With the arrival of spring comes our annual visit to the Sedgemoor Auction to buy pigs.
These fine animals were acquired for an average price of £25.00 each (pity the poor farmer who had to produce them for such a low return) as stock prices have taken a dive following the spineless behaviour of our politicians in the current Brexit shenanigans.
The six pigs are a mixture of Devon Blacks and Large Whites and, quite unintentionally, we appear to have become diversity champions in our selection of pigs for the coming season.

We have just managed to acquire a smart converted Land Rover ambulance which will really improve the experience for the teams of guns that visit us during the shooting season and as a wet weather alternative vehicle for families taking part in our wildlife safaris at Mornacott. With comfortable seating for ten people in the back and a fully enclosed body we are sure that it will be appreciated by all comers especially at the height of a bleak winter.

Ten years ago we replanted what had once been a traditional old apple orchard. The orchard was planted in the classic old English style with traditional English tree varieties. The harvest has been improving year on year and this year, in addition to proving sufficient apples for the traditional crumbles that we often serve to our shoot guests we made around 100 litres of apple juice with the modern pressing equipment that we obtained last year.

The shooting season is now well under way, it has been fantastic to welcome old friends and new and catch up with the goings on over the summer, which for many has resulted in lots of exciting hunting, shooting and fishing stories.

We could not have asked for better weather with overcast and windy days being the norm. Our partridge have held their own this year due the mild weather and are still making up 50% of the bag on most days. Now the leaves have finally fallen from the trees we are looking forward to getting into our woodland drives to really test the metal of our guns. We also have a new pheasant drive which we will be shooting in the coming weeks, early signs are looking very promising. If the rest of the season continues to be as good as the start has been then it could turn out to be our best yet.

 

 

 

With the weather as good as it has been, we have started to offer a two day event to hone peoples shooting skills. We have recently completed our first one which went exceptionally well. Our guests arrived late on Friday afternoon, stayed for two nights in our holiday cottages and enjoyed the beautiful Devon countryside, some fantastic shooting training as well as some of our home and locally produced food. Between the shooting our guests enjoyed some R&R in our pool and sauna with masseuses on hand to ease any aches and pains. The final evening included a barbecue cooked over our new fire pit with ample quantities of our different home reared meats so no-one went home hungry! Although we desperately need some rain, it has been great to see the weather as good as it has been.    

Our Mornacott flock of sheep have been gathered in for their annual shear. Each sheep is hand shorn and their woolly fleeces removed so they are ready for the Summer heat wave. Our early lambs which where born in February are looking fantastic and the first lot will be heading to market later this week. With the heat wave set to continue our sheep are looking for shade and praying for rain to keep the grass growing.