One thousand jobs!

Monday's edition of CJS Weekly contains the one thousandth vacancy advertised by CJS since January. Since the beginning of the year we've advertised over 1000 new, not previously advertised, paid UK vacancies plus a few international ones and loads of volunteers too which we don't count in the overall jobs total. Monday's edition is 17 pages with 129 vacancies, 68 of which came direct to CJS.

Here are a few stats for the number-crunchers (that'll be me then), we've advertised 1004 jobs, 598 came direct. That’s 59.6% direct to CJS. If you've subscribed and received every copy since 15/1 it's cost you 0.93p per advertised vacancy.

The training section has grown over the past couple of weeks and today a whole host of new courses have been added to the online rolling programme and there are now over 900 different courses and events listed. We have also added a few new providers and longer courses. So have a look at: http://www.countryside-jobs.com/index/training.htm

Siskins!

They're back. First thing this morning there was one male on the sunflower seeds, by lunch time he had two female friends and now there's a small mixed flock joining in with the other finches which today includes a brambling. A couple of weeks ago, after the RSPB bird count, we went out and bought a cheap red peanut feeder, perhaps that's what brought them back or maybe it's just coincidence.

Picture of Adult Male Siskin from RSPB, to read more about Siskins click here.

The lull before the storm?

After a busy few days (perhaps that should be weeks) it's finally beginning to slow down and we've had time to think. We're using the lull to catch up on a few things and to start planning a few new features.

Yesterday we published the first Special Edition of 2007, it features Seasonal and Volunteer work and is packed full of useful information and loads of adverts. So have a read.

The outlook on the owl box is not looking good, the proposed tree is too straight which means the box would be vertical and the branches are all at nearly 90º to the trunk so on these limbs it would be horizontal not at all want a homeless Tawny want. Our next plan of campaign is to try work out a way to fix the box at an angle, with perhaps a wedge between the back of the box and the trunk.

The weather has been balmy, once again you could almost believe it's spring – but last time we said that it snowed for a week. On one of the intake fields a large flock of lapwing has been seen wheeling in the wind and crying out across the moor fringes, but so far no curlew, once they arrive we know the seasons really have turned the corner.

We're off to eat pancakes now - don't forget the lemon juice!

CJS Weekly + Special Edition

Well it's Friday so we've survived another week. And that means there must be another copy of CJS on it's way to subscribers - this week it's 12 sides with 108 new paid jobs of which 62 were sent direct to CJS from the employer. It also contains the quarterly Special Edition supplement which this time features seasonal and volunteering work. It's a jam packed 14 pages of articles, information, tips and those all important adverts.

It's a vulture!

According to our local paper (The Whitby Gazette) an African white-backed vulture has been sighted in the area but unfortunately not by the CJS staff. It was first seen in Robin Hood's Bay just down the coast from us and then more recently in Grosmont, the next village down the valley from us, less than a mile away.
To read the report click here or for more about African white-backed vultures click here.

Valentine's day.

Folklore has it that today's the day when the birds choose a mate, it's also the launch of Nestbox week see The Wildlife Trusts Home Tweet Home
With this in mind we've been looking at the nesting sites around the CJS Office, there are several artificial house martin nests under the eaves and a couple of traditional nest boxes which despite being a moved a couple of times have yet to attract that first time buyer. The garden and surrounding countryside obviously has sufficient suitable sites. We know that blackbirds nest in the ivy climbing up the fence, house sparrows in the climbers especially the clematis and both wrens and blue tits must nest close by as we see the newly fledged young later in the year. However just across the lane during the winter five mature deciduous trees including a beautiful horse chestnut, plus several more shrubby ones such as alders, were felled for safety reasons and now there is large gap. Which raises concerns for our owls, of which there are many mostly vociferous ones. So we're looking for a suitable site for a tawny owl tube, there are a couple under consideration. We'll let know which if either proves acceptable.

It's Friday!

We got there, it's been a trying week but the weekend is in sight.
Guess what – more snow! A light sprinkling fell over night and all day the sky has looked threatening but no more since this morning. More pictures here.
CJS Weekly is now being printed and will be posted out to subscribers as usual. For online readers it's already been uploaded. Once again it's sixteen sides this week with 160 new vacancies of which 100 were sent direct to CJS.

More snow, and then some more snow.

So far the count is one abandoned car, one bumped car (slid into by a transit van whilst stationary), a few sore muscles from too much sledging and lots of damp clothes from snowballs – hopefully that's it. The woodstove is going full tilt keeping us all warm and preventing brains from congealing. In the office we're having of those weeks: yesterday the second half of the work on the server was to take place but it was discovered that the first half hadn't gone according to plan so that was abandoned. Plan B has been pressed into action and a whole new set of hard drives are being configured and at some point will be switched for the old ones which will mean another day offline, we don’t know when yet but will let you know well in advance. Our webhost server (not the office one, we keep them separate) blocked the submissions from the online forms delivering two days worth this morning, including a deluge from a webbot – which may have been the problem. So backup procedures have now been added to the site and a few changes are planned.
However the CJS team struggle on and are determined that your copies of CJS will arrive in full and on time.

We're living in a Christmas Card!

4-5 inches of snow fell over night followed by more flurries through the morning. However, CJS carries on as normal – ish.

The postie got through and collected CJS Monthly so that should be with you tomorrow or the day after.

As you'd expect the bird feeders are covered in birds but every time I go to take a photo they all go and hide in the trees! I'm glad we're not doing the Birdcount today, although they are more visible against the snow there are so many more than usual.

It's been one of those days.

Yesterday was deadline day for CJS Monthly and although everything was in on time and the printers behaved and managed to print all the required copies we've not got the website completely updated. The February edition is online in full and you can see it at: http://www.countryside-jobs.com/cjsmonthly/Monthly.htm However, the details have not yet been emailed out neither is CJS Daily Online completely updated with the new edition – we'll get that done today.

It must be spring.

Goathland is bathed in warm sunshine, the dawn chorus is getting in full swing and the tawny owls are hooting at full volume all night. The green shoots of many bulbs are poking above the soil and the first snowdrops are nodding gently in the breeze but don't be lulled into a false sense of security, next week's weather forecast predicts turning colder again.

CJS Weekly out as usual, this week fifteen pages containing 118 new paid posts of which 62 came to CJS direct from the employer.

It works.

Phew, server maintenance went according to plan and so far we've not discovered anything missing. Round two next week when the second hard drive is replaced. And we have a new huge new printer, now all we've got to do is work out how to get it do what we want!