ON a gloriously sunny afternoon in March , I experienced just how stunning the Yorkshire Dales can be . I was en route to Ravenseat Farm , which is situated on a road all of its own just above the village of Keld in Swaledale , in the district of Richmondshire and the Yorkshire Dales National Park . County Durham is on one side and the Pennines and Lake District on the other .

Ravenseat Farm is the home of someone many of you will know very well by now , Amanda Owen , otherwise known as the Yorkshire Shepherdess . Amanda lives with husband Clive and their nine children - Raven , Reuben , Miles , Edith , Violet , Sidney , Annas , Clemmy and youngest Nancy .

Ravenseat Farm is part of the Gunnerside Estate , there has been a farm here for a 1000 (!) years - it is even mentioned in the Doomsday Book . As well as being very remote amidst stunning scenery , it also covers some 2000 acres , allowing plenty of room for their 850 breeding ewes , 230 hoggs , herd of Beef Shorthorns , 25 calving cows and nine vibrant , excitable , happy children . Amanda ’ s eldest , Raven , is away at University in York and on course to get a first in Bio Science . Son , Reuben , developed a flair for mechanics at an early age and now works with plant and machinery ; the middle six are all at school , which meant I got to meet the youngest , Nancy , who is still at home .

However , most weekends see everyone at home helping on the farm and embracing rural life . It can very bleak up there - only two weeks before , they were thigh deep in snow looking for sheep .

With so many animals and nine children , I briefly mentioned relaxation . “ What ’ s that ?”, both Clive and Amanda asked . However , Amanda did show me one of the family ’ s favorite places . Part of this idyllic landscape contains a tarn , which is actually about a half a mile square ?! The family love to go swimming there in the summer , the picture she showed me was breath-taking and they have it all to themselves .

Amanda is a very down-to-earth person , who says it how it is . As I pulled up to do the interview , she was exiting one of the sheds with little Nancy , clutching a large sweeping brush . “ If you ’ d been here a few minutes ago you ’ d have heard me scream . Bunch of bloody large rats just shot out from under the bales I was moving !” The family terrier appeared a little later , who had obviously been enjoying himself chasing said rats .

As we went into the farmhouse to sit down for a mug of tea and a chat , lo and behold who rocked up to my surprise , but Tony the Pony , the family ’ s very tame Shetland , who often joins everyone in the house !

As we sat down I had a myriad of questions in my mind , not least : how do you manage a farm , nine kids , starring in a

TV show , theatre tours , writing four books , selling meat boxes via the website and catering for walkers ? I know farmers are busy but , to which she answered , “ You just do it don ’ t you .” I asked , you must have a plan though , “ No , no plan here you just have to get on with it .” I was even more intrigued .

Having achieved so much in a relatively short space of time , I was keen to learn how one makes it from 80 ’ s Goth teenager living in Newsome , Huddersfield , to Yorkshire Shepherdess in beautiful Swaledale .

In this crazy world of iPads , iPhones etc , there is an ever-stronger drive to encourage kids to limit the technology and pick up a book , well here is a shining example of the effect one book can have . Amanda was never an academic at school , just an average kid with above average energy , as she puts it . However , she really did love books and read loads of them . She is not from farming stock ; her mother was a model and father an engineer . Her love affair with farming and the rural way of life started when she read the James Herriot books ; they conjured up such an idyllic vision , so different to town life in 80 ’ s Huddersfield . Amanda knew exactly nothing about farming , her only experience was seeing sheep grazing on the hillsides as she pedalled many happy miles up hill and down dale in the outskirts and villages

nearby , cutting a dash in her lycra ! As she told me , she never realised sheep belonged to anyone , she just thought “ They were there ”. This was a semi-lightbulb moment when the thought came to her “ I ’ d like some of those ”. Only when she borrowed a book called ” Hill Shepherd ” by John and Elizabeth Forder did that light suddenly shine bright . The book is an old-fashioned pictorial study of real Dales farming life , “ Mud n All ”.

From then on that was it , she wanted to be a shepherd - which was a good thing because she had already been told she wasn ’ t smart enough to be a vet ?! Her careers teacher at school said shepherd wasn ’ t on his list , did she want to do sommat else . She didn ’ t , and realised school had done as much as it was going to do for her . That one book set Amanda off on her journey . Whilst we were chatting she suddenly got up and came

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