West Ilkerton Farm News

Sunday, December 31, 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!
Love from Chris, Tortie, George and Sarah.
And Anne, in The Tallat.
This was my favourite Christmas card of 2006. It was given to us by Sally and Ian from Barbrook Post Office:


Saturday, December 30, 2006

We all had a good Christmas, and hope you did too.
Chris and Sarah went to the Boxing Day meet at The Station Inn, Blackmoor Gate. Here is a photo of Chris on Bella and Sarah on Tempo. Sarah sprayed the horses' manes and tails with glitter, but that doesn't show up very well.
Three weeks ago a section of roof was blown off the hay barn, and it's taking ages for a replacement section to arrive. Stormy weather is forecast again for tomorrow night (New Year's Eve), so we're hoping the rest of the roof won't be blown off.

The cattle and the yearlings are housed for the winter. Touch wood, their roof is OK. Here is a photo of some of our Devon yearlings.


Jack and Harry (Exmoor ponies) look very wild and wooly at the moment. We hope that a magical spell will transform them into a sleek, well-behaved driving pair by next summer.

Their real names are Dunkery Coaltit and Dunkery Shrike, which is why we call them Jack and Harry!
Jack is four and Harry is three. They are full brothers. So far, we've just been leading them around and long-reining them.

Chris has nearly finished making a wagon for them to pull (it looks a bit like a Meccano wagon at the moment). When it's finished, we'll have to hitch them up, so he's taking as long as possible over it!










Yesterday the sun came out, which was a novelty, so I took the camera on my morning dog walk. I started off going up the back track towards the moor, where I said good morning to Rosie, Winaway, Basil and Tinks.












The ewe lambs were in Marley Combe, and Beetle couldn't resist trying to convince me he really is a blue-blooded Border Collie (right).


I walked up the hill to Cow Field (the photo of Baldrick and Sam was taken there) and then back to our lane and down the hill to the house. I expect it's the standard quick dog walk for many of our visitors, so I hope it's interesting to see what it looks like in winter.