Tuesday 8 March 2011

Rhod Gilbert's Work Experience, Rebuilding Stone Gate-posts, First Lamb

The Rhod Gilbert Work Experience programme on farming went out last night and it was so good. We were very pleased with it and I have been getting very enthusiatic responses to it from a goodly number of people. It was extremely funny & entertaining but also at moments quite thought-provoking. I'm thinking of the sequences shot in the market  & at the abattoir where Rhod was clearly moved by the slaughter of the cattle but was able to appreciate the efficiency with which the animals are dispatched. As he said to us on his return from the abattoir he was now an 'educated meat-eater'.
Molly our sheep-dog, was of course the real star of the show and up-staged Rhod brilliantly by absolutely refusing to work for him. I had watched that sequence being filmed and found it hilarious then but with good editing it was even funnier.
Having been filmed in January in cold & very wet weather (and it was so dark!) the programme did not hold back on the muck and dirt of winter farming conditions and Rhod got good mileage out of the quantities of muck etc. produced by cows, especially when they are somewhat rattled by having a stranger (4 strangers including the film crew) in the milking parlour!! I can assure you that milking is not usually as messy as that!
So, our most recent foray into television has been very rewarding and good fun & I trust that 'the public' enjoyed it as much as we did.
For those of you in England who cannot receive BBC Wales, the programme can be seen on BBC iplayer (go to BBC Wales TV on iplayer, 2nd page).

Yesterday was busy as with this gorgeous weather we are able to get on with odd jobs that have been waiting for dry days.. The Farmer & I spent the afternoon starting to rebuild the tumbled down stone gateposts at the top of the steps that lead from our front garden down to yard. These steps were built for a Welsh feature film that was shot here some 18 years ago, 'Tan ar y Comin' and they looked so good and fitted in so well with the look of the place that we kept them. The posts were dry-stone built and have just fallen down, partly due to Poppy, one of the labradors using them as a look-out post above her kennel. They are being rebuilt with cement bonding and will are already looking so much better. We could only do half the finished height yesterday so I'm hoping we'll get them finished off today. While the Farmer does tha actual building work I collect sotnes from various places around the farm to supplement the original ones . I spent much time scrabbling through tangles of ivy & bramble to get the stones out & then wheeling a barrow of rocks around to the yard. Gosh, but I do have fun!!

The first lamb was born today, so Spring has sprung! The Farmer went to bring the ewes in this evening anf found a single little lamb had been born, hopefully the first of many over the next few weeks. It is perfect lambing weather, nice & dry...lets hope it stays dry for a good while yet. Lambs don't like wet weather, nor does the shepherd or the shepherdess!

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