Thursday 26 October 2017

Fat bottomed girls

My bruising is now fading but sadly my body disintegration continues as I now have to have a tooth out - and it is not at the back!!  If I never smile again you will know why.  I knew it was coming but have been putting it off for as long as I can.  No longer can it wait and I will have a gap which will have to remain as a gap for the time being as the cost of a bridge is extortionate.  What next?!

Alpacas are doing fine but not enjoying all this wet weather.  Hopefully, we are soon in for a bit more drier, colder weather.  The main group of sheep have happily settled up in third field where they have more grass than I think they have ever had at this time of year.  This does mean they are getting a trifle fat which is not necessarily a good thing as we don't want birthing issues and over size lambs.  Time will tell!

The Welshies have settled beautifully and, despite still being on the wild side, I managed to move them without any help.  Not all of them have been mated yet so it looks like a very extended lambing for them  next year.
And now it is back to knitting - more arm warmers needed!!
 

Wednesday 18 October 2017

Feet and remarkable bruising

Well this really has been a bit of a week!  On Saturday we went Winchester way to collect my new draft Welsh ewes.  Sam's boss kindly lent us his trailer as it would have been a bit of a squash with ours for 30 ewes.  They need to be fairly close together so they don't fall but I don't like to see them all squashed too tight.  I had a message the day before to say one had a slight limp but had been sprayed and sheep do tend to have a knack of limping so I wasn't too worried.  They went into the trailer easily with limper amongst them and when we got back I had a close look at her.  Poor girl had obviously been bitten by a dog and had a nasty infected ankle so was given antibiotics and put in a pen under cover with lots of 'treats'  They are all pretty wild so I am not sure she appreciated her treats much!  Her ankle still has not properly mended despite me squeezing vast quantities of puss out of it so tomorrow I am going to try a turmeric poultice and see if I can get more infection out.  Despite this, she is very perky and has now decided she loves ivy and sheep nuts.  Any sheep who is off colour gets ivy and willow - ivy seems too get them eating and appears to have some sort of healing properties for sheep.  Willow, I think, has some sort of pain killer action - they certainly like it!
I was a bit worried about handling the rest of the Welshies as they are a bit wild and I thought I would struggle to get them all penned or moved on my own.  Once we got them off the trailer and gave them all their quarantine wormers etc I didn't think I would be getting them in very easily, even with Carl, Sam and Kristy. BUT they are the most easy sheep ever! Despite being wild they flock at the drop of a hat and once flocked they do not break out! Amazing as even without a dog you get behind them and shoo them and they go into the pen no bother with no one trying to split out - we did it twice to check it wasn't a fluke!  Sorry for the quality of the picture.
Some of the Welshies meeting Alf the ram

After all that excitement I hoped for a quiet week as I have lots of knitting to finish but I then had a bit of a disaster which I put down to my age.  Rushing out to the car I tripped on the top step, head butted the car and landed heavily on my knees and (any gentlemen readers may wish to skip to the last paragraph (- but do not fear, there are no photos!) landed heavily on my right 'bumper' (I can think of no more delicate way of putting it)  It is now remarkably bruised - in fact it is black and red - a quite breath taking sight!

Italian classes are a little hard going and I am struggling a bit with a message I received from my Italian friend which reads "Ê già passato un anno Nana Malefica! Auguri Nilde "orecchi a patatina" "
which appears to be something about a malevolent troll with potato ears!! 

Tuesday 10 October 2017

Head butting

Up pretty late tonight as Carl is away and I set my self a list of jobs to do and I am determined to finish them before retiring!  Not that going to bed seems to do any good these days as come 1 o'clock in the morning I am up again -  probably an age thing!

The rams are now all out and back in their own paddock without too much arguing.  Walnut received an almighty head butt from Kane which put him in his place and he has not tried his luck since, which I am not surprised about as the sound of heads clashing reverberated inside the truck.

 
Getting in between two rams intent on fighting is not to be advised - their heads are very hard and there is a lot of power there!
 
Branson and Pickle - the two cria - are growing well.  They have not been handled much at the moment - halter training will have to start in a month or so.  They need to get used to being gently handled before a halter makes an appearance which is fun apart from when the dreaded Lina makes an appearance.  Lina is not Mum to either of them but is very protective.  Come to think of it she is very protective of anything!  There are two little ram lambs in with them at the moment as I didn't have any where else to put them.  They can't go in with the big rams or they will be terrorised and they can't go with the ewe lambs as we would risk underage mums!  When I was checking their feet the other day Lina got in rather a panic when she saw them being sat on their bottoms.

 
 
The shawl I am knitting is making progress but is, probably, the most difficult thing I have ever tackled.  At the moment it looks like a complete mess but I hope once finished and blocked it will miraculously turn into something elegant.
 


Thursday 5 October 2017

Sheep everywhere!

Quite a successful week in many ways!  Almost all the ewes are now marked which means there should be a fair few lambs arriving in February.  In fact, 55 ewes are sporting red, yellow and blue bottoms which could work out at rather a lot of lambs!  I sourced another 20 ewes to join the flock and they should have arrived a  month ago but they were delayed and are now arriving next weekend which is not ideal as they will have to be quarantined before the ram goes in so they are going to be a bit late.  They are having a bit of a change of scene as they are Draft ewes from the Welsh hills - too old for rough grazing so they have been selected, or drafted, out of the flock to move to better grazing.  They are beginning to loose their teeth so need a slightly easier life (something I know all about but that is a dental story!).  It does mean they are a lot cheaper and they should be fine to lamb  but they will be a little on the wild side so that will be fun!  We go to pick them up in a weeks time and will need double decks in the trailer which is something we have not used before but Sam is coming as well which is a good thing.  The reason he is keen to help is that he is also having 10 so a total of thirty will be arriving but his will go to the field he is renting once they are in lamb.

The alpacas are mostly doing well with the exception of poor Rascal who is still troubled by her skin and now has very swollen eyes.  I am going to try some anti-inflammatories as nothing else is helping.  This is her from when she was born with her mum Bert.  Bert was my all time favourite alpaca who sadly had to go after a hip injury which, despite an operation, never fully mended.
 
Now must get back to my knitting as I am knitting the most complicated shawl I have ever knitted!