Hurray! We have finished the harvest, and in record time! (On livestock farms like ours, "the harvest" means making hay and silage, not harvesting crops like wheat or fruit.) With the barn full of hay, we had to make Marleycombe and Square Piece to silage, with the help of Michael Bowden and Mark Leworthy and their HUGE machines! Sarah was armed and dangerous; with a bale spike at the front and back of our tractor, she transported bales to the wrapper at lightning speed. Here are some pictures of silage making - especially for Oliver Willerton, who loves all things mechanical.










For more information about West Ilkerton Farm, please see www.westilkerton.co.uk


Well, I promised you some better photos of Ziggy, my Exmoor stallion, and so here they are.
For a chap who's just turned two, he's pretty handsome, eh? Luckily, the mares now share my opinion of him (they took some persuading at first) so I hope we'll hear the patter of tiny hooves next spring.
As I'm dotty about Exmoors, I'll put in another photo of Ziggy with some of this year's foals in the background:




If you're dotty about Exmoors (or you don't mind becoming dotty about them) , get our Katy's Exmoor books for some light summer reading. The books are written by me (Victoria Eveleigh) and illustrated by my husband, Chris (Christopher Eveleigh). The stories are called Katy's Exmoor, Katy's Exmoor Adventures and Katy's Exmoor Friends, and they are suitable for all ages. For more information please see www.tortoise-publishing.co.uk



Last week we took the day off and went to Dunster Country Fair. For the past two weeks our Aga has been turned off because of the hot weather, so we have been living off sandwiches and salads. (NB Our self-catering guests are much better off, with a full-size electric cooker as well as a Rayburn and microwave!) We tucked into the food in the lunch marquee at Dunster Fair as if it were our first proper meal in weeks - which it was, of course. Afterwards, we all dozed in the sunshine by the main ring; all except Sarah and her cousin, Sophie, who decided that a go on the bouncee, bungee, trampolinee thingee was just what the doctor ordered. Ah! The inexperience of youth!

One of the highlights of the fair is the parade of hounds in the main ring. There were five different packs in the ring at the same time, and it was a magnificent sight.