again and flick them off. Then he starts squealing and his parents come closer, so we put him on the roof near the tree where his nest is and leave him, so his parents can find him.

I hope he's Ok.

~Meggiewes~

Hello!

I was right, It was an absolutely brilliant show!

I did all of the things I said I would and managed to get into all kinds of mischief on the wednesday and a little of the thursday. Firstly we were directed into the wrong car park, we were supposed to be in the normal pass car park but no, we were sent to the priority car park! Yep, our little dirty car next to massive range rovers, fun. Then I got free crisps off a couple of kind lads who were handing them out. AND halfway through the day I ended up in the members area because of a friend! (so thank you L.B) It was amazing! I didn't buy much and I didn't do much, as my club wasn't doing anything this year for the show really but still I'll add photos to my gallery (Meggiewes gallery) of the day as the pictures will hopefully show you more.

~Meggiewes~

And I will be going tomorrow! My mum has been setting up her council stand and she says from what she's seen that it will be a good show and the weather is supposed to stay beautiful...

I will be going round all of the show as usual and I'll stop off to say hi to my Young Farmer friends, watch the tug of war and the trailers. And what is the lincolnshire show without seeing all of the animals which are the lifeblood of the event? I'm going to get fat on all of the food samples, have a look at the carcasses, shop till I have no money left, drag my little nine year old brother away from a tractor salesman (who he will be trying to buy a combine from, for £20), go round the council area, a couple of funfair rides, the wildlife area, the craft tent, the bee tent (which is so amazing) doing the free-bee rounds (getting as many things off as many stalls as possible without paying a penny), looking longingly at the posh champagne in the members area and lastly, watching some events in the main ring - the heart of the show.

All in all it will be a brilliant day!

~Meggiewes~

Hello, hello, hello!

First of all, the rally was brilliant! Perfect weather and a beautiful venue for it, I took lots of videos but If I have some pictures I'll add the good ones. I got a second for my handbook cover (second to a c-rap one) a first for the post card and a sixth for the garden. In the ladies wire a plug I don't know where I came but I don't think I did all to well as the screws took two minutes to get out. The tug of war (our club didn't enter a team but a few of our members are in a competing team) was amazing when it got started (someone forgot to bring the rope...) and the pillow fight over water was good as our club did really quite well.

And our club got a trophy! For the club with the most points and under twelve members. (We're the only club with under twelve members, but that's because no-one remembers to pay membership.)

The Lincolnshire show season is coming up, just today I saw the red arrows with their coloured trails, probably practicing for this grand event. The Young farmers will be there in force for tug of war and stock judging, and the trailer building. But I'm a bit cheesed off as we were going to have a trailer for it, but then we couldn't get enough people to do it so, no trailer and NO FREE TICKETS!

I would love to be able to go both days so I can see a lot more but, being at school and all, my mum won't let me! Urgh! Even she gets a free ticket for herself both days as she's on the county council stand. (Grumble, grumble)

~Meggiewes~

I know I haven't blogged in a while so I'm just posting this before I go down to Gipsey bridge, Boston, for Lincs annual YFC Rally.

I'm entering a postcard, handbook cover, minature garden and ladies wire a plug, I hope that the weather will stay warm also.

I'll probably write again about the rally soon.   

~Meggiewes~

Now that I'm out of that hellhole named school, it's time to fix broken fences, clear hedges, sort out cockrels and get some chicks in the incubator. The only thing that does not need sorting out is the lambs because we didn't bother this year. Phew!

Plus there's getting ready for the YFC rally in May, in which I'm entering, Lincs yfc postcard, garden on a plate and Ladies wire a plug, I know what you're thinking, women cannot wire a plug. But the fact that I have done it before, have gained three A*'s in science modular examinations and that I mess about with plugs when I'm bored says women CAN wire a plug. Ha ha!

Also there's the Lincolnshire show trailer competition which we're entering this year, the theme- towns of Lincolnshire, which has left us with one idea- Gainsbourgh. See, it can't be a city like Lincoln, so our nearest town is the pikie filled Gainsbourgh, well It does have the Old Hall, and Marshalls Yard so hopefully we can win a prize... Well, It means free tickets to the show both days, NO SCHOOL! Ha ha!

Speak soon,

~Meggiewes~

Hello all, back from France.

France was one of the best things I've ever done in my life, the sun! But today in England there is snow on the ground. 3 Inches of snow. Back to normal then.

School starts again (after half term) tomorrow and I really don't want to go back, ugh. And I have an injection on tuesday, double ugh.

Brian the ram lamb is our dinner today, sorry Brian, we were going to sell him as a tup but no-one wanted him so his 34.6 kg dead weight made its way into our freezer. Fat Brian.

The yfc rally in Lincolnshire is in May and I'm doing- Ladies wire a plug ( I've done it before in science) Garden on a dinner plate and a postcard on lincolnshire.

~Meggiewes~

Hiya all,

Just thought I'd write before I go to France next weekend for a school exchange, yes, this is the same trip that was postponed last october due to 'swine flu'. I'm actually looking forward to it loads but, as we are going on a plane, it could turn out badly...

Bush beating has been great so far, I won the sweep a couple of weeks ago and we have been getting alot of hares recently. Although it was pretty bad last time as the ground was muddy and stuck to my wellies so I couldn't walk. Oh, and I fell in a dike.

The snow, which has sadly gone now was amazing, as I went over to my friends house for the day and sledged on a line of fertiliser bags tied to the back of a truck. Good times, I fell off a lot but still it was good. The sledge at the back is the best because it snakes all over and tries to flick you into the dike.

Off to pack!

~Meggiewes~

Snow! - very exciting!

Although it's probably one of the worst things for the land at the minute, Whatwith it being really wet for 2 weeks and churning up the ground to being rock solid. All of the animals hate it. Water is running short as the taps keep freezing and the troughs have a thick layer of ice on top. But Christmas is nearly here, so it'll turn out OK.

(I've got a few snow pictures in my gallery and one picture of the snowman that I made.)

~Meggiewes~

I would!

I see that in the papers they say we should stop eating meat and though I have little understanding of it I must say that I will never give up meat, I would starve!

It's the way that nature is, if we were never intended to eat meat we would not be omnivores! The only reason they tell us to give up meat is because they don't want to give up their jercuzzis (spelling?) and designer clothing. It's Stupid!

And even if meat becomes rare and only available as pets then I WILL resort to cannibalism and I WILL personally eat the person responsible for it all!

~Meggiewes~