The Great Flood of 2009

Well, we are nearly all still here after the worst floods to hit the county in living memory. We unfortunately lost 2 of our lambs when a field that had never before flooded did so and to such an incredible depth that water actually entered the bottom shed to a depth of about 2 foot.

In desperation at the extent of flooding, Kev and I ended up taking his fishing boat across the flooded fields (not a fence in sight underneath us) to attempt to rescue our lambs - they were trapped by water up to their tummies in a hawthorn hedge, but it was the dyke kest that saved their lives due to it being built up from the field. We cut lots of the wire fence and dragged them through, sadly two were missing, and five were very hypothermic and had to be ferried back in two more boat trips to my sister and Rachel who were waiting with hairdryers, hot water bottles and straw to dry them and warm them. Thankfully they all eventually came through okay. We also recued a couple of baby deer from the water and later in the day one had just laid down in the field so we decided that it would probably die if left and took the risk of the shock being too much for it and took it back to the farm and left in a dark shed overnight, by which time it had come round and it was released up the wood behind us.

We also rescued our neighbouring farmer's cows who had got washed over a fence and were wedged up in the corner of our field, belly-deep in water and extremely hungry. More cut wire and they joined all the sheep in the Hill field - this 6-acre field rises very high but had only about 4 acres not under water so although stock was safe in here with 114 sheep and 8 cows it was a total mudbath. We rolled them out a bale of silage that was floating about (yes, really, they all floated about, the stacks of bales are now all on the ground!) and brought some hay over on another boat trip.

For three days we fought on keeping the animals fed and eventually on the Monday, although there was still 2 foot of water on the lonnin we brought all the sheep up home in the trailer - a bit of a rocky ride out given the deep ruts at various places caused by the rushing water, but with more rain forecast we felt we had to. The cows had to wait until Saturday for the water to go off the lonnin so they could walk up and get loaded into a trailer at the farm to go back to their home.

Walking around the fields now, it is eerie going past trees that have debris hanging on them way above my head. We have lost a few fences and have a lot of plant debris but are in a lot better state than many people. The photo shows us setting off in the boat, with a deer in the background swimmimg to freedom!

Oaklands Dorcas

Another new addition, Oaklands Dorcas, was purchased last weekend from the Livingstones - she is Anah's daughter from last summer and we saw her when we collected Challenge in July and were very taken with her, so when Challenge went home at the end of September, we looked at her again and decided to buy her. She is 16 months old and will live with the other cows, going to the bull next summer and having her first calf when she is three years old.

She was rather shy about having her photo taken, trying to hide behind one of the bigger cows!

New cats

Due to the loss of Tiggy in July at the grand old age of 18, we felt we needed another cat to discourage mice around the house and farm. We didn't really fancy a kitten, especially with all the dogs around, so we went down to our local cat rescue centre and two cats straight away chose us as their new owners.

Marty (bottom photo)is a semi-longhaired grey and white cat, with a very cuddly, loveable nature and he climbed all over Matthew as if to say take me now.

Stevie (a girl!) is a short haired grey and white cat and loves to be stroked but does not like being picked up - obviously something has happened in her past, but we hope she will settle down. She can certainly purr when she wants!

They have both settled in marvellously, with Stevie (pictured top) very much boss of the dogs, although I think due to failing eyesight with age that Lottie is slightly oblivious to their presence. Marty looks at the dogs with mild curiosity, but does run if challenged. Stevie had a slight touch of cat flu which apparently happens a lot in re-homed cats, but they are both now micro-chipped and vaccinated and fully settled in.

Scottish adventure

Following the cancellation of Hutton, Fizz and Sonny were rapidly re-routed to Turnberry horse Trials in Ayrshire. Overnight stabling was arranged and Rachel and I packed our woollies!

The journey took just under four hours and we went to the event location first and walked the courses. Then we set off to find our accommodation (stables for the horses, sleeping in the lorry for us!). Sonny was really funny, he was scared stiff of the strange stables and wouldn't go in for ages, but Fizz strutted in and made himself right at home. It was a really cold night but we had a giggle as we were wrapped fully-clothed in our sleeping bags!

Both horses did moderate dressage tests, so for Sonny, who was competing in a BE90 regional final with the chance of qualifying for the final at Badminton Horse Trials in 2010, that put any hopes of that out of the window. He redeemed himself slightly with a double clear show jumpimg and cross country, although amazingly after all our time penalties in the past, we had 3 time penalties for going TOO FAST - perhaps the time spent trying to train him to gallop better has had a result.

Fizz was also relatively naughty in his dressage, but his judge must have been wearing rose-tinted spectacles as she LOVED him and he still had a good score. He also jumped clear show jumping and cross country (see photo), jumping superbly through several tricky combination fences including a double of angled hedges. However, Rachel nursed him round due to him feeling a leg in the run up to the event, and he picked up a few time penalties which put him out of the placings.

Westmorland County Show

We took Roscoe and our friends' Highland pony, Jethro and were pleasantly surprised at how dry the field was after all the rain recently.

Roscoe excelled himself with a 4th place in his coloured in-hand class and also a 4th in the in-hand veteran class from 18 entries. Jethro was slightly inattentive in his working hunter and had a refusal and a pole down, but having annoyed his jockey he thought he'd better be good in the Mountain and Moorland ridden class and went beautifully to take 5th place in a strong class of welsh cobs, fells and dales and where he was one of only two highland ponies.

Our new jacob sheep

At the end of August, we bought four Jacob gimmer lambs. We have named them Jewel, Jazz, Juno and Jinx. They will run after me for feed but will not yet be stroked and definitely, now they are out in the field, try their best not to be caught! They are out with six home-bred gimmer lambs and hopefully this group will be big enought to tup with Jerome, the young Charollais tup. The photo shows them in the shed when they first came.

Where did the summer go?

Last time I wrote at the beginning of August, the weather was wet and it just got wetter for the next month. Keswick show went ahead on Bank Holiday Monday, but the field was a terrible mess afterwards. Several more local shows were cancelled and the Hutton International eventing fixture for 12th/13th september was also cancelled. We did however manage to get to Westmorland county Show, and to a couple of horse trials in late September.
Kev and I then had a week away from it all in Portugal, and whilst the weather was mainly very hot and sunny, there was the most amazing rain on our second last night - it bounced of the pavements, but thankfully we were in a restaurant at the time!
Back home now, and lots of jobs to catch up on! The trees are changing rapidly, with some glorious autumn colours at the moment, but it is a shock when the clocks go back at how quickly it gets dark.

Summer floods

The sheep all got clipped - the lambs then spent the next couple of days wondering which one was mum! They were then all taken down to the low fields, but had to be brought up to higher ground in a hurry last Wednesday when there was a danger of the fields flooding (July?!?). Hopefully now there will be some better weather on the way.

Last ever Pony Club area competition

Rachel is 21 now and this was therefore her last ever competition representing our Pony club - we all trooped over to very nearly the East coast, 3 teams of dressage riders and Rachel doing the open as an individual. Two teams had second placings, the other a third, and several children were placed individually too. Rachel had the unfortunate bad luck to be doing her test as a group of children (competitors who should have known better) clattered up the road behind the arena. This proved rather too much for Sonny to concentrate and his test was quite tense, although Rachel rode him really well considering he just wanted to gallop off with them. She then helped with the novice team, and was really chuffed that Jethro came 2nd in his arena.
Rachel's college friend Anna and her Mum came to see us with their beautiful 7-month old Newfoundland puppy, Ruby, who was an absolute hit with everyone!

A very wet July!

Unfortunately, Cumberland County Show on 18th July was cancelled due to the overnight rain (plus the rest from the previous day!) causing the high risk of flooding on the showfield. We did however go eventing on the Sunday with Sonny at Cumwhinton. This was his first attempt at a slightly higher level, cross country fences at 1metre high, so I was a bit (understatement) nervous. He was super though and had a double clear which put him in 11th place.
Back to Cumwhinton the following Sunday, Rachel aboard him this time for Pony Club area, he again went really well with a great cross country clear. Fizz is back in work after his back injury but was not quite up to a cross country run at this stage.
Last weekend it was Cockermouth Show on Saturday, a lovely day out, some red rosettes among our little gang (Fizz, Jethro and Billy pictured above) and a couple of trophies too.

summer update

We had a really busy ten days when all the rest of the grass was cut and gathered in. We now have plenty for the cows and a lot of horse haylage which we will try to sell from September. We had to lead it from the fields really quickly and cover the stacks with a netting to prevent bird attacks - they go after the bugs that land on the bales because of the warmth.
The cows have had their feet trimmed by the vet as some of them had quite long toes. We have collected a bull from the farm that Anah and Valerie came from - Oaklands Challenge. We let him out of the trailer and all the cows ran to greet him - poor lad, he turned and ran away! He's now quite happily munching on grass and following the girls around.
The sheep are still waiting to be clipped but the weather just keeps postponing it - annoying showers that just keep making the fleece damp. We are wanting to move a lot of them down over the river to eat the new grass appearing on the cut fields, and this would allow a lot of the top fields to have a good sheep-free period.

First fields in!

We managed to get our first lot of silage made last weekend. The grass was cut on Monday and Tuesday evenings last week, and the baler came on Friday night. There were 75 big bales of really good dry silage which will be a good half of what we need for our cows this winter. We still have 40-plus acres to gather, some of which we will make into horse haylage, both for our own and to sell. This needs to be really dry, about one day off being hay and so needs three or four really good days in a row - we're not getting that at the moment so we'll just have to be patient.
the new bales were stacked and then we put a fine mesh netting over them to stop birds pecking at them and making holes in the plastic, which causes bales to spoil.

Anah has a boy

The last of the cows calved early this morning in the (fairly) torrential rain. We went down the field in the truck at about 10.30am to see if they were ok - all the other cows and calves were sheltering under some overhanging trees near the gate, but Anah and her calf were lying in the middle of the field in all the rain. They were cuddled up together, and as we approached she got up - she looked like she had had a bit of a rough time, but the calf seemed fine. He was shivering a bit, but that's nature's way to warm up, and when he got up he went straight to Anah to try all four teats for a suckle, then they trotted off together into the rough marshy bit to escape from us!

Who could be the naughtiest horse?

On Sunday, we went to our Riding Club's show jumping day. My back has been a bit sore and Rachel had been riding Sonny through the week to give it a chance to get better, and so I suggested she maybe could work him for 15 minutes to settle him down a bit without pulling on my back. She tried her best but he had other ideas and just proceeded to go at the speed he felt appropriate, so he was brought back to the horse wagon in disgrace and a stronger bit put in and I got on. After a serious battle of wills, he decided to give in, not grunt on the way in to a jump and actually go at the speed I wanted to. He had a clear round and a knockdown in the jump off of the 85cm class. Meanwhile, Fizz was trolling round with Rachel, looking very angelic. Sonny and I jumped clear in the first round of the 95cm and then it was Fizz's turn. Well, I nearly fell off with shock - he cantered steadily round to fence one and then the touch paper was lit! He jumped it really big and babyish and nearly got rid of Rach, then did the rest of the round like a quad bike cornering on 2 wheels before hurtling out of the ring and dropping in to stand beside Sonny looking totally innocent again. We all burst out laughing, including Rachel, but I do think Fizz won the prize for being naughtiest! He did redeem himself by steadying up and jumping a couple more classes in a more refined style, and Sonny was very proud to win the style jumping (but the judge did say he had a soft spot for greys).

Today we have been to Hexham, cross country schooling. The weather was lovely and the ground conditions excellent and they both jumped everything we wanted them to so a good day was had by all.

Its a heifer!!

Oaklands Valerie, one of our newly purchased pedigree Salers cows, gave birth on Saturday evening. If you had seen our attempts to find out what she had had, you would have been in stitches. As it was, we had to wait until Sunday morning to discover that the new arrival was a heifer, and so another addition to the breeding stock at Dancing Gate.

Valerie (left) and Anah (right) are pictured before they were turned out.

Percy, Polly and Pandora 2

The pet lambs have now been weaned - a rather noisy process so they went off to the big field with the other sheep for a couple of weeks until they accepted the idea. Pandora especially did not take kindly to the idea of no more milk and you had to wonder sometimes how something so delicate and pretty could make such an awful racket! They have come home now to live with the tups again and so they can have cake every day. They have two friends as one of the ewes had been poorly and on antibiotics so she is in the back field too with her lambs. Polly is becoming very pretty and poor Percy has sunburnt ears as they are quite bare due to the Charollais in him so he has moisturising cream rubbed on at night.

Dancing Gate Holiday House

The house is all finished and the first guests have been and gone and loved it - it does look fantastic, so clean and new! The pictures are now up on the website for anyone interested in booking or just looking!
This week we have put the shed in for cycle storage and added a garden bench for sitting and admiring the wonderful views. The window cleaner came and tidied up the mess that a rather persistent pied wagtail keeps making around and on the bedroom windows - he sees his reflection in the glass and attempts to woo himself. Its quite funny but I wish he would give up and go away.

Summer calves

Our four original cows have all calved now, two have had bull calves and two have had heifers. The calves get tagged with individual i.d. nos and are disbudded in the first couple of days so that they do not grow horns. The two new cows, Oaklands Valerie and Anah arrived on whit monday and have settled in really well. They spent a few days in the shed to get to know us but went out on Sunday afternoon and are loving it. They are getting to know the others over the fence and hopefully they will calve soon and they can all go together.

Plastic recycling

During the winter months, we feed all the silage bales we have made during the summer. The plastic that comes off gets hung over a gate to dry then rolled up tightly and put in our store area. Tonight we have been packing Solway Recycling bags with the various streams of plastics for a collection at Cockermouth tomorrow. Black, white and all other plastic feed bags comprise one stream of plastic. Woven plastic (e.g. the outer part of fertiliser bags) is a second stream. Buckets and plastic cartons - well-rinsed out - are another separate stream and string and net is the fourth type. This plastic is all recycled to form useful items like portable lambing pens and cattle feedrings.

New cows

We went to look at some more Salers at Carlisle at the weekend. All being well with vet checks, we have bought two in-calf cows, and may possibly have found a bull to hire for this summer.

Yet another waiting game.

We are now waiting for our cows to calve. We have three pure-bred Salers, beautiful deep red coloured cows, but extremely big, and one little black Angus/Friesian cross. We check them twice a day, as although calving problems are not as common as lambing problems, it is important to ensure the calf has suckled and so received the vital influx of colostrum

Percy, Polly and Pandora

We have three pet lambs - Percy (pictured right having fun) came first, his Mum simply did not want him and he started to hide behind the water bucket, so as he had two stronger siblings, we had no choice but to take him off his Mum as he was not getting much milk. Percy is now a champion milk bottle sucker!
He was very distraught when we introduced Polly, trying to kick her out of his nice straw bed and even weeing on her head once. He has now become quite fond of her. Polly was also a triplet, but they were all quite big and so one was always going to be short of milk. Polly was last to be born, and was a bit slow so she joined Percy in the pet pen. She loves sitting on your knee and being cuddled and stroked.
Then along came Pandora. Born at night in the big shed, Pandora strayed slightly too far from her Mum (we are only talking about 15m here but its enough for a sheep if they are that way inclined) and on being reunited Pandora was ecstatic but Mum said 'No Way'. We tried for a week to get them to bond, Pandora was game enough to stick in and suckle but her mum just seemed to hate her so we finally gave up and Percy has his harem! I should add here that Pandora's mum is a shetland ewe so she has the cutest face ever.

Sniffy Knees and all that

Only one left now, as I think the last one is not in lamb. We have a couple of problem sheep left in the sheds. The first one is nicknamed 'sniffy knees' as she took very badly with lambing (a first timer) and really did not want to be suckled. She would let them suckle if we stood over her, but constantly seemed to draw comfort from sniffing her knees. The lambs were strong and worked as a pair and soon bossed her, but when we had a trial run in a bigger shed, they couldn't get her pinned down to suckle, so back in the small shed she went. We'll let her out in a couple of weeks when they are needing less milk so it won't matter so much if she runs off! She does however seem to be getting fonder of them so who knows?
Also back in is Pixie, as one of her twins is lame. He has been treated by the vet but it's just a case of time for whatever he has hurt to heal. Daisy is also a first timer and the lambs have been overpowering for her and have ravaged her teats - their teeth are very sharp! Hopefully the antibiotics she has had will prevent mastitis occurring, and the teats are being covered in udder cream three times a day and are healing slowly. The lambs are penned to one side of her and only allowed to suckle for very short spells under supervision. They are very stubborn, though, and will not take extra bottle milk so may end up being weaned at 5 weeks old, next week. This would allow Daisy to recover fully and hopefully be okay for next year.

Little and large!

On Sunday evening we had the unexpected (a week early) arrival of the smallest lamb we have had this year. We had vaccinated for bluetongue on Friday and although we kept things very quiet and low key it is likely that this young sheep, a first time lamber, was upset by it and so lambed early. She had licked the lamb clean when Rachel found them, and with a bit of help and the removal of a large amount of wool to clear a pathway into her udder, the lamb seems to be getting enough colostrum to still be surviving four days on.
The next day I was home alone, without the 'lambulance' - the new name for our daihatsu truck! - as it was away for its MOT, and another first timer was lambing. This was the complete opposite, a very big lamb and with one leg still right back. Thank goodness for Countryfile, where two weeks ago he demonstrated tipping a ewe up on her head to get help from gravity in order to push the lamb back in to be able to find and straighten the missing leg. A lamb this big could not be born without doing this as there would simply not be enough room to get it out. Anyway, alls well that ends well and the lamb was fine. Mum was a bit shocked though, and it took her until the next day before she really came round to thinking she maybe did like her baby after all.

more lambing news!

Its been a hectic fortnight since I last wrote. More than half of the sheep have lambed and many are now back out at grass. Its lovely to see the groups of lambs playing in the evenings, but very noisy at feeding time for the ewes when a lot of the lambs temporarily lose 'Mum'. All the expected sets of triplets have arrived plus a couple of extra sets. Some ewes cope but others cant handle it or one of the lambs isn't feisty enough to stick in and get its fair share of milk, so inevitably we have ended up with a couple of pet lambs so far. I'll post some pics in the next couple of days.

lambing update

Well everything got going last weekend, with two of the girls delivering healthy sets of twins on Friday 13th! Rosemary, who was due on friday, managed to hang on until Sunday afternoon and then required a trip to the vet in Cockermouth to get the lamb out safely - I struggle with heads that are turned backwards as there really is very little room to correctly position the lamb and keep it there for delivery. Mother and daughter are now doing fine and out in the field enjoying the beautiful spring weather and the juicy green grass.
The unscheduled delay in Rosemary's delivery foiled our plans to take the horses to do a dressage competition at Newton Rigg college near Penrith. They were both beautifully clean, Rachel had plaited their manes and tails and they were ready to be loaded onto the wagon when the lambing drama started. Fizz was not amused when he was finally put back in his stable an hour later when the trip to the vets became inevitable!
Another set of twins and a set of triplets have arrived since then and several are due this coming weekend. Unfortunately, people are saying the weather is not going to stay as nice as it is, but I guess we'll just wait and see.
Dancing Gate house is also coming on, with most of the bedroom furniture now here, several sets of curtains are now up and the beds are also all here. Bookings have started to come in, and our first week of letting is mid-May.

Meet the dogs

For those who have not met our dogs, here is a brief introduction. Lottie is a 12 year old golden cocker spaniel whom I bred myself in 1996. She is very cuddly and lovable but tends to bark a bit more now as she has cataracts and so cannot see too well. She also feigns selective deafness when there is something more interesting to investigate.

Jasper is almost five years old, a blue roan cocker spaniel who can run like the wind, but also likes to cuddle his favourite toy, an old teddy bear called smudge.

Hamish a West Highland white terrier, came to live with us two years ago when my Dad died. He is thirteen years old and was originally my mum's.

They all get along well and like nothing better than a good run round the fields during our spare time.

Frosty tops

A mixed bag of weather this week - wet, windy, snow on the tops, ice and frost, and even some beautiful spring sunshine occasionally.

All the dogs - Jasper, Lottie and Hamish have been clipped right out as they had totally overgrown coats, but I don't think they are very happy with me now its frosty again at night!

All the March-lambing ewes are in the shed in case anybody decides to drop an early surprise, and all the lambing pens are clean, disinfected and filled with lovely clean straw waiting for their first occupants. One week to go.

Hedging and fencing

This weekend 77 herdwick ewes arrived on farm from Borrowdale valley. They had been scanned and the farmer sends all the ones having twins to lowland farms like ours where there is a bit more grass to help them along. We had been planning to do a bit of fencing in the field they went in anyway so on Saturday morning it was all hands on deck, Matty and me taking down the old fence and then Kev and Matt knocking in posts with a tractor-mounted post-knocker - a little bit easier than by hand with a mell hammer. Kev then spent the rest of the afternoon attaching netting and wire to secure the area and hey presto! the sheep can't escape (at least not by that route anyway!).
Today, he has been busy in a different field, forming a planting strip for a new hedge. This is being done as part of a conservation plan and we receive some funding to help with the costs. Hedge planting and laying have to be done from November to March, and our plan has just been approved so we are pulling out the stops to get two stretches of hedge in before the deadline.
The weather forecast is not so good for mid-week so the next couple of days will be spent getting some more of the earlier lambing ewes in the shed.

Lambing time approaching!

After a couple of busy weekends in the B & B, I have now turned my attention back to the sheep and getting things ready for lambing, due to start on March 13th. The main ewe shed was hot pressure washed out a few weeks ago, and I have spent the last two days doing the 'maternity' shed, which is where most of the newborns start life and the next door shed into which they move once they are on their feet and bonded with mum. Only two more sheds to go!
I also have made a shopping list of all the lambing essentials that I need to buy in the next fortnight and tidied out the medicine cabinet.
Once the sheds are dry, I will spray them with disinfectant and then bed them up with straw. The first two ewes that are due are Rosemary, a South Down who is having just one lamb and one of her daughters, Pamela who is having twins.

B&B open for 2009

Well, after a week of frantic running around getting lots of little jobs finished, I opened up the B&B again this weekend. Two parties of guests enjoyed a pleasant weekend of weather and the full english breakfasts were much sought after! With the B&B open again I will have to turn my attention back to decorating in the farmhouse, trying to get it ready for holiday letting as soon as possible (www.dancing-gate.co.uk). Kev is busy with the landscsaping of the garden area and parking - he has moved the sandstone gate stoops round to the side of the garden and rebuilt the front wall to keep the farmyard and holiday house separate from each other. Its hard to describe, but is starting to look great - he's even put some of Mum's old garden figures on the wall top and they look really cute.

With all the usual farm jobs and a Pony Club rally for Rachel on Sunday, its been a busy weekend! We also have my friend's highland pony Jethro here on holiday for a couple of weeks while they are away in the Canary Islands.

We did however treat ourselves to dinner at the hotel next door, Lyzzick Hall - it is to be recommended for special occasions as the food is superb and the atmosphere very cosy.

what's new in the sheep shed this week?

We had all the lambing ewes scanned a couple of weeks ago. This tells us how many lambs they are having and helps us to feed them appropriately. Those having triplets need to be fed well through the last couple of months before lambing, those having twins need some extra feed gradually increasing towards their expected lambing date, but those having singles do not really need any extra as the lamb can get too big and then lambing is difficult.
We have seven expecting triplets and we put these plus some older ewes in the back field after the scanning as there was quite a lot of fresh grass on it. They were also enjoying the ivy that we cut off the wall for them (see pic). This soon changed after all the rain and by the beginning of this week we had to bring them into a shed. They now have a lovely dry straw bed but can still stand out in the rain in the yard if they really want to!

Location, location, location

We are so lucky to live where we do - we just wish we had more time than we do to enjoy the beautiful place we live in.
For those of you who do not know us, we live in the heart of the Northern Lake District, just outside Keswick. Cherry Bank Bed and Breakfast, Dancing Gate Farm and the self-catering unit, Dancing Gate House all nestle together in the foothills of Dodd Wood with the mighty Skiddaw Range further behind. The views from here are breathtaking (see left), even for those who have lived in the area all their lives. We look across towards Grizedale Pike, with Winlatter Forest and, at times of higher water, the edges of Bassenthwaite Lake further to our right. To the left, we look up Newlands and Borrowdale Valley - Sca Fell can be seen in the very distance, Catbells in the foreground. To the far left we can see Walla Crag, and further round still, the Helvellyn Range. Completing the panarama is Latrigg Fell - an extremely popular walk and many people's starting point for Skiddaw.

Sheep - how it all started

In the dark days of 2001, when the countryside was virtually closed down due to the foot and mouth outbreak, we had a flock of Herdwick ewes from a Borrowdale farm wintering at ours and as they could not return home due to the restrictions they all had to lamb here at Dancing Gate. This was a steep learning curve for me as we had not had sheep since I was a little girl and Dad put me in charge of them. Things mostly went okay, but by the time lambing was over we had four pets - either due to their mum dying or rejecting them. April, Pepsi and Toffee were all texel x herdwick and Sooty was a pure herdwick. As they were all girls and everyone had got so fond of them there was no question of sending them to market and so as things got more back to normal in the autumn a search was on for a suitable tup to borrow. Neighbours along the road let us borrow theirs when they had finished using him and so 'Sue's Flock' began. In May 2002 April and Toffee had a ewe lamb each and Pepsi had twin ewe lambs. Today, there are about 75 ewes, lambing each Spring.

Introducing us all!

Hi everyone - my name is Sue and I run Cherry Bank Bed and Breakfast, with a little help (or not!) from the rest of the family, hubby Kev who is a Senior Forester with The National Trust, design-student daughter Rach and police student son Matty. We have three delightful dogs who you will get to know and love - cocker spaniels Lottie and Jasper, and Westie Hamish; Tiggy the tabby cat; an aviary full of colourful budgies; five horses - the one and only Bucks Fizz with whom we have travelled all over the UK with success at the highest level, including two appearances at The Horse of the Year Show, Sonny - my wannabe eventer who had much success as a four year old but who has been thwarted by the weather ever since with many events cancelled, Buster - the new kid on the block, sweet but slightly thoughtless at times, Roscoe - our lovely coloured boy whose best-loved passion is gymkhana games and Jaffa - my retired eventer on whom I had much fun and success almost twenty years ago.
Just over a year ago, Kev and I took over the farm next door, Dancing Gate, which had belonged to my parents when they were alive. We have been busy renovating the farmhouse for the last year and hope to have it ready for self-catering letting by Easter. We have kept four cows, three of these are beautiful red Salers and we have one Aberdeen Angus cross. We hope to buy more Salers cows this summer. We also have a sheep flock - we have several different breeds as we are quite fond of rare breeds. About half of our ewes are texel or charollais cross, but we also have two South Down ewes, two Ryeland/South Down cross ewes, six herdwick ewes, sixteen shetland ewes and a Suffolk cross ewe. The two tups are friendly boys - Merlin is a Dutch Texel and Charlie is a Beltex/Charollais cross.
Kev also has a collection of Vintage Tractors which he has spent many hours working on and which he occasionally uses on the farm instead of the more modern tractors we have nowadays.