A little catch up....

Crikey, has it been that long?  Really?  I'm sorry!  There's been a lot going on these last few weeks, including Mrs BC being in a road accident - no serious injuries but an ongoing insurance saga and the hassle of courtesy cars (wrong ones, new ones, too new, too clean, quite juicy to run but not as bad as I thought) and other related issues, followed by my work car failing the MoT and only just getting it back (that reminds me, I think the tax ran out yesterday, grrrrrrr), and then there was the BIG sheep show yesterday which we had to get ready for.  We took 8 sheep in total and came away with 15 awards.  We were up at 4am yesterday and loaded and away by just after 6 and down at Forfar Mart in good time to get unloaded and set the pen up - we also won a 3rd place for the pen display.  Apologies to Muckle Flugga man who gets up at stupid o'clock every day for work and was probably looking forward to a relaxing weekend....teehee...you'll know better next time!  I think we ended up entering far more classes than planned, but the Head Steward, Raymond Aitken and his daughter did fabulous job of making sure we all knew where to be and when we had to be there.  Below is a snap of just some of the rosettes and if I can ever get the pics off my own 'Awesome' phone, I'll put some more up for you.



Scotia the Southdown ewe lamb (back row, right) who took 1st place at Turriff Show did well but couldn't beat the little Llyen ewe lamb (front left) who won the Lowland ewe lamb class, the two Oxford Down ewes, Morse & Lewis (geddit?) were only in one class and came 1st & 2nd, while the two Lincoln Longwools ended up in many classes and the ewe lamb was in serious contention for reserve champion.  I know that doesn't count as 'serious contention' doesn't come with a rosette, but it was a heart thudding moment as we were pulled forward and the judge kept looking from her to the Wensleydale and back again, as the Lincoln stood stock still, head held nice and proud, but sadly it was not to be on this occasion.  Still, I think 15 rosettes is probably enough to be going on with!  The little Southdown ram lamb won his class too, and his pal was entered with Scotia into the Best Pair class, and as winners of this class they went through into the Inter Breed Pairs class, and again, we were soooooo close to reserve champ!  Three pairs were pulled forward, and the judge knew exactly where he were going with the overall champ rosette, but when it came to reserve, it was between us and (errrr, sorry, can't remember who else it was, I'll find out) someone else, and it was from one to the other, back and forth, poking and prodding, checking teeth, tags, eyes and ears.  Darn it, so close!!!

Ah well, you can't 'em all, and it was a truly great day out.  If we'd had more time we could have looked at all the trade stands and demonstrations that were going on too.  Arriving home at 8pm it was time to pop the sheeps back in the paddock, unload the car and stick a couple of oven ready meals on to cook.

And don't worry, I've been working on issue 3 of The Cub Mag too.  Every spare minute when I'm near the computer is dedicated to sorting the layout and emailing reminders to contributors - just got a great little article in about how to change main bearings.  An interesting mixture; sheep and Tiger Cubs.