Kitchen Garden Forum

Oh gee! I saw this being advertised in one of my usual foodie magazines. You can pay all that money to watch a lamb being fed with a bottle. I think I might send it to my cousin who lived on a farm, with her tenant farmer parents, all her young life.

I spent all my school holidays there too - enforced child labour (I loved it!). You never had to do anything you were uncomfortable with but you were expected to be useful. It was taken for granted that the kids would feed the orphan lambs (usually my job). Blimey, for such small creatures they have a very strong pull. LOL! |The best thing about doing the sheep was working with the dogs. My cousin - a year younger and bigger than me - tended to work with the cows. I was too scared to go near them. Oh happy days.

We have a childrens' animal farm near our village and their entry fees and the cost for doing this type of thing is probably similar. But then I suppose you have to factor in the staffing costs, all the bureaucratic health & safety costs, oublic liability insurance etc, and you suddenly realise why the entry costs to such places are so high.

The sad thing these days is that whenever somebody tries to earn some extra money to make a living the cost of doing so is overwhelmingly high. While the public need to be protected from the worst health & safety accidents on ventures like this I worry that bureaucracy and the ever more frequent resorting of the public to health & safety litigation & bureaucracy is stifling enterprise.

As an example, Mr Primrose runs the organisation of our annual village fundraising fete. He first has to complete & submit a 32 page risk assessment.of every aspect of using our village park for the event to our county council Health & Safety Department. Who cares if the chemicals used in the portaloos meet standard xYZ of some elusive safety regulation? But thats what leads to having to pay £16, directly or indirectly to feed a lamb or pet a donkey at a public event somewhere!

As you will have gathered I,m not a fan of bureaucracy!!