Over the last couple of months I have been mainly focussing my time on the farm over and above the routine tasks and maintenance at the shop.

I have been spending time trying to learn more about land management practices and exactly how to go about harvesting our grass to ensure we have as much feed for our animals as possible over winter, as well as ensuring it is of as good a quality as possible and is kept from spoiling. Due to the nature of much of our land and the environmental schemes which we are part of, we are limited on how productive we can make the land in terms of improving grassing quality for the animals, with a stronger emphasis on supporting wild flowers in the pasture for example. However, I have been able to spend time trying to control weeds such as thistles and nettles which drain the nutrients from the ground, cutting them with the mower to stop their spread and researching how best to kill them completely with weed killer for next year.

For the first time we will have all our cattle inside this winter and we are still unsure exactly how long our silage will last. After the miserable last couple of months, we are hoping that the sun will shine a little through September, so we can get a second cut of grass off our more productive fields.

At least we know exactly where we will be feeding the silage this time and I have been making a special effort try to get as many of our bales carted back to our new buildings, stored on site ready for winter. With no method of carting the bales in any large number available to us and a strong desire not to repeat the constant winter silage trips across the village that I had last year, I did a bit of basic engineering to convert an old wagon trailer to cart the bales, which proved invaluable for gathering the silage, and helped us to get all our main silage fields baled and stored ready for winter all in a day.

Roy is now coming on in leaps and bounds and although we are by no means perfect, I am slowly but surely managing to get him to understand what I am looking for. He has been out and about helping me to round up sheep from various parts of the farm, and is starting to get a feel for the lie of the land and the sheep we have.

I recently gathered all our hill sheep in from the moor-side on my own for the first time, with only Roy to assist. He performed very well and we got all the sheep home in one outing, although the scale of the task was a bit much for him, still adjusting from his past experience of a few sheep in a small field, and I ended up doing much of the running around myself, with him tired out. I think for a brief while he was wondering whether it was too late for a career change......these guide dogs look too have a nice leisurely time?

I took pity on him and reverted to the quad bike for the last section of hillside though, which was again a new one for me, practicing my balancing skills on the hill side at all angles and trying not to drop down rabbit holes.

I think I just need Roy to learn to balance on the pannier of the quad a bit better now and I will have the perfect combination for gathering the fell.