Spring time

The lovely spring weather is here and the daffodils are flowering, I have a lot of lovely lambs that are running and skipping down the field.

On the nice afternoons I let the ewes out onto some pasture and it is great to see the lambs running and playing. We have about 10 more left to lamb, they are mostly last years ewe lambs so a have to watch them closely as they are unsure of what is happening to them, so cope really well and other need a little coxing to let there lamb nurse.


 

We have had a local farmer come and work on the 18 acre field, he has got it ready for sewing the grass seed, but we have had some rain and it is too wet for David to seed it. We have managed to re seed the top pasture and we can see the seeds starting to grow.

We are looking forward to seeing a green field.




















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lambing time

Its lambing time and we have got about half of the adult ewes lambed, we have had a few early mornings like this morning 4am, but we are doing quite well. We have one set of triplets 8 twins and 5 singles, we have lost 2 lambs one had a navel hernia and the other was born dead, so we feel that we are doing well. At the moment we have a problem one of the yearling ewe has a vaginal prolapes we have put the prolapes back in side her and put a prolapes harness on and given her an injection to endues her in to labor, this could take anything up to 48 hours so we are spending quite a lot of time with her, making her as comfortable as possible and watching for any signs of distress. So keep your fingers crossed for her and enjoy a couple of the photos I have posted, I will put up more when time allows

Wternaby

Wternaby, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

This is one of last years ewe lambs and she decided to come and play in the water will I filled their water trough, she nearly got all of her head wet by putting it under the stream of water and it was a cold frosty morning.

Trott2

Trott2, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

This is Trotter with her little girl, she is a real good mother and her baby is never far away from her, she's also a cutie.

Kingcastle

Kingcastle, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

Little lamb playing on mums back
This is Teddy and she had twins on the 5th of March, as you can see her little girl is full of mischief, her baby brother is not very well, he was the weaker of the two twins and mums milk did not flow very well at the beginning so the little guy has had a rocky start but is getting stronger by the day.

Pancake2

Pancake2, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

Our first lamb of 2012, she is a little Tunis ewe lamb and we have called her pancake as in England yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, better known as pancake day. They are not like the American pancakes they are crepes. Rust (mum) had to have a helping hand,but mother and baby are both doing well.

Morning exercise and a little helper

I don't know about you but I am one of those people who like to ease in to the morning, unlike this morning. Just after 6am, I was laid thinking about the day ahead and some of the jobs that need doing and what I may just enjoy doing today when I heard a noise and so did Giz (the dog) who started barking. Telling him to shut up and listen and the door bell rang which set him off again and I jumped out of bed to answer the door.
David our neighbor from across the road had come to tell us that we had sheep out on the road, I shouted at Dave and thanked our neighbor and we both scrabbled into our clothes. Dave shot down to the barn for a bucket of food (bribery works very well on our sheep) I shot off down our drive, as I neared the end I heard a vehicle coming up the hill and I waved my hands franticly still not know exactly where and how many sheep where out. He came to a slow halt and as I ran to his window he looked at me and said " got critters out" yes I replied and ran off  as I spotted a movement further down the road next to our fence in the beam of his lights.

It was the Rams that had got out and I started calling Silver as I knew he would come to his name, they where a little scared and confused but started to slowly come to me, Then Dave arrived with the bucket and they turn and started moving away, scared by his movement. Slowly I said to Dave they are confused and scared. He then climbed over our fence so he could get round them while I shouted and rattled the bucket of corn, they started towards me and we headed back to the paddock, waving my thanks to the driver of the vehicle as we came near. Then made our way down the drive getting the escapes back to where they belong shutting the gate firmly behind them.

They obviously had liked there trip out as later in the morning the dogs started barking and I looked out to see 5 of them sniffing round the front of the house, What, How did they get out again! I grabbed my coat, boots and an empty bucket that I use for gardening and shot out, they trotted up to see what I had for them in the bucket and we walked back to the paddock, where we found little Ben bleating his head of as he had been left behind and sheep don't like being on there own. Once again back in the paddock I checked the gate lock, but found it secure when closed, I went and got some bail twine and fastened the gate. then went back to the house to get a padlock (get out now).

Little Helper
Dave was skeining up some yarn last night and he had a little helper.