New Forest Mohair Triumph at Devon County Show

Muddy Carrot sellers Frances and Ian Mason, owners of New Forest Mohair, have been regulars at Devon County Show for many years. This has been a landmark year for them, having achieved for the first time Supreme Angora Goat Champion at the Show with Linden Cressida, this beautiful yearling female.

They also won first prize in the Doe and Kids class with Linden Woodfidley, and Reserve Champion Buck with Linden Bentley, all homebred animals.

When not being shown, the goats live with the rest of the herd on the Mason's picturesque smallholding in the New Forest.

Ian, who is also a vet, shears the mohair fleece twice a year and the kid fleece is sent for initial processing in Cornwall. It is then hand-dyed on the farm and the resulting beautiful pure kid mohair yarn is sold in a range of double knit, four ply and their latest range, a mohair and silk laceweight yarn, which was premiered at the Devon Show. This will shortly be added to the New Forest Mohair range available to buy through the Muddy Carrot website.

Perfect Solar day!

It's felt like summer proper today - even dusted off my T-shirts and showed my pasty legs!Solar has become a BIG part of our lives; 3 years ago It's felt like summer proper today - even dusted off my T-shirts and showed my pasty legs!
we built our own eco house inspired by PassivHaus, a German idea using the natural gain of the sun to heat the house, amazing to live in, and since then we have added PV and hot water solar panels.

It's easy to become quite geeky about nipping into our mud room and checking the latest temperature. We have a thermometer at the panels, and two more reading the top and the bottom of the water tank.
Todays fab day equals a full tank of 51 degrees, but more importantly it means I can enjoy a soak in the tub tonight at virtually no cost - a rare treat! My evening is already planned in my head, early supper with the children, a bit of gardening and then a long soak with a good magazine and plenty of smellies!

...Bliss!