The All Weather Coats: An Evening at Borough Farm

Remember when I said we had looked up the website for Borough Farm and discovered you could meet Mist? Well, what they offer in the summer is a Wednesday night sheepdog and falconry display and then a Thursday night cliff walk and storytime with David Kennard, the farmer in the movie and TV shows and some of his dogs.

The thing is, no one in England really knows about Mist. And even very few people in Devon knew about Mist. So we really weren’t sure what to expect from this evening. Emmy and London were soooo worked up to see it that Sandra and Cannon had made a pact that if the evening turned out to be a bust, they were going to jump off the cliffs. It could be some rinky-dink operation that would have made me seriously question why I flew 13 hours to get to England and then drove another 6 to get to Devon.

But it wasn’t. Oh no, it wasn’t. It was everything we could have hoped for and more. First off, it was a family affair. Meaning David Kennard’s whole family was involved. He was directing parking efforts in the farm field, his wife was taking the money, his daughter and mom were selling homemade cakes in the Sheppard’s Hut and his sons were helping with the dogs. But that didn’t make it rinky-dink – it made it completely accessible to us.

So I was able to tell David (as he had us call him) the story of why we were there and the kids got to meet him before the show. They were reassured that Mist was very much still alive (a question I had) and was waiting to meet them after the show.

So the show started with a 45-minute falconry display that included two kestrels, a Harris hawk, a falcon and a very disobedient owl named Elmo (he flew off and wouldn’t come back for an hour). That was great in itself since London also has a thing for birds of prey.

This bird was so funny how it was hanging on to the roof. I guess you could say "by a wing and a prayer"!

Then David took over and showed us the amazing work his sheepdogs can do. Zola was his two year old, almost fully trained dog. She did her thing herding a mini-flock of sheep through a couple of gates, around a post and into a pen. David was really good telling stories the whole time, making jokes and keeping us all entertained. In fact Sandra, who doesn’t even like dogs, almost fell off her hay bale she was that engrossed!

Note the far field with the sheep - I'll tell you why later.

After Zola did her thing, he got out Jake. Jake was one of the dogs who was in the Mist movies and although now aging, still likes to herd ducks. This is something from the TV shows and it was really entertaining. At this part in the show, David needed some volunteers to help so he said he would pick the people who had come the furthest. Immediately Emmy and London’s hands shoot up thinking they had this one in the bag! Of course the first people David called on say, “Malaysia”. What!? Well, he kindly kept going so that E & L got a chance to say Okinawa and they got called out to help. And then a bunch of others joined them to become “duck posts”. They were the posts that Jake herded the ducks through.

Jake

herding ducks

The duck posts

Then after that was done, Emmy and London were called back out to be the special assistants as Jake herded the ducks through an obstacle course fast enough so that London, who was sitting under a bucket filling up with water, didn’t get wet. London just barely missed getting a duck shower!

Sitting in the duck shower!

The final part of the show showed off Alfie’s talents. Alfie was sent up the field about a ½ mile or so to single handedly round up 300 sheep from the far field. He brought them down out of the one field, through a gate to another field, and then through another gate to the field where we were sitting. All within about 3 minutes. Now that’s talent!

Here come the sheep. He brought them all the way from that far field!

Finally, with all the demonstrations finished, the show was over, but the best part was to come. David got Mist out of the Land Rover so the kids finally got a look at their hero!

And then he sat on a couple of hay bales and they could sit next to her for a photo!!!! And then he “autographed” their posters with Mist’s own paw print!!! There couldn’t have been anything better for my youngest two. Or better for me who felt pretty good that I could make their dream come true on a farm field on a beautiful evening in north Devon.