The technology trap

Well the website went back up but now the mail server won't work, or rather is on a four+ hour delay in and out. So we're not ignoring you - honest.
If you've emailed us and not got a reply please resend to TheCJSTeam@ googlemail.com our back up address. As ever many thanks for your patience.

Happy Christmas

Well that's it then. Last update on the website now complete, multiple Christmas banners added, dates, deadlines etc all available to read. We've had a bit of a Christmas gathering, smaller than planned and slightly curtailed because of the weather (there's quite a lot of snow out there- just in case you didn't know!!). All that's left is to change the answerphone message and turn off the lights.
We hope you all have a lovely Christmas and we'll back on 4 January 2010.

Argh...

On Friday the blog wouldn't work so we couldn't update to let you know the current edition was printing as usual.
Then yesterday, yes I know it was Bank Holiday but we usually ignore those, the server decided it wanted the day off and refused to let anyone sign in. So that's no email, website, internet, database, word processor - fundamentally no computers so we got the day off anyway. This morning whilst it was being fixed we were running on laptops on dial up with only partial data.
Anyway, new a powerpack, some bits of wire, a few smart thumps and the machinery is once again working and we're forging ahead catching up.

Egton Show

Tomorrow, Wednesday 26 August, is the local agricultural show and as usual we're closing the office so the staff can all attend. Although the forecast is pretty horrendous. This is the BBC weathermap for the area for tomorrow - blue is rain, the darker it is the more there is falling. (Egton is roughly under the W of the Whitby tag) It's going to be muddy!
Back on Thursday.

Jumping commas and tall sunflowers

HB survived the show last weekend , it was great to see so much home grown produce. Two doors down from the CJS office, one of the children grew the tallest sunflower at 2.94m, which caused uproar in HB's house as they got to 2.91m!!!

But brains are a little mangled and after a complete mental block we've coined a new phrase, jumping comma - any ideas? Think about it.

CJS Weekly has been published as usual, 10 sides, this week with details of 54 new paid posts this week of which 33 were sent direct to CJS. Digital copies already online and post permitting paper copies due on Monday.

Front Page news

in the local paper.

Well it got your attention. On Saturday evening there was a very large yellow Sea King RAF Search & Rescue helicopter flying round for quite a while. Turns out that some fool had been tombstoning down one of the many waterfalls, and damaged their back. This particular waterfall is notorious in the village and the footpath has only just been reopened this summer. For more see the Whitby Gazette. And much as we love to see the Sea Kings (lovely piece of machinery if a little noisy) please don't do anything so silly.

Juno (one of the office dogs) had a couple of lumps removed yesterday so she's a bit sore and grumbly today and is wearing a very fetching tee-shirt and one sock with a lampshade collar in reserve.

Tomorrow is the village Flower & Veg show, HB is the secretary so has taken today off to try to get organised (and bake enough cakes to feed the five thousand).

CJS Monthly went out as usual on Tuesday and should have reached everyone by now, CJS Weekly with September's training calendar is currently printing and will soon be on it's way to postal readers, digital copies already available. You're also getting the CJS Focus with this edition - more of which next week.

And for now that's it.

Silly Sheep

You may have seen on the news or read about Shaunetta the sheep who marooned herself halfway down the cliff below Hawsker, a village just East of Whitby (we're on a sticky out bit and the coastline actually runs West-East rather than North-South, confusing I know). You can read about Shaunetta in the local paper. Click here.

Today on the Telegraph there is a report about another silly sheep, this one in Norway which went down his own version of a zip-wire using his horn as a hook whilst attempting to reach a field full of lovely ewes. For more sheep antics click here

Added to which excitement the Great North Air Ambulance landed in the field in front of the office and has just flown away complete with patient (that's not so good, but whoever they are they're in good hands now). We save up all the stamps off your letters to us and send them to charity, recently they've all been going to the Great North Air Ambulance fund so it's good to know the service is working well.

Back to the boring bits now. CJS Weekly is now printing and will, post permitting, be with you on Monday. This week's edition is 9 pages containing 67 new paid posts of which 28 came direct to CJS.

Friday at last

It's been a rather uneventful week which has made it seem very long.
On the wildlife watch we've had a pair of adult tree sparrows feeding a brood of three fledglings, one of the adults has even been coming to the nut feeder hanging outside the office window. We're hoping they're still here as yesterday a rather large female sparrowhawk came whizzing past the window into the hawthorn hedge and then bounced out into an ash tree. Perhaps she also scared a visiting yellowhammer which has not been seen since.
CJS Weekly is now printing, this week it's eight pages with 66 new paid posts of which 40 came direct to CJS.
Today is also Amy's last day before she goes on maternity leave. During her absence Helen is stepping up to cover Amy's main roles.
We wish Amy, Nev and their 'Bean' all the very best and look forward to her return next year.

Friday, Friday

We celebrated CJS's birthday yesterday. With Birthday Cake and yes, balloons! Fifteen years and still going strong, here's to the next fifteen.
And so saying this week's Weekly is now printing and is already online. it has a last call for entries to the British Wildlife Photography Awards, competition closes next Friday 31 July. For more click here
There are also details of a wonderful opportunity to be a Village champion as part of the Village SOS project run by BBC, Mark Your Mark and the Big Lottery Fund.

Royal Mail - delays possible.

It's the summer silly season and Royal Mail workers are threatening strike action. Some parts of London have already been affected and nationwide action is forecast for later this week starting on Friday. This of course will affect CJS, some publications on subscription will not reach us on time and the outbound post including your copy of CJS Weekly may be delayed. The late receipt of publications should not cause too many problems however if our post collection is late we will make alternative arrangements for postal subscribers.
As ever we will keep you up to date online via the blog and news releases.
If you are in an area affected and don't receive your CJS Weekly then please contact us quoting your CJS number (preferably by email) and we will let you know how to access a copy online.

Happy Birthday

To Us!

In July 1994 the very first edition of CJS was published which makes us 15 years old this month.

To celebrate we've produced a Birthday Edition of CJS Weekly and it's freely available to all. Click Here to read this special edition.

We received congratulations from friends and colleagues, to read these click here and if you're feeling so inclined you can your thoughts too.

2000 jobs!

Since January 2009 CJS Weekly has carried adverts for over 2000 new, not previously advertised, paid UK countryside, conservation jobs. Not forgetting the voluntary and training opportunities too! Monday's edition is already online and will soon be printed ready for mailing. This week it's 10 pages with 79 new paid posts, 51 of which came direct to CJS.
The local Royal Mail offices are being reorganised and the the collection of your CJS from the offices is changing - we have everything crossed that there are no hitches (!). Troublesome sagas continue with BT, we thought it was all solved and everything back to normal but then we got a letter requesting bank details for the direct debit for the new Rent-a-Ranger phone account, after quite a while listening to lovely canned musak a real person assures us that the direct debit has been set up and it is for the correct BT and bank accounts - watch this space. But remember if one day you can't reach us by phone you'll know that it really did go pineapple shaped (10 times worse then pears) and they've cut us off.
This week the owl has been back on the telephone wires, but we think it's one of last year's youngsters as it's a bit smaller and the colouring is paler. Last night it was considering bat for dinner (or should that me breakfast?). There were two pipestrelles flying around the eaves and one was definitely chasing the other. We're not sure what was going on as they're both the same size and have been seen in proximity before - if you have any suggestions please let us know.

Birthdays, butterflies, dolphins, rain and jobs...!

After a beautiful weekend and start to the week the weather broke and it's cold, grey, wet and miserable today. The swifts and house martins are conspicuous by their absence, they've gone to hunt in brighter skies although the nest building is coming on well. The big event this week was most junior office dog Hebe had her birthday, she's now two years old and officially no longer a puppy - will someone tell her that please, apologies to any callers who heard strange squeakings, it was just the birthday ball.
Our article in Monday's edition of CJS Weekly is about the incredible migration of the painted lady butterflies, one has been reported in Goathland so they've reached us too. But even more amazing is that bottlenose dolphins have been reported off Whitby, see our local paper, The Whitby Gazette, for more details.
Oh, yes and CJS Weekly is now printing, 10 pages this week with 91 new paid posts of which 27 came direct to CJS.

Excursions and Weekly.

What a strange week, bank holiday Monday was unsurprisingly very quiet but also lovely weather. then it went wet and miserable but today the sun's back. The cuckoos (yes, we have odd one or seven, red list or not) were yelling their heads off this morning, the swifts have been screaming (we have a fair size squadron of those too, lucky us) and it was too hot at lunch time to eat outside. the forecast for the weekend is quite good too so fingers crossed for a good few days. Although not too hot in Edinburgh please, ST our Scottish stringer is watching family, with typical British pale skin, run the marathon, but not too dreech either as more family is off on DoE expeditions - so we wish them all well and hope whatever the weather it suits their various activities. At the other end of the country in the English capital AW is treating some of her family to a weekend of culture with trips to Tate Modern, Kew and seats to watch A Little Night Music. Some of us are stuck in the office producing your Weekly edition which is now falling off the printer. it's a smallish one this week with just eight pages but 55 new paid posts of which 21 came direct to CJS; there are a few re-ads too.

Annual outing

The blogger-in-chief spent yesterday at the Chelsea Flower Show. Photos will follow in due course.

Give me strength!

Last month we extended our broadband contract with BT (very bad idea as it turns out). The confirmation was sent to Rent-a-Ranger (this is the business Niall and Anthea used to run back in the 80s and early 90s). A quick phone call changed it back to CJS.
End of the subject we thought. But oh no...
A week later Niall as Rent-a-Ranger got three confirmation of order letters, with provisional allocation of new phone numbers (ours!) sent here to the CJS office.
In their wisdom BT had changed the accounts for all three main phone lines into Rent-a-Ranger. Bear in mind Rent-a-Ranger never operated from this address, never had even an email address never mind broadband and we sent legal letters to BT changing the CJS details when Niall retired.
We phoned BT and surprisingly got straight through, they were totally confused and had no idea what had happened but promised we'd keep our lines, phone numbers and broadband whilst they investigated. A few days later we got a call from Complaints who were now handling the case, after patiently explaining again they sat in bemused silence. We'll look into it they said and get back to you. Which they duly did "we don't know why it happened, there seems to be a legal entity listing on the accounts" but to put it right "we will recreate the accounts, someone from local sales will contact you". And they did; however, to recreate the accounts we had to sign transfer documents (why didn't we need to do this first time round? Different departments have different protocols apparently). OK all information provided - again - and completed documentation signed in triplicate. In the mean time we got a refund of the outstanding balance on the accounts that had been closed (direct debit claimed two days after the 'transfer' had taken place). Next was receipt of confirmation of the new, new orders back to CJS (are you still with us?) followed by a call from Complaints checking everything was proceeding according to plan - theirs not ours - well if we're back to CJS yes that's OK and so far no break in service. Directory services called to check the listings for the new accounts for inclusion in the phone book.
THEN Niall got bills for Rent-a-Ranger at the CJS address for the installation of the new lines, line rental, calls made and also penalties for early cancellation totalling over £600. We called Complaints and said what's going on here then. "Ah, I had a feeling this might happen, don't worry we'll cancel those and send amended bills for the period between the cancellation and new account creation" What?? Oh for the 28 days of line rental between the refund and new account creation, OK then. Two days later bills arrived for between £6 and £11 pounds to be paid by cheque or card, I guess we have set up direct debits again but this morning the bill for the broadband arrived - it's still on a direct debit and as a new customer they want payment for two quarters up front, but they've refunded the remainder of the previous quarter before they chucked the toolbox in the works. Now if you're refunding a previous payment how can you, on the same piece of paper, claim the business as a new customer? No, we don't know either.
But now according to BT we're a new business, new account, new occupier and guess what? They've told the whole world. So now Yellow Pages, Business Directory, 118 et al all want to confirm our details for inclusion in their services and would we like to take out paid advertising whilst we're at it to catch all the people in our area....
We watch the post with bated breath to see what the next missive will be.

Sunny Friday

But just don't mention the windows....
What is it about new windows? When Niall had his replaced it led to the "Everest saga" (see www.grovesdyke.co.uk and click on Windows) The replacement windows for the two big bay windows are the wrong size - no it's not that they won't fit the hole, just that the glass is too small and the timber casements too big more than double the ones they are replacing. A major summit of all interested parties was called yesterday and after much discussion new plans are being drawn up and it looks like eight more new windows. Watch this space.

Well at the back of the building, bathes in glorious sunshine we carry on and have been doubly busy this week, subscribers are getting CJS Weekly (10 pages 68 jobs, 36 direct) and CJS Focus on Training, 14 pages of articles and adverts. Non-subscribers get their copy online on Monday. Details will follow next week.

Summer is officially here, the swifts arrived on Thursday morning, three screaming around the eaves. We think (hope) that they're last years ones returned and will nest again.

windows, Weekly and hedgehogs.

It's been a bit of a mad week (but then when is it not?). Monday and Tuesday the weather was absolutely awful, wet, miserable and even wetter and we were several very large windows missing. Monday was so awful we relit the wood stove. However, wonderful new double glazed windows in FSC hard wood frames are now installed and the last bits of painting are being finished in glorious sunshine.
The latest weekly edition is currently being printed and the digital version are available already. If you get yours by post then because of the Bank holiday on Monday it will be a day late. This week there are eleven pages congaing 65 new paid posts of 29 came direct to CJS, there are also lots of voluntary vacancies this week and our fascinating feature article is from SNH with news of Mrs Tiggywinkle and family's eviction from the Uists, all waders can now breathe a sigh of relief. Any hogs that fancy a trip south would be most welcome here to munch our slugs, although the resident toads do a pretty good job.

British Tigers

And no we're not talking rugby (although we will if you want, how do you think Tigers will fare against Bristol tomorrow then? and what about the Lions selections?)
This is a countryside site so we're actually talking about the Scottish wildcat which is the focus of our fascinating feature article this week. With the horrifying thought that there could be as few as 400 pure bred wildcats left making them rare than the bengal tiger. Click on the logo to visit the site and find out more.
CJS Weekly is now printing and post allowing will be with you on Monday, the digital copies are already online so log on to check the latest vacancies of which there are 87, 53 of which came direct to CJS. this edition is 12 pages long.
The windows are progressing well, scaffold down on Monday and then the downstairs ones go in. The dogs are still on tenter paws and watching every move, it's good job they've not learnt to climb ladders, although it won't be long before Hebe figures them out!
Enjoy the sunshine whilst it lasts.

Crash, bang, wallop...

Apologies for the noises off when you phone us. The builders moved in today and are putting in new windows, thankfully not in the office but across the front of the building. Lots of new windows means it may take a while.
The office dogs are wearing themselves out, watching everything with great interest and a little anxiety about all the extra people coming and going and being gun dogs are sitting at point waiting to be sent to retrieve whatever was felled by the last big bang. I don't think they'll need much exercise this evening!

Good heavens

It's Easter (or Eostre if you prefer) already. Where is the year going? Well Easter or not we're still here bashing out your copies of CJS. The big printer is still not mended, "we've not seen that before", they said! The engineers are talking to their next up who's talking to the manufacturers. Someone will contact us early next week to let us know the next step - I think it's new machinery time but that why we lease and don't buy so it's their problem and not ours (except for not being to print colour properly so we have to use the other smaller printers and it takes for ever).
In the mean time this week's edition is (fortunately) all in black and white and is even now falling off the printers, it's 12 pages this week containing 88 new paid posts, 57 of which came direct to CJS. The digital version will shortly be online and the paper editions will be collected by Royal Mail tomorrow for delivery on Tuesday (Monday being a Bank Holiday).
First swallow in the village has been sighted by AW's father-in-law this morning. The field in front of the office has had ewes for a few days, this morning the first lambs were born, spring is here and summer is just around the corner (yes, we know one swallow does not a summer make).
Have a good Easter, we'll be here on Monday and there are a few jobs booked for the website.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

But inside by the fire (or should that be PC) is so delightful and since we've no place to go (now that we've sent all the staff home).
Let it snow, let it snow.

And since it shows no sign of stopping (since about 10am this morning)
But no corn for popping, just lots of work to do and we've got our fingers crossed that the lights don't get turned way down low, although the 'leccy cable is sagging alarmingly.
So let it snow, let it snow but let the lights stay on and we'll get your CJS to you!

Candlemas and snows

If Candlemas day be fair and bright winter will have another flight,
If Candlemas day be dull and drear winter has gone for another year.

But what about if it snows all day??

It started at lunch time yesterday and gradually got heavier with hail overnight, a few breaks in the virtually constant snow during today but the forecasters are predicting 20 inches (yes, nearly two feet) more of snow overnight. So like many offices we're a little short staffed today so grant us a little latitude if we're not quite as fast usual. However, our big worry is that the lights keep flickering so we're just hoping the power stays online.

Hope you're all warm and dry and have made fantastic snowmen to populate the winter wonderland.

Oops

For some reason our two most recent blog posts didn't appear (probably pressed the wrong button, January's like that in the CJS office). However, we have added a bit of weather news on the CJS Office page - just in time for the latest snow flurries (TB left early today to go and check on her horses before the roads got too slippery).

Snow – what snow??

We've been warned all week, "Arctic conditions, heavy snow falls" . Yes, it's a bit colder, we've had a bit of hail but blizzards? No (well not yet anyway). I'm not sure I believe the met office any more, and one day there really will be some serious weather to contend with and we'll be ignoring them, cry wolf once too often…
We've been having fun and games with the wood stove the last couple of weeks, the soot plate (on the top of the firebox to stop the soot falling into the fire) keeps falling out and smothering the draft making the fire smolder. Three times we've let the fire go out to put it back. On Tuesday we left the stove to go completely cold, took the plate out, cleaned it and put it back – so far it's stayed put and the stove has stayed in.
Well the latest CJS Weekly is thundering off the presses, this week's it's 11 pages long containing 148 new paid posts of which 108 came direct to CJS. It also contains a copy of CJS Weekly Special Edition supplement.

How the year flies by.

We've just added the 2009 publication dates for CJS Monthly [click here]. The January edition will be one we later than usual and will be published on Thursday 15 January, the third Thursday of the month rather than the second. This is due to the proximity of the New Year bank holidays; we don't think we (or you) will be ready for a Monthly edition on the eighth, especially as the CJS office will only have been open a few hours before the normal copy deadline. But there are still two editions of this year still to go so need to fret just yet.

Let it snow…

rom summer to winter in one posting. On Monday night the temperatures plummeted, and on Tuesday we finally lit the wood stove, as we watched the snow fall and the hail bounce it was very comforting. So now that we're warm and snug it can do whatever out there, although last night's storm had to he heard to be believed...
TB moved her horses to their new winter quarters (The National Park won't let her graze her own fields all year round) and was delighted to discover a Barn Owl had set up home in the field shelter. Although whether it will stay there now the horses are using it is another matter, however, it has been seen flying around which one of the young horses find fascinating.
Another edition of CJS Weekly is now printing, this week there are 60 new paid posts (35 direct) over nine pages.

Indian summer?

You might have noticed things are a little different here this week – or maybe not (in which case, phew, we're hiding it well!) Our Data Manager is away for three weeks. AW flew from Manchester to Nepal on Saturday and is now trundling into India on a very long train journey. This means that our new recruit is deputising and some of AW's other roles have been shunted sideways, we don't think we've lost or destroyed anything yet but then again perhaps we've just not noticed, I'm sure you'll let us know.
CJS Weekly is now printing, it's bit bigger this week at 11 pages with 77 new paid posts of which 48 came direct to CJS.

Post and search engines

We're always ready to grumble about Royal Mail well here's a nice story for a change. Earlier this week the post was dropped in as usual at around 9.30. Later in the day the door bell rang and there was the postie, he'd found a letter for us tucked into another bundle further on in his round. He put it to one side and called in to drop it off before going back to the sorting office. Well done Ray, thank you.

In these credit crunched days it often feels more difficult to make a difference. Well here's a way that doesn't cost a thing and you can make a huge difference. We've added an Everyclick search engine to the website, every search raises one penny for good causes; we chose the Hawk & Owl Trust as a small but worthy cause and one we've worked with in the past. So give a go and 'give your mouse a heart'.

CJS Weekly 20 October edition is now printing. As it's the third week of the month it contains the Training Calendar which is three pages long, there are nine pages (plus the three of training) containing 53 new paid posts of which 28 were sent direct to CJS.

Marrow and more

Last weekend was the fifth Green End heaviest marrow competition, AW and family have been cosseting their plants through all the stormy weather. On Saturday morning the largest were chosen from their respective plants, cut, washed and carefully polished; Mr W's marrow was so large it had to go in the car, normally a wheelbarrow suffices! AW's offering came fourth but Mr W's was so large it didn't fit on the scales and had to be hung from a spring balance. It came in at 36¾lbs, yes that's right 2 and half stone of marrow. Not quite half ton veg but almost. Needless to say it was the winner and they went proudly home with their trophy and are now working out what to do with several stone of marrow. The monster yellow fellow is the winning cucurbit.


And through all the excitement of birds (see yesterday's posting) and marrow competitions CJS rumbles on and the weekly is now thundering off the printers. It's another small one this week at 8 sides with 70 new paid posts (25 direct to CJS). There's also a call for participants for a new BBC competition to win a year's contact at the prestigious Natural History Unit in Bristol.

CJS Weekly - three times

Sorry folks, we've been having server problems – again. This time not as severe as last but it's still affected our uploading to the site and on Friday morning we didn't have any emails! Argh, deadline day and no email. Quick phone call to establish that it was the servers and not us, "yes, we've just discovered" they said, "it's a problem with the authorisation" (no wonder all your operators were busy) and will be fixed soon. It took nearly an hour but we were back online before the deadline. So the Weekly is now printing, it'a little one this week, just 8 pages containing 44 new paid posts of which 27 came direct to CJS.

Turns out that the blog has not been updating either, so here are updates from the last couple of weeks.

Friday 19/9 - Mixed week.
It's been really quite busy in the office, our latest recruit is settling in and finding a way around our more obscure systems. Website has been alternatively busy and then quiet, however we've still got a large CJS weekly dropping off the printers, this there are 83 jobs (50 direct to CJS) over thirteen pages. Now the sun is shining and I think it's time for coffee and biscuits outside, got tot make the most of it whilst it lasts, it's been a rarity this year (but, then you know that too).

Friday 12/9 - Still raining….
Just like everywhere else we're still squelching around in the wet and it's still raining. Perhaps we really should become the Canoes &
CJS Weekly is now online and is currently being printed. This week it's 10 pages long with 95 paid posts of which 42 came direct to CJS. This week's edition contains the monthly training calendar which for October is four pages long.

Weekly update.

Our house martins have fledged this week and have been whizzing around after the multitude of midges but in the last couple of days have not been seen as often. The swallows have been gathering in great groups too. But at least it stopped raining and the sun came out yesterday so everything was steaming although with clear skies and a brisk wind everything has been drying out remarkably well – but the forecast for the weekend includes lots of rain and even some thunder thrown in for good measure, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Despite the vagaries of the weather CJS rolls on as normal and is now rolling off the printer. This week's edition is seven pages long containing 53 new paid posts of which 39 came direct to CJS. It's one of the smallest for a while which we think is partly due to the end of the summer holidays (including the Bank Holiday on Monday). There's also a bit of trend towards fewer vacancies which we're blaming on the credit crunch with people less willing / less able to move job or house. However CJS still receives a respectable 50+% direct from the employer, this week it's ¾ direct.
Blogger-in-chief is out of the office next week, officially on gardening leave (the real sort, done with a spade and hoe) but the garden is still sodden and any work on the soil will probably only make the damage even worse so maybe virtual gardening and plant-buying trips instead.

Squelch

I think we're going to change our business emphasis and start selling wellies and waders (the boot type not the birds). Free copy of CJS with every boot – or perhaps the other way round, galoshes with every CJS - what do you think?
This week's edition is somewhat smaller than last, no training or Special Edition but it's still a respectable 10 pages with 59 new paid posts 41 of which came direct to us here at CJS, that an impressive 70%. It is now printing and will be online shortly. Postal copies will arrive on Tuesday, due to the Bank Holiday on Monday.
The show did go ahead but we couldn't get there – literally, the roads were littered with abandoned (allegedly parked) cars. Reports from those did manage to get there say the field used as the car park was accessible to 4x4s only, and even then the gate posts would cause problems for some. In places the show field itself would have done Glastonbury proud and entries were significantly down. So after slaloming around vehicles and dodging stuck horseboxes it was decided that retreat was the better part of valour. Such a shame but we're not the only ones to have problems. The Ebor race meeting at York was abandoned as have been lots of other smaller events. And it's still raining… Now do we list any courses on boat building?

Showtime.

Goathland Flower & Veg show was a bit soggy, but plenty of rosettes came back with the CJS Team, from eggs to chocolate cakes with lots of lovely red prize cards all round.
Tomorrow (Wed 20/8) is the local Agricultural Show and pigeons are being polished, hens eggs h'inspected (sorry), beans burnished. But, it's still tipping down, so much so that York races were abandoned today (article on BBC, link here) and are in doubt for tomorrow, but weather permitting the CJS team is off to Egton to exhibit, admire and shop which means the office will be closed for the day. We'll be back on Thursday.

Catch up.

Well it's been a frantic, stressful and strange few weeks but we've made it.
CJS Weekly has continued to be produced as normal and most people seem to be coping with the new log in details without too many problems.
In the midst of it all Hebe has been fitted with her zip, she was very brave and didn't even look at her stitches, she's been unpicked but now has a frozen tail. Totally unconnected with the surgery but from playing too roughly within a visiting small person, she's feeling more sorry for herself about her tail than her zip, however, it is beginning to defrost and to wag again. The Owls have visited regularly, especially in the frequent downpours. In the high temperatures of a few weeks ago we were adding ice to the tropical fish tank! And KH was asking for a walk in freezer (doesn't do hot, but loves the snow). The plum tree is infested with greenfly which have also damaged the hop, roses and apple trees, the birds have been feasting but not really making any significant impact on the population explosion. Although it is nice to have flocks of long tail tits in the garden at this time of year reinforcements were called for and yesterday a package of ladybirds was released. It was really funny the way the ladybirds suddenly spotted (no pun intended) dinner and stormed off into the worst areas.
At last this week's edition of CJS Weekly is being printed. This week it's thirteen pages containing details of 106 new paid posts of which 33 were sent direct to CJS.

Hellfire and damnation.

We've escaped the seventh circle of hell (we sneaked past the minotaur whilst it was otherwise engaged), skipped past the heretics in the sixth and are now mired in the swampy Styx of the fifth battling the sullen webhosting company - who still refuse to accept responsibility for the debacle.

Are you sitting comfortably then I'll begin.
The saga runs like this, on Friday 11 July at just before 4pm someone from Easyspace, our webhost company, phoned us to say we were regularly exceeding our permitted bandwidth and were in danger of exceeding our storage facility. Therefore we have to be moved to a new server and have a whole new hosting package, which they assured us (of course they did) which was bigger, better, faster, shinier etc., etc. For an additional fee they would transfer the site for us to save us the work of downloading it and then uploading it all again. Presented with a fait acompli we said OK having extracted assurances that we wouldn't notice any difference except everything would be faster, shinier etc., and that the maximum down time would at the very worst be 24 hours. We did have the presence of mind to make a full backup of the site which considering the hour and that it was Friday we think was very sensible of us. Backup finishes at 7.30ish, we turn off all the machinery and quit the office for the weekend.
Monday 14 July. Disaster. An overflowing answerphone of messages, no email and we're stuck in a time warp, the only live website is from June 2006 and we can't update it, take it down, replace it with the back up. Frantic phonecalls to the 'Customer Support' line (at least it's not premium rate). That's the only copy we have on our system despite their information saying that they' take incremental backups and a full backup every weekend' so what have they done with ours, has someone else got CJS?? It was only when we pointed out that the cached copy on google was not the one they were displaying that they finally accepted that it was an old version. They will have a look and replace it with the current version, will be complete by four this afternoon. Next emails, in transferring the website they have deleted ALL our email accounts and the mailboxes too. We will need to recreate them, oh no we won't, it's your mess you fix it we said. Eventually they recreated the email accounts and gave us new details. We manage to get a copy of CJS Weekly out to everyone via googledocs and a backup BT email account.
Tuesday 15 July. Still no website and 'technical support' (we've move on from customer support) is no help. The site has been down for three days and we discover the people are applying for jobs on the old out of date website (come on, people, check the closing dates for heaven's sake it the last thing we need). Our local IT guy who build our office machines come to the rescue and manages to take down the old site and replace it with a holding page. We need different account details to be able to upload the whole site again. 'Technical support' will call us to talk us through it – I don't want talk I just need passwords – argh (excuse whilst run outside and scream). An email arrives with passwords, swiftly sent on to computerdoc who then, hooray, hooray, uploads the current site. Unfortunately it's not compatible with the new hosting (you've got to kidding me). More phone calls, more bits bolted onto the hosting and server and we can at last make changes to the site.
Wednesday 16 July. The subscribers only section is open access! How did that happen? The undoing and re-bolting of bits has lost the online register of users. Prompt action to change the pages, and then to update the settings. The new host is still not compatible, we can't upload the old register, we have to re-enter all the details but now we're limited to 20 characters. Ok, folks new usernames all round, on the office database, the online register of users and then email everyone (again). This takes most of Thursday and a fair chunk of Friday. The rest of Thursday and Friday are lost in a whirl of getting the Weekly out. In the mean time the RSS software (that creates the feed and then the daily and weekly update emails) can't access the new site as the pathways are different, the location is the same but he route to get there is different and the software needs directions.
Friday 18 July. We try to let you know where we’ve got to via the blog – but guess what, that's not working either! It's a POETS day and we all sink several glasses of Pimms at three o'clocks.
And what we've not told you is that in the middle of all this one of the computers was taken terminally ill with an outbreak of Trojans and worms so we've been working on borrowed bits.
Monday 21 July. Things must get better. A brand new computer arrives and our IT people spend most of the day re-installing software, adding printers, networking etc. We muddle through.
Tuesday 22 July. Try to collate the statistics of how many of you have been online, page impressions etc (really quite important details) but the web recoding software doesn't work. We've been upgraded to the new Add-on web stats, which don't record anything useful like usernames, number of hits per day, number of times adverts are accessed etc. We contact support to ask for details to be saved and then we can export them to collate in a different but still useable fashion.
Wednesday 23 July. Response from Technical support, "we can't switch that facility on because it would upset other sites on the server" strange it never bothered anyone before we moved. We have the Add-on stats and can access log-files, this records every time a page is accessed, so that's several hundred thousand records every day but we can't upload analytical software because we would upset other site and the files are too large to download without errors. Added to which they're only available for 48 hours. We've still not cracked this one, we have got some basic recording data but it's not the same as the old stuff and so comparisons with the old stats are pointless.
Thursday 24 July. Some of our emails are missing. More 'Technical Support' that’s because we now have a new spam filter which is removing lots of legitimate emails. We unblock those, get the delivered to our inbox and add lots of addresses and details to our white list of approved users.
Friday 25 July. Still missing emails, not blocked, just not there. It would appear that old inboxes on the old server are still there and emails to ranger@countryside-jobs.com land in either the old one or the new one, even mid-conversation. More queries raised with 'Technical support' And we still can't blog.
Monday 28 July. Email old boxes can be deleted but there's no guarantee that emails will go to the new boxes and we need to empty the old ones of all emails before they can be deleted. After this last fortnight we're not sure if this a good idea. We'll sleep on it.
Tuesday 29 July. We're past caring, lets just get on with the normal things and worry about the 'missing bits' another day.
Wednesday 30 July, solution to the missing emails. Google to the rescue, all the old boxes are now downloaded to a new google account which we then download with the rest of the emails. Hey, that works. And with a new pathway we can't the blog to publish but the archives are missing, we'll keep working on that one.
Thursday 31 July: But we're still missing emails. Despite having addresses, domains and phrases listed on the white list the 'wonderful new' spam blocker is still blocking two out of every ten legitimate emails.
Friday 1 August. With lots of 'work rounds' we're keeping the show on the road, three weeks on and the problems keep surfacing. We'll keep going and keep trying to find solutions but I have feeling we might just be moving again and this time we'll let you all know well in advance and have lots of backup plans in place should anything go wrong, we have lots of experience now.

Not once has Easyspace apologised, apparently it's all our fault because we were hosted on old server! Letters to the CEO have gone unanswered and it would appear that they don't have a complaints policy because if you believe their website, they're just too wonderful to need one. Yeah right….

Website migration

No, it's not suddenly become a swallow on it's way to Africa.
The website has grown to such a size and you're all using it so much we need bigger, faster servers and more space! Consequently the whole lot is moving this weekend. We are promised that the maximum downtime will be 24 hours and that everything will be back to normal for Monday morning. If everything goes pineapple shaped (that's three stages worse than pear shaped in case you're wondering) this page won't change and you'll know we're hitting someone over the head with now useless bits of kit. Apart from a short interregnum you won't notice any difference except it should be faster. If you do find any missing bits, links that don't work etc please, please do contact us with as much info as possible so that we can fix the problem.

Musical chairs

AW has been complaining, that's a bit strong, perhaps muttering about would be more apt, of a 'numb bum' and having had to sit in her chair I can see why, heaven only knows what she's done to it but the cushioning is as flat as pancake. A series of musical chairs ensued with different chairs being sat in and, yes, two are in need of replacement, one urgently and one in a few months. So two brand new chairs were ordered, surprise, surprise, the existing line is no longer manufactured so afer hours of pouring over different descriptions and options a decision was made, order placed on Monday, chairs arrived on Tuesday.
How many different things can a chair do?
Well seven apparently, requiring four levers and that's not including manoeuvring into position, another afternoon of musical chairs as the settings were made, adjusted and different levers pushed and pulled. I love mine but unfortunately AW doesn't like her new chair (we think it's her back that's skewed and not the chair or perhaps, being of tough Yorkshire stock, she likes the hard chair?), so more musical chairs was called for and she's now on the almost defunct chair whilst we ponder what to do about a replacement.
Despite the party games (and distraction of yellow fluffy balls in SW19(Wimbledon to the non-fanatics)) a new copy of CJS Weekly is now rolling off the printers, this week it's 13 sides containing 105 new paid posts of which 49 came direct to CJS.
Now has rain stopped play again yet….?

CJS Weekly - no collection.

We discovered this morning that Royal Mail did not collect our post on Saturday. To say we're not happy would be a major understatement. A formal complaint has been made to RM so we expect a book of stamps in recompense.
Our usual postie is on holiday and the replacement is less than useless, we've received post for another business down the road, and only two letters this morning (we usually receive around 20-30 on a Monday), added to which he virtually refused to take our mail and eventually did so grudgingly.
So apologies from CJS, we hope (fingers crossed) that your copies of CJS Weekly are with you soon. If you're one of the unlucky ones and have not yet received your copy then if you'd like to contact us we will provide you with temporary details to access the digital version.

Disaster free week and Chelsea photos at last

No disasters or calamities to report this week. Maia has made a full recovery and finished her antibiotic eye drops. It was Hebe's birthday on Monday, the office pup is now an office doglet at one year old but just as crackers this week she has eaten (well chewed up and spat out in lots of bits) a bar of soap so she's been foaming at the mouth but I doubt if she's learnt anything and today she's been at the 'bad beans', into everything mischievous and troublesome. We have managed to get the Chelsea photos on Picasa, they're at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Humphreys.Goathland/Chelsea2008?authkey=9oc27ipTjd4 or click on the album cover (below)

Chelsea 2008

This week's feature article in CJS Weekly is all about the decline of puffin numbers on the Isle of May, a worrying trend. In addition to the fascinating feature there are 82 new paid posts, 31 of which were sent direct to CJS over 10 pages.

Black eye, holes and a copy of CJS Weekly.

Another week's gone by and we can't believe it's June already (well almost, we've been working on the 2 June edition since last week so we feel it's been June for a while now!) and in the post this morning was the first of the Christmas catalogues – not yet surely?
Poor Maia has a black eye – how do you tell if a black Labrador has a black eye? Tuesday morning a head long dash into heavy cover in hot pursuit of Hebe resulted in a loud yelp and a closed eye. This led to a trip to the Vets, they were very good, we phoned at 9am explained the problem and they said can you be here at 9.20, we just made it (11 miles over the moor). A full examination and home we came again with antibiotics and green tears (from the stain) but the good news that there was no lasting damage. By Thursday morning Maia looked almost normal again and today her eye is only slightly swollen but she still set off at full tilt down the lane this morning.
TB has also had an interesting week, on Tuesday a small hole appeared in the road by the land where she keeps her horses. It might be small of the surface but upon closer inspection a large cavern was lurking below and the tarmac was defying gravity to present the appearance of a road. It even stopped the postman, Highways were informed and put up 'road closed' signs. That's it we thought, that's the last we'll see of them for a while, but no- yesterday it was filled with several tons of concrete as a temporary measure. Engineers will do a full inspection at a later date and proper repairs will be made.
But despite various distractions, of a Bank Holiday, Maia's adventures, a mysterious hole in the road, reports of horse rustlers and so much more we've got the Weekly edition together and it's now on the printers to be with you on Monday post permitting. This week's edition is 12 sides with 73 new paid posts of which 46 came direct to CJS.

Plants, peas and post.

KH spent Tuesday at the Chelsea Flower Show, photos will follow as soon as we've looked through, sorted and captioned, the 100 or so taken!

However Tuesday was not so good in North Yorkshire on the plant front. There was a very harsh air frost overnight, with temperatures down to almost -6°C in some gardens, TB lost all her beans and half the potatoes and reports of plant losses in Goathland are mounting, ranging from begonias to gunneras. Thankfully our gunnera manicata was only scorched and the fatsia japonica isn't looking too happy either but both should make a full recovery. BUT the sweet peas are definitely looking the worse for wear and this is nothing to do with the frost but more to do with Labrador damage. Maia is an odd dog and for years has hunted out and eaten dandelions down to the root; just recently she's moved onto soil, especially that nice, soft, newly turn earth around tender seedlings like sweet peas! With this in mind a large quantity of cat pepper was incorporated into the planting pockets, a drench of rain and the frost removed the smell from the surface just enough for her to get her nose in and start eating, then the pepper did it's stuff but by then she'd got the taste so out came the peas and digging commenced searching for 'clean' soil. Hebe found uprooted peas a wonderful toy to toss around the garden and she's not averse to a bit of digging. Upon hearing this news Niall offered Flag's services, "Flag is now running day release courses (NVQ Level 3) in Open Cast Mining, and in Canine Archaeological Digs and welcomes Beginners and Improvers, so do let Maia (& Hebe) know. They may be interested in sitting at the paws of The Master Digger & learning how to improve their technique..."
Despite all out plant induces traumas we've put together a CJS weekly just for you, it's 15 pages containing 121 new paid posts of which 51 came direct to CJS. It is now dropping off the printers and will be on it's way to you soon. Please remember Monday is Bank Holiday so postal copies will be a day late and should arrive on Tuesday.

Not enough time...

Well we've been rather busy, there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day or days in the week so the sooner we find an admin assistant the better!
Last week's CJS Weekly did go out as usual, it was 13 pages with 90 new paid posts of which 33 came direct to CJS. This week's edition is huge! It's 15 pages plus a training calendar for June of five pages AND this week's edition has a Special Edition supplement which is eight pages all about Access & Rights of Way. I just hope your mail box, be it physical or electronic, is big enough for it all…
Whilst the rest of the country has been basking in sunshine we've been shivering under sea frets which pushed over the hill, rolled down into the valley and stayed there. Yesterday brightened up a bit but today is grey and gloomy (very Eeyoreish) again. However, on Monday our Owl came back to visit us and sat on the phone wires for several hours until it was virtually completely dark before she went off hunting. On the not so good side a rabbit has also been sighted in the garden, the dogs saw it off, Hebe did a wonderful Tigger impression and almost bounced right over the wall, and so far there's no evidence of damage to any of the plants. AW is hearing the patter of tiny (webbed) feet, two goslings have hatched and are making their first excursions into the great outdoors.

Summer and hangovers

It's gloriously warm and sunny, the cuckoo has been heard, swallows, house martins and swifts have all been sighted – BUT it's a bank holiday so watch those storm clouds gather! (we hope not).

Mouse droppings were seen in the feed room (bins of bird, dog and guinea pig food are very tempting) and so the trap was dug out of retirement. Bait of peanuts and a wedge of bread doused in whisky (not the good stuff I hasten to add) was placed temptingly and next morning one wood mouse with a rather large hangover was released a couple of miles away and so far has not returned. Why wood mice in the middle of this tree-less desert called the North York Moors? Well, Niall claims they're rather slow and rather than run away or emigrate they watched all the trees being felled in the bronze age and are now sitting around waiting for the trees to return!

We're just about back to normal although we're still looking for an additional team member. Therefore, this week's CJS Weekly is just about to hit the presses, this week it's 10 pages of 71 new paid posts of which 29 came direct to CJS.

Have a lovely Bank Holiday, if you're interested in our vacancy you'll find details here.

Summer arrives – oh, no it doesn't!

The first swallows were sighted on Sunday – summer's here, almost. Then on Thursday we awoke to an covering a snow and the Post Master had to go to the top of the hill because the delivery driver with the newspapers was too chicken to drive down into the village. Any way they got here and we collected ours to scan for Monday's CJS Weekly. Which is even now printing. This week it's 13 pages plus three for the Monthly training Calendar, there are 80 new paid posts of which 39 came direct to CJS there's an advert for a conservation working holiday programme (a new area for CJS), not to mention the Wombles – yes that's right, the furry residents of Wimbledon Common, SW19. You'll have to read it to find out why…

Missing!

Friday's blog update didn't appear for some reason. So here it is again…

Well we've managed the week and the presses are now rolling. This week's edition is 13 pages containing 88 new paid posts, 54 of which came direct to CJS. We've changed the online copies today, no longer are the display adverts separate from the main copy but are now in place in the main body of the copy of both the HTML & PDF options. The RTF file remains as plain text with links to the displays. But (there has to be a but doesn't there?) we've had problems with the PDF Distiller today and the PDF looks a little strange. We're working on a solution and will replace the file asap and next week everything will be back to 'normal'. And don't forget the new subscription rates now apply and so far (whisper it) the new shop is working well.

All change

New CJS Weekly subs rates now apply. And the new shop has been launched this week, so far no reported problems but do contact us if you know differently. There a several more options too, you can download the current edition without having to subscribe, you can request back issues (not sure why you'd want to but the option's there if you do) and the full range of Special Editions are also available to purchase in hard copy format. For more details click here.

We like bank holidays!

It's been rather quiet this week which has allowed us to develop lots of new ideas including a new webshop which we're planning to launch next week to coincide with the implementation of the new subs rates. Good news first – we've had bramblings and a TREE SPARROW in the garden on the feeders, the first Tree Sparrow for nearly 20 years. On the down side we're losing a member of staff (how careless!) so we're once again on the look out for a new team member. Any slightly mad, computer literate, dog lovers out there fancy joining the bunch of harebrained, balmpots who keep the CJS show on the road? Send us an email.

Back to business, CJS Weekly is now rolling off the presses, this week it's just nine sides but contains 61 new paid posts of which 35 came direct to CJS. The fascinating feature article is all about the return of the ospreys to Scotland and a new webcam at Loch Garten, viewed on the RPSB website.

Equinox gales rage – oh and it's Easter too!

It's wild, windy, cold and painful (large hailstones) out there so we're staying put in our warm snug office. Yes, we know it's a Bank Holiday but we're here slaving away to make sure your copy of CJS is published on time. Electronic copies are already online, paper versions will arrive on Tuesday, unlike CJS Royal Mail doesn't work Bank Holidays. This week's edition is a bit smaller than last week at eleven sides with 68 new paid posts of which 29 came direct to CJS.

There's egg-citing news too (sorry) AW's geese have laid several eggs which are now being brooded but the fancy pigeon eggs hatched and then the chicks promptly died, still it was a first attempt so better luck next time.

The office has a new piece of artwork, a beautiful picture of a hare now adorns the chimney breast, way back in the mists of time KH's first business was called HareBrained so there is some harebrained logic in there somewhere. Did you know the easter bunny was actually a hare? The hare was a symbol of fertility and linked to the spring festival of Eostre (a saxon / Germanic goddess of fertility) from which came Easter. Want to know more? Click on to: http://landscaping.about.com/cs/pests/a/easter_rabbit.htm

Happy Easter from all at CJS.

What is that…?

Any guesses? This week we've had some unbelievable weather, temperatures down to -12C, rarely above freezing even at midday. On Tuesday and Wednesday there was this wonderful hoar frost (which I called rime but no one else knew what I was talking about!) This is actually the frost on some chicken wire, taken before the camera packed up working because it was so cold.

And then on Thursday it all changed and now it's warm and mild with a +10 temperature at 10.30 last night!

The woodstove has done a brilliant job of keeping everyone warm enough to type and the Weekly edition is now printing and all being well will be with you on Monday by post or for online readers it's there already. It is a bit smaller than last week at 14 sides containing 104 new paid posts of which 56 came direct to CJS.

And finally as they say, the blogger-in-chief is having some time off next week so please check the main CJS news release page.

What a week

Friday travails: TB had to leave her car at the field with her horses (a couple of miles from the CJS office) and walk home, 50 minutes of hard trudge through the soggy snow. AW tried to get home but managed 200 yards in 20 minutes! But family with a large 4x4 were able to make it through and take her home up the dale. However, we're happy to report to damages to property or more importantly people. The dogs all thought the snow was wonderful, their people were not so pleased at all the soggy pawprints. Friday night it all froze solid but by Sunday there was hardly anything left. Monday arrived and you'd never know it had snowed at all. And now (Friday afternoon) the sun in shining, it's warm and spring like, most peculiar!

Despite the vagaries of the weather CJS has trundled on and right now copies of CJS Weekly are dropping off the printers, this week is 12 sides long with 93 new paid posts of which 63 came direct to CJS.

You may be aware that postage rates are changing yet again come April, this will push the cost of producing and posting CJS Weekly beyond your subscription fee (yes, our profit margins really are so small). So we're looking at ways to reduce the cost and this week we're experimenting with folding your copies to fit a C5 (half A4) envelope which should make them RM letter size rather than large letter with an analogous postage decrease. If it's possible without giving the staff RSI we maybe able to stave off a huge subs increase, if it's not possible we'll have to stick with flats (C4, big envelopes) and charge you all a lot more – sorry. Keep your fingers crossed it works.

Black-out.

The power has just about gone it’s been on, off, on again for the last four hours – the poor computers can’t cope, thank goodness for battery powered laptops! But that means no server. And no broadband (routers don’t work!) but bits of wire do so temporarily back on steam driven dial up.
Apologies for the poor communications this afternoon, we hope to be back to normal on Monday. But here’s the good news, so far the printers haven’t been too badly affected and we hope to get all copies of CJS Weekly out as usual, assuming the postie can get in tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

Quick, quick...

It's snowing, wet sticky snow is coming in horizontally and being plastered to everything including the power cables. The electricity keeps flickering, we've had three complete power losses so far and broadband is not exactly reliable. So we're working as fast as we can to get all the vital things done before the power goes for good (although we have everything crossed that it doesn't). We have managed to get the Weekly to press, it's 15 sides long containing 111 new paid posts of which 67 came direct to CJS. We've also caught up with the backlog of volunteer posts too. On the good news side the woodstove is keeping us lovely and warm and can boil a kettle (slowly) so there will still be coffee. Now where did I put my skis? And has anyone seen a Labrador recently? Or perhaps that moving snowdrift under the birdfeeders might turn out to be one…!

A bit of a blow - hold onto your hats

And your coats, your dogs and if possible something nailed down, to say it's rather blustery out there is somewhat of an understatement. We've just seen a dustbin go flying past the window, the field in front of the office is full bits of debris from the building plot down the road, torn off tree, out of bins, I'm sure you can imagine. Very few birds around, they're all wedged in somewhere out of the gale. But at least the wind is drying up the very wet ground. We have the first shoots from the bulbs are beginning to show above the ground, some of the shrubs have little green tips and the cobnuts have small catkins just waiting for some sun and warmth to burst open, first signs of spring all around – we must get the apple trees and roses pruning finished before it's too late.

But here in the snug, cosy office (a little too warm if we're honest, the wind is fair making the woodstove roar away!) we've been beavering away and this week's edition of CJS is now printing. It is 14 sides this week including lots of voluntary posts as we try to catch up on the backlog of those previously put on hold to allow space for the paid posts to be published. There are 95 new paid posts plus a few re-ads, 50 of the jobs were sent direct to CJS from the employer.

Quick word of warning. Our web hosts are migrating from one server to another over the weekend and this may disrupt service to the website and possibly emails. If you email us and don’t get a reply by the end of Monday please contact us as it may have got stuck.

Happy New Year.

Well, holidays are over, the tree is waiting to be collected by the recycling wagon, the cards are on their way to help the Woodland Trust campaign, the decorations are back in their boxes. So that's it for another year. And we're all back in the office (full of assorted colds & lurgies but no winter sickness (fingers crossed)) and whilst not exactly bright eyed and bushy tailed we're ready to go – once we've waded through nigh on a thousand emails….

Several ads already online to get you started and a rather large CJS Monthly waiting in the wings.

Birds, lamb, sprouts and jobs

We've had an exciting week, on the nature front we've had a new bird in the garden on Monday we spotted a Redpoll, of course it didn't sit long enough, or still enough, for us to determine which subspecies it may be so we're guessing at the Lesser but whichever sort it was it is the first time one has visited the garden. Today the first of the winter Bramblings came for a feed and the numbers of Siskins have to be seen to be believed, festooned over every feeder (except the red nut feeder which was bought specifically for them as they are supposed to like red feeders – ha, not here, sunflower hearts please!). The wind is fierce and today bitingly cold making it feel like winter, earlier in the week it was exceptionally mild and wet more like autumn and yesterday was a typical grey miserable November day.

In other CJS news AW's lamb went to slaughter earlier this week and when it returns nicely jointed in bags from the local builders merchant some of it will be swapped for a turkey for Christmas dinner but the sprouts failed so some will have to bought – gasp, buying vegetables, unheard of!

It's must be almost Christmas as CJS Weekly is only a little one this week, eight sides containing 83 new paid posts 62 of which were sent direct to CJS. And it's just about finished printing so will be on its way to you very soon.

birds and no 'leccy

The siskins returned today, two males and one female so far. All the poor birds are looking very bedraggled and fed up with this seemingly never ending rain. Our lovely new path is now covered in a sea of mud created by the rebuilding of the drystone wall. A brush and some buckets of water will fix that – once it stops raining!!

An advance warning – tomorrow (Thursday 22 November) our electricity supplier is carrying out their pre-winter line checks and maintenance which means we will be without electricity for most of the day. Back to the battery powered laptop and an old fashioned phone with a wire! We'll soldier on and hopefully you'll never notice.

It's done.

The builders have finished, tidied up and gone away. The new path looks lovely and the brain is in overdrive planning the new borders, grass paths, plants, shrubs etc. But that will all have to wait, rebuilt wall next.

And CJS Weekly is also done for the week and the printers are rolling away. With the reduced scope (fewer publicity / fundraiser etc) it's only nine pages this week but over 60% of the jobs came direct to CJS, 41 of 67.

No storm damage to report – thank goodness. Although CJS is based on the east coast we're about nine miles inland safely protected behind very high cliffs, so high the Vikings called the area cliffland when they sailed past. Over the following years cliffland has been corrupted into Cleveland the county just above North Yorkshire on the map. The woodstove is fizzing away keeping everyone lovely and warm and the hoards of birds in the garden are keeping us entertained. We do seem to have fewer blue tits than usual but great tits seem to be at about the same number as last year (see this week's feature article). The nuthatch has also returned feasting on peanuts and sunflower hearts.

CJS Monthly (again)

Published on Tuesday but for some reason not visible online! Isn’t technology wonderful? So here's Tuesday's news again (sorry if have actually got it twice..!)

CJS Monthly – November edition After an agonizing wait for one advert it's finally gone to press and is now online for you to read, paper edition should be with readers on Thursday. We're still asking you for your readership numbers please fax back your address page with the details or complete the form online.

Great excitement – the builders came back today, this time to start on the new path! The drystone wall is in heaps across the garden - don't worry we have a waller on hand to put it back together when the new path is finished.

Lots of news.

Sorry for the brief hiatus, the blogger in chief has had some time off! So lots of news for you.

First, last week's edition of CJS Weekly was 10 pages with 67 new vacancies of which 29 were sent direct to CJS. As Royal Mail have now ceased Sunday collections this was the first time CJS Weekly was been collected on a Saturday. It would appear that the system was not quite ready for the sudden influx of extra mail on Saturdays with many more than usual subscribers this week reporting non-delivery. Let's hope the wrinkles have now been ironed out and that copies land on doormats on Monday as usual. This week's edition is now streaming off the printers, it's 12 sides of 85 new paid posts of which 34 came to CJS direct from the employer.

You'll find the results of the Subscribers Survey and our responses. A couple of changes are that we're looking carefully at the types of posts we advertise, excluding some we previously included and possibly adding a few ones. We're also reviewing the look and format of the voluntary vacancies. Many thanks to everyone who replied and sent us their thoughts; and congratulations to subscriber 37634 - the lucky recipient of a set of Bird ID Insights cards.

Now, just in case you hadn't noticed Monday is bonfire night (see the article about hedgehogs and bonfires in this week's edition). Being a rural area we're very lucky in not plagued too much by excessive and inappropriate fireworks. But one CJS subscriber has become an unknowing victim. This package was received in today's post:

Once opened we very gingerly handled a soggy envelope and extracted the contents which still smell smoky. There was also a note from Royal Mail which states, " The enclosed correspondence intended for your address was unfortunately damaged and recovered in this condition. I would like to assure you that whilst every effort is made to ensure your mail is secure at all times, you will appreciate that acts of mindless vandalism by unknown member o f the public do sometimes occur and are beyond our control." In other words, some idiot put a firework in the pillar box!!

Last week we had to light the wood stove for the first time this year, but then we've let it go out and now have the windows open again, this must be one of the warmest beginnings to November. We've also cleaned all the bird feeders and refilled them and now the garden is full of very hungry birds, they were just waiting, no sooner had the filled feeders been put on the hooks than the first finches arrived – even before we'd got back inside! This year there seem to be more cole tits than before and several large families of long tailed tits have been checking us out but as yet none of the large flocks of siskins that have been reported elsewhere. Several skeins of geese and one of swans (probably whooper but too far away to confirm categorically) have flown over this last few days. Hebe has discovered that she likes bird food and is digging under the feeders for all the scraps, she's not yet realised that a couple of them are within reach – yet….!

Oh, and for those of you worried about the poor traumatized pup - Hebe managed OK during the rugby, we were very restrained despite wanting to scream – it was a try, it was a try (it wasn't but there you go), so well done to the boys for a sterling effort and roll on 2011 when we'll do all again! In the mean time I think we'll have to go with some desensitization exercises prior to the six nations.

It's been a busy week.

It looks like it might be good news on the postal front with RM & CWU having reached a provisional agreement and this week's strikes being called off – let's hope that's an end to it. Well CJS Weekly is now printing, this week it's 12 sides with 113 new paid posts of which 27 came direct to CJS including a small splurge from the Environment Agency. It's been a busy week and AN has been on holiday; just after sending out a tranche of Special Edition letters resulting in lots of enquiries!

Our latest round of recruitment was not successful – how hard can it be to find one slightly mad, computer literate, doggie person? Apparently in this corner of the country extremely! So here we go again, new ad, new approach and everything crossed.

The local peregrines have been across a couple of times this week scattering all the garden birds but the falcon was just passing though not actively hunting. Hebe (the new puppy who's almost 5 months old now!) is claiming slave labour, that it's not right for a such a young personage to have to work such long hours – I couldn't agree more but how else is she to earn her bonios? She got rather upset last Saturday at around 9.30pm when her people (or Beans as she refers to us) got rather excited at events in Paris. We already on tenterhooks today so heaven help her tomorrow…..

Big news

We can see out again! The scaffolding came down this week and the builders have just finished checking the patched section which was obscured by some of the scaffolding. Our roof is now watertight and storm proof (well as much as it can be) for the next few years.

CJS Weekly is now rolling off the printers, this week it's 12 sides with 93 new paid pots, 37 of which came direct to CJS. Electronic copies will be available as usual from today but postal copies may not arrive until Friday, Wednesday is the earliest we can hope for but Thursday is probably more realistic. Our post will be collected on Sunday as usual but then it will stall as the CWU goes on strike again. Then from Monday 15 October there will be a series of shorter more localised strikes which make it much harder to predict how this will affect deliveries.

Next week we're a hand short as TB takes off for sunnier climes (Majorca actually - a pilgrimage to childhood holidays) for the week so we might not be quite as speedy as usual.

Big news

We can see out again! The scaffolding came down this week and the builders have just finished checking the patched section which was obscured by some of the scaffolding. Our roof is now watertight and storm proof (well as much as it can be) for the next few years.

CJS Weekly is now rolling off the printers, this week it's 12 sides with 93 new paid pots, 37 of which came direct to CJS. Electronic copies will be available as usual from today but postal copies may not arrive until Friday, Wednesday is the earliest we can hope for but Thursday is probably more realistic. Our post will be collected on Sunday as usual but then it will stall as the CWU goes on strike again. Then from Monday 15 October there will be a series of shorter more localised strikes which make it much harder to predict how this will affect deliveries.

Next week we're a hand short as TB takes off for sunnier climes (Majorca actually - a pilgrimage to childhood holidays) for the week so we might not be quite as speedy as usual.

Bill, stones and jobs...

Lucky old Bill – he's got a get well card from his cousin in New Zealand, now not every collie can say that!!

There have been strange goings on in the district – last week a series of mysterious stone heads appeared in the village and now they've been sighted elsewhere too, read all about it in the Whitby Gazette – click here.

In the midst of the spookiness the equinox storms have been raging (well, grumbling a bit) but the newly repaired roof is holding up well and once it stops raining the last bits of painting and tidying up will be finished too. This week we've seen the first flock of long-tailed tits flying through so we must clean the big feeders and get them out so the birds can get used to them again before they really need them. And through it all CJS keeps rumbling on, CJS Weekly is now printing, this week it's 15 sides containing details of 124 vacancies, 43 of which were sent direct to CJS.

It's a bit noisy here!

What was that? I can't hear you! I said IT'S A BIT NOISY HERE!!

We've got the builders in – or rather on the roof which is being patched up and made sound, new ridge tiles, cracked tiles being replaced etc. I never realised it would involve so much crashing and banging, so apologies if when you phone us there are strange noises in the background or we're shouting at you. It should all be done soon.

The printers are now running (adding to the general cacophony) churning out copies of CJS Weekly which this week is eleven sides and has details of the last of the Monthly jobs (some were in last week's copy) which gives us a total of 90 new paid posts, 46 of which were direct to CJS.

A Grand Day Out

was had by all.

Despite no cattle, sheep or goats but all the usual stalls were there and the horse classes were well supported. Unfortunately we didn't win anything except a goldfish on the fair! However, the trophy given in memorial of KH dad was won by a Goathland girl, the first time it's returned to the village.

So back to work now.

CJS Office closed for the day.

Wednesday 22 August.

Is the day of our local agricultural show and all the office staff are off to the show. Due to the FMD outbreak in the south of the country there will be no cloven hoof livestock but we expect plenty of fur and feather and lots of horsey action in the show rings. Please send us an email or leave a message on the answerphone and we'll catch up with you on Thursday.

Back online...

For now! AW decided to go home, not much to do without broadband, and on route saw a BT van near where some new cables have recently been installed. She had a look at her computer and lo and behold it's back online. A quick call to the office to check on our status prompts an additional 'are you working yet?' stab at the keyboard and apparently we are too.
Right then, let's start to wade through the small heap of 'to dos'.

It's gone again...

AW phoned yesterday evening to say her internet connection had disappeared. We checked the office one - and guess what it's not working either. This is the third time in five weeks that our broadband connection has mysteriously gone awol. At least this time BT have the notes from last time and we haven't had to go through the rigmarole of line checking etc. They say we should hear from someone today, but we're not holding our breath. Anyway, here we are again back on steam driven dial up all internet and email working off a single laptop. As ever we'll carry on regardless and do our best not to let it affect CJS service to you. any and all news will be posted here to keep you up to date.

Well what a week!

CJS Monthly on Tuesday was published as normal and is fully available online and was collected by the posties as usual on Wednesday so it should be with most of you by now. BUT just as were finishing off the broadband connection disappeared (6.42pm precisely). We were tired and frazzled so it was left until morning. Wednesday morning still nothing, BT were their usual helpful selves on all three occasions when we phoned on Wednesday – turns out the whole village was out and we still don't know why. Thursday a repeat performance so a quick call to the local paper prompted a swift call from BT press office and lo and behold a couple of hours later the broadband is back! And so far that's the way it has stayed – but there are no guarantees that it will remain as BT seem unable to tell us what the exact fault was. So we wait for the next time. To add to the fun and games the electricity supply for one our homeworkers was also out on Thursday, although we did know about that one. Anyway despite all the obstacles we have managed to keep updating the website and have produced CJS Weekly as usual and it is currently printing, 11 sides containing 89 new vacancies 53 of which came to CJS direct.

We're live again.

Well, nearly 44 hours later and the computers started flashing lights at us, "we're connected to the outside world" they said in a whisper. So after hours of watching the little egg timer as dial-up slowly brought in emails and sent out web updates we're now working as fast as possible (watch those keyboards smoking) to catch up. Emails and online passwords should be sent as normal tonight but it might be tomorrow morning it depends how quickly we can chip away at the rather frighteningly huge heap of things requiring our attention.

No broadband - again

Once again BT has managed to cut our broadband but this time it's the whole of Goathland (the village in which CJS is based) that's several businesses including the Post Office all without broadband. So we're plunged back into the dark ages of dial up. Best guess is contact from BT within 24-48 hours of the original fault report...

It's Friday.

At last, it's been a long week and a strange one at that. Mixed post deliveries and collections means the usual publication subscriptions didn't arrive and we searched for the jobs from websites instead, all outgoing post seemed to go as normal it was just the incoming that was sporadic, today there was a small mountain. It's reported that Royal Mail has a backlog of around 10m items. R is settling in and learning the peculiarities of the CJS office and yesterday Niall came for coffee and sticky buns to meet the 'newbies' R and Hebe. Taking of whom she's doing remarkably well for an 8 (nearly 9) week old and has not disrupted office life anywhere near as much as we thought she would – but give it time….

Anyway despite all of that CJS Weekly is now being printed and should be with you as normal, RM permitting. This week's edition is 12 pages long containing 89 new paid vacancies of which 43 were sent direct to CJS.

New recruit.

The CJS Office has a new recruit. Please meet Hebe:As you can see she's small, has four feet and is canine! Already been pressed in service in the recycling department - munching empty boxes. She's a very intelligent little dog and has her own blog at: http://black-labrador.blogspot.com/
So if you hear strange noises in the background when you call us it's probably Hebe!

Back online, phew

Everything came back online late yesterday. The little man from BT phoned to say he couldn't see any problem with the line but after double checking everything we'd done he said they would check again. Five minutes later red exclamation marks became green ticks and we were online once again. AW discovered that her broadband, which is with Tiscali but goes through the same BT exchange, had also been off for most of the day so it wasn't just us then. CJS Weekly will be uploaded later today as usual.

No Broadband....

eek - We came in this morning and turned on the machinery and were met with a barage of error messages and can't do it messages. Restarted everything, unplugged and replugged the tangle of electric spaghetti and still nothing. BT say it's an 'inexplicable problem' which when we asked for a translation means it's probably at their end rather than ours - phew. It's been passsed to engineers who will report back within four hours which being charitable means by 2pm today.
However, our only connection with cyberspace is now a laptop on a slow dial-up connection. Basic services are running but so much else has ground to halt. AW has just asked, "However, did we manage before the internet?" Oh, I remember those days, it was so much more leisurely and I'm sure we used less paper!

Friday - at last

We not dropped our new team member in at the deep end but it's been a steep learning curve (for all of us) however poor R is looking a bit bemused I think perhaps we've overloaded her.

But we've all got to the end of the week and the presses are rolling. It's a little one this week – it's been really quiet which is probably a good thing. This week's edition of CJS Weekly is 11 sides containing 64 new paid posts of which 29 were sent direct to CJS. This week we've got a few new advertisers again including a post with Historic Scotland and one with dialogue matters – we've advertised their courses before but this is first time they've been recruiting staff.

New beginnings.

Our new Team Member started yesterday.

What a lot there is to learn! We didn't quite realise what an encyclopaedia of knowledge we've built up and how much there is to say about the way CJS operates. Database syntax, SFL lingo, Cside TLAs and that's before we even think about this huge website.

TriskaidekaFRIDAY

We're not bothered about Friday the thirteenth - are you??

So we were left in the dark yesterday. It worked out quite well as we received our first delivery of logs for next winter. No power = no computers so a spot of manual labour was a welcome change although a tonne and half of logs was perhaps a little excessive. Anyway two hours later all stacked and looking smart, the stack is four rows deep. These are mostly ash with some beech and are three-quarters seasoned should be great by October (we really don't want to light the stove before then if we can help it!). Of course we couldn't have managed it without canine assistance, Maia, on the left, and Juno. The shed to the left is where we stash the post until the postie collects - so it's a post box in disguise!!

RM workers on strike again today so your postal copy of CJS Weekly may be delayed and if you didn't receive your copy of CJS Monthly yesterday it will be, hopefully, waiting for you on Monday. CJS Weekly is this week 12 pages containing 81 new paid posts of which 42 were sent direct to CJS including several new advertisers.

No leccy!!

At precisely 09:26 NEDL turned off our electricity. It is to facilitate an upgrade of the local sub-station. How long this will take is at the moment uncertain but the information from NEDL states that the power maybe off from 9am until 4pm. CJS is operating from a couple of different locations keeping the service up and running - BUT we don't have access to the main server, that's housed in the office and consequently is also without power and therefore offline. So apologies if our usual high standard of service falls down a little bit today we should be back to normal tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

CJS Monthly - July Edition

A bit late but yesterday the July edition of CJS Monthly was completed and was this morning collected by the postie – so RM permitting it should be with you tomorrow. It's already online and the e-minders have been sent.
Tomorrow's the day when we may loose electricity so it's possible our usual service will be disrupted; we'll carry on as normal as far as possible but it means that the online ads may not be updated until late Thursday evening or even Friday morning.

More disruption possible

Sorry, two problems this week.
First on Thursday (12/7/07) NEDL are once again threatening to cut our electricity supply for the day, we'll endeavour to carry on as normal but if they do cut the power we may end up working in several locations and will not have access to our main server.
Second, another postal strike has been confirmed for this coming week, CWU members will walk out at 7pm on Thursday 12 July for 24 hours. Once again this should not hugely affect CJS but if you're sending is job ads by post please ensure they are with us before Thursday. However, the backlog may well delay delivery of CJS Weekly to readers.
To keep up to date please read: http://www.countryside-jobs.com/CJS_Stuff/royal_mail.htm and of course keep up to date here on our blog.