Friday, 7 September 2012
The summer holidays are over and so needless to say
the weather is now wonderful!! Sod’s law applies again, I think someone is
taking the piss!! The Falconry Weekend was a great success, all the stands
arrived well in time, we did have to be very careful and not allow anyone to
drive on the grass as we had had the most amazing downpour on the Wednesday,
with half an inch of rain in eight minutes!! And it went on for another 20
minutes, I thought we were going to have huge problems – they were putting up
the tents for the stands in the rain! However the following day it was warm and
windy, the best combination for drying out the ground. Friday dawned fair and
it recovered further and although we did not allow anyone to drive on it, thank
goodness Richard had lent us his ATV, Thank you Richard, because without it
last and this week we would have had problems. We took most of the large stand’s
stuff down in it, Adam did stirling work and Ben pushed stuff around in
wheelbarrows, and we did the same thing on the Sunday to get everyone out, we
had the whole lot out and cleared by 7.00pm on the Sunday evening apart from
two stands that were staying until Monday and that included getting one the
stand holders car started with my Landrover battery. 
Both days went really well, the seminars were
brilliant, the demonstrations first class, Gary Biddiss did his usual brilliant
stuff with his Peregrine Merlin, sadly there was not enough wind to do his kite
so I think we will work on a balloon over the winter months. Nigel King flew a
Striated Caracara which was excellent, a Hooded Vulture to work with Vulture
Awareness Day and a very good young Lanneret who got lovely height both days.
Howard Kirby and Roger James did great dog demonstrations, poor Roger was the
only one with rain as we had a short period of it on the Sunday, but otherwise
both went really well and my dogs were shut in for that period!! All our birds
did not let us down and it appears that the most popular was my Musket
Sparrowhawk who was excellent, although I have to say that today he was a pain
in the arse as it took 2.5 hours to get him out of a tree!
My staff and the volunteers were wonderful, some did
the BBQ all day, which was greatly appreciated by the punters, who were pleased
to have good food at a good price. Then Angie and staff did the evening BBQ for
the stand holders, I have to say the venison was gorgeous, thank you David
Morton and David Kay for providing in and thank Charlie and me for cutting it
up and marinading it in a brilliant fashion.
There have been amazing comments on both Facebook and
the IFF, and I hope that many of those who did not come this year will make it
next year as we will be doing it again – August 31st and Sept 1st
– put it in your diary!
Finally, today, Friday, the tents have gone, the loos
went on Monday, as did the Biffa bins, most of the clear up was done by the end
of Monday and I was exhausted, we also collected Art, so he is home again,
which is great, although he did managed to cut himself and pull off a shoe on
the first day back!! We have moved the fence in the field back to its original
place, which is going to look much better and we even managed to have a Members
BBQ on Wednesday evening to finish off the burgers and venison and that was a
great success too, of course the weather was great because I had done it while
the tents were still there in case it rained, so needless to say it did not!
We grounded Hare and Karis on Monday and Cowan Red,
they all need a moult and it gives us more time to concentrate on the young
birds, or at least that is the theory.
Charlie came down on the Thursday and as usual was a
tower of strength, although we were far better organised this year because it
was just done by us, so we knew what still had to be done. He left on Monday
morning and is back getting things ready for the birds to go up to Duncombe
soon. John and Adam and Tash are going up next week to help with the perches in
all the aviaries.
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Shasta went through her operation OK and is now getting
bored with being shut in and eating everything in sight. Rush is keeping her
company as he has to lose some weight. Autumn is showing already with leaf
colour, although I have to admit to being worried about the leaf drop on a
number of the trees, I hope they are all OK. Here is hoping that the weather
holds for the weekend.
I have just managed to change the last bed, so the
house is clean, thanks to Sue and Michelle who came in and rescued us today as
Sue was not feeling well, all my clothes are clean and I am off to bed with my
kindle!
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