Thank you!!

Well!  What a lovely surprise I had just now!  Took me a while, due to the amount of mud around, to sort out all the animals - third field can only be accessed by foot at the moment.  After a quick trip to the vet to pick up a few lambing essentials I got home to find the post man had been and left a parcel.  Thank you so much Willie!  Willie had told me all about an alpaca scarf he had seen in Blandford - and he sent it to me!  It is beautiful and lovely and soft, certainly will not be ruining it by wearing it in the field.  I had to hang it up quickly as the cat was eyeing it up thinking it would make a lovely warm bed on such a grey, damp day!

 

You are a star Willie!!

A pile of cats!

The cats have sense - best place to be!

Poor Gracie

 With only three weeks to go until lambing, preparations are well underway.  The ewes are beginning to get a bit grumpy and like their own personal space with old black welsh mountain 47 being the worst.  She does not want any other ewe any where near her and waddles around, head own, butting any other sheep that ges get in her way.  The three ancient, toothless sheep are still a bit on the thin side and are having extra rations which they love hopefully, they will only have a single lamb each as I don't think they will cope well with twins.  Apart from that everyone is looking good with the exception of poor Gracie.  On Thursday I was greeted by Gracie with a huge prolapse - as this is not a topic all will want to read about I will put the next bit in a separate paragraph (feel free to skip!!)

So - Gracie is the daughter of one of my favourite sheep who sadly died a couple of  years ago.  Last year Gracie lambed for the first time and it was not an easy lambing and ended up with her having a caesarean.  Now, technically, after such a problem birth Gracie should not really have been put in lamb again and should have gone on but, being rather a favourite I decided to give her another year and that may have been a mistake.  Why she has prolapsed I do not know but putting it back in on your own in the middle of a field is not the easiest of tasks!!  After a lot of lubricating and pushing we were finally back in and she then had a spoon in to keep it in place and a harness to keep that all in and she now does not look too bad.  Now got to keep fingers crossed it does not pop out again and that I can get the lambs out when they are ready.  She will be going in a pen when she is closer to lambing so I can keep a very close eye on her.

Win is getting up again now and I am about to go and brave the mud to take hay an water round  There are murmurings of snow on the weather forecast but, although it does now seem to be getting cooler it only looks like yet more rain to me.....I may be wrong!

Alpaca weekend

It has been so wet I am now struggling to get around third field - so glad there is not long now until the sheep come back down.  Thee weatherman says a colder snap is on the way and, as long as it is dry, that will be no bad thing.

This weekend is a busy alpaca time as all the alpacas need their extra shots of vitamin D on Saturday, two girls - Belinda and Zara - need to be checked over to make sure they are good to go to their new home the following weekend.  Belinda has been here for a long time so it will be sad to see her go and Zara, although she has not been here as long, is a gentle sweet girl who will also be missed.  Then on Sunday it is off to the other side of Winchester to check on the herd we look after there.

1st January 2018

Well, another new year!  New Year's Eve passed fairly quietly here as we had spent all day getting sheep ready for lambing in February.  They needed their annual booster to guard against various diseases and protect the unborn lambs.  This meant gathering everyone which is not always a simple task but this time it went fairly smoothly with only the badger faced ewes refusing to cooperate.  Carl, Sam and Kristy were in charge of rounding everyone up whilst I ran in front with the bucket but they ended up with little to do but lounge on the quad as all 84 ewes chased me and the bucket down the hill perfectly (except the badgers!).

 

The Dorpers have been temporarily corralled in the barn as it was too wet to do their feet properly but they are quite happy there

So now it is back to normality - tree and decorations coming down tomorrow, alpacas need halter training, lambing supplies to organise and church to clean!!