CJS Daily Online

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Friday the Thirteenth

Arrived in the CJS office two weeks late!

What a day, mysterious symbols and lines appeared on some page of the website but only in IE8, so that took up the morning whilst we should have been sorting out the Weekly, fortunately it's been quite quiet.
But, (there's always one of those lurking around the corner) : two office machines still have gremlins, one is simply underpowered as the original problem was faulty memory sticks which were replaced with smaller ones, the other one is not responding which we've decided is because of the Bank Holiday and it's gone off to spend the weekend on the otherside of cyberspace. And to cap it all the server DNS went off this morning - no internet and the underpowered machine is the only one with access to switch it back on - ho hum. Isn't technology wonderful??

Any way - one edition of CJS Weekly is now printing and is already online for digital readers, it's a small one with five pages containing 30 new paid posts of which 14 came direct to CJS.

Focus and show

The latest Focus was out on Monday. Read it here.
10 pages of fascinating articles including one by each of the associated organisations which time (unsurprisingly) are CMA and SCRA; other include one about the Isle of Wight festival from Matthew Chatfield, Parks and Countryside Manager for Isle of Wight Council (also known as The Ranger of Naturenet.net), details of how lottery grants are helping our countryside, what life's like as a ranger in a remote location from Paul Sharman the Ranger on St Kilda (part of NTS), Derbyshire County Council Countryside Service sent some wonderful photos of rangers in rescue mode in last winter's snow, plus lots more. And there's the usual mix of adverts, contacts and organisations.

Wednesday 25 August is the Egton Show, our local agricultural show, and as usual the office is closed so the team can attend. TB to watch the equine events and pat the goats (please don't bring any more home), AW to see how Mr W's pigeons have done (lots of rosettes please), HB to child wrangle and wagon mind, KH to see who won Dad's memorial trophy and everyone to buy up the show and stagger home with new buckets, bits of tack and tools and stuffed with bacon butties and candy floss. Back to normal on Thursday.

Busy Weekend

It's the Goathland Flower and Vegetable show this weekend.  HB, for her sins, is both secretary and chairman and so has spent the past week in a haze of mad preparations and is now up to her elbows in flour baking, it seems, for the five thousand.  AW spent the morning measuring the height of sunflowers dotted around the parish; it's not been a good year, they've mostly started flowering too early which has stopped the upward growth.  The office dogsbody is also busy in the kitchen.    Yesterday evening was entry night and all committee members were at the Hall to help set up which meant that KH was left on hound puppy watch (and has to do so again tomorrow and therefore gets out of all sorts!) however did manage to make a chocolate cake and a dozen buns for the teas with the vital ingredient of a large dollop of sancerre - for the cook not the cakes!
The rest of the team are doing their best to get out a copy of CJS Weekly which has now gone to print and will be with you on Monday. This week it has the latest edition of cJS Focus which for August 2010 is on Countryside Management which will be available to all online on Monday.  The Weekly is 6 pages with 40 new paid posts of which 34 came direct to cJS yes, you did read that right 85% straight to CJS.
Now where's the duster?  I must polish the onions....

Baby Beavers

The Scottish Beaver Trial and partners are celebrating the sighting of the first beaver kits to be born at Knapdale. See the photos here.
They would be quite at home here in Goathland, it has poured with rain all day Poured might be an understatement, at some points it has been hurled from the sky with great force and in huge quantities. The birds are taking refuge where they can and the garden is looking severely battered.
There's more about the beavers in this week's edition of CJS Weekly which fortunately had just finished printing when the big printer gave out a terrible griding noise (death rattle??), stopped working and starting flashing an electronic spanner at us - another engineer is splashing towards us with a real spanner to affect yet another repair. It is six page this week plus four more of the training calendar for September, you'll find details of 31 new paid posts of which 15 came direct to CJS and the usual mix of volunteer vacancies and general news.

Monthly

It's come around again, it only seems like five minutes since the last one. The August edition is, as is usual during holiday season, a small one being only three pages; however as you'd expect it's full of information and job ads. The online version is already live and the paper copies are almost printed ready for pairing up with address pages and posting, Royal Mail permitting they'll be on your desk on Thursday.
Today has been a mixed bag weather-wise, bracing wind followed by high humidity broken by a cloud burst and then sunshine, this afternoon has been lovely, far too nice to be sitting a computer. Although we've noticed the evenings are getting darker earlier, torches needed for the last dog turn out of the day and it seems that the swifts have gone, they've not been seen or heard since last Tuesday so the year is on the turn too ('hooray' shouts the winter fiend from the corner).
Don't forget: Friday is the last chance to get your ads to us for the Focus on Countryside Management due for publication on Monday 23rd.

Now it's the computers...

So, the printer is now fixed (fingers crossed) and then the computers decide to grumble. One box now on the work bench and another showing signs of rebellion. Aren't laptops wonderful? Even if they don't have all the software of big office workstations.
All of which means we have been able to send the Weekly to print and put it online, this week it's eight pages with 30 new paid posts of which 20 came direct to CJS. Paper editions, post allowing, will be with you on Monday. Although it would appear that a few went the scenic route last week, if it happens to you you can email or call us for the temporary details to access the online copy, please have your CJS number or post code ready for us to find you on the database.

Printers, lemurs and birds

For the fourth time in a little over a week a printer engineer is heading in our direction. To say we're not best pleased would be an understatement. Two visits by engineer number one last week and one visit by his boss on Monday and still it's not right. Let's see what happens after visit number four.

Despite the problems we have managed to send this week's edition to print, it's six pages this week with 32 new paid posts of which 20 came direct to CJS - as usual digital copies are already online and post allowing paper editions will be with you on Monday. Remember the lemurs at Durrell from last week? Well, the bidding to name the twins closed on Tuesday at £1650 - money well, spent Durrell will spend it wisely on their conservation efforts.

We've been watching the birds this week, owl has been a regular visitor to the wires upsetting everyone else. We have lots of young blackbirds, several newly fledged blue tit nests and a handful of young great tits. The tree sparrow family have become regulars too and the young robins are part way through a moult into their adult plumage and look most peculiar with orange breast feathers, adult legs but 'baby' heads. There's a call from BTO for people to remember to feed and water garden birds during the summer, especially in the ground feeders in East Anglia where the ground is rock hard due to a shortage of the wet stuff. More details in the Weekly and also BTO.

Name that lemur

Yes, that's right. Durrell are offering people the chance to bid for the right to name their unexpected arrivals of twin ring-tail lemurs. What would you name them? CJS office ideas have ranged from the mundane bubble and squeak to the esoteric walter1 and walter2 (don't ask...) if you can do better then have a look at http://bit.ly/c09KUz Bidding closing at 14:10 on Tuesday 27th.
You can find out more about the lemurs in this week's edition of CJS Weekly which is now printing - in several sections because our big printer is broken and despite two visits the engineers have not fixed it yet. When we have multitudinous heaps we will assemble it and put in the envelopes for collection and all being well it will be with you on Monday as usual. This week it's seven pages with 37 new paid posts of which 20 came direct to CJS.

Wet or sunny St Swithin?

So rained on St Swithin's day, but it was also sunny which, I suppose, means 40 days of unsettled weather. Which has been just what we've had ever since a mix of sunshine and showers, cooler and then hot, only another 36 days to go. Mrs Blackbird is feeding a third brood of noisy demanding fledglings but seems to be managing OK, and the garden is still relatively pest free so the more blackbirds and tits the better.
You should have all received your copy of CJS Weekly today, this week's edition includes the August training calendar as well as the usual mix of jobs (42 this week, of which 22 came direct to CJS), volunteer vacancies and snippets of information. There's also a call for people to take part in the big butterfly count.

Sticky, sticky

Don't know about you, but we're melting.
All the windows are open, the door too and the fan is on full (lots of heavy things are required to keep the paperwork on the desks) but we're still sweltering, there is no air movement at all, the cloud cover is complete and really quite low. Even the birds are quiet and Hebe has stayed in the office - she's normally off rummaging in the undergrowth when the door is open. Added to which we're doing our best to flatten the swarms of flies which seem to be infesting Goathland - and although she's a gun dog Hebs is not really that keen on sudden, unexpected bangs so I'd have thought that would be an added incentive not stay indoors.
Having large printers churning out CJS is not really the best thing on such a sticky day but you would grumble if you didn't get your copy on Monday. Large heaps are building up ready for dispatch and will be collected tomorrow. As usual the digital copy is already online, this week there are eight pages with 68 new paid posts of which 33 came direct to CJS.

CJS Monthly

The July edition is now online, 4 pages this month which include a list of the current jobs on the website and the new voluntary positions advertised since the last issue.

There are also 3 pages of training courses online. Paper copies will be on your desks on Thursday.

Click Here to read the July edition.

Another Week..

Another quiet week in the CJS office,  I think everyone must know KH is on holiday enjoying the last week of Wimbledon. There is a small heap of copies of CJS Weekly to stuff into envelopes and post out to you, the digital version is already online. This week it's 6 pages containing 45 new paid posts of which 36 came direct to CJS. 

Weekly again

Where has the week gone? It's disappeared I really can't believe we've reached Friday again, so quickly, but it is so you'll be wanting your update on CJS. HB is, as I type, on her way for a family weekend away so AW has stepped into the time machine and is back working on the Weekly which she's not done for quite a while. Thankfully I've not changed too much in the interim so this week's edition is already online and is almost printed ready for dispatch. Monday's edition is eight pages plus five for next month's training calendar. There are 48 new paid posts of which 34 came direct to CJS, there is also information on next week's National Insect Week and some cheering news about the good fortunes for Ratty (water voles to non Wind in the Willows fans).
The bird feeders have been busy, our bossy Mrs Blackbird has brought her second brood out to teach them the ways of feeding on demand; we've also had a delightful visit from a family of marsh / willow tits (one day I really will learn to tell the difference) with a parent taking sunflower seeds and pecking them into smaller pieces before feeding two very demanding offspring who waited none to patiently in the hedge.