Happy Friday

We went to bed last night with steady rain falling outside. Normally there would be nothing special about this, after all we live in the wet north west of England, the west side of the country is much wetter than the east due to the prevailing winds and the Atlantic.
This year has been very dry, I have heard mutterings about an imminent hose pipe ban, and the crops and grass are suffering. Overall we will manage due to the extra land we took on last aytumn but the problem is grass that the cows can walk to. We only have 100 acres here and though we are rotating the herd around it the grass is not showing much recovery by the time we need it again.
Hey, what can you do, If it's not too little rain it's too much, or at the wrong time in the wrong place.
Good job farmers aren't in charge of the weather.

This morning it was sunny again but everywhere was refreshed and smelled green, lovely.

I cant remember if I said before but of the 150 ewe lambs we bought back in the autumn, one turned out to be of the male persuasion, well sort of, he had been castrated and under a woolly coat it's a bit hard to tell what sex they are.
We only discovered a few months ago when R noticed him having a pee, ewes crouch to pee while males just stand there with a vacant expression while the pee comes from under their belly rather than their rear end.
Anyway this was cause for great rejoicing here in the trenches as I wont have to wait for any of this years boy lambs to get big enough to eat. Barbie, the sheeps new name, and short for BBQ went off to slaughter this afternoon, he will be hanging up in a cool dark place for a couple of weeks before being butchered for the freezer.
I brought the liver home with me and we will be having some for supper and I will spend the next few weeks looking through my recipes for lamby inspiration. We have never eaten much lamb, mainly because it is so expensive, so I'm looking forward to it.

We are working up to going on holiday, we have a milker booked and someone to check the sheep, its a complicated business leaving a livestock farm and R will get totally stressed out covering all eventualities. Once we drive away he can mostly put it out of his mind and have a relaxing break. We are going camping in France again which suits us all, not expensive, space for everyone, french food and wine to drink and R gets his agricultural fix peeking over the hedges at french farms. I have not stayed in many hotels and I always feel like I am there under false pretences, and frankly the thought of taking the children to a hotel is not relaxing at all.

Have a good weekend, it's my oldest girls 12th birthday on the 4th July so we will be partying.