Life in Leigh: September 2017

Saturday 30 September 2017

Finish eating before reading!

Bit difficult this weather at the moment - damp and dismal then sunny and bright. Still warm but the wood burner is going this evening. This should be a time of just watching which sheep are marked by the ram but the watching is a little closer than would be normal as there are still nasty blue flies about. Yesterday I thought FLA (an old Southdown ewe looked a little twitchy - kicking at her tummy and restless - closer inspection revealed damp, dark fleece that smelt unmistakable. No photos as Fly strike is not pleasant!! A quick shear and an application of Crovect and she is now fine - not nice though!

Sam came over today so we took advantage of him as I wanted to catch one very awkward sheep and check her feet. I didn't want to get them all in so we used Roger, our new sheep dog. He does take two people to handle him and I had to cover one side with the truck as he is not that fast. Here is Roger (sometimes known as a piece of green debris netting) in action!

Tuesday 26 September 2017

Buon pomeriggio!

Buon pomeriggio! Last night saw me venturing out - a rare occurrence! It was the start of my Italian for beginners course and I am hoping to make a little progress with my woefully inadequate Italian. I had thought there would be a little more work on speaking and a little less technical stuff but it might get better.. Strangely, one lady on the same table also lives in Leigh - with only 14 in the class that seemed quite a coincidence!

At the moment whenever I think of Italian I am reminded of our recent Methodist harvest festival. Monday night is the eagerly awaited auction of produce and it is always a hotly contested affair with some quite frantic bidding for tins of beans. The Boggy Farmer seemed desperate to get a bag of pasta and the price rose quickly which was surprising as he does not seem a pasta sort of man. He did look a little confused when he received his hard fought prize and the mystery was solved the following day when it emerged his hearing was not 100% and he thought he was bidding for a bag of parsnips!

No Italian photos but this was an interesting one I found.

For years I have driven past the pound at Okeford and wondered at the purpose behind it and then a random internet trawl turned up this picture. Apparently, stray animals would be herded into the pound to await rescue by their owners and this photo was from the restoration ceremony.

Saturday 23 September 2017

HELLO!!

Hello!!
Really find it hard to believe that the last blog I wrote was way back in February and I was in the middle of lambing - not an easy lambing year either. Sadly, I had some problems with toxoplasma which caused some abortions in the sheep and some who gave birth to strange little mummified things. In the end there were 72 lambs but a few were fairly weakly - all should have moved on by now but I still have eight who will be here until the end of the year! The rest grew well and have either gone to market, been sold as breeding stock or as pets. Thankfully, my favourite little wether (number 21) was bought as a pet - I really could not have taken him to market!

In has been such a long time since I wrote last that we are already into preparations for next year's lambing. The rams are in and a fair few are already marked. I have a new ram this year called Alfie - a blue texel - he is only young so time will tell what he manages.

We have finally found a few days to paint the outside of the house. It is still in progress but is already looking much better although the house sign is a bit of an issue!

Hay making went smoothly. In fact it went very well as Sam and Kristy were both here to help and no equipment broke down.

I think, as a catch up just a few photos might be good as there is too much to write and it would get a little tedious for any readers who are still here! So- in no particular order .........