Blog News from Hoe Grange Holidays, Peak District, Derbyshire UK

As part of Brassington Wakes Week there was a Strongest Man competition this afternoon.

Brassington strong man competition

Yes, look at the photo carefully, he really is picking up and pushing the car!

Over a dozen local men took part in their bid to win the title. There were a series of strenuous activities designed to test strength, speed and endurance to the limit. The competitors had to roll and drag huge tractor tyres along an obstacle course, try their skill at knocking in fencing posts and show their might by pushing a car.

It's very tyre ing!

Rather them than me – I felt my back hurting just watching their bulging muscles - I think I will stick to the beer!

David

Not as easy as it looks!

Brassington village is celebrating wakes this week. Historically wakes week was when Christians celebrated their Patronial Festival or Saints day to whom the village church is dedicated. In the case of Brassington this is St. James, one of Jesus’ Twelve Apostles and the date is July 25th.

A Mexican asleep in the sun

Historically Wakes became the main summer holiday and the village today still celebrates with a host of interesting events, from the traditional open air Church Service with Brassington, Middleton and Wirksworth Brass Band, to children’s sports, quiz evening, fell race, and the strongest man, culminating in carnival day with a parade of brightly decorated floats – this year the theme is countries of the world and there are some fabulous scarecrows scattered around the village – worth a visit.

The final Saturday evening, 31st July, there is the burning of the wicker man and “Big Bash” up the dale. All the events are family orientated and everyone is welcome to join in.

see www.brassingtonvillage.org for full timetable of events.

Felicity

Cool dude surfer

First taste - with a little help

Day 18 and Twix’s puppies are having their first taste of real food – rice pudding. They weren’t really sure what to do and ended up in a very sticky mess!

What a mess!

They were supposed to eat it not swim in it!

You can see the puppies in action on our You Tube video. Twix’s puppies getting in a sticky mess

Felicity

A cute puppy

Still very tiny, but ever so adorable. The final count late on Wednesday night was a whoping 8 puppies for Twix, all are doing fine, feeding well and already growing fast.

There were 6 boys and 2 girls.

If you are lookng for a Lab puppy let us know.

Exciting news!

Twix's first puppy

Twix our chocolate Labrador has had four gorgeous puppies this afternoon and there could be more on the way – we will have to wait and see. In the meantime you can view the first two puppies on  You Tube Twix’s first litter of puppies.

Felicity

There is so much going on at Hoe Grange Holidays that I forgot to tell you all about the extension to the Hipley car park. It has often been a tight squeeze for holiday guests with large vehicles, or those with side ramps, to get past their parked vehicles into Hipley cabin with their luggage . 

Hipley car park extended

This was one of the few negative comments from previous guests.  We are always striving to improve our facilities and services by listening  to guest feedback and are delighted to announce that the problem has now been solved!

As you will see from the photo the tarmac area of the car park is much wider giving  more space for everyone to get in and out. We hope you like it – come and stay in our fabulous self catering log cabins in the Peak District and try it out!

We have also been tidying up, creating a new rockery by the pump house and laying turf – not ideal in this warm weather, but the grass seems to be surviving so far.

Felicity

Was the farmer really naked? – well certainly not when we went to bale the hay, we insisted David was fully dressed!

Haymaking at Hoe Grange

Thank goodness we only did 10 acres

We were making small bales for the horses and calves, which is a much more manual task than making the larger modern bales, so it was a family outing to the top fields and all hands on deck.

The conventional balers have a mind of their own and are difficult to set correctly, so to start with we had very light fluffy bales which were great to lift, but bowed like a banana and useless on a stack, then there was the other extreme which were as heavy as lead bricks and I really struggled to lift them at all. Finally with various adjustments we got the bales just about right.

There was no bale sledge so the bales were left in singles at regular intervals up and down the field so we had to collect them one by one. We had David driving the tractor (easy option!) our son Michael and his friend on the ground throwing the bales up to the trailer (hard option) and Elliot and I stacking them on the trailer ready to take down to the farm (OK, but still hard work! – thank goodness we only did 10 acres). All went well and we managed to get the hay in before it rained, which is always satisfying.

Hard work on the ground

Felicity

After all the hard work recently, it’s time for a bit of fun. The boys from Ashbourne Round Table had an evening gliding in the peak district, what a way to see the scenery!!

Ready for take offup up and away

up up and away

Soaring High

All work and no play is no good for anybody

Who would be a farmer? It’s days like today with brilliant sunshine that I sometimes wish I had a nine to five job - everyone else is lazing around in the garden, relaxing, reading the Sunday papers, beer in hand,  whilst I am out in the field working hard making hay while the sunshines!

Today I have been tedding with a hay bob – technical term for fluffing up, turning the grass over and spreading it out, so that is dries out evenly and goes that wonderful golden colour, before rowing up and bailing. These days the majority of farmers tend to make haylage or silage as it is a quicker process and you don’t need such a long period of hot weather.

This year we are making hay for the horses and beef cattle in winter as we don’t need such a volume of winter forage now that the dairy cows have gone. It’s always nerve wracking when you have hay down as it can be ruined if the weather turns wet for long, and the forecast never seems to be accurate!

setting the trend for naked farming??

I have had to get my old fashioned Massey Ferguson 135 tractor out as this is the only tractor that the old hay bob fits onto. It has been so hot, which is excellent for the hay, but Felicity wonders if the heat has gone to my head and I am trying to start a new trend of naked farmers? That’s for me to know!

David