Summit Success

Well at 8.15 on the 1st November a very weary but elated team of four climbers and three guides made it to the summit (Kibo) on Mt Kilimanjaro, standing shrouded in mist at 5895 metres above sea level. The summit assault started at midnight 1,195m below at Kibo huts and was an arduous climb over rocks, scree and slippery, snow covered paths culminating in a breath taking experience as we peered over the craters edge at Gilman's point on the way to the summit.

Get to Gilman's Point and the finish line is only a further 1.5hrs trek away but only another couple of hundred meters! Technology didn't enable us to blog from the summit so apologies for that, but here are a few more shots of the adventure.

Here the porters were doing the traditional singing thanks, after their tips, singing Kilimanjaro! The top team members, Tosha, Elli, Rambo, Frank, Spiderman and Frank were the main guides (team)that took the Comic Relief 'Celeb's' up to the summit earlier in the year. Mawenzi, the lower of the twin peaks is just showing herself in the distance, behind our loo tent

Trekking through the mist and cloud at about 12,000 ft. The cloud came and went, but when it was clear the views into Kenya were absolutely incredible!

This was the view back from Kibo, towards Mawenzi, in the middle is the barren area called the Saddle. Mawenzi was about 5k away at this point and it was the only trek where we could see where the next camp was, even though, from the start of the trek, it was still 9km away, it still took us about 5hrs to get there. Pole' Pole'

Kibo and Mawenzi bow out in the sunshine as the trek leaves the mountain, the views on the way down were the best ones on the mountain, bathed in sunshine and us with satisfied smiles, beaming all the way down.

Testing

Well, here we are 24 hour to go untill we leave for Amsterdam, in 36 hrs we'll be on the plane to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.  Dad and I in conjunction with brother in law James and father in law John are due to start the climb on Tuesday.  Bags are packed, repacked and packed again with everything from longjohns to camel packs to re-hydration sachets (thanks hannah). I'll see if this get to farmer jakes blog so that I can blog from Africa's highest point, also known as the worlds highest free standing mountain, AKA the world highest volcano!!  Let's go!
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Jake Freestone
Farm manager Overbury Farms

Farmerjakef.blogspot.com

Boddington Bean Drill

For the past 4 years we have been hiring the grandly named 'Boddington Bean Drill'. the drill belongs to Boddington Estate and is a Simba Flatliner with a Massey seeder unit stuck to the top of it. It is a great way of planting beans without the need for ploughing. The beans are planted to a depth of 6-8 inches aiming for 18 plants/m3 by the time the spring arrives. We can plant over 50 acres a day much more than previously possible. We have started planting earlier than usual as the soil conditions are so favourable onto some of our heaviest land. The soil is lightly worked after the drill to seal up the slots made by the legs. Derek has been driving the 8530 all summer and is using it to plant the beans. Auto trac is employed to keep the rows arrow straight to avoid over or under laps which will make sure all of the agrochemicals applied by the Bateman RB35 will be accurately applied.

Planting Time Again

With the very dry September drilling (planting) has been a stop start affair but with the wider drill, now 6m, we have been able to cover the ground in record breaking time. Gordon has taken up the drilling mantle from his brother Andrew and has been doing a great job. Working well into the night with the Auto trac guidance system keeping him on the straight and narrow. With only 12mm of rain in September we have had some very dry seedbeds to plant into and germination has been varied depending on the depth on seed into available moisture or not. Winter barley planted on Bredon Hill has shot through the ground, where moisture levels were higher but wheat sown into heavy land has yet to emerge. These heavy fields dig get 12mm of rain last week and so they should soon be emerging. I increased the seed rate looking at an emerge plant population as opposed to a seeding rate. Emergence date was the 20th October when we planted in the last week of September so we'll see how close that is. the clip shows Graham rolling with our 6m Simba rolls and Gordon Drilling with the 7830 and the sprinter 6. Derek is just over the wall rolling with the cousins 12m set of rolls, new this year.

ELS -Food for Thought

Today, with the majority of the wheat drilling completed I was able to turn my attention to our Entry Level Stewardship application. Our current scheme expires in November 2010, was it really four years ago I did the last one? My plans are to have the new scheme, ELS and HLS combined up and running by this current spring, which will allow us the summer months to establish a lot of margins. Currently many of these margins are planted to a width of 2m but with increasing pressure around areas of population and a potential for us to loose certain chemicals it would be prudent to protect our operation for as long as possible and if we can get paid as well then that could be a bonus before legislation might force our hand. Chemical loss, such as Metaldyde will severely impact on our business here at Overbury. Wider margins will help reduce any soil erosion run-off, taking chemical particles with them into the water courses. Coupled with the margins I am also looking at some pollen and nectar mixes to provide feed sources for insects, which in turn will provide feed for small birds. The ELS scheme should provide us with a backbone with which to hang an HLS application on with a lot more options and interesting projects to get involved with.

Fresh Country Air

Last weekend the contractors arrived to spread about 400t of mushroom compost. We would usually hire the spreaders ourselves and do the operation a little later in the summer but the adjacent fields were destined for Oilseed Rape and so a quick turn around was required. I checked all of the NVZ restrictions and the water framework directory and found that there was no problem in spreading this low nutrient, high organic matter and high sinus clearing product at this time of year. As the spreaders started their soil improving task the waft of sweet fresh country air, held up on stiff south westerly carried nicely into the local villages much to the confusion of the natives. Were we spraying some horrible pesticide? Were the drains blocked and was sewage erupting volcanically from the nearest pipe? No I'm afraid it was nothing that exciting, it was just us enhancing the light soils with some well deserved organic matter. Next year I will be investigating some other forms of organic matter to help improve the land and who knows that type might even smell of Chanel No 5!!

Nowhere to hide

This shot was taken earlier this week of the combine cutting wheat, although I can't work out which field it was it. Andrew John, my predecessor at Overbury stills flies and is a great asset as the 'eye in the sky' taking photos and checking up on how things are looking, not just here at home but it's a great way to assess the region and how it looks especially in May and June. Invariably things that look great from the truck can be less than impressive from the sky. Maybe I should consider taking up flying microlights so that I can take some pictures of my own and suss out the competition for myself.....