THERE was a miserable, wet day at the beginning of the week, during which time we recorded 11mm of rain, preceded mainly by damp, foggy, cloudy conditions with the occasional glimpse of sunshine. Once again flocks of fieldfares can be seen noisily searching for small creatures and seeds in pastures around the farm. Fieldfares, a species of northern thrush, have grey heads and rumps, chestnut backs, black tails and, like their close relative, have spotted underparts. They are also rather fond of windfall apples, so can often been seen feasting in our garden.

During the last week I have once again been an elf at Roves Farm doing Christmas crafts. On two days I have had to stand in as as a cow with a small speaking part in a nativity play, which is part of a number of Christmas activities going on until Christmas Eve.

The nativity is a little story narrated by a donkey and at the farm the stable scene is set up using live animals, some sheep, a cow and calf, a donkey and alpacas standing in for camels (their close cousins). At the beginning of the year I never thought I would be seen dressed on different occasions as a very spotted cow, a bear and a dinosaur. I wonder what surprises 2017 will bring!

On Stowell Farm Kevin has been preparing to bring the pregnant ewes into the barns until they begin lambing in March. The first job was to remove the rams from each of the family groups, so all the sheep dogs have recently been working very hard gathering the sheep in order for them to be closely checked and the rams taken to a separate barn, where they will spend the winter. Then the family groups of ewes in Corsham Park were gathered into one large flock ready for driving back to the farm buildings in a few days time. Another job has been to prepare the barns, making sure they they are safe, secure with bedding and water, also the feed areas ready for the silage that will be fed to them. The ewe lambs, born in the spring, were also moved to fresh pasture.

Our granddaughters, Natasha and Annabel, have just been given two of our recently born Aberdeen Angus x heifer calves to rear for Young Farmers Club (YFC) competitions. Many YFCs started life as 'calf clubs', which is a name I can remember my mother calling them. The National Federation of YFCs now have 25,000 members, in 644 clubs and is one of the largest rural organisations in the UK.

Calf rearing gives the young people the experience of showing their calves at an agricultural event and increases their understanding of the processes involved in rearing and preparing stock for a show. Competitors are also required to keep up-to-date records and costings, which are submitted to the judges for a best stockman award.

On Manor Farm, apart from routine work, Richard and Ian have been making sure all records are available for our Red Tractor Farm Assurance inspection, due any day. They have also been doing some maintenance work such as replacing light bulbs, often situated in out of reach locations, so that it safely needs two people to do the job.

Our new second-hand tractor has now been delivered and the old 'scraper' tractor, used to scrape slurry from the passages in the cow cubicle barn, taken away. Hopefully all the tractors on the farm are now in good working order.

I would like to finish this week by wishing everyone a very happy Christmas. For us it is a time when families get together, but like all farmers with livestock, animals still have to be checked, fed and watered and of course here on Manor Farm the cows have to be milked. This means that family and employees Ruth, Nathan and James will all lend a hand to get the work up together to make things easier on Christmas Day.