Saying Goodbye to Lambing Live

With a nickname like Ram, it will come as no surprise that we have spent an enjoyable week watching Princess Kate and Adam present Lambing Live which finished on Saturday evening. This year they had a new family, the Marstons, from Cumbria.

Sheep farming in Cumbria is different from down in the south. They have different local breeds, and a different way of grazing the sheep. The sheep next door to us are Dorsets crosses, and they are contained within fields, but up on the Marston's Farm they have Swaledales, a local breed, which are hefted to the fells.

When sheep are hefted they stick to their area of the fell, and the ewes show the lambs where that area is so that the knowledge passes from generation to generation. The Marston's can't buy in sheep and introduce them to the hefted flock, it is something they have to be born into.

We had a chat with Glow, the farmer next door, who also enjoyed watching the series, saying that it was like a busman's holiday, but still enjoyable never the less. I don't know how much they learned about sheep breeding in Cumbria, but we certainly learned a lot which will tick several home education boxes; history, economics, biology, current affairs, and geography to name but a few.

There was a lovely piece that they filmed with Rachel Marston who is not just wife to Andrew, daughter-in-law to the woman whose family had owned the farm for 100 years, but also mother to three children. She made it clear that farming is not easy, nor will they ever become rich, but it was obvious that she really enjoyed life on the farm, as did her children, both who want to become farmers themselves. She finished with the hope that her own children will be 'hefted' to the farm.

It was clear that the Martstons work well as an extended family, and spend more time together than most families do, living and working on their isolated farm. Many home educating families spend more time than is usual with their children too, as they spend their days together learning, rather than rushing out to drop the children at school then going on to a full time job outside the home, not to see their loved ones until later in the day. This can lead to a much closer relationship with their children, and it is often noted that home educated children don't go though the teenage rebellion the way many schooled children do.

We many not all have farms handed down from generation to generation like the Marstons have, but I think we all hope our children will be 'hefted' if not to our homes, at least to our hearts.

Dorset cross sheep from the farm next door:

Ramism

Silence is easier done than said. So is lethargy.

Spring Has Sprung...

...the grass is grew, and look at all the chicken poo!

Yes, spring is truly here and a lot more springier than April two years ago when we had cold weather and in some areas snow. We may come to regret this warm weather though, as there is so much new growth that will be damaged with a frost. We nearly lost my artichoke to frost this way a few years ago, and it has barely recovered yet.

I don't know why I bother trying to grow vegetables sometimes. Ram doesn't eat them much. His total vegetable and fruit intake is carrots, frozen peas (eaten frozen) apples, and a little sorrel when it is available and the chickens don't get to it first.

In fact he has slowed right down on the food intake front. Last weekend he had his two hambagels for breakfast, (which is consumed at lunch time) and that was it! I offered to get food for him though out the day, but he turned it down. I hadn't really registered that he hadn't eaten anything else so didn't push anything in the evening. It was only when we went to bed that he mentioned that he was colder than usual. The penny dropped!

It can be hard to know what is going on at times like this. Is he feeling poorly? Has he somehow got out of the habit of eating? Is he is pain? One of the difficulties in having multiple disabilities is that they affect each other. I can't find out what level of pain he is in from the hypermobility, because the Asperger's means he has difficulty answering questions, and at times doesn't know himself if he is in pain or not. All I can do is watch and hope I can spot something.

Yesterday Ram was very tired, looked very pale, and hardly ate anything. Maybe today I might find out why!

Update.

I have realised that in long neglecting the blog, things have moved on somewhat, and I had better bring people up to date.

Ram is now 14, taller than his mum, and speaks in sarcasm like many teens do. Despite this, he is still like many home educated teens and gets on well with his parents.

We are still home educating, and much of what we do is reading aloud and purposive conversation, but this too has matured. Ram has a great interest in physics, so we have been reading a lot of science books, in fact he says there are only two types of books, non-fiction and physics!

One big change is that Arrow our elderly dog finally died. I had always said that she was so stupid that she would realise that she was supposed to die, and would carry on for years, unlike our other dog that was very cleaver and died at age 10 (of a brain tumour). I was right. Despite being a large dog she managed 15 years, the last however I couldn't really say that she was with us. She was deaf, mostly blind, and just wondered around and slept all the time. We knew it was the right time to let her go when she couldn't recognise the Dxh when he arrived, and we had her put to sleep.

There had been much discussion about what to replace her with. It certainly wasn't going to be another dog, as Ram's Hypermobility Syndrome was causing a lot of trouble (there is a subject for another post all on it's own!) making walking dogs impossible. We toyed with the idea of fish, then reptiles or snakes, but in the end after a visit to a friend we decided on chickens.

At the moment we have five lovely girly girls, producing eggs every day for us. Death is something that we have had to get used to a lot more as the original four rescued hens died pretty quickly. We have two themes running for names, architecture and food. We have been though Veranda, Porch, Kentucky, Tikka and now we have Terrace, Patio, Masala, Nugget and Korma.

Bob also has had his cousin come to visit. Fred arrived in the post one day, having been traveling around the world living in post offices. He heard that Cousin Bob had a nice place to live, and decided to visit, and hasn't actually managed to leave again!

Unlike Bob, Fred is laid back with his straw hat, a little hard of thinking, so we have to explain things to him a lot.

That's enough of an update for now!

Professor Jim and Home Education

Professor Jim and Home Education

We had seen a lot of Professor Jim Al-Khalili in the last week or two, and will be seeing more of him in June at the Cheltenham Science Festival http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/science We also watched him give evidence to the Science and Technology Select Committee http://tinyurl.com/458ls55 as well as watching the excellent Everything and Nothing (BBC 4).

One of the things that Jim and others such as Professor Brian Cox seem to be concerned about is getting young people more interested in science. There seems to be a bit of a problem though, as the young people giving evidence to the Select Committee didn't seem to think much of the programmes or personalities involved with science in the media.

Ram is getting like that too. He heaved a sign one night after Horizon and said that he guess he would just have to get used to being bored for the rest of his life!

The young people were clear that one of the big turn offs for science is GCSE physics. Of course this is one of the many reasons why people like us home educate. In particular, I asked the question how would the school meet the needs of a bright child that can out think many in particle physics, but at the same time has learning difficulties.

By home educating we can meet the child where they are, and they don't have to sit bored by school science. Right now we have a few books on the go, such as Richard Feynman's University Lectures, and a PhD on acoustic microscopy and superconductors (I used to feel hard done by because I was the only one not married to a PhD but now I am glad of my friends!) Ram says that there are only two types of books; physics and non-fiction!

The internet has also helped with home education. After reading a book on superconductors we emailed the professor that wrote and asked for suggestions on further books (he couldn't really come up with any, apparently superconductors are for the post grads only) and we have found PhD papers from the likes of Brian amongst others, as well as Jim's lecture notes for his first year class. Thanks Jim!

Without the internet and the generosity of our university professors, physics would be a lot harder for home educators!

Wonders of Our Universe

You don't have to be a professor named Brian Cox to talk about the wonders of our universe. Wonders of the Universe His universe may be quite large thanks to the BBC travel budget, but most of us have to settle for something a little more modest and closer to home.

Petrol like helium is constantly going up, which may well be good for the environment as we think twice about hopping in the car to travel around. And public transport was never frequent in our part of the woods, although twice a week would have qualified it to be regular. However, there are 'things to do' on our own doorstep.

Spring is one of the best times of the year to get out walking. The sun is not yet strong enough to burn or over heat us which makes it idea weather for walking and there is so much to see. There are the spring bulbs, the ponds coming to life, the buds on the trees, even the insects are active. Our chickens have been enjoying chasing flies around the garden before laying out looking as if they are playing dead in order to get plenty of sun.

We are very lucky to have the Badminton estate on our doorstep. I will leave others with better knowledge to give specifics of where to go, but I do understand that there are some lovely walks there. We also have the Boxwell estate, and others such as Ozleworth and Newington Bagpath in the valleys. These estates are not open to the public nor are they run as parkland like Badminton is. They are working farms, and because of this they have maintained over the centuries what we think of as natural English countryside. However, there are official footpaths and bridle paths running though them.

Then of course we have Westonbirt right on our doorstep. I have never liked the 'front door' of Westonbirt, with the car parks, visitor centres and high charges. Thank goodness there is also the 'back door'. There are public footpaths running from both Leighterton and Didmarton into Silkwood and the woods behind Silkwood. This to me is the real Westonbirt, the wild bit where the trees are left to grow naturally and the wildlife is less disturbed by people. Again, much of this is on private land and public footpaths and the Countryside Code should be kept to.

There is a good reason though to go into Westonbirt by the front door, and that is when there is limited mobility. In the modern part of the arboretum there is disabled parking, hard paths and electric scooter and manual wheelchairs available (best to book on weekends and at busy times).

But if you have someone in your party that is of limited mobility, and you don't want the expense or the crowds of Westonbirt, the Cotswold Conservation Board has produced a small handbook called Walks on Wheels containing 15 walks suitable for buggies and wheelchairs, two of which are in our area: a town walk in Tetbury and a walk on the Badminton Estate. Each walk has a map and details about parking, length, and whether there are any hills or not. That's essential information for the people pushing!

Theses walks and others can be downloaded for free from their website http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/

So Professor Brian Cox may be able to watch the sun go down from the top of a mountain or stand in the middle of a Peruvian desert to watch the dawn though a fourth century solar observatory, but nothing beats standing on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment and watching the sun rise over Westonbirt, or gazing across the Severn floodplain to take in a sunset.

Bang goes Bang With the Weather

I just suggested watching Bang Goes the Weather with Ram. We gathered our things and turned on the TV. As the presenters introduced themselves, Ram looked disappointed: "Oh, it's this lot. I thought the title was some clever pun that I didn't get. I don't like that kind of enthusiasm. I like people that are really interested in what they are doing, not just trying to look interested."

So much for the government's attempt to make science exciting. Mind you, from listening to the young people giving evidence at the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, my son is not the only one that despairs about about the dumbing down of science on TV. Most of them said that they get more information from reading the New Scientist, and talking to real scientists.

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=7888

Maybe it is time that Bang Goes the Theory goes bang and we can get some real science on prime time TV.