Blizzards cut the house and farm off

                                         

Frozen waterfall down the farm track

The stable covered in snow drift

                                   

The bracken on our farm is a real nuisance. It suppresses wild flowers and grasses. We've found a novel way of bashing it, which is the most efficient way of weakening it. A quad, pulling tractor tyres joined with chains, emulates a herd of oxen crushing the stalks.Supposedly in olden times, everyone would have collected the bracken for bedding and animals would have helped to trample it. On our farm the steep slopes pose a problem so not everywhere is accessible. Here you can see green coming through where it has been successful and brown on steeper parts which can't be got at other than heavy tramping! ,

Cutting back rhododendron above Roeburnscar in January

the new growth being hacked

Nick Adam Rod

Healthy diverse woodland --plenty of holly

The woodland on the farm is subject to rhododendron invasion and  has to be culled as humanely as possible! It is not native to Britain and doesn't allow for any diversity of plants  underneath the lovely gnarled branches which admittedly make lovely dens to hide in. Using the biodynamic system and working with it's calendar Rod chooses the best days to cut back the new growth . Having done this for a few years now he can compare the growth of  shoots controlled on biodynamic days to those that were cut  any time and  the results definitely show that the former don't have such vigorous regrowth.

Above is a photo of old Backsbottom Farmhouse ( not the original farmhouse)....the only one I can find in fact before the flood in 1967

Personal accounts of Alice and Bill Brown's terrifying ordeal as they survived the impact of the flood water hitting the house can be found in the book Wray Flood and Wray and District Remembered (both in our bookcases at Roeburnscar). Rod is researching the causes of flooding (river restoration blog)

Snow crystals on trees  

Ice on the Roeburn looking downstream from the L.C.C. footpath bridge.Cross one way upwards takes you to the track up to the farm buildings and up to the fells; cross the other way and walk through the woods along the permissive footpath or straight on to Outhwaite.

This is Backsbottom Farmhouse (courtesy of David Kenyon) looking up the valley before the flood and before it was demolished for the new quarry manager's house that eventually became the farmhouse for Alice and Bill Brown and family who farmed here. Not that long ago (the 1960's) their family were able to make a living on the land with cattle and sheep. They survived the flood in 1967---see David Kenyon's book "Wray Remembered" for accounts of their ordeal.