If there’s one thing that rattles farm kids is when authors sugar-coat farming for them in picture books. It seems Old McDonald has a lot to answer for. We reviewed the Farmer in Training books last year which were Shearing Day and The Show. Well, the clever and talented Anwen Nichols and her illustrator Kenneth…
At the beginning of 2020 I booked front row tickets to see the Yorkshire shepherdess at my local theatre. Then Covid happened and the May date was put back to November 2021. I originally thought the farmer would come with me but he said he didn’t fancy it and would stay home so we didn’t…
How many divorces have started with moving sheep? As a farmer’s wife, I am an easy target for anything and everything that goes wrong when moving animals. It rains. It’s my fault. I am standing nowhere near the animals and they won’t go in the gate. It’s my fault. Can you see a pattern emerging?…
Most months when I write the Farm life series, I write a similar thing ‘I didn’t think anything had happened until I looked back at the photos’. This month it is true. The farm has been quiet. Straw dragged on and on and on. It was the latest finish I have ever known. Since being…
I seem to have taken hundreds of photos of hens this month. I have a few fancy ones and their hilarious bouffants amuse me every time I see them. Photographing them though seems to be harder than it looks and I was happy with one photo until I went back and I had chopped the…
I am sure you know by now that I love wool. I love how versatile it is, the sheer amount of things you can do with it. It is cool in summer and warm in winter. It is the most natural of materials and is probably the only animal product (as well as dairy) which…
Another month and a whole year of farm life. December has brought a definite chill but still with the ever present addition of rain. The grass has stopped growing and the mud is as muddy as ever so natural forage is almost non existent. We moved the Ryeland sheep into another field which I filmed…
You know how in some magazines, they have a going up and going down popularity column? I think I should do one for my Farm Life post each month. This month, chihuahuas are going up, donkeys are going down and goats are somewhere in the middle. I wrote a whole post a while back about…
It’s funny, each month as I start to think about what has happened to write my regular Farm Life piece, I always think nothing has happened. This month was no different. It has been dominated by one word though. Mud. There has been a lot of rain and it has turned most of the fields…
Sheep books are life for the children of sheep farmers but there are many children out there who like sheep too so I thought I would share our favourites. Pete the Sheep by Jackie French and illustrated by Bruce Whatley is set in Australia and is the tale of Sean the shearer who, instead of…