Our Ouessant sheep or rather moutons d'Ouessant to give them their proper title have arrived in England from Brittany in France after 9 months of planning and finding them!
Ouessants are the smallest breed of sheep in the world and also one of the rarest breeds. They originated many years ago from the Isle d' Ouessant also known as Ushant which is at the western extremity of Brittany with nothing but the Atlantic ocean between it and the USA!
We have had a particularly difficult year in which to try importing sheep what with the foot and mouth disease restrictions which were only lifted a couple of weeks ago and more importantly the Blue Tongue disease which has all of France except the far west of Brittany, the western coastline and part of the south under restrictions as there have been over 12 thousand cases in France, most since September....a taste of things to come in GB methinks. Well you may think i have been irresponsible bringing these sheep into the country but I can assure you they came from a BT free area and were transported through Roscoff which is also BT free to Somerset which is also BT free. They are now in isolation and will be blood tested next week for numerous diseases and only when they show negative to everything will they be given the all clear.
Now we went to great lengths on both sides of the channel to get the paperwork for this right and if you are not familiar with DEFRA I suggest a visit to their website with a plate of sandwiches and a flask and great endurance and you will start to have some idea what beaurocracy looks like! The wonderful Brian and Rita Edwards (pictured with their little patterdale terrier) who had collected the sheep together for us and kept them through the movement bans had visited the regional animal health office at St Brieuc to enquire as to the paperwork required, let their vet know and he duly came out to their smallholding and checked not only the animals for export but all the animals on the holding 24 hours before travel and issued what the regional office had advised him, namely a certificate of good health etc with each animal documented. We (Veronica from Yew Tree Horse Transport and me) arrived in Brittany on Tuesday morning after a rough ferry crossing at 7.30am and set off for Paimpol in her very smart lorry. We collected the sheep, filled in the movement documents and chugged off after a welcome cup of tea making for the next ferry, we even had cctv in the cab so we could keep an eye on the sheep!
Arrival at Roscoff was on time ready for the 3pm ferry and after the customs had inspected the sheep and the paperwork was photocopied and approved we were onboard the Brittany Ferries Pont d'Abbe . It was another rough crossing necessitating a visit to the on board cinema to watch The Bourne Ultimatum to pass the time!
We arrived in the Blackdown Hills at approx 11pm and unloaded the sheep in the pouring rain and pitch dark Veronica then driving back to her base in Shropshire and me falling into bed to get some sleep and await the arrival of the DEFRA vet at 9am the following morning.......part 2 to follow! (pics show the lorry on the ferry and the sheep on board)

Lambing course anyone? Early this year we held a fantastic lambing course at Beechhayes Farm home of Ruth & Nick Strange of Blackdown bangers fame (you will knowwhat I mean if you have tasted their sausages!)
The next lambing course is Febrary and will book up fast so if you want a place book via the main Woolly Shepherd website.

Commissions also being taken for cushions and cushion covers.......example here made from Wensleydale hand dyed wool.

I know alot of people read this blog, so come on folks lets have some comments on what you would like to see or know about!!

Rural Living Show 2007 at Kings Hall Taunton was fantastic as usual! Having demonstrated pegloom rugmaking last year to great interest I was invited back to demonstrate this craft for a second year, and this year I chose to demonstrate how to make a funky cushion cover and a white woolly handbag.........pics to follow when they are finished!
This went down very well and lots of people came to ask endless questions which was brilliant! I also had people come especially to find me which was very nice and several came to order commissions which was even better. The event is in aid of the South West childrens hospice which is a very good cause!
Pictured is my stall at the event!
I have decided to give up keeping most of the sheep to concentrate my efforts into teaching about wool and sheep and to increase production of woolly things from local wool and other ethical fibres.....more about this soon too. However we do seem to have at last jumped the final hurdle in the importation of some more Ouessant sheep from Brittany and they will hopefully arrive in the next couple of weeks. This has been an amazing feat of endurance taking into consideration all the problems with various animal diseases we have had this year. I am travelling with the sheep and will let you all know the outcomes and post pics of them when they arrive! Watch this space!

Woolly Shepherd Courses are booking fast, especially the peglooming ones! Courses are also run in other venues such as the wonderful wool shop Spin a Yarn in Bovey Tracey Devon and the wonderful pics are of my last lot of students work............so if you want to learn this traditional craft and have a new hobby take a look at the link to the Woolly Shepherd website where you can book a course and pay securely online! We also have a lambing course in February with amazing very experienced instructors, and we already know that last years lambing course aided some of the participants to save lives! I also run courses in sheep keeping, wool processing and peglooming in France.......get in touch for details

Wow what a week! We had a visit from 'Muddy Matches' and they arrived in this!!!!! Its quite something else!!
I will not bore you by telling the story of the day........its on their marathon blog
In the evening we went to the best pub in the world......well I think so! The Culmstock inn, renowned for good food, good beer and good and unusual company!!! ( in the last few visits I have encountered Joss Stone and her large dog who tried to eat my dinner and local racehorse trainer Martin Pipe.) If you happen along there take note.....it does not accept plastic!

Woolly Shepherds woolroom! Thought you ought to see where I do my dyeing and the large pots I use. I also have a wonderful sink that was rescued a few years ago from the local tip. Completing my recycled 'finds' is the spindryer and elecctric 2 ring worktop cooker liberated from the recycling centre at South Molton in Devon.......a place always worth a visit if you are in the area, the town is nice too. Of course the radio is there so I can listen to a bit of loud music without being told to 'turn it down' by my children (what is the world coming to!!).

Chicken tonight!!!!.................for human and fox! We have been raising 11 SASSO table chickens from dayolds and on Friday our first 4 were killed at the local poultry abattoir down the road.......yes I know I should be doing this myself but for £2 a bird to wait 45 minutes for the live birds to come out oven ready, complete with bagged giblets and not a feather in sight is too tempting! They weighed 5lb each and 3 were consigned to the freezer and one to the fridge for sunday lunch. On Saturday morning disaster struck and before we knew it the fox had stealthily killed 4 and taken 2 of our remainining 7!( in broad daylight and so quietly the dogs didn't even hear!)
Waste not I plucked and filleted the two dead bodies into bags of curry meat and the remaining 3 are being despatched tomorrow before foxy returns with his friends for more takeaways!
The chicken in the fridge was cooked for lunch today and eaten before I could whip my camera out but it was wonderful, the best I have ever had and you can see from the picture a bit left for tomorrow!

The rams have been busy! Harold has served all his quota of 11 ewes and all now have yellow marks on their rear from his yellow raddle crayon. I have now changed it to orange and we wait to see if any ewes come back in season. Henry is sporting a red raddle and is presently with his 11 crossbred ewes some od whom have not yet been served, he gets his crayon changed to green at the end of the week.
Finally young Hedgehunter my ram lamb who was supposed to have 2 ewes this year found himself put in with 11 pedigree ewes all of whom are related to Harold and for whom a new ram would have been purchased had it not been for the recent movement restrictions.........Henry will be coming along later just in case the youngster was not up to the job!!
Our move to Cornwall is now not happening as we have been gazumped by another buyer..........this practice should be banned! Also the estate agent dealing with the matter would not either let us know there had been another offer nor once we found out let us up our offer!!!
So Somerset it is for the moment!

Next week we have a visit from Muddy Matches and a TV company following my wool from the sheep to the knitting needles................I will tell all after the event!

We went to Cornwall the other day to have a look around........we will be moving to Camelford (hopefully, fingers crossed, by the end of the year). Whilst we were there we had a visit to the Eden project, amazing metal statues in the temperate dome pictured here.

The Rams have gone in with the groups of ewes sporting their raddle harnesses......Harold has yellow, Henry red and Hedgehunter, my ram lamb has none as he is too small but is running with a group of ewes that Henry will go to in November. If he does serve any it will be a bonus as he is a very good looking lad!
We still have 20 butchers lams to go before we move, most will go to the Queens Arms in the next village called Pitminster.......so if you want to eat fantastic lamb in a lovely pub you know where to go!

Well things have been a bit frantic here! trying to keep the house tidy for the continual troop of prospective purchasers has been a challenge. It is also our busiest time sheepwise with lambs going to the abattoir weekly to supply the demand from the pub and private customers. We have also been supplying Abraham Natural products
Prices for those selling commercially have been terrible due to the fact that we are banned from exporting foot and mouth susceptible animals ...........some have had to sell prime lambs for £10!!!
Saying that I sold some breeding ewes in the first market for ages today and got £10 per animal for the Shetland ewes!!! Others made between £30 and £42 which was about 25-30% less than they should!
There was a general air of resignation about the market as I spoke to friends and contacts, with feed prices increasing daily no one can afford to hang on to sheep until better prices come along.

On a more positive note (well I know its all been sounding depressing recently!) I thought I would post some pictures of Otterford lakes
This is the lost gardens of Helligan all over again, the picture of the gate in the trees being where there is an amazing walled garden hidden in the trees. There are 2 lakes, an old coach house that is pictured and the position of the house is still littered with bits of old gutter and rubble in the brambles! Its a wonderful place for a walk and very eerie too!

Well here are the photos courtesy of our agents Greenslade Taylor Hunt!

Very depressing time at the moment as I have 15 vewes that were supposed to go to the breeding ewe sales and now are stuck here due to the ban on movement except direct to slaughter, for an unknown period of time which means I am going to have to feed then....AND the day before we got stood still again I had sold over 70 bales of haylage as I knew these sheep would be going 3 days later...........what a mess! Thank goodness the pigs went to the abattoir last Monday!

I have 12 lambs booked for slaughter tomorrow and another lot next week so fingers crossed they can go.

I hate to think how much this is costing bigger farms than us as I should have made about £600 on the ewes.............and my cash flow is not good, at least I don't have huge loans to repay like many farmers inevitably do.

I feel especially sorry for those who have lost their stock over this and those who will go bankrupt as a result of the crisis.

Hopefully we can get sold and moved as soon as possible and have a brighter future!

STOP PRESS!!

We are for sale! Well the house is! We have found are ideal small farm in Cornwall and now the race is on to sell! £455,000 or near offer will get you a 4 bedroom period house in the beautiful Blackdown hills with 9 acres of which 2 are pasture and 7 wonderful woodland. plenty of parking, outbuildings, etc and the opportunity to rent loads more land locally (I rent about 40 acres and a building within 2 miles) Pass this on to your friends and contacts, pictures to follow!

Fibrefest 2007 was a resounding succes for a first go at such a big idea! The photos say it all really........the main tent went up on bank holiday Monday and it seemed huge! We spent several days and several miles of baler twine marking out the stall spaces..........which were then marked on the grass with orange sheep marker spray! Tables and chairs were aportioned and the toilets, bins and garden shed info booth arrived. I now know more about temporary toilets than I ever wished to know!
The stallholders started to arrive from Thursday and the tent started to fill with wonderful stalls such as the House of Hemp and Devon Alpacas shown here constructing their stalls.

Gradually things began to take shape including the little village fair that shared the site. The Blackdown Hills food group had a big marquee and that started to fill with local produce and yummy food from such producers as Beech Hayes Farm and Jackie Rees.

By about 9.30 on Saturday 1st September the tent was ready and the weekend was opened by Brigit Strawbridge from BBC 'Its Not Easy Being Green'..................in the picture she is being introduced by the Chairman of Coldharbour Mill the local working wool museum.

The tents gradually became very busy and I had the opportunity to meet Ruth Paisley 'Woolly Wormhead' who had been running a hat design workshop and is pictured here with 2 of the participants.

On the Saturday night we had a relaxing evening drinking tea, spinning, knitting and chatting while the fantastic Cornish festival band Bagas Degol played in Ashill Village Hall

The last pic is of my stall as I just had to show off my new banner!

I have been on holiday!! well a week in Brittany France which was bliss! Whilst there I ran a sheep keeping course for beginners near Lamballe which was fantastic and the weather in that day was smashing! We were hosted by Renee of Cani-Excel with her lovely Ouessant sheep and Esmi the biggest and most placid sheep in the world!
We also went to a BBQ at Chateau Neuf du Faou where we met the lovely host Salamander from Brittany Friends forum and a selection of other very nice people. The picture id of the maritime caves at Morgat on the Crozon peninsula which were superb and very worth a visit. All the livestock at home were left in the capable hands of my eldest son George and 2 students - Noemie from France a wonderful girl with a passion for knitting and Niss from Germany who is a pedigree sheep breeder.
Got back and moved the lambs to new fields, attended a very muddy Honiton Show and then just when I was looking forward to going to run a peg loom workshop at the Big Green Gathering for Brigit Strawbridge who was launching a new charity 'The Big Green idea' news of Foot and mouth disease hit!
I didn't sleep a wink with worry on Friday night and didn't go to the BGG as it is on a farm and that would have been rather irresponsible as at that time they didn't know where it had come from! Feel desperately sorry for those affected, the poor man who lost his pedigree cattle and was in tears on the TV was heartbreaking.
Went to Exford show with the wool today well disinfected and with not a sheep or cow in sight. I had a lovely day and sold a lot of goods..........things have to get better eh?

Will it ever stop raining? Hopefully in time for Fibrefest 2007 that is taking place on the first weekend in September! We are busy as ever and have the best volunteer ever staying with us! She is called Noami and is from near Lille in France. She is an amazing knitter and I will post pics of her hats soon!
Our lambs are getting bigger and the first ones went to the butcher on Tuesday along with 2 hoggets from last year (a hogget or shearling is a female sheep between one and two years) I am looking forward to the meat being ready as one whole animal is being made into sausages. Hay is going to be very expensive this winter and I am sooooooo glad I have 200 bales of haylage left over from last year! In this area no one has successfully cut and baled without rain yet and most people have not even cut any grass............a lot is flattened and rotting! Its going to be an even tougher time for farmers this winter.
I thought I'd post a pic of my champion goat taken in 1993 as several people have asked to see her. She was a British Alpine goat called Honeydown Mercedes and in 1993 became a full champion and also the highest milk recorded goat of her breed that year with 2,300kg of milk in that years lactation!!
She also gave the highest quantity of milk in a milking competition that year for her breed. I don't keep goats anymore but may start showing the sheep next year.....watch this space!

And introducing our new Kune Kune pigs! Kermit the little orange boar and the older and much bigger Miss Piggy! The little chap is 9 weeks old and his potential wife is 13 weeks old. They are so friendly and love to be scratched!
They will hopefully one day have lots of piglets, some for sale to other people who want smallish pigs and some to make sausages.

Thought you might like to see what a participant on the knitted felt course made with some of my wool dyed with madder! It was made by Vanessa who just happens to be the owner of ROOTS the most fantastic deli/shop/cafe in Taunton, Somerset which is our nearest town.
I have decided to sell all of my sheep that are not either Dorset Down or Ouessant and concentrate on these 2 breeds so if anyone wants to buy some sheep I have a few for sale!

Rain...........I have had enough! This evening a year after the last flood and 3 months after the new plaster had dried and the new carpet was laid disaster struck!
Torrential rain caused the road drains to fill to bursting and then unable to cope the water came down our lane at an angle and straight under our front door in a spectacular fashion and a torrent sped across the hall and down into the study!!!

We ran for sand bags, and anything else we could get our hands on and stemmed the fast flow............we now have the carpet up, the underlay in the yard and the house full of fans and dehumidifiers courtesy of the insurance company!

NOTE added Sept 07

The local highways authority has admitted the fault was their drains!!
They have now completed major works on the road and the culverts and even put in a little 'hump' along the lane as a token of their kindness.....this was after the legal team at the insurance company helped me to write them a letter stating they had better DO SOMETHING!.........A house 900ft up a hill should not have to suffer from incompetant councils and now we will never flood ever again...........and assurances to anyone who might be tempted to buy our house..........It is now safe from water!!! YAY!!

Learn to felt wool!! I have just put 3 amazing courses on the website
They will take place in the fabulous setting of West Hatch in the tiniest village hall ever seen! First will be Felting for beginners, making items such as mobile phone cases as shown in the picture. Second on will be 'needle felt' making animals such as this sheep and pig and the third will be cobweb scarves which are just amazing! Book on all 3 and get a 10% discount!

The tutor is Andrea Coleman and you will be amazed at what she can do with wool!

Found this very funny picture again by local photographer Pauline Rook and thought to myself that sheep are not so daft really! Ours certainly are not and Pete and I spent Wednesday in the pouring rain putting the rest of the flock through the turn over crate we borrowed from friends to make the toenail cutting less arduous..........the one shown in the picture is the same as the one we borrowed. Its less stress on the back but do not be fooled into believing the sheep co operates meekly like the one in the photo!! I have the bruises to prove it..........However we do not have worse backache than we started with!
All trimmed, sprayed and sorted they are now back munching their way through the paddocks and odd bits of grassland in 3 local villages.
I have decided to sell my Shetland flock to concentrate more on the Dorset Downs so if anyone wants some let me know.

Have I been busy! Last Thursday we gathered up all 122 sheep and lambs and Jock the sheep shearer and his son came that evening and sheared them all in less than 3 hours! Well what with wool rolling and bagging we didn't get indoors until 11pm! On Friday we gave half the sheep a MOT.........wormed them, trimmed feet and resprayed against flies...........11pm dinner this time!

On Saturday we held a 'what to do with your wool' course covering washing, dyeing, carding, spinning and peglooming wool.............we all had a great time. An hour after the course finished Ren, a very nice person from Shaftesbury in Dorset arrived to travel down with me to near St Austell to join several other people from the 'Its not easy being green' forum at the Strawbridges house for a crafty weekend making loads of stuff from recycled and surplus bits and bobs to sell at the Big Green Gathering in August to raise money for a new charity Brigit has set up caled the 'Big Green Idea' It was a lovely 24 hours and some of the stuff made can be seen on the INEBG forum.
It was also very lovely to catch up with Dick and Brigit again as many years ago we lived in the same Dorset village and shared the school run! My older children were friends with theirs and remember them with great fondness. The picture is of the waterwheel featured in the TV series 'its not easy being green' which runs their electrictricity but was being repaired whilst we were there.

This must be the quickest update but I wanted to show you all the wonderful bags of home produced charcoal we now have! They are available at £3 a bag.............so let us know if you want some of this wonderful sustainable stuff that is not produced from rainforests like so much of what is found in the supermarket!

Yesterday we had 10 lovely people attend our bi annual smallholding for beginners course. The weather was very good and everyone really enjoyed themselves. The sheep in one of our fields took the opportunity to remove the stock fencing from one of the post and railed fields and escape into one I'd been saving for later.............must have borrowed the pliers as I cannot imagine how they did it!

More interesting stuff happening this week........the weather is set fair for a bit and hopefully we (and the bbc) will get to shear the sheep!........i hope so as we have a 'What to do with your wool' course next Saturday!
On Tuesday morning I am making my debut on the current affairs panel for BBC Somerset Sound (help! what do I know about current affairs!!)...........if you want a laugh you can listen on line!