Chairmans Chat 2016

December

Dec' the hall's and prepare the egg nogg the end of the year is nigh

This time of year brings frosts, Christmas, game hunting (I know some of you will be against this but the work that goes into this also has great benefits for the country side in providing habitats, food and protection for native wild birds.) and the big bangs of fireworks for the last night of 2016.

The farming community is doing it's last outside work before the wet drives everyone inside to do all those winter repair jobs in the workshop, gardeners are cleaning and putting their tools away ready for spring and the urban community are waiting for their Christmas holl's.

Good luck to you all with the Christmas shopping and avoiding all those bugs that lay us low at this time of year.
Above all remember to 'eat drink and be merry because there's always tomorrow to start that diet!

Tony Paul - Chairman

November

Finally autumn is here in full swing, down here in Essex we've had our first frosts, the leaves are changing and it's definitely getting colder, fires in the grate, central heating systems being checked and serviced and warm duvets on beds.

The last weekend of October saw our autumn 'gathering of the clans' up in Cumbria which was well attended and great fun for all ; a ceilidh dance on Friday, a masquerade dance to a live cover-band on Saturday and a games night on Sunday to raise money for charity liberally interspersed during the day with assorted visits and walks around the countryside.( there are
many photo's and various reports elsewhere on our site if you would like to know more.)

For the farming community things are finally slowing down, all the drilling should be now done, perhaps a little spraying against funguses strawing up over wintered outside veg (mainly carrots round here but I believe in Norfolk there are parsnips too. For those with sugar beet this
little bit of rain means that finally the ground will be soft enough to start lifting in earnest and also the over winter ploughing can be done ready for the spring crops. Of course don't forget the little farmer with their allotment or veg. patch who also needs to do the same but in a smaller less mechanical way.

The real big bit about November of course is Guy Fawkes night or as it seems to have become bonfire week as round here they started Tuesday and I think the last organised one is tonight oh of course you may not know it's Sunday 6th and I'm a little late doing this. Just to add a little gripe here but why is it every one seems to want to follow the Americans with 'trick or treat' but no longer does the British idea of 'penny for the Guy' (or perhaps that should be a pound!)

Tony Paul - Chairman

October

Well Autumn is finally here, although we've still got sunny days the nights are drawing in and definitely getting colder, time to check the central heating, stock up on wood/coal and prepare for winter.

Don't forget Autumn also brings our long weekend of fun up in Cumbria, for those who are not members if you check out the rest of our pages you can see the weird and wonderful things we get up to.

In fact October is quite a busy month on top of all this there's Halloween and the clocks change (whoopee an extra hour in bed). Last year we combined halloween with Guy Fawkes night and had a wonderful time.

In the farming/gardening and allotment community it's a busy time; digging the last of the vegetables, cultivating and drilling next years crops, hedge
cutting (now all the birds have finished nesting) and starting the lifting of the Sugar beet crop for next years sugar (don't forget folks buy the one with the red tractor on and support British farmers).

Finally for all you towns folk.......... enjoy trick or treat!

Tony Paul - Chairman

September

So August is over and most of the cereal crops are in (and I got the chance to relive a bit of my past showing a lad how to drive an old Class senator), but those pesci spuds keep coming I've reached a point where I'm lifting, riddling (for non potato growers that's sorting the dirt and green/rotter ones from the good) bagging and stitching the bags, eating (yum) and DREAMING (that's frightening) spuds!

For those with a bit of time to spare September sees the end of the show season in Essex there's Barley-lands, in Suffolk there's the Henham steam fair and down south there's the Dorset steam fair that covers farming from horse drawn to early tractors, haulage through the ages, transport (motorised and pedal) road working of the past and a massive fair ground section, steam driven and new and at night it comes alive with all the steam engines providing the electricity if you have a
spare 5 days to camp there its well worth it.

For all those with families it back to school time and I wish you all good luck remembering where the uniforms are and helping your 'lovely panicking child' finish their home work that got forgotten.

If you're in part of the country I haven't mentioned or at a loose end don't forget to look at the National web site programs page and i'm sure there will be something to draw you in and try and find that we are a friendly bunch with a great deal to offer.

Tony Paul - Chairman

August

Well July was somewhat varied where I live we had 3 weeks of hot sun and no rain which has caused havoc on these roads with all the 'sun worshippers' heading to Clacton. which ended with some heavy showers but no significant water while ten miles up the road they had regular showers ending in a hail storm (the size of golf balls and causing some significant damage).

For all of you with animals, domestic and farmed this hot weather has not been welcome, flies/flees out in force and midges causing problems, out here on the coast the weather has brought with it the Blue tongue virus for the cattle which means they all have to be rounded up and injected, this is not much fun on a hot afternoon with cows that are also hot and bothered and VERY uncooperative.

July also saw the start of harvest, round here spuds and haylege (for those without animal connections this is like hay but baled a little greener and then wrapped in a heavy duty cling film to store where it ferments and enriches before being fed to cattle or horses) followed by barley and right at the end that infamous rape {that caused a lot of the hay fever problems in the spring.)

For all of us involved in the farming industry this is the time of year we go round in ever decreasing circles however for all of you who have a few hours to spare don't forget Country Link keeps going and there are plenty of excellent events still going on so don't forget to have a look at the program for your area and contact them to try out this wonderful 'family' of people.

Tony Paul - Chairman

July

Welcome to the second half of the year and a time of big changes!!

For all of you with a bit of land; be it a garden, allotment or a farm are you like me thinking maybe we should be planting rice.

June saw the start of show and carnival season and I can thoroughly recommend getting out to see them if you can, I'm also reliably informed it's also sports season with Wimbledon, Euro football and the Olympics coming up, wey hey if you need distraction from the upheavals on the political front there is plenty out there OH YES and don't forget the biggest and best of all COUNTRY LINK EVENTS ALL ROUND THE COUNTRY.

Tony Paul - Chairman

The Power of Group

Welcome all to my second chat.

May finally saw the start of spring and everything has greened up with a vengeance, including all the weeds in the fields, on the garden and in the lawn.

What I'd like to mention today is something I call 'the power of group', that is when you get a number of people together there is always someone who knows someone who can get you somewhere as an individual you could never go, and this is something that we as Country Link provide. For example 4 visits our group been on are covered by the 3 pictures above (plus one!), the first is of a free range chicken farm which happened to be run by one member of my group, the second is a free range pig farm owned by someone I work for part time and the third is a Bison farm owned by someone who knows someone in the group and the plus one I could not take a picture of as it was Sizewell nuclear power station, again someone knew someone who managed to wangle a tour for us.

Every group in the country can give there own examples of this and you only have to visit the program page or the gallery to see the wide range of choices and if you also think that our subscriptions are at most £20/year (depending on group.) you need only do a couple of visits to get full value for money and everything else is a bonus.

Tony Paul - Chairman

Hello!

As this is my first chat I thought I'd introduce myself, well just in case you're not sure I'm the one on the left oh yes and the one on the far right, in the middle is Molly my dog and the lady is Karen my partner.

I've only been a member for about 6 years and it is a daunting job taking over from Maria after her hard work and effort, but like all members of the club I think this is a great organisation and you only have to look through this website to see all the wonderful things that go on and we get involved in.

We live in the Essex and Suffolk region and if any of you are down this way call us, if we're not actually doing an event we would love to meet up and find something to do, there is always a walk on the beach at "sunny Clacton" or, if you've been following it on TV, a tour of the notorious Jaywick.

On the farm we're moving into a busy period, sugar beet hoeing, spraying, fertilising and if there is no rain that dreaded irrigating, and for those with cattle turning them out as soon as that grass is lush enough.

I think that's enough for you all to digest for now, enjoy the garden and the sunshine.

Tony Paul - Chairman

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