Invasion of the seed snatchers

So...

...our sparrow breeding programme is going well...

A week on the farm

Recently Ian M went to Sardinia to meet his new nephew Sebastiano, and left me in charge of all things farmy.  As Ann does, I write a diary to bring him up-to-speed on his return...

Tuesday

The sheep in Cleave want to move and are hanging around by the gate - will shift tomorrow. Gave a magnesium bucket to the cattle Below The Farmhouse and a salt lick to the Quarryfield lambs...there are some shitty backsides on the rich grass, but no maggots.  A ram in Little Field had a scrape on his back that was attracting flies - wrestled him to the ground, got covered in crap, and blue-sprayed him.  If the flies persist, I will spray properly.  Did a limpy lamb (pre-foot rot) in Raceground - blue spray, blue dot on neck to ID him, and 3cc Alamycin.  Got to Common to find only 17 cattle instead of 18 - finally located the missing calf haring about in the field below (Ball Allotments East) and faffed about for a while trying to get him back over the hedge.  Tied up the hole. Cody killed a pheasant in 7 acres...why do they fly right into him?  Young and stupid, I guess.  Have started feeding the Quarryfield lambs twice a day now, half each time, as they seem to need a reminder to go over to the troughs and the rain is ruining the cake if left too long.  Caught the black-faced limpy lamb - there is nothing obviously wrong, so sprayed his hoofs and 3cc.  Blue dot on neck. All in all, a quiet first day...

Wednesday

Moved singles from Cleave to Gratton - much happier now.  Billy Big Balls had a small sore patch on his back attracting flies - what is it with the boys, first the ram, now the bull?  Needless to say, did NOT wrestle him to the ground. Snuck up on his blind side as he was gazing into the distance, sprayed and ran.  Two rams had bloody heads where they were fighting, and it's not even tupping time - gave them a talking to, but could not get close enough to spray.  Sod them.  Low cloud on Common, so it took me ages to find the cattle as I had no idea where I was in the field most of the time (Sonny loved it).  The sheep got short shrift.

Thursday

Cody killed another pheasant...ditto to Tuesday.  Pity they are young, otherwise that could've been dinner. Blue sprayed the bull again. Brought in a scouring and pathetic lamb from Edwin's (the one that has always been pathetic), shaved his bum, drenched and sprayed, then took back out. Lost my anti-insect goggles somewhere...probably Edwin's.  Raceground needs topping.  Lanes smell of honeysuckle and meadowsweet on the way up the hill.  Sonny is missing you, but we helped Richard and Andrew move some sheep as Dan is now too old to control them properly and Trev too young (he was so excited).  A bunch of wayward ewes started off down the wrong road and Sonny retrieved them perfectly - I think he was showing off to his captive audience.  Counted 42 sparrows and 3 baby bunnies in the garden.

Friday

Absolutely drek day, but managed to get the stock done before the major downpours (although still got very wet).  The baby swallows were sheltering on the window sills.  Moved the Below The Farmhouse cattle to Over The Road - as there were no animals in sight, I stood at the gate and called, and they soon crested the ridge at full gallop.  If only there had been someone there to see it - very impressive stock control!  Moved Edwin's hogs and ewe lambs to Below The Farmhouse - lamb from yesterday was still pathetic, so I carried him and parked him under the hedge.  Not sure he will make it.  Didn't find my insect-goggles.  Did foot and injection for the lamb we treated before in Ball Allotments West as he had a maggotty hoof - he was hard to catch, and I fell on my arse again.  The heather is flowering along the top road, and it was so windy at Common that the buzzards were riding the gusts to hover above the field.

Saturday

Ungrateful lamb died.  Sprayed a handful of lamb hooves in Quarryfield, but no injection as nothing obviously wrong - probably strip.  Another foot-rot lamb in Raceground - and yes, I slipped over again on the wet grass and sprained something.  I'll live.  Weather ok this morning, but storms predicted for later.  Huge rat in the flowerbed when I got home!

Sunday

Got absolutely drenched - Sonny loved it.  Moved sheep on from Gratton to 13 Acres, and they were very happy to be munching fresh grass - I think we spoil them.  Got a lamb's head out of the wire where it was stuck.  Put all of the Gratton buckets into 13 acres so no-one has any excuses to get mineral deficiency.  In the afternoon I brought up a Quarryfield shitty lamb for drenching, feet and a proper spray.  I have blue hands again.

Monday

There is a half-blind ewe in 13 Acres (black-face), but needless to say we'll need to get them in to treat her as she is too fast for me.  Your pregnant cow has STILL not done anything - udders have not even begun to bag up.  Spent the afternoon clearing up the top yard.

Tuesday

Common and Raceground need buckets when you are back (we have run out).  The ewes are ready for weaning as they are kicking away their lambs. A ewe and her twins belonging to Andrew are in Allotments West - I've informed him.  Other than that, we're set for a hand-over back.

Swallow Tales

A goodly while back, on a clear Wednesday morning, we decided that the weekend would see us finally complete the roofing under the large covered area outside our kitchen - our room outdoors.  On Wednesday afternoon, a pair of swallows started poking around, and by Friday evening, there was a nest in our rafters - effectively scotching any chance of construction until the autumn.  Chittering (and shittering) away, mum and dad finished a nest, she laid eggs, and every morning we were blessed with the sound of the swallow family doing their swallow things.

Last week the three chicks fledged and, using our rotary washing line as a staging post, made their way out into the big, wide world.  The whole family now perches much of the time on our swallow cable between the house and sheds (Ian M insists it's the electrical supply to the house, but I know better...it was put up ESPECIALLY for the birds).  Last night I did my usual check to see who was up in the rafters outside the bedroom window, only to be confronted by a row of twelve bottoms - clearly our family was hosting guests and we have been given an Expedia 5-star rating.  It makes all of the poop stains on the wall worthwhile (although Ian M was a little foolish to leave his boots out there one night).  A second nest is almost finished, in the next alcove along, so if this is a successful brood, we'll have hosted the production of another 6 or 7 swallows.  Probably the most important thing we achieve all year.

Not only do the swallows swoop around the house all day, they follow us across the fields when driving sheep or riding the bike, picking up tasty morsels as we disturb the insect fauna.  If we drive slowly enough, the fly-bys are wonderul!  Other field denizens remain unfazed.

It's not only swallows who have been using us as a safe haven for breeding.  Sparrow gangs roam, having bred in the sheds.  Mum sparrows are now back on the nests/in the boxes, while the dads take out their progeny and show them the ropes - it's not unusual to see three or four males with twelve plus youngsters incautiously cavorting about and dust-bathing during the dry weather (even more so now, given that I found an extra bucket of oats at the back of the barn).  Our pied wagtails used my car as a feeding station for their four fledglings, and we know we have also had breeding in the garden or sheds chaffinches, blackbirds, wrens, yellowhammers, collared doves, whitethroats, and robins.  While not nesting nearby, one buzzard regularly sits on a post in the garden looking for tasty morsels of the rodent variety.  We've also seen fox cubs and fawns from the house (with dad's telescope being most useful)...

...speaking of which, recent planet-gazing was most satisfying, clearly seeing Saturn's rings, and even being able to take a photograph of Jupiter and four of its moons.  In real life, it was much clearer...but you get the picture!

[Just watched a male blackbird pounce into my flowerbed, grab a snail, and beat the heck out of it - bravo buddy!  Keep that up!]

Drifting into summer

Lambing seems like it was months ago.  Farmer Rob says if we had to put the rams in the day lambing finished, we wouldn't...but by November we'll have forgotten how we felt by the end of week two and merrily look forwards to the next round the following spring.  We're half way through shearing, which involves a lot of moving sheep around and avoiding the weather (not wet, not too hot), and today Ian M has started the hay-making.  It soon came around again.  It's wonderful to smell the cut grass drying, pollen-heavy as it is, and it feels like summer is properly here now that the storms and wind have abated (they will undoubtedly be back at some point).

Ian mows in Quarryfield, while Sonny goofs in 7 Acres

Wildlife margins are not only of interest to wildlife!

It's too hard to resist a nap in the grass.

A few visitors chez nous...

Charlie (Bunny Prince Charlie) chances his arm...or foot...or whatever.

A baby robin stares at me through the office window.

One of the many yellowhammers, looking splendid for summer.

The invertebrates are benefitting from our wildlife areas (yes, even the wretched slugs)...

Hoverfly bank

Bee bank - look at all that clover!

Taking a few minutes out, I recently sat on the bench outside the kitchen and tried this "being mindful" malarkey - being more aware of my surroundings and in tune with the world.  Closing my eyes I concentrated on my other senses.  I could smell the grass baking in the field, with a delicate undertone of dung. I could hear the wind soughing in the trees below the field and the crack as the chaffinches broke open the oat husks I put out for them.  But it was kind of spoilted by Cody panting like the Flying Scotsman, the bubbler turning on for the septic tank (a gentle hum...but I know what it's doing...), and some spanner on a quad bike haring down the hill (oh wait, that might have been Ian - I take back the spanner bit if that's the case).

Overall, though, the main problem was an annoying inner voice that kept saying "Concentrate on being mindful" and "Boy, this bench is hard on my bony arse".  I do irritate myself sometimes.

Wildlife not always welcome

The swallows are back swooping across 13 Acres, linnets and goldfinches pull apart the dandelion heads on the bank behind the house, and this morning a buzzard and raven were aerial fighting for something tasty as they careened past the window.  We are always thinking of ways to encourage wildlife...but not all wildlife is welcome, as was evidenced by my foul language on finding out that mice had eaten all of the planted bean, corn and squash seeds in the greenhouse.  It's bad enough having slugs chomp through tender seedlings.  Pending finding the mousetraps, the most vulnerable edibles are balanced precariously on a wide tray hiked up on breeze-blocks.  I am giving the rabbits in the garden the evil eye too, reminding them that their fluffy-bunny-ness will only go so far to stay the shotgun if sharing the vegetable patch rights are not balanced out with responsibilities.  I have yet to decide on how tolerant I am going to be of the mole - he very well may find tea-tree soaked cotton wool balls dropped into his holes to encourage gently a move elsewhere.

More seriously, a rogue fox has been taking lambs here and from our neighbour Matt.  Mostly foxes leave the stock alone, but occasionally one gets the taste for fresh lamb (who can blame them) and can take one every day.  Matt dispatched a posse one evening, and Mr Todd will be bothering us no further. While we like to see the occasional brush chasing across the fields, there are limits.

Dropping off doubles in 7 Acres has become a ritual challenge.  A crazy pheasant (not Philip, who is very well-behaved) has decided that the red quad bike is a rival and chases it everywhere, looking pretty murderous with his spurs and indignant scarlet face.  He'll only relax when we've been seen off down the road, and I am convinced we'll find him dead in the gateway having testosterone-ily given himself a heart-attack.

My final unwelcome visitor was rather more home-grown.  The white-faced Hereford cow out in 13 Acres has decided that the grass is indeed greener on the other side of the fence and has now broken into the garden twice (that we know of).  The barbed wire is a mere distraction.  Erecting a more sturdy fence has rushed up the "round to it" list from low 20s to the top 5.

Some photos from the last week or so:

Moving the girls towards higher ground.

Danaë perfects the fine art of standing in the way.

Ann and Danaë bring them up the final rise to Common Field.

Another group take their place on Raceground (to be lead up the hill next week).

These two were born on the same day.  Pity the mother of the black-faced one.

Sonny is camera shy.

Daisy picks out two tame lambs to start her own flock (thereby lies madness).

Three random items:

While moving lambs the other day, they were making a hell of a racket.  Strangely, one didn't so much as baa, but said the word baa instead.  Most odd.

Auntie Liz has coined a new word for us.  ULI - Unidentified Lambing Injury.  This is most helpful when talking about the cuts, scrapes and miscellaneous bruises that you find on your body and have absolutely no idea where they came from.  I rarely bruise, but had a stonker on my wrist with no recollection of how and when.  However, the aching Adam's Apple was from being head-butted in the throat by a crazy ewe-lamb in the wee hours.

Dad's telescope (borrowed for star-gazing and deer-gazing) has proved to be a most useful remote sensing tool for lambing.  Sheep up against the hedge on its own in the Over The Road field?  Simple...check it out with the scope and head on out only if required.

Blacktail Lodge lives up to its name

Vermin control took an unexpected turn in the sheds recently.  This year we've been reasonably (reasonably...) pest-free and we now know why.  Out from the straw pile ran a rat, with a stoat (blacktail) hot on its heels.  A squeak and a brief struggle later, off trots said stoat with dinner.  We've seen him (or her) several times since, including under the porch - and fingers crossed we have dancing kits on the patio later in the year.  Other visiting wildlife has included linnets and goldfinches, and a big water beetle that made its own way to our new pond (and scared the bejeesus out of me when I accidentally picked it up thinking it was a stone).

New pond with intrepid pond-maker

Lambing is progressing well, and now that Irene is here, all is ship-shape. 

Number 1 goes out into the fields

This is my ballywick!

Tame lambs waiting for a new mum

The night shift is usually Ann's domain, but we have all had a turn.

A good night goes as follows: get up at 03:00, go to the sheds and check everything is ok, top up a couple of needy lambs with milk, and come back at 03:30.

A less good night?  Get up at 03:00, go to the sheds and check everything is ok.  Find two newly born doubles mixed up in the top shed - two ewes, four lambs and no idea which goes with which.  Try various combinations until everyone stops bleating. No spare pens, so cobble together two more out of the dregs left.  Find two doubles in the middle shed, with an extra lamb.  None are triples, so search for an additional mother while the sheep keep walking around and around the feeder to get away from you.  Find another lamb under the silage, and finally mother starts bleating.  No free pens.  Put one set in with the straw, evict an older family and install a new one, and set up a makeshift pen by the alley.  Meanwhile another ewe starts lambing.  Deal with her, evict another family, and install.  Check the lean-to shed - all is quiet, but everyone needs water.  Drive the quad over to Cleave Shed to find another two doubles.  Chase everyone for five minutes to catch and pen.  Copper sulphate the navels (to avoid infection) and remember that everyone back at the main sheds needs copper sulphating...go back and do it.  Meanwhile, another double lambs.  Evict, install.  Feed five lambs colostrum and give some milk to the tame lambs.  Fill more water buckets.  Dust oneself off, and head home...only to hear the pained straining of a ewe-lamb in the lean-to.  Investigate, help birth, get kicked in the balls as she struggles to get away and then runs off, evict another happy family and put lamb in pen.  Chase ewe-lamb around the sheds and rugby-tackle to the ground.  Heave her into the spare pen, and both of you sit there panting.  Get her water and silage.  Dust oneself off again, and head home - to find it is 05:30 and time to get up.