Underway again

 

Lambing kicked off on schedule over at Ian's dad's place, and I was drafted in to give a helping hand for the first week (that'll teach me to have annual leave outstanding at the end of the year!)  Sally and I did the morning shifts starting around 5am...checking for new births, feeding, penning, strawing ... and acting as midwives as needed for the badly presenting lambs (legs back, completely backwards, head down, tangled with twin, just too gosh-darned huge etc).  It mostly went well, but I do now have an even greater dislike of dealing with two-tooths.  They have spent too long away from any decent interaction with people and are completely nutty - however, my rugby tackles are improving no end.

Anyone want a tame lamb?

A farmhand selfie

Back at home, Ian has been preparing for our own lambing (only about 350 ewes!) and we have just had our first - a nice double and a robust single.  I am happy that most of the two-tooths are at the other farm, so things may be a bit calmer, but we do have some first-time-birth ewe lambs (last year's crop) - we've not done that before, so it will be an interesting comparison.

Aparently the boys missed me, but perked up when we had a visit from Ali (my university friend), Ali (a friend of both of us from work), and Pipit (a terrier who thinks she is bigger than Cody).  At one point I gave Fred a bone biscuit, which Pipit then nicked from his mouth and ran off with it.  Fred was most afronted, especially when she got the best spot on the back of the sofa, so he decided to get his own back by sleeping in her bed.

Pipit, sunning herself on the forbidden sofa.

Fred, not quite fitting....

We did make time to go to Braunton Burrows for a run about on the beach (leaving poor old creaky Fred at home) - the wind was up and we had a bit of a sand-blasting.  Skin feels great!

Ali x 2, collie x 2, and a very fluffed up Cody

Sonny, sporting the latest Fat Face headgear - cool pup.

More tales to come as the staff arrive tomorrow (Irene and Daisy - are they mad?) 

A pleasant walk in the country

A few weeks ago it was scanning time, and the last of the sheep had to come down from the higher fields.  Rob was visiting for his half-term break, so Ann and I thought it would be a nice amble down the hill for him, while we drove the back route to guide the girls across at Kensall Cross.  Sonny performed admirably, getting the flock to the gate, and off they went... rather more enthusiastically than we had expected from a group of heavily pregnant sheep.  Rob and Sonny took off after them, while we jumped into the van and did a rapid cross-country rally - only to see the last of the girls dash across the road as we came round the corner.  Bugger.

So off we went again, to head them off at the pass - well, not the pass exactly, but we needed to get to Tony's gate before they went into the wrong farm.  Just made it.  Not long after, a very hot and bothered Rob appeared, not amused.  He'd wanted a pleasant walk in the country, gently guiding the sheep down bucolic lanes.  He hadn't actually seen a sheep once they set off, and had pretty much run the whole way to try and catch up.  Sonny thought it was delightful.  It didn't help Rob's mood when I took of my leggings and managed to flick them round his face as he was bending down...covered in **** he was.  Ooops.

All of the girls bar a few are now in the barns and lambing rapidly approaches - 22^nd of March is D-Day.  They are happy to be inside, not just because they now get fed cake.  The weather has been on-and-off pants.  Least favourite moment so far this year - mending the roof while the rain bucketed down on us.

No, not the log flume - my drive to work!

We also managed to finish our mammoth hedge-laying challenge by the deadline of 1^st March (those pesky breeding birds...).  The new chainsaw helped (yes, we have already killed one chainsaw in our time down here).

The fruits of our hedge-laying labour

Twice the work because it's a double hedge...

...but just look how much wood we have for next winter (hey dad, logs!)

No doubt someone will want to see a picture or two of cute lambs later, so watch this space!

A well-earned rest for the rams

This weekend, the rams were brought back to Ann's splat for a well-earned rest after doing their duty...and the ewes are each sporting a red, blue or green patch of fleece (the colour-coding showing us when they are likely to lamb).

 Beginning of April!

Who you lookin' at?

The weather has been reasonably kind this year, and there has been good quality grass for longer than 2013.  But the time has come to give extra silage, and move the sheep into smaller groups and lower fields.

One man and his (over-excited) dog....

...who is the reason we always have to wear leggings.

Rob came down for a weekend and finally plucked up courage to drive the quad across Big Field.  Or perhaps it was just a handy way to ensure that Ian did all of the heavy lifting?

When the rain let off for a while, Ian and Ian were seen to be sporting the latest in farming chic from the stylish House of Stattersfield - scarves knitted from our own wool.  It's amazing how I can put a dirty fleece into an old cake bag, and a few months later it re-appears as clothing...thanks Ali!

Fresh legs

"I've only been born five minutes, and they want me to get up!  I wonder how these leg things work?"

Nature provides (for those with big buckets)

We seem to have gone a bit mad on the "nature's harvest" front this year…it started innocuously, with a few ripe blackberries scoffed on the way down the lane.  But there were so many…and it seemed a shame to waste them…blackberry vodka followed (along with a nice cherry vodka), 9 litres of blackberry wine (last year's is drinking very nicely, thank you), pies, jams, and fools, with bagfuls going to neighbours…almost as bad as the runner bean glut that happens every summer.  And it's not just berries – field mushrooms on toast, in stew, preserved in oil – puff-ball fried with lashings of butter - green tomato/chilli/ginger marmalade - herbs and garlic in virgin Kalamata – chilli adobo – blanched beans (runner, French, climbing and yellow) in the freezer – and still the squashes take over the garden, climbing into the hedges.

Other than eating, and preparing stuff to eat, there are logs to chop for the winter, and now we have clipped past 1^st of September, the next round of hedging can get underway.  Today Gavin came to shear the black-faced ewe lambs (who will stay as breeding stock) and middling sized meat lambs (not so lucky!)  The big bruisers are ready to go (and going weekly), while the piddly little widgets would just get cold if shorn, so keep their fleeces…and are enjoying their daily cake to fatten them up.  Five autumn calvers are keeping us in suspense…we have one with tight udders, so should be any day now. 

The season has definitely changed, and the days are often beautiful in that winding-down autumn way.  Walking the dogs, I pass the bales of silage – wafts of caramel anticipate the wonderful smells of winter farming.

I wonder how our girls' cousins are doing in Dumfries and Galloway, where Liz and Hesky have a lovely small flock of Hebrideans that we met a few weeks ago?

A quick update

All that hedge-laying paid off...

...the hay and silage are packed away or in the shed...

...and the lambs are now weaned (thanks Ali, Joe and Sarah!)

Normal service will resume after a holiday in Scotland...although I doubt it will be livestock-free, with county shows and a visit to Liz and Hesky on their farm in Dumfries on the cards.  We'd get withdrawal symptoms otherwise.