Lamb washing

I have just spent almost an hour with the children attempting to wash the lambs ahead of the Driffield Show next week. The kids have now got quite good at getting the lambs to walk around on a lead. They don't just lie down and protest any more. However once it came to being washed the lambs were not so sure. I spoke to a few people showing sheep at the Great Yorkshire show yesterday and they assured me that the best way to wash the sheep is simply with cold water. Well Harriett, Imogen and I have got a lot of cold water over us and slightly more over the sheep and I am not convinced how clean they actually are right now. They are certainly an improvement on what they were, but I would hardly call them whiter than white. I think maybe I ought to find some sort of sheep shampoo to help with the process. I don't want to accidentally felt their wool though while it is still on their back. 

They were very small and very cute back in early spring. They are big lambs now

The three of us have also entered several other events at the show. The kids are doing handwriting, drawing and sewing. I am entering some bread and preserves. I have to re-jar my marmalade so that it has a sellaphane lid and wax seal as per the instructions. I had a word with a judge at a show in Beverley last year so got a few hints and tips. Apparently I need to clean the jar with white spirit on the outside to remove all fingerprints. So next Wednesday will prove to be a busy day. I also realised yesterday that the lambs will need ear tags before we can move them to the show (DEFRA rules). I ordered them today but it's a bit touch and go with them arriving on time, so fingers crossed. 

It is only a few days to go until the end of term. I think both the kids and I are looking forward to that. We seem to have managed to book in loads of things over the holidays as usual. Zoe has just booked us a holiday to Turkey later in August. It will be nice to get away and have someone else do the cooking.

Two of our chickens have gone broody so we now have 15 eggs that are being sat on. Hopefully in just over twenty one days we will have 15 chicks. Last time we did this we only got one chick from six eggs, so we'll see what happens. We are hoping to gain a few more layers in the process as well as a new cockerel. Any extras will, I think, be for the dinner table. It will be nice to have some fresh chicken raised here on the smallholding. That reminds me that this week we have been enjoying our first lamb. It tastes great. We had some lamb chops the day it came back from the butcher. Tonight we had an excellent Shepherds pie. It really does have a lot of flavour. As the lamb was about 15 months old the chops were a good size, none of those tiny chops that you can sometimes get.

I managed to break the Kitchen Aid while preparing bread for the last farmers market (I think it is getting a bit over worked). I am thinking about trying to concentrate on selling bread locally instead of the markets as I really am struggling to make the quantity of bread required to make it worthwhile going to the market.

I've been revising the idea of setting up a Community Supported Agriculture project here. It looks quite an interesting idea, but I have to do a lot more reading and research now so I can put a plan together. I am looking at the possibility of raising pigs on this basis, so if you are interested, watch this space.

Lets hope all goes well at the Driffield show and we come home with a rosette or two. Imogen could certainly do well if there is a category for sheep handler with the least teeth. She has lost her two front ones and is about to loose a third next to them.