Saying Goodbye to Lambing Live

With a nickname like Ram, it will come as no surprise that we have spent an enjoyable week watching Princess Kate and Adam present Lambing Live which finished on Saturday evening. This year they had a new family, the Marstons, from Cumbria.

Sheep farming in Cumbria is different from down in the south. They have different local breeds, and a different way of grazing the sheep. The sheep next door to us are Dorsets crosses, and they are contained within fields, but up on the Marston's Farm they have Swaledales, a local breed, which are hefted to the fells.

When sheep are hefted they stick to their area of the fell, and the ewes show the lambs where that area is so that the knowledge passes from generation to generation. The Marston's can't buy in sheep and introduce them to the hefted flock, it is something they have to be born into.

We had a chat with Glow, the farmer next door, who also enjoyed watching the series, saying that it was like a busman's holiday, but still enjoyable never the less. I don't know how much they learned about sheep breeding in Cumbria, but we certainly learned a lot which will tick several home education boxes; history, economics, biology, current affairs, and geography to name but a few.

There was a lovely piece that they filmed with Rachel Marston who is not just wife to Andrew, daughter-in-law to the woman whose family had owned the farm for 100 years, but also mother to three children. She made it clear that farming is not easy, nor will they ever become rich, but it was obvious that she really enjoyed life on the farm, as did her children, both who want to become farmers themselves. She finished with the hope that her own children will be 'hefted' to the farm.

It was clear that the Martstons work well as an extended family, and spend more time together than most families do, living and working on their isolated farm. Many home educating families spend more time than is usual with their children too, as they spend their days together learning, rather than rushing out to drop the children at school then going on to a full time job outside the home, not to see their loved ones until later in the day. This can lead to a much closer relationship with their children, and it is often noted that home educated children don't go though the teenage rebellion the way many schooled children do.

We many not all have farms handed down from generation to generation like the Marstons have, but I think we all hope our children will be 'hefted' if not to our homes, at least to our hearts.

Dorset cross sheep from the farm next door: