Our first calves were born over the Easter weekend and our tradition now is to name them after our guests who are staying here at the time if they want us to. Some ladies have taken offence at the suggestion so not all want a cow named after them! We also had a few suggestions from our Twitter followers @Hayefarm and I must admit I thought Eggbert was a very clever contribution. We still have another five to go and I hope the births are all easy for the Mums to be.

Yesterday afternoon was spent with Farmer Chris, myself and daughter Isobella and a reluctant bull terrier called Barbara, who hates any form of exercise, moving the electric fence to the summer pasture for the rest of the herd.

Cynthia, our breeding sow, has had enough of her 9 piglets and it is quite a funny sight to see her running away from them when they are after more milk. She will be off to meet a very handsome boar next weekend. He is another rare breed Oxford Sandy and Black . The Oxford Sandy and Black breed have now been added to the 'Watch List' at the Rare Breed Survival Trust. This is a good thing as it means there will be funding available to help ensure the survival of the breed and reliable, tasty, succulent pork.

Farmer Chris is about to wage war on the local stinging nettle population as the recent rainfall has woken them from their slumber. We really should be making stinging nettle soup as we hear so many of our guests rave about it at River Cottage.

We are very impressed with our new solar panels which seem to be performing better after the recent rain which must have cleaned them. I wish I could say the same for the farmhouse windows!

The bed and breakfast has been extremely busy and I hope all of our guests have had a good time. Most visit River Cottage or Mark Hix in Lyme but we are increasingly having a lot of walkers and cyclists who put our fitness levels to shame!

Time to go and have my hair cut now - I will be steering away from Farmer Chris and his strimmer!

Susan the Farmers wife