We’re only three weeks from Christmas and as busy as ever. If it isn’t one thing it’s another. There’s not a present bought or a cake or pudding made for the house.

At least the cake madness is well under way in school. My students are excited about having a cake to take home to their families for Christmas. They’re also preparing for the Christmas pageant, so I’m altering costumes to fit little people.

This morning was a cold, dry and white frosty morning. The yellow-hued watery sun crept above the horizon, but seemed to have no impact on the white frosted lawn.

Mattie our boiler man arrived just after 8am. His blue car was dulled with a covering of frost. Only the day before, Tim had asked him to service the boiler whenever he had a chance. It wasn’t urgent. He just knew that the wife would go mad if the heat and hot water ran out over Christmas.

He had also organised a fill of diesel the previous day. By evening there was a burning smell of fuel in the garage. Now that seemed a coincidence – or had it something to do with the fill of diesel?

Tim was back on the phone to Mattie. Whenever he had a chance had turned urgent. Always obliging, Mattie arrived first thing in the morning, announcing that the car thermometer was registering -4°C. I gave Mattie his mug of coffee: two spoons of coffee, one sugar and a little milk. Mattie has no time to come into the kitchen. I know from years of service that he takes it on the floor by his side. “I couldn’t do without milk,” he said, pleasing the listening farmer and his wife.

He asked Tim about an intricate replacement piece for his daughter’s car. Tim didn’t know what it was. “Ah,” said Mattie, “if your father was here, he’d know. That man knew everything about cars!”

My late father in law Denis did know everything about cars. He knew even more about tractors and engines of all sorts.

As we approach Christmas, we remember the people that who are gone. It doesn’t matter how long they have been gone, we still note the empty chairs. Christmas time can be lonely, so it is nice to be able to gather our own around us in harmony and to embrace the spirit of Christmas.

Then we can spread that spirit to our wider circle of friends and community.

I won’t be spreading much around if I don’t get my act together, though! This week I will make inroads into the Christmas workload.

END OF MILKING

As Mattie reassembled the pieces and did his final check on the boiler, he peeped into the hole where the flame lights and cast his eyes left and right saying: “All the way down on the left and all clean, all the way down on the right and all clean.”

He pressed the boiler into action and she purred gently. Mattie asked: “Tim, does that sound better?”

“It does indeed, Mattie.” The man was satisfied and tidied up his case of colourful jets.

When Mattie left, Diarmuid and I went to the doctor in Ballincollig to get our flu shots. Diarmuid falls into the at-risk group of people, and I believe it just is not worth the risk of getting sick. Imagine if one of us got sick during the calving season? It would be a nightmare.

Tim headed off to the yard for the last bucket of milk. The bulk of the cows had been dried off the previous day. Over the last few weeks, the early calving cows were dried off. A tight calving pattern also results in a tight drying off period.

The cows will graze the last plot of grass today, fulfilling the target of grazing until 1 December.

The maiden heifers have been housed since the middle of November, and the in-calf heifers are happy on kale. The summer was ideal for the crop, resulting in good feeding value. Colm reckons the cost is half way between good grazing grass and good silage.

DISCUSSION GROUP PLANNING

Once we returned from the doctor, it was time for Colm’s discussion group under the professional guidance of Abigail Ryan of Teagasc to start arriving. As the lads collected around the kitchen table, Abigail set out the parameters of the discussion.

Very quickly they were down to real business: sharing figures, self-assessments and plans for the future. Candid discussion is the only way to participate in a forum like this. There is so much to be learned from a peer group that are at much the same stage in their farming careers.

The goal posts continue to change, and young farmers must be ready to adapt. Having someone on the end of the phone that you can float an idea with is at worst comforting and at best a source of sound advice.

Having them around your kitchen table makes for a cauldron of information, statistics, results and experience. The brew that results provides confidence, reliable evidence and hope for the next month ahead and beyond.

The next few weeks offer time for reflection and reappraising of business and personal plans for the New Year ahead.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.