Kids outshine a poor show by me and sheep
This week has been all about the preening and polishing of sheep with both our local show and the first of the breeding sheep sales to contend with.
The show sheep scrubbed up well and we were feeling hopeful that we might be in the cards. That was until we got into company and it became apparent that we just weren’t quite good enough.
It wasn’t only our sheep that were non-prize winners. My baking went unrewarded too.
We didn’t come home entirely empty-handed though – the children had success in the sheep handling, stock judging and baking classes, even claiming victories in the fell races. By the end of the day they were laden down with rosettes, trophies and pockets bulging with sweeties on which they’d spent their prize money.
We were pleased with the prices our mule gimmers fetched at the auction on Tuesday. Usually they get rained on the night before the sale and look a bit bedraggled but for a change they were dry and looking their very best.
I, on the other hand just looked hot and bothered, a consequence of having three small children and baby Nancy in tow as well as 70 sheep to sell.
Quite how the buyers manage to sit it out ringside, under a tin roof on such a blisteringly hot day, I don’t know. I didn’t hang around long.
I just wanted to get home for a cup of tea. Plus we had two cows that looked as though they were about ready to calve and after Evie’s recent horrible calving we were all feeling a bit nervous about them.
When I got back to the farm the electric was off, so I had to get a blazing fire going on the range to boil the kettle to make tea and then the water supply conked out too. It was midnight before power was restored by which time an almighty thunderstorm was raging.
Our next calf was born that night, under a sky that was lit by flashes of sheet lightening we had no trouble seeing – a little bull calf, Flash, owing to the flash of white under his belly and the dramatic weather on the night of his birth.