The Blackmore Vale logo
Get The BV free - straight to your inbox monthly
Search
Home Blog Page 439

A Farmers Eye on Clarkson’s Farm

By
Editorial team
-
0

You would think as a farmer, the last thing I would want to do at home in the evenings is watch programmes on farming, but they have their merits. Check the weather for the week with Countryfile, or remind yourself “It could be worse!” with Our Yorkshire Farm… “I could have nine kids!”

Andrew Livingston’s own Clarkson momnet on his Farm

The issue with programmes on farming and agriculture is they are actually quite dull. They don’t have to be like Saving Private Ryan, but there’s only so many times you can watch Matt Baker talking about his dog in the middle of a field before you are bored. So, when I heard that Jeremy Clarkson was to take on farming in Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime, my ears pricked up and I was intrigued.
“I’m basically Allan Sugar in wellies!” Exclaims Clarkson, whilst moments later electrocuting himself close to tears on his fencer… What’s not to like about that?
With no knowledge of how to farm, the 61-year-old decides in 2019 that he would begin to run his £12.5 million farm in Oxfordshire. The show is funny, entertaining and insightful. However, as a farmer, it’s the relatability that stands out, he experiences the same struggles and strife as every other poor bugger praying for his grass to grow across the country.
For example, every farm has someone as incomprehensible as Gerald. An individual so isolated to their village that they have begun to formulate their own language of utterances and murmurs. Fellow locals can converse with ease, but as soon as you cross counties borders you might as well be listening to Greek.
Every farm has a single arch-nemesis – the weather. Clarkson is no different. The show was filmed across 2019 and 2020, which were devastatingly wet and dry respectively. Crops and soil are such delicate infrastructures and when margins on profit are so small, we rely heavily on hoping for breaks in the clouds in the winter and elaborate rain dancing in our flip flops in the summer.


On a personal level, I resonate a lot with Clarkson and his struggles. Most agricultural kids and Young Farmers are birthed on tractors. I, on the other hand, was brought up on a tractorless smallholding, meaning that, to me, they are big scary machines with what is frankly an unnecessary amount of buttons and levers that I think are mainly for show. Yes… I have punctured the odd £600 tyre and yes I have bent and smashed the odd gate, but I try and count it as a learning process from day to day.
Unusually, Clarkson isn’t really the star of his own show. Young contractor Kaleb Cooper holds the limelight. Funny, intelligent and terrified of leaving his home in the village of Chadlington, Kaleb manages to tare Clarson down a peg or two across the eight episodes. If you would like to meet a Kaleb, Tuesday evenings, down your local pub, you will find a dozen or so individuals with an encyclopaedic knowledge of tractors and trailers. These makeup what is known as your local Young Farmers Club; buy them a Jäeger Bomb and they’ll talk to you for hours.

I really can’t recommend this show enough. Clarkson’s Farm has done more for agriculture than Countryfile in nearly 25 years. Whilst being the usual entertainer, Clarkson displays his passion and love for the countryside and manages to put farming on the map.

By: Andrew Livingston

What Does Dorset Chamber Do? With Ian Girling

By
Editorial team
-
0

Hello and welcome to my first column in The Blackmore Vale . I’d like to say a huge thank you to Laura for inviting me to have a regular column and I really appreciate this opportunity to connect with the North Dorset business community.

Ian Girling Chief Executive at Dorset Chamber

I have strong links with North Dorset, being raised in Shaftesbury. Many will know my family and remember our family business MacDougall Fuels and my parents and sister and her family still live in the town. Working in our family business as a young man really gave me an insight as to the hard work that goes in to running any business; the long hours, recruitment and staffing issues, the never-ending to-do list and of course the worries that come with owning a business. This has given me  a real empathy with business owners and over the years I have had the opportunity to work with and support thousands of businesses. In Dorset Chamber, we work with businesses of all sizes with the majority of our members being small businesses. Small businesses make up over 99% of the UK’s business population and are the lifeblood of our economy. Our aim as the county Chamber is to support and help Dorset businesses succeed and grow.

In this first article, I’ll take a moment to explain a little about Dorset Chamber. We are a small business ourselves, a limited company employing around 20 people. We are not-for-profit, there is no share capital in the business and any profit is retained to help us deliver services as opposed to being paid to directors as dividends. Our board of directors are all business people who are unpaid non-execs who give freely their time and support to Dorset Chamber. Our income comes from membership, our international trade documentation service and delivery of a small number of publicly-funded business support programmes. Whilst not profit, like any business, we need to be financially viable and face the same pressures as any business.

When I became Chief Executive, my aim was to completely modernise Dorset Chamber and I am very proud of the energetic, modern, innovative Chamber we have become. We are one of around 50 UK Chambers accredited by the British Chambers of Commerce, meaning we have a very strong national voice. We work closely with town Chambers all across Dorset. We also act as a voice for the Dorset business community within the media.

We’ve just published our Annual Review, a summary of our activity over the last 12 months. We’ve done our absolute best to support our members and the wider business community in what has been an incredibly challenging time for businesses, particularly for those that were mandated to close. We transformed our face to face events to virtual meetings and this has been tremendously successful, enabling businesses across Dorset to attend our events without the need for travel – around 1,300 people attended 31 digital events in the last year and these virtual events will certainly continue. We also filmed and published 50 videos, offering practical information and advice on support for businesses during Covid. We also worked closely with Dorset Council in helping businesses access grants. Our free business Gateway service, funded by Dorset LEP offering free information and support to all businesses in Dorset, provided a lifeline to many businesses. We actively fed local issues in to the British Chambers of Commerce who did an incredible job in lobbying ministers at the highest levels for support for businesses. Looking forward, we are optimistic about the recovery of the economy and are doing our best to help businesses across the county as we look forward to better times.

 I hope this gives you a good overview of who we are. Looking forward, I aim to cover a range of interesting topics and issues in my column and please do feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn!

Until next time, Ian

By: Ian Gilrling

Lasting Powers of Attorney and Will planning

By
Editorial team
-
0

The times that we are currently living in have shown that life can change completely overnight and the future can look uncertain. The best way of dealing with this uncertainty is to ensure that all your personal planning is in place. There are two pillars to this planning – the first is executing a Lasting Power of Attorney so that your family can help you if you become ill or mentally incapacitated and the second is making your Will to ensure your estate passes to those who you wish to benefit on your death.

Shutterstock

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) allows you (the donor) to make a choice now, when you are fit and healthy, about who you would trust (the attorney) to make financial and personal decisions on your behalf if, in the future, you lose the mental capacity to make them for yourself.

There are two types of LPA. One type is a Property and Financial Affairs LPA which allows the attorney, to make decisions about your finances and property. A Property and Finance LPA is very flexible in that it can be used whilst someone is incapacitated, but as soon as they have returned to health the attorney will step aside – it is not a permanent arrangement unless it needs to be. The other type is a Health and Welfare LPA which gives the attorney authority to make decisions for you in respect of giving or refusing consent to healthcare, staying at home and receiving support, or moving into care. A Health and Welfare LPA can only be used when a person has lost capacity.

All LPAs have to be registered at the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), before they can be used. If it appears that the attorney is abusing their position, then anyone can raise a concern with the OPG or Social Services, who will investigate.

If you have an accident or become ill, it may be too late to make an LPA and then an application will have to be made to court to appoint somebody, called a Deputy, to look after you affairs. This person may not be your choice, and appointing a deputy through the court it is also a longer and more expensive process. This can take at least three months and there are costs which include application fees, medical assessments, solicitor’s fees, deputy appointment, annual management fee and a security bond.

Your Will is used to appoint a person (your executor) who will deal with the administration of your estate after you have died. The Executor is responsible for valuing your estate, closing bank accounts, dealing with your house, paying any tax that is due as well any debts and making sure that the balance of the estate passes to your chosen beneficiaries. If there is no Will, the Law of Intestacy sets out who can inherit your estate and how much they can inherit. This may not be what you want. Making sure your Will is up to date will provide you with the comfort

of knowing that your family is provided for how you want them to be even if times are uncertain.

Your solicitor will help you make a Lasting Power of Attorney and Will that gives effect to your wishes. You can then rest assured knowing that your family will benefit from your planning.

For more information, please contact Naomi Dyer on 01935 811307 email at [email protected]

The Annular Solar Eclipse

By
Editorial team
-
0

Since we were treated to an annular solar eclipse last month on June 10th, and it was of course inevitably mostly cloudy during this celestial event, I thought I’d share one of the glimpses that I managed to get of the eclipse as so many would not have been as fortunate. The moon appeared to bite a chunk out of the Sun beginning at 10:08am and covered a maximum of 25% of the Suns surface at around 11:13am. This image was taken close to the maximum.

What was great about this shot is that I like many, was stuck in the home office on conference calls during the event, so I didn’t really get to see the event with my own eyes. With a bit of forward planning though, I made sure that if there were any break in the cloud I was going to capture an image of it! With a star tracker equatorial mount, in my case the Skywatcher Star Adventurer fitted to a tripod, I set up earlier in the morning and did a rough daytime polar alignment using an app on my phone. I setup my DSLR camera with a 70-200mm telephoto lens using a 10 stop Neutral Density Filter, which is usually used for blurring motion in landscape photography by reducing how much light reaches the camera sensor. In my case though, I used it to help me get a clearer image of the sun itself that wouldn’t be so overexposed. I set the tracker going after pointing at the sun (without looking directly at it!) and then used a device called an intervalometer which kept the camera shooting over the whole event while the tracker helped to keep the sun in frame. By the time my conference call ended the event was nearly over, so I’m grateful that I was still able to obtain some images of this amazing event!

The sky at night this month – July 2021

With the Summer solstice now behind us, the nights will start to draw in, a welcome transition for Astrophotographers!

On July 11th,  you’ll find a narrow crescent Moon to the right of brilliant Venus, the so called ‘Morning and Evening star’.

On the 12th July, Venus gets up close and personal to Mars , with the Moon above and Regulus to the left, when they rise in the southeast.

On the 13th July, Venus will be close to Mars. Look right from the Moon to find these two planets, you’ll also see Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion, this brilliant blue-white star is easily noticeable in the evening sky,  just after the sun goes down.

Jupiter reaches opposition on the 14th, look to the southern skies to spot the largest planet in our solar system.

On the 17th July, the waning crescent moon will be in conjunction with Venus shortly after the sun rises, so look for the pair above the eastern horizon before dawn with the red giant star Aldebaran close by.

Mercury is most visible in the third week of the month, in the north east dawn sky, at around 4am as it brightens in magnitude to -1.0.

Saturn reaches opposition on the 20th. Look to the south around midnight, it’ll be a dazzling sight for naked eye observation but a treat through a telescope too.

What is Opposition? During opposition, a planet will on the opposite side of the Earth compared to the sun (configured in an approximately straight line). This means the planets will be roughly at their closest distance to the Earth making them appear slightly larger and brighter. This  makes it the best time to spot them.

On the 24th July, Saturn will be visible above the Moon with Jupiter below and  on the 25th, the Moon will appear to pass below Jupiter.

Look to the constellation Aquarius on the 28th/29th July to catch the peak of the Delta Aquariids meteor shower. It’s not a very strong shower with a meteor count of 20 meteors per hour, however the waxing gibbous moon will set shortly after midnight which will leave you with darker skies to spot the meteors in the early morning when the radiant will be at its highest. Face south and scan the skies using just your eyes.

By: Rob Nolan RPN Photography

Fresh Black Summer Truffles | Notes from an Epicurean

By
Editorial team
-
0

Summer is supposedly here!! The good news is, even if the weather is not great, summer truffles are now fully in season with a better flavour than at the start of the season. The season runs from May to August.

Truffles are a type of fungi but unlike mushrooms, they grow underground attached to tree roots, commonly ones bearing nuts. Hazelnut, beech, oak, and birch are often the best places to look but they are not easy to find. Places where they grow are closely guarded secrets as they are an expensive commodity and quite rare.

Black Truffles – Shutterstock

Traditionally a truffle pig was used to sniff out the truffles. They would be taken by their owners to an area where they are known to grow and the pigs with their keen sense of smell would be able to locate them. Unfortunately, the pigs love the taste of them and so if the hunters were not quick the pig would dig them up with its snout and snaffle them, an expensive drawback. Dogs are now used as they can be trained to find them but will not eat them.

Most black truffles look similar, round, dark brown to black with a very knobbly exterior, once cut open the interior is creamy or dark in colour and marbled, when fresh and ripe they have an amazing aroma, earthy, but hard to describe, if no aroma they are to be avoided as this indicates they are old and past it!! Fresh truffles have a short shelf life, up to 7 days.

Unfortunately, the British truffle is the same as the commonest variety in Europe, Tuber Aestivum, and is not as pungent as the winter varieties, that said they are cheaper to buy, possibly a good place to start if unsure whether one likes them. The winter varieties, especially the magnificent white truffle, are far stronger and a lot more expensive, more on those later in the year!

Personally, I think the best way to enjoy truffles is to keep it simple, cooked plain pasta, olive oil, salt, black pepper with a generous amount of truffle finely shaved over the top. Alternatively, a simple risotto, some truffle cooked with the rice and more shaved over the top.

A great source of truffles is www.trufflehunter.co.uk with delivery by post.

Good hunting!!

By: Simon Vernon

Know the signs of flystrike…

By
Editorial team
-
0

Flystrike, also known as myiasis, is a serious condition that is seen in animals that live outside; it is more common in rabbits and guinea pigs. This occurs more commonly throughout the summer months with the increase in the amount of flies. The flies are attracted to damp fur, urine, faeces and the odour of, particularly, rabbit’s scent glands. This condition can happen extremely quickly during hot summer days.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock


The flies lay their eggs on the rabbit, usually around the bottom area, and these eggs will hatch into maggots within a couple of hours. These maggots then will look for a source of food, in these cases this will be the animal’s skin and flesh. Flystrike is extremely painful and can often be fatal if not discovered quickly enough. Treating flystrike can be very upsetting and requires veterinary professional’s to clip, clean and remove the maggots one by one, whilst also providing pain relief and sometimes even fluid therapy dependent on how the rabbit has presented. The rabbit may appear lethargic, painful, innappetent and have visible wounds, although you may not see maggots they could have burrowed into the skin.


Prevention is always preferable to prevent any suffering and so identifying any animal that may be more at risk is always beneficial. This includes older animals that may be unable to clean themselves.


Steps to help prevent flystrike:


Ensure enclosures are regularly cleaned out.


Ensure animals are a healthy weight, as those that are overweight will be less able to clean themselves.
Keep bottoms clean and assist with cleaning in older, more compromised animals where needed.
Ensure their diet is not too rich as this will cause their faeces to be soft and they will be more likely to have dirty rear ends. Rabbits and guinea pigs should have a diet that is a minimum of 85% hay to increase roughage, as well as commercially prepared pellet food and vegetables.


Check your pet nose to tail regularly, this should be at least twice a day and more frequently when fly strike is more likely. Check for fly eggs, maggots, sores and ensure that any urine or faeces is cleaned away.
A topical treatment can be used every 10 weeks during the summer months; it works by repelling flies from laying any eggs.


Prevention of and early identification of flystrike is vital in the treatment of this devastating condition, due to its rapid development in a short space of time. If you are concerned about this condition then contact your veterinary surgery for information and remember flystrike is an emergency.


Naomi Gough Dip AVN (Small Animal), Dip HE CVN, RVN: Nurse Team Leader at Damory Vets.

Great aunt’s love and care inspired fund for young people

By
Editorial team
-
0

THE love and care of a great aunt has inspired retired finance worker Stephen Uden to set up a fund that aims to help disadvantaged young people reach their potential.

He and his wife Ingrid set up The Gladys Watson Fund with Dorset Community Foundation three years ago and it has already awarded more than £10,000 to groups across the county who make life better for young people.

The former senior manager at Microsoft and Nationwide Building Society and Ingrid, a former teacher, wanted to become involved with the voluntary sector in Dorset when they moved to Shaftesbury.

The roots of the fund stretch back to the 1960s when he was born out of wedlock in Abingdon, South Oxfordshire. His mother gave birth to him at a unit for unmarried mums in Croydon but she returned to a specialist hostel in Oxfordshire.

“In those days if you gave birth in that situation you weren’t expected to keep the baby,” said Stephen. “But my mother wanted to keep me so I went to live with my Great Aunt Gladys who lived nearby in Abingdon.”

He stayed with Great Aunt Glad for three years and it was his memories of the way she helped him and influenced him that shaped the couple’s thinking about the fund he wanted to set up in Dorset.

They decided to work with Dorset Community Foundation after Stephen had a good experience working with Wiltshire Community Foundation while at Nationwide, where he had built up a charitable fund via a company scheme with Charitable Giving.

Ingrid said: “Having moved down to north Dorset we didn’t really know who the groups were in the charity sector so setting up a fund with Dorset Community Foundation and leveraging its local knowledge was really useful in helping us get to know charities in our area.

“The thing we like about it is that, as a donor-led fund, we have still got control over it. Yes, we are paying the community foundation to help manage it but they will identify a series of charities that meet the criteria that you’ve established, which in our case is helping disadvantaged young people realise their full potential.

“Then we sit down and look at the requests and decide which ones we are going to fund each year.”

“We try to make the grants a different mix between the groups we know and also try some new ones and use that as a way of getting to know people,” said Stephen.

Find out more about the  Dorset Community Foundation at dorsetcommunityfoundation.org.

Sponsored By: Ward Goodman

New report reveals impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our village halls

By
Editorial team
-
0

New research sheds light on the extent to which village halls and community buildings have been affected by three successive national lockdowns.

Much has changed since England’s 10,000+ village halls were surveyed at the beginning of 2020 by national charity, Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE).

Whilst 3 in 20 halls supported Covid-19 relief efforts, the majority stayed closed and will need ongoing support and funding to recover.  15% of halls contacted said they had played an active role in supporting their community during the pandemic, including many Dorset village halls and community centres who provided a valuable community service despite the challenges presented by Covid-19 lock downs.

Herston Village Hall for example acted as a base during the pandemic for the Friendly Food Club to make ‘food bags’ to be delivered locally to families in need, and other community centres such as Littlemoor, Weymouth provided foodbank services.  Dorset Community Action’s centre in Wimborne continued to host organisations like Reach and Innovate, who provided a limited number of ‘essential services’ to support vulnerable members of their community, including drug and alcohol support services.  The community centre in Fontmell Magna has been working to develop a community cut flower garden in partnership with the Blackmore Vale Partnership social prescribing team to promote the health and wellbeing of local residents.

However, aside from these inspiring examples of the community coming together, many halls expressed concern that they would find it hard to attract volunteers and users back once they reopen, particularly older generations who may be less inclined to meet in person.

Dr Tom Archer, of Sheffield Hallam University who authored the report said, “Halls face major challenges in reopening and re-establishing services. The pandemic has had a significant impact on their volunteers and staff, as well as their users, and the future remains very much uncertain.”

Deborah Clarke, ACRE’s Rural Evidence & Village Halls Manager said, “The research demonstrates a clear and urgent need for continued funding support to be made available to village halls during this period of uncertainty, particularly those facing financial difficulty. This should involve bridging funds and continued relief from business rates.”

Through its membership of ACRE, Dorset Community Action is here to help local community centres and village halls to reopen.   Please contact Jo Keats if you would like support  [email protected]

or go to our website for further information https://www.dorsetcommunityaction.org.uk/covid-19-latest-guidance/

Sponsored by: Ward goodman

Oil Tank Fitter / Groundworker | Ford Fuels

By
Editorial team
-
0

Vacancy for Oil Tank Fitter / Groundworker


Location: Stalbridge – DT10 2R

Salary: Up to £22,000 per annum depending on experience and qualifications

Immediate Start Available

The successful applicant will be an energetic, hard working person who is preferably OFTEC qualified, but not essential as full training will be given, has a full clean driving licence and a friendly approachable attitude. Ideally you will be an experienced groundworker.

In return we will offer a competitive salary, full training, development opportunities, company pension, 28 days holiday (including bank holidays), Cycle2Work scheme, Employee Assistance Programme, Eyecare Scheme and Retail Discounts.

For Full Job Role Description please click here – https://www.totaljobs.com/job/groundworker/ford-fuels-job93512166

Please apply with CV to [email protected]

www.fordfuels.co.uk

1...438439440...495Page 439 of 495

© Bluebean Publishing Ltd