Farm Diary

Having suffered a burst tyre on the M6 two weeks ago as I descended the 'Shap' at very high speed, last Tuesday as I left Derbyshire early in the morning to return home, my 'sat-Nav' took me up some narrow lanes (shortest route) and I ended up almost stuck in the snow at over 1000 feet in the middle of nowhere with the red light ablaze on the fuel gauge.

To cap it all the Food Standards Agency pronounced that all children over two years old and every adult should not drink full fat milk, and then the police (Chief inspector) came to see me, out of concern about my articles in the West Sussex Gazette, regarding the robbery at the farm three weeks ago. I have decided that dairy farming is actually very easy and low stress.

The builders are back and we are now a further 5 days behind schedule. Lorayne insists that the 'red bingo' (Jeremy Clarkson) style of driving (where the red light comes on but you drive past the petrol station daring the car to get to the next one) has to stop; now!

And the Chief Inspector and I parted as friends after a couple of hours of straight talking; well actually I had to listen a lot of the time despite my best efforts.

Chief Inspector Kevin Jenkins has assured me that extra resources have been put into our area, and that every effort is being made to tackle the increase in criminal activity. He acknowledged that there are frustrations over the difficulties of catching criminals operating in such rural areas, but that we must also play our part in tightening up on security; which I fully accept.