Mad dogs and English men

I love a warm day, but why we decide to drench and mark lambs while the fields are sizzling I will never know. However, all three dogs came to help and did an excellent job - working together for the first time and (almost) in a coordinated way. While they could then cool off in the scant water that is around, unfortunately we had to make do with the meagre breeze.

Where did Ned go?

Ah, there he is.

Harry decided that the stream would be cooler ...

...but girls will be girls. 

Scout. Tut.

...and a few baa-lated pictures

How to combine dinner and a nap.

Kate (she's the blond one).

Kyle, also blond under the hat.

A perfect family.

Taking liberties with mum.

Quads!

There's always one...

Born on the same day.

This is what it's all about.

Neddy springs into action!

Mixed stocking can lead to some confusion.

Our version of the Joe Wicks work-out...

...although I'm not sure Irene was particularly impressed.

A rare quiet moment.

"Yeah, I'm pregnant. What of it?"

Some of the new calves, temporarily borrowed for tagging.

Physiotherapy for the "small" calf.

Scout, doing her best to get an extra treat.

Finally it's all too much.

Cheers to all - keep safe and well!

Baa-lated greetings from the farm...

Lambing started only a few days before we were expecting it to, and fortunately Kate and Kyle appeared very shortly after. Kate’s now an old hand at the process, but her boyfriend Kyle was somewhat thrown in at the deep end … lambing only having a cursory similarity to dealing with humans on hospital wards. For a start, no-one is allowed to shove a hand anywhere uninvited when working for the NHS (I can’t speak for private medicine). He soon picked things up, and proved to be particularly handy at mucking out and scrubbing water troughs (grin). No PPE needed, other than waterproof trousers.

The daily routine: 1am Leah drops in to check for action and top-up any hungry looking lambs. 4am I drag my corpse-like self out of bed and do the next shift. On a good day, a quick shufty around, feeding a few lambs, and back for a nap on the sofa. On most days, chasing ewes around the barn to try and pen them with their lambs, intervening when something is not presented right and a wee  bit of help is needed, and more than once trying to match several lambs to several disinterested ewes. After breakfast, everyone heads down to the sheds to feed up, ring and number, and check stock in the fields.  The Lambing Express takes the previous day’s doubles and singles out to the fields after tea and cake at elevenses, or after lunch if we are having a zig-zag day (Kate’s great expression for a day where you start doing something, get side-tracked, and again, and again). Afternoon tasks include merging sheep in the fields in preparation for moving on (either to the other farm or up the hill to higher fields), cleaning cow sheds, and numerous other odds and ends. Late afternoon there is another feed and water top-up, at which point I dip out and start thinking about dinner. Another drop-in early evening, then Farmer Ian does his late-night check and final quench of lambs in need of succour.

After a week, Irene joined us and a few days later Kate and Kyle went back east to lock-down. As Kate is going to vet school, she’ll hopefully come back again for a placement next year or the year after. Irene was supposed to stay for ten days or so, and ended up being with us for three lovely weeks. As things calmed down, I had the luxury of getting up at 4:30, then 5:00 and finally reached the heady goal of sleeping until 6am – bliss! Most memorable bit this year? Finding a triple ewe with two lambs and a small pair of hooves sticking out of her back end. After pulling off the third, the ewe gave an almighty fart and out popped a fourth! All fine and well.

Now that lambing is done, spring calving has started. Usually this happens over with Farmer Rob, but we’ve had a bit of a change around. It has benefits (seeing the calves outside the window frolicking around on a nice spring day), and disadvantages (helping to haul out a particularly large calf and getting covered head to foot in very sticky goop). We had one little chap who was struggling to walk at first and we needed to tube then bottle feed him. However, after some physiotherapy and patience, he’s out there with the others having a great time charging about.

While all of this has been going on, spring happened. After non-stop rain from September to the end of February, there was non-stop sun – very nice for us, but the flowers, veg beds and grass in the fields really need some water – and the few wet days at the moment won’t redress the balance, just yet. The cheeky pregnant cows in the field outside the house have taken to leaning over the barbed wire and chewing on my garden. Along the lanes and in the hedges, the wildflowers have been amazing – another good year for bluebells and early purple orchids. The swallows are back flying around, and we are now on a barn owl’s nightly patrol – he floats silently past our living room window at dusk, then checks for little squeekers in the garden before heading back out again. We even had a lapwing in the nearest field for a few days, and wheatears in the garden.

The dogs behaved well during lambing, taking it in turns to go out and perform. However, the howling and yowling that goes on from the two who are left behind in the utility room is, quite frankly, embarrassing. Seriously chaps, collies really should not debase themselves so! The boys are especially affronted when Scouty is off without them.

Now it’s time to catch up on some other things – burning the brash from last season’s hedge-laying, setting the fields aside for growing hay, general maintenance, and before we know it, shearing.