Instead of watching their news every morning, I try to watch my news. It isn’t avoidance, I know what’s going on out there, but my heart is here, and the big news on the farm is important to me, and to Maria.

Today, the big news – and it is big news – is that we brought hay out to the animals for the first time. We’ve had two  hard frosts, and while the grass is still green, there is not much nourishment in it any longer.

We see the animals are out foraging all day, they don’t settle often. So we’ll start small, a third of a bale a day for all of them, 10 sheep and two donkeys.

Our animals have never been thin,  we would like the sheep to be a bit leaner. So would Liz, the shearer.

When I first came to the country, we put hay out around the first week of October, there would often be snowstorms cranking up then. Climate change has altered our systems, we almost made it to November this year.

It is a privilege to care for these animals well, this is an important day on our calendar. I put the hay out while Maria and the dogs were out int the back pasture with the sheep.

The donkeys spotted it instantly, of course and were the first to get to it. If there were rich and fresh grass out there, they wouldn’t have come so quickly, so our timing is good.