Happy New Year! We partied and raised hell until 3am New years Eve, then got up 4 hours later to let out the birds as always...and rake up all the silly string from the celebration, those birds will eat anything!

Almost 100 people voted in each of our 5 categories of our annual Best Photos, and one winner in particular stands out. The categories were:

1. Pineywoods Cattle
2. Geese, Turkeys and Chickens
3. The Sun, The Moon, The Rainbow
4. Sue, Mike & Animals
5. Nature

Scroll down to see the winner in each category and discover the stand-out.

The journey to naming Ozark Akerz started in late 2006 with a mugshot and fingerprints at the Welwyn Garden City Constabulary. I was applying for a green card to the United States. Part of the requirement was checking for criminal records in every country I had lived in since the age of 16. This included 3 countries, Canada, Denmark and my residence at the time, United Kingdom.

My mugshot and fingerprints were sent to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), MI5 and MI6 (yes, James Bond’s MI6) and Interpol. Once they had been submitted, there was nothing to do but sit back and wait for criminal records to arrive in the mail, which took 9.5 months, the same as a Pineywoods Cattle gestation period. The US Embassy in London contacted me and said I had been cleared for the next stage: more paperwork and a medical exam followed an interview with Embassy staff.

The day of interview at the US Embassy, my wife Sue and I were nervous. Let me explain why.

Risk. It makes me feel chaotic, disorderly, wild, vibrant. Risk makes me feel alive when I take it. And yet, through my work as a farmer risk is not something I take, it is given.

So this month I am ready to TAKE a risk, go to the Rage Against The Machine concert in Raleigh, North Carolina despite the resurgence of the disease. 

I’m sure you’re thinking “that doesn’t sound risky”.  Let me explain why it is.