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Arielle
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16/12/98I arrived in the postmans van at 8.30am. The Postman travels around all of the villages close to the city of St Albans. He has to drive down narrow lanes and up muddy tracks but we eventually got here. Kate (19) helped me unpack; she is back from university for the holidays. Paul and Will(16) took me to Will's school in the morning. He had two 'mock' examinations so was a bit distracted. I hope to look around his school on Friday.
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Paul and I went to Watford, about 15 miles away, to referee the Under 17 boys basketball match between Hertfordshire and Norfolk. I sat with the scorers and helped Sara. She is one of Englands senior Table Officials, but was very nice to me.
Hertfordshire won easily and I congratulated them.
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17/12/98I woke up at 7.00am. Pam made me a cup of tea; it was still dark. Breakfast was cereal, fruit juice and a cup of coffee. Work on the farm started at 8.00. Paul, Jazz (the dog) and I went for a long walk around the farm checking the bird-scaring kites and gas-bangers. The pigeons are eating a lot of the little oilseed rape plants and have to be chased away. The bangers have electronic controls and are programmed to start an hour after dawn. They turn themselves off two hours before dusk. Paul only uses them a long way from the village and moves them around the field so that the birds do not become comfortable with these noisy things. Jazz was quite nervous as she doesn't like being too near to the machines! She does not realise that Paul turns them off before he moves them.
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We got back to the farmhouse (some parts are over three hundred years old) and had another cup of coffee with Derek, the farm tractor driver, and Paul's father. A man from the firework factory arrived and they chatted about arrangements for the celebrations of the year 2000. Paul says that they test fireworks at night and I hope that I am here to see a display. I sat with Will, who did not have to go to school today, and watched the news about Iraq on CNN satellite television.
Lots of chores like bringing in logs for the wood burner and coal for the boiler before a salad for lunch. This afternoon Paul spent filling out lots of bits of paper and entering information on his computer.
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Tonight I went to Hemel Hempstead School speech day where Paul is a member of the Governing Board. The guest speaker was the Jazz singer Marion Montgomery. She sang three wonderful songs and talked about her childhood in the southern states of America. The school students were captivated.
18/12/98Up early again. It was Will's last day at school before the Christmas holidays; Paul was teaching a yr7 class. I sat in this Information Technology lesson and was looked after by Karen and her friends.
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Back to the farm for lunch. We had to hunt the kites this afternoon as both of them had had their strings cut. We managed to find one but the other is still missing. Paul thinks that they may have been cut deliberately as the school holidays are quite a coincidence. We scared away a very large flock of pigeons. That is all that I have done here, so far, chase away pigeons. I was pleased to see that the wheat seedlings had finally pushed through the soil in the field called Agnells. They were sown five weeks ago and have taken a long time to germinate. The soil is not frozen but is very damp and cold.
Kate and I went to the large supermarket outside the nearby town of Hemel Hempstead to collect the groceries. I bought some postcards of the town. It started off as a market town with a magnificent church spire on top of a Norman church (900 years old). The old streets are now full of restaurants and specialist shops; the new town shopping centre is half a mile away and caters for about 120,000 people.
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19/12/98Early morning rounds again, checking on the bird scaring devices and walking with Jazz. We then went to the market in Hemel Hempstead to buy some fresh fruit, the newspapers and a national Lottery ticket.
Pam went riding her friends horse along the network of public bridleways. She said that they were very muddy and had to spend quite a lot of time cleaning the horse and the equipment after the ride.
Paul took me to the first match of an International Under 16 Girls Basketball Tournament in St.Albans. He was the referee for the first match between two England teams.
20/12/98Lovely dawn on the shortest day.
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21/12/98Very frosty morning so Paul, Derek (the farm tractor driver) and Paul's Dad decided to fell a dead oak tree. They were going to pull the tree over with a powerfull tractor and wire rope but decided that it would be a little dangerous. Paul used a very noisy chainsaw to cut a large notch in the tree trunk on the side that he wanted it to fall. He was wearing lots of protective clothing including strong boots, a helmet, face guard and ear muffs. He made sure that everybody (and everything) was out of harms way before he cut the trunk on the side away from the notch. We watched the tree very carefully. Paul sawed away until he noticed that the gap in the trunk, his saw blade was making, had started to widen. He stopped sawing and walked away from the tree. Slowly at first, the sad old tree started to lean and then quickly crashed to the ground. The uncut wood between the notch and the saw cut had acted as a hinge and the tree had fallen exactly were planned. It was sad to think that this 150 year old tree had been chopped down but I'm looking forward to keeping warm from the logs. The tree had been struck by lightning ten years ago and had finally died three years ago.
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Paul changed from his working clothes and went to referee another International between Scotland and Wales. Quite a busy day.
22/12/98
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This morning was frosty and foggy, a horrible mix so we all kept out of the way of the slippery lanes as people rushed to work ignoring the dangerous conditions. We decided that it was too damp to start spliting the logs so Kate and Paul worked on the forge. A nice warm job. Paul's father sharpened all of the chainsaws and Derek completed the cleaning and maintenance of the tree-felling equipment so that it can be used straight away next time.
We went shopping for last minute Christmas presents. The town was crowded, carols were playing in the shopping mall and everyone looked rushed and grumpy!
23/12/98Paul went into school to move some new computers about and set them up for the new term. He said that it was much easier to work in schools without pupils or teachers, he got a lot done. We got back to the farm and did the usual rounds to check on the bird scarring devices. The pigeon flocks are very large now and they seem to be quite hungry as they are becoming difficult to move on. All of the farmers seem to try to move them onto their neighbours crops. It reduces the pressure on individual plants. Paul thinks that it is strange that tourists buy food to feed pigeons in the city but that they can cause so much damage in the countyside.
We also checked the grain stores for temperature, moisture and rat protection. The grain is stored in big sheds or metal silos which can each hold 50 tommes. Paul spends quite a lot of time trying to prvent hungry birds from trying to enter the store with netting barriers. The rats and mice are controlled with poison bait which is placed in specially designed devices which will only allow the rodents access to the poison. Kate and Paul spent the rest of the day bashing away at red-hot metal on the forge.
24/12/98We all went food shopping for what I hope will be a big meal on Christmas day! The shops were crowded and a couple of office people got stuck in one of the muddy fields on the farm. They had been to an office party and had stopped off in a gateway 'for a rest'. They had forgotten that the ground was very muddy! Paul thinks that they had been very bad and drunk too much alcohol. It makes driving around the narrow lanes very worrying because people use them to avoid being caught by the police who seem to stay on the major roads.
Kate and Mike went to parties on Christmas eve and Paul drove around to pick them up.
25/12/98
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Christmas Day! It rained all day and very heavily so I was pleased to stay inside most of the time. We did turn off the 'bangers' as Paul felt that the villagers (and pigeons) deserved one day without the random loud banging. Twelve of us sat down for Christmas dinner and I met a lot of family and friends. We ate: turkey, potatoes, parsnips, brussel sprouts, roast beef, ham, Christmas pudding, mince pies, trifle, fruit salad, cheese. It was a wonderful feast with plenty of crackers, party poppers and fun. We played lots of silly games in the afternoon and evening. The wind and rain wererattling the windows but we were all warm and happy inside. The presents were under the tree and there was something for everyone.
26/12/98Boxing Day. This is a traditional hunting day in England but the protestors have caused so much confusion in past years that the horses and houds no longer 'meet' on the village green. It seems a shame that this spectacle had to stop as it features on lots of old pictures and Greetings cards. Paul does not allow hunting on the farm but he still likes to see the hounds working; he does not like some of the huntsmen who are often not country people but rather arrogant weekend commuters. Pam went horse driving with her friend Kath and Henry the horse.
27/12/98Last night we had some very strong winds which gusted up to 70mph. We got a satellite picture to show the weather depression coiled up around the British Isles. I am staying near to London which is in the South East of the Island. The cloud 'tail' has just cleared the farm and the rain has stopped. It rains a lot here!
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Paul went round the buidings and farm tracks checking for storm damage and fallen tree branches. Fortunately there was no damage and the rain had not been driven onto the stored wheat by the high winds.
Mike and his friends went skiing on the dry plastic ski slope in Hemel Hempstead; it is much too mild for snow at the moment.
28/12/98
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29/12/98Last night the farmyard was visited by robbers! They stole a small trailer, owned by one of Pam's friends; some hay and straw bales and it looks like they tried to steal some diesel fuel. Paul says that the trailer had both a hitch lock and a wheel clamp but this did not deter the thieves who must have cut the hardened steel before driving off. The farmyard has floodlights which come on automatically but we did not see or hear anything. We checked all of the other buildings but cannot see that anything else has been taken. I thought that living in the countryside would be safe but it seems that nowhere is clear of crime.
Mike has gone back to university this afternoon and Kate is leaving tomorrow so it is going to be quiet after the holidays.
30/12/98Very mild weather today, not quite T-shirts, but very nearly. Paul and Will went log splitting in the morning. They used a very old tractor to drive the 'screw' log splitter. This clever device rotates quite slowly and screws a threaded metal cone into the wood. Large logs are rapidly turned into fuel for the log burner.
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Kate went to Yorkshire to celebrate the New Year with friends. She took her poker with her as a gift.
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Derek, the tractor driver, is on holiday; only Pam has to carry on working in the hospital. The Police drove through the farm drive and a dog-handler exercised his German Shepherd police dogs. I am glad that they came as Paul thinks that Police patrols may help deter more thieves or bored children, who have been trying to play with the hay bales.
31/12/98Very heavy rain this morning. Paul's Dad says that it needs only a third of a centimetre to make this year the wettest since he has taken daily rainfall measurements in 1970! Paul and I cycled into Hemel Hempstead to finish setting up the new computer room, ready for the new term which starts on Monday. The bridleways we cycled on were very muddy and had been churned up by a stolen car last night. This car had been driven into a field of wheat and had got stuck. The deep ruts will cause trouble for the rest of the yeaar. The rain stopped log enough for us to smell freshly baked bread. Paul showed me the large factory which supplies the bread for all of the McDonalds restaurants in the South of England.
The school seemed very strange without children or teachers but we got a lot of work done. All of the computers have been set up and the software installed; lets hope that the students use them properly.
1/1/99Happy New Year!
I am getting packed up ready for my return home but I am pleased that I have stayed just a few extra days. This morning was nice and sunny, for a change, and we went for a walk around the farm. More pigeons and slugs!
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There are so many of these that I sometimes think that these must be Paul's most succesful crop! We also saw two woodpeckers as we walked through the park. This permanent grass hay-meadow supports a lot of wild life; the hedges and trees provide protected routes for the animals and birds to travel along to this open, herb rich, pasture. Unfortunatly, today we spotted other noisier life. A family of humans were playing with their new 'mountain bikes' over the humps and bumps of the park. A public footpath passes through this area so that everybody can enjoy it without disturbing or worrying anything. Paul has fixed signs asking for no bikes, horses or vehicles to use this sensitive footpath; the mother and two daughters honoured this request but the father wanted to show off. He did not take kindly to being asked to leave. Paul had his mobile phone out and was dialling the police before he made a reluctant and abusive exit. One inconsiderate person can ruin the delicate grass land and scare a lot of animals and birds. The 'right' to use footpaths should be earned by the 'responsible' behaviour of the visitors to the countryside.
Back at the farm we saw a Tawny owl that had got trapped in some of the plastic netting that Paul uses to protect the stored grain from birds. Paul called the 'Royal Society for the Protection of Animals' emergency line and we are waiting for their bird handler to arrive.
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It is now 10.30pm and we have rescued the owl. The RSPCA officer was very gentle and climbed up to the young owl and held it and cut the plastic mesh. He carried it into the house and removed all of the tangled threads. The poor bird is in shock but seems to be moving all right. We shreded some newspaper and put it in the bottom of a large computer monitor cardboard box. The bird will stay in the warm and dark all night and we hope to release it back in the park in the morning. Lets hope it survives the night in the bathroom! Paul did not take any close up pictures tonight as it would add to the stress levels but hopefully we will have some pictures of the release.
2/1/99It rained very heavily again last night and the wind was very strong so it was a good thing that we had the dazed owl inside the farmhouse. We took the owl out into the park this sunny morning. We left the box open but it did not fly away. Paul rang the World Owl Trust ; they suggested that the bird was probably still concussed and might need another day to recover in the warm and dark. They wanted us to feed it with mice! Non in the grain store, we hope, so Paul put traps around the farmhouse. In the meantime we fed it with some strips of raw meat. It has cheered up a lot since then and we will try again in the morning. All the advice is to keep the bird on the farm as this is its home just as much as ours. It must also help control the vermin around the grainstore and so make sure that the wheat is not contaminated.
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Final shop this afternoon to buy a guide book of the Hertfordshire county to take back with me to California.
I asked Paul some questions:
What kind of things do you grow?
Wheat, barley, oilseed rape, field beans, and hay from the permanent pasture for local horse stables.
Do you grow any animals on your farm?
No. We do provide pasture for a small flock of sheep which come for about 8 weeks in the winter. The farm is too close to the houses to allow the animals undisturbed grazing. Hedges and gates are also sometimes vandalised; which is very sad.
Are you working on dangerous things?
Paul says that the farm is really a factory and that most things could be dangerous if everybody does not concentrate and obey all instructions. The workers on the farm have special training if they are using chemical sprays, chainsaws, fork lift tractors etc.,etc.. Tiredness can be a problem especially as so few people now work the land. Much of their time is spent in tractors well away from any body else. They can be lonely sometimes which seems strange as some of the fields are close to the houses.
I have not seen much farming during my visit but Paul says that this is a quiet time of the year. The rain hasn't helped either!
3/1/99Very windy and wet today, but quite mild. We took the owl out into the haybarn and opened its box. It obviously decided that its box was a warmer place than the windy outside world and did not move for the whole of the afternoon. It has eaten some raw turkey strips that Paul had prepared for a stir fry! More phone calls and now the bird is going to spend a third night in the bathroom. It will go to the vet in the morning and then on to a raptor sanctuary.
Thieves again this afternoon. Paul caugth them filling up cans with the farms diesel fuel. He managed to get a description of the van and the vehicle registration number. The police came and were fairly sure that they knew who had done it. They are going to test the 'travellers'vehicles for the distinctive red stain that agricultural fuel is marked with. At least the Customs and Excise Officers can prosecute them for something as Paul's evidence is probably not sufficient to achieve a conviction. It is very worying that the farm buildings are so vulnerable to crime. The farmyard is the focus of three footpaths which had the original function of allowing the farm workers quick access to the farm from the surrounding villages. These 'rights of way' can now be used by anybody; not all of them with innocent walks through to countryside in mind. The farm tracks allow access to the postman, milkman, fire-brigade etc so cannot easily be gated. Paul has alarms and security lights on the buildings and most things under lock and key, but this is not enough. The police are sending a security advisor to help improve the security. More expense.
4/1/99Paul went to school this morning and talked to Elaine the librarian. She keeps owls and was a wonderful source of advice. She provided some frozen chicks and mice (from the local pet supermarket) which have the necessary roughage for an owl diet. Her advice was to place the owl, in its box, on a safe platform in an open barn. The wood barn was ideal as the owl felt safe in its box but could see the outside world and could work out where it was. We fed it with the thawed chicks at dusk, and are waiting. I hope it finds its friends and family and carries on reducing the vermin around the farm in a natural and non poisonous way.
Paul went shopping for me so that I will have a few reminders of my visit to England.
5/1/99Its gone! There are no feathers in the barn so it must have avoided the farm cats. It is time for me to go as well. Please visit myschool's "Flat Stanley" site and read about the adventures of my other flat friends. Goodbye!
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