Toadstools

I noticed these toadstools along the edge of the Railway track a few days ago and finally managed to take a photo today. They were a much brighter red but have gone over a bit now, some are spotty and some not. I think they are Fly Agaric.

Success at Countryside Live

Somehow time passes and I haven't got round to posting about countryside live!
Daughter entered the young handler class and the judge made them swap sheep! So here she is holding a Kerry Hill.

As often happens she wasn't paying enough attention to the proceedings so wasn't placed!

In the showing classes we took the Portlands in the Hill and Heath section and came 4th in the Group of 3 class.

We then took the Shetlands in the Primitive section. I was really pleased that our Shetland Shearling Ewe Highfield Gloria came first in her class and was the the overall Primitive Champion. Gloria is the twin sister of Gabriel who won the champion at York - more winning offspring from Highfield Daniel and Brae Pepper!

We also got a 3rd and 4th in the Ewe class, a 4th in the ewe lamb class. Daughter got a 3rd for her group of 3 with the judge commenting it was nice to see 3 patterned Shetlands.
The following day we went into the interbreed but didn't get a prize.

Son had fun holding a chick which he thought was very cute!

My stall was next to some very noisy heritage turkeys! but at least they drew people to the stall!

All in all a really enjoyable and successful weekend!

Come and see us at Countryside Live

The Sheep, my stall and I will be at Countryside Live at the Harrogate showground this weekend. Follow link for more details www.countrysidelive.co.uk

We went today and set up the stall in the RBST part of the massive sheep marquee and penned the sheep up. I will try and post pictures over the weekend.

Champion Shetland at York

At the Weekend we took some sheep to the York Rare Breed Show and Sale. Much to my delight my Shearling ram Highfield Gabriel became the Champion Shetland and went on to be Reserve Primitive Champion! Picture below of the fella in question. Yes he is covered in sawdust - I had picked lots off, but couldn't get rid of all of it!
Unfortunately prices in the sale were not great so Gabriel didn't sell - he is for sale privately if anyone is interested. He has a lovely temperament, good wool, compact shape. He has been Society Approved, his pedigree can be viewed on the Shetland Sheep website www.shetland-sheep.org.uk (click on registrations - online flock book - type in his name)

We also have other rams for sale.

Dates and Events

I have added a new page to right that gives the dates of events I will be attending. These include the pop-up Butchers shop events we hold once a month at home, where we sell all the meat products from our sheep and pigs. The textiles are also available then by request.

Other regular events are my stall at the York Farmers Market. This is currently in the Shambles Market in York.

Other events listed are one off craft fairs etc.

Etsy Shop opened

I am very excited, I have just opened an Etsy shop to sell my textile art. Please do visit it to see what I do and hopefully purchase something truly original! My Etsy shop name is Highfield Textiles.

Departures and arrivals

Last weekend we went to the Melton Mowbray Rare Breed Sale. We took 5 sheep to sell, 4 Shetland shearling ewes and a Shetland shearling tup. We sold all the ewes but the tup didn't make his reserve so he came home again!

I entered various classes in the Shetland Sheep Society craft competition and won the cup for the best craft exhibit! Very pleased. Below is a pic of the winning item, my cardigan in 2 ply laceweight yarn.

While we were away on holiday 2 of our chickens died so we bought two new ones at Melton Sale. They are young Buff Sussex hens - pics below. Hoping they are good layers as most of the rest seem to have stopped at the moment!

Talks

I have updated the list of talks I can give to local and regional groups about my textile work and about the sheep etc. Please see the talks page in the list to the right for details. I have added a new talk for 2017 about the embellished patchwork pieces I am currently working on.

Squirrel and Woodpecker

Happy to report that Fred recovered from his illness and is back to his usual self.

Quick post about 2 unusual wildlife moments, both near a peanut feeder in the garden- 1st a squirrel trying to look innocent whilst cuddling a stolen peanut and 2nd a greater spotted woodpecker ferociously attacking the nuts!

Will post more stuff soon, now lambing over I might have time!

Poorly Fred and New Chickens

Fred our cat has become poorly overnight. We had to take him to the vets this morning. He was very lethargic and wasn't purring when he was stroked. The vet said he was dehydrated. They have put him on a drip and ran some blood tests which suggest he has a liver infection. Poor Fred will be staying at the vets over the weekend. The prognosis is a bit uncertain because of his advanced age (18 years). We are all sad and worried.

Happier news now! We went the Spring Rare Breed Sale at York Livestock Centre and bought a pair of new chickens. They are Cochin chickens, gold laced colourway. They have feathered legs. They seem to be very calm and don't mind being handled. Here are a couple of pics of them.

Bottoms up!

Investigating their new home.

They are currently in the garden to isolate them from the rest of the chickens for a couple of weeks until we know they are disease free.

More lambs!

The main lambing period is now over so I can catch up on some sleep and update the blog etc! Here are the next batch of lamb photos. The first pic is of Bethany before lambing, poor girl is as wide as she is tall! Guess how many lambs she will have - scroll down to bottom of post for answer!

Shetland Gooseberry with single black ram lamb

Shetland Ebony can;t be bothered to get up to feed her lamb!

A very wary Shetland Dahlia with her black krunet (white patch on head) ram.

Shetland Echo with her twins - she was reluctant to let them feed at first but got the hang of it after a few times of being tied up while I 'plugged then in' !

Shetland Old Black with Charolais x twins. These 2 are being supplemented with bottle feeding as mum has mastitis and not enough milk.

Shetland Robyn with twins, a black ram and a black gulmoget (light belly and legs) ewe. One visitor described the gulmoget lamb as the Rottweiler look!

Much to our surprise Shetland Bethany only had twins - we were expecting triplets from her enormous belly! Here they have only just arrived!
More lamb pics soon....

Wildlife Cam

We have recently set up a wildlife camera to see what goes on in Railway fields when we aren't there! So far we have captured photos and videos of a fox, roe deer, rabbits and pheasants. Below is a pretty good shot of the fox early one morning.

This week we have had a couple of frosty mornings. This picture of a roe deer looking at the camera was somewhat spoilt by the fact the lens was frosted up - the camera recorded it was -2 oC! Quite atmospheric though.....

When we work out how to edit the videos and upload them we will add some vids as well as pics.

Pony Club activities

This week the children have been doing a lot of Pony Club Activities. On Monday they had a 'behind the scenes' tour of the new exotic animal facility at Askham Bryan College. They were allowed to handle some of the animals included lizards, snakes, tortoises, and skunks. They also saw meerkats, racoons and marmosets. Some of the following photos were taken by son hence the slightly blurry images!

On Friday both children attended an all day Rally. The son on Spike got a 1st rosette for doing the obstacle race fastest and the daughter on Teddy came 5th.

On Sunday the son took part in his first Pony Club Mounted Games competition as part of the Lead Rein team for Vale of York PC. He did really well and the team came a very creditable 4th.

Next batch of lambs

The flooding has subsided and we have had more lambs. Pics below, when breed of lamb isn't given they are the same as their mum!

Shetland Monroe with a single moorit coloured ram lamb

Portland Fudge with a single ram lamb

Soay cross with 2 ewe charollais lambs

Shetalnd Fifi with twin moorit lambs, 1 ram, 1 ewe

Flooded again

After such lovely weather on Friday, we had a few showers and the last night it rained non stop and we are back to square one with the flooding situation. I think we had about 60 mm of rain between about 6 pm yesterday and midday today.

This is state of the field and barn now. Not sure what I'm going to do as the barn is now way too wet for the sheep to be in.

And to cap it all my wellies have got holes in.....

First Lamb

First lamb arrived on Good Friday in glorious sunshine. Mum is Clarissa, one of our Portlands, she has had a ewe lamb (hurray!).

First pic - just arrived, second pic - standing, third pic - being held by daughter.

Working on barn part 2

We did get the concrete into the door sill trench, but the day after there was torrential rain all day and this is what it looked like on 10th March...

We weren't supposed to have a moat!
We had taken the ewes due to lamb first down to the railway fields and they had to learn how to walk the plank to get in and out of the barn!

As you can see they are on an island, there is water all around and the rest of barn is still full of implements and other stuff that needs removing.

We have been working hard to clear the barn and to build a decking platform in one bay. The idea of this is that it will provide a dry place to store the food, supplies etc, while we are lambing and also provide me with a dry place to sleep!

Today it is very nearly completed and most of the rest of the barn is clear. The mud is still very sticky but at least it hasn't rained anymore.

Here are a couple of photos of the swelling ladies, a nosy Wensleydale and hungry ewes at the ring feeder.

Working on the barn

Last year around this time we started building our barn. It is all made of timber and we did most of the work ourselves. In the middle of March it looked like this...

The first ewe lambed outside as it wasn't quite ready and she was early, but by the end of March we had a weather proof barn and the ewes moved in for lambing....

It wasn't totally finished and we have done bits and pieces over the year but with lambing time rapidly approaching again, we are trying to get things a bit further on. However, the weather is hampering the work somewhat. The ground is so waterlogged that we can't get any vehicles near the barn and the inside is something of a quagmire. The problem is that the sun and wind dry the field around the barn, but they don't have any effect inside. Anyway, today I finished digging some foundations to put in a concrete door sill and hopefully have proper doors on by lambing time! You can see the quagmire inside and out, and the trench slowly filling with water...