Circus skills

This week, ex Launceston YFC member Richard Gribble came to the White Hart to  teach us some circus skills. He started the evening by introducing himself and telling us how he came to knowing circus acts. He explained that there was a young farmers entertainment competitions, and he learn a few things for that, and it escaladed from there. He taught us juggling, diablos, plate spinning amongst other things. He also demonstrated his unicycle and a few of us tried the stilts. A good night was had by all.

Royal Cornwall Show cubicle prep

Its the time of year again where we need to prepare for the summer competitions and shows. Thursday the 14th April we went to the Trehane's farm at South Petherwin to make a start on the cubicle for Royal Cornwall show. This year, the theme is inventions from the past 200 years, and we have been given the time been 1931 and 1940

Stock judging

Stock judging is considered one of the key skills that you learn at yfc. There are many competitions to enter throughout the year so as our training night, we went to the Thomas family farm at Treguddick to look at beef and lamb. Tim Bastard showed us what to look for in a beef animal and that the hind quarters and loin are of greatest importance. We had to order the four animals in which we thought was best, and had a competition between members. Well done to Sam Northey for winning this one. Stuart Cornelius showed us the lambs and told us that they are much the same to judge as the beef. Once again we had a competition and Sam Thomas won this time. For the dairy animal stock judging, we went up to assistant club leader, Roger Parsons farm. Here, Michael Smale joined us to tell us what to look for in dairy cows. These are judged in a completely different way, as we are judging for its ability to produce milk, opposed to meat. Oli Stephens, Heather Stanbury and Nathan Jeffrey were joint winners of the competition to order the animals in the right order and give reasons.
Thanks must go to Tim, Stuart and Michael for the training, and to the Thomas family and Roger for being hosts for the evening.

Charity sponsored walk

As an extra fund raiser this year, we undertook a sponsored walk for our charities Cornwall Air Ambulance and CLIC Sargent. The walk startes at Padstow church to walk the Saints Way, which is a recognised walk across Cornwall to Fowey on the south coast. That totals 28 miles altogether, so as it is not possible to walk in a day, we stayed the night in Lanivet church hall. 9 people started the walk at around 9.30 and soon increased to 10 as we met Evie soon after we started. We stopped for lunch around 1pm at Hustyns. We continued to walk after lunch and got to Lanivet around 4.30 where we enjoyed a meal at the Lanivet Inn. After bacon sandwiches on the Sunday morning, we set off with 6 more walkers, taking the total to 16. Unfortunately the weather wasn't kind in the morning, and we soon got soaked! The terrain was a good mix of roads and tracks, with the odd muddy trail! We got to Fowey around 3.30 on the Sunday and enjoyed an ice cream, although we were all a bit worse for wear. We raised over £500 for charity with our efforts.