Mule Sheep Society

Its taken a while to get round to doing this post. Lifes been really busy of late, which is good, but theres not a lot of time left for blogging!!
Last Sunday the Skipton branch of the Mule Sheep Association held an open day at the home of Ken and Lynne Throup. The sun shone down,it was a beauitiful day up on Silsden Moor and Kens sheep were a credit to him, as were his spotlessly clean buildings courtesy of Lynne and the pressure washer ( we wives have our uses!!). There was a good turn out of Mule sheep breeders there and over numerous cups of tea and mountains of cake the world was put to rights. Theres much anticipation of the forth coming lamb sales as trade is very buoyant at the moment, long may it continue!!!
The pictures show a pen of Mule Gimmer ( female) lambs . one of several classes put out to judge. Even I had a go!!. There were classes for 4 lambs, 4pens of 4 lambs, Mule ewes, Swaledale ewes and fat lambs. Incredibly I managed 50 out of 50 in the fat lamb class and ended up with an overall score of 221 points. It was way short of the winner but I was quite pleased! The top picture is Mr David Brown from Agglethorpe who acted as Master Judge for the event and Jeff Throup Chairman of the Skipton branch.
Today Chris has mown grass to make some hay, the forecast is good and hopefully it will bale in a few days.

Busy Bees on Hanging Moor

Well the honey for your morning toast has to start somewhere!! I went up onto Hanging Moor today to get some pictures of the heather which is now the most beautiful shade of purple. Once on top of the moor the view for miles around was the purple heather. The Beekeepers who bring their bees onto the moor for the summer have all placed their hives some time ago and the bees were busy working. The picture of some of the hives has a slight blur but there was a rain spot on the Land Rover window and there was no way I was going to get out or open the window!!!. The bees just surrounded the vehicle, i dont know if they thought it was a large blue flower!!
Hives placed on the heather have to be in a place chosen with care often in a gully, or sheltered valley.The beekeepers have to make sure the spot will not flood as there have been occasions when hives have been partly submerged and even washed away after torrential downpours on the moorland tops. Shelter is of the utmost importance and the bees should be able to fly out up the hill and come down hill loaded.
I have read articles that state Heather honey is the 'Rolls Royce of honey' and 'rather special stuff'!! Oh and another interesting fact is that the bees who do all the work are the females, the boys (drones) just laze around apparently!! Eating honey!! Ill leave it at that I think !

Glorious Weather for a change!!

Last week I thought summer had passed us by with grey skies and cold blustery weather and on thursday the most torrential rain downpour Ive seen in a while. Sadly on the wednesday the forecast on TV was good so lots of farmers got busy cutting grass to try and make some hay and then the day after the foecast changed again!!
However yesterday was glorious, hot and sunny and absolutely great for the committee of Ripley Show.
Chris set off early as his task for the day was to be the judge in the sheep section for 'Any other native breed'. This comprised of classes with a mix of breeds in them as opposed to the normal one breed in a class. He judged Herwicks, Poll Dorsets, Hampshire Downs, Oxford Downs, Manx Lachtan and Leicester and Lincoln Longwools. Quite a variety to his day!!
I went along at lunchtime having serviced all my rooms and we had a lovely afternoon, catching up with friends and watching the various attractions.
All in all a good day!