Mrs Down's Diary

I SEE only one clear week without caring for grandchildren before I take Jess off to Spain and return her just in time for the start of the new school term. With any luck the wheat will be ready then and I can actually pull my weight as a partner. Looking after Jess is a doddle compared to her brother, Ollie. He never stops.

Because of his language communication disorder, he gets very frustrated when he wants to do or have something, and cannot make himself clear. We have a little PECS book (picture communication cards) that he rips his symbols out of and jabs the sequence to us so that it is very obvious that he wants his drink, crisps, jigsaw puzzle, chocolate buttons, trampoline or Lotto game.

Ollie and I were able to help John sort out the first batch of this year's lambs for market.

There are about 20 on the first pull, mainly Texels. The price, however, has dropped this last week. Supply and demand.

There are a lot more lambs coming onto the market now than a week or two ago. "Should we lamb earlier to get the better trade?" I asked in a management meeting over our morning cup of tea (shared with Ollie and his Thomas engines, trucks and half a mile of wooden track across our duvet cover).

The managing director said 'no'. If we lambed earlier before a decent crop of grass was established, we would need to push a lot more food at lambs to get them fit at the right time.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette September 3