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| Evening troughing. |
While there are always busy times, normally there is manageable activity with quieter periods. This year, they were queuing up for pen space. No sooner had we built an additional nook, it was occupied and another ewe had started lambing. On one day Farmer Ian went to bed at midnight having filled most of the accommodation. Leah came at 1am and I got up at 4am – and between us, we had 8 doubles, 3 singles and a triple. With no free pens, we were housing them in any available gap. On another night, I came down and hadn’t realised that Farmer Ian had put a family in the back of the trailer, still attached to the quad bike, and got the shock of my life when mum’s head popped up beside me unexpectedly.
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| Mum is choosing to ignore her four - yes count 'em - four lambs. |
The lambs have been good this year, mostly decent sized. There have been the normal interventions needed of course – one leg and a head only, head only, backwards, two coming at once. One day we found a struggling ewe and investigated, only to find a snout, a front leg and a back leg. Two were trying to decamp at the same time, one awkwardly, and the other backwards. That required quite a bit of untangling, but everyone ended up happy. Feeling good, Irene and I looked up to see two other ewes nearby needing help – they were stacking up like planes at Heathrow.
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| Lovely chunky lambs. |
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| This one is more like a tea-cup sized fashion statement lamb. |
The combination of silage, hard work, and amniotic fluid have left our hands a bit raw and chaffed, despite the hand cream. I’ve also managed to spray myself in the eyes with milk while checking udders – important rule of lambing, point the udder away from your face!
Ann has been coming to help let out the sheep, giving me
time to clean pens, while the others get the next group ready to leave for the
fields and shift the homeless into homes. I often found that the pen I had just
cleaned, looking tidy with disinfected floor, new straw and clean water, was
immediately colonised and I was back to square one. We’ve also had help from
Amie (Ann’s granddaughter) who is an excellent rat spotter, and Harriet (the
granddaughter of friends) who has now lambed her first sheep, and cuddled all
of the tamies.
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| Tub o'tamies. |
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| Kate and Limpy the Lamb in his natty jumper, with foam inserts to push his misaligned legs outwards. |
We had about 80 or so ewe lambs this year (last year’s lambs that are now having their own). They bring their own challenges, not least of which is being over-friendly. They are noisy, demanding, often look at their newly born lamb with wonder or fear, and are generally a nuisance (hence my usual name of Beastly Ewe Lambs). Their one redeeming feature is that I can pick them up bodily if they need to be moved and are not obliging, rather than straddling the older ewes rodeo-style and fighting my way into a vacant pen.
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| Beastly Ewe Lambs - get out of your dinner, you fool. |
While we are officially lambing, this has not stopped the
cows from getting involved – we’ve had six calves so far. Kate arrived for her
veterinary experience placement and has been very hands on. Helping with a calf
birth and getting covered head-to-foot in gunk is a very important rite of
passage. Important second rule of lambing (and calving) … whenever you have
just washed your hands, there will be something disgusting to do. Fortunately,
most of the cows are just getting on with it and we wake up to another lovely
friendly face.
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| We didn't want to be left out of the action. |
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| Slightly shocked, as I was only born yesterday. |
I finally saw the cat, only to find that there are now two. We are hoping that they are both males, otherwise we’ll be rehoming farmyard kittens. Neither are particularly friendly, but are very vocal around the edges of the house at night if not fed. They are probably avoiding the hedgehog who comes to eat the fallen peanuts from the bird feeder. Less welcome are the rats that have started to thrive on spilt food, seeds in the grain and other less savoury items. There are some days that I worry I may end up bottle-feeding a large rat instead of a tame lamb if I leave my glasses in the house.
First swallows seen 5th April. Hooray! And things are beginning to green up.
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| By Quarry Field gate, courtesy of Ann. |
The dogs have had a bit of a rough time of it regarding sleep, as whoever gets up wakes them. However, they each take turns with the various chores and get plenty of exercise, so are not too hard done by.
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| Harry and Scout are too tired even to get up and say hello. |
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| The three faces of Ned ... Number 1, The Collie Stare. |
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| Number 2, The Regal Pose. |
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| Number 3, The Feeling Shy. |
Needless to say, we're all a bit pooped. A brief respite, then onwards to shearing, hay-making and the long list of things on the "round to it" list.
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| Irene is forced to join us raise a glass - raspberries in Prosecco. |
As a postscript, because we have different shifts during lambing, we leave each other explanatory notes – what’s new, who to feed, anything of interest. Here’s a sample, left by Irene and Kate late one evening for Farmer Ian, just proving that every realm of work has its own shorthand and occasionally undecipherable language. They also insist on naming them lambs ... sigh.
Twas the evening of the 9th April (today!)
Plugged in Jack (pen 1), mum kicking (but he’s a good boy,
he knows what to do).
Pens 14 and 17 – full tummies (milk watch).
New biiiiiig double in Pen 34. Navels dipped, one with
very full belly and the other was stuck behind the race, so we plugged him in.
Will check before leaving.
Milk updates – pen 30 full bellies and not gassy, topped
up whiter-faced one in pen 33, and gave all 4 lambs Spectam as one of each pair
had wet-mouth.
Black-face in black bucket in small tamies has been
Spectam’d , plus 1 tube.
White-face that is not Tiny Tim in the small tamies, Spectam’d.
Lethargic.
Tiny Tim’s double (Stuart Little) given milk.
Number 19, medium tamies, Spectam’d.
Put pen 2 ewe back in a head-stock as she was
head-butting the lamb.
We have checked all bellies and for wet-mouth and have fed
the cat! OK!
