I have a naughty hen at the moment that has decided to lay her delicious eggs anywhere but her hen house. First it was the wood shed where the lambing gates are stored, but when we took them away for the lambing shed, she went on her travels again... Her latest 'plot'/ nest is at the entrance of the driveway to the farm, right next to the busy road!!!Typical....
Lambings very much here, and its been a busy couple of weeks. My mother-in-law Anne is the main lamber on the farm, and has been busy down in the shed day and night. My contribution to lambing this year has not been as full on as the past few years because of baby dunc, but I have managed to fit some lambing duties into my baby routine! In the mornings, after Duncans feed, I dress him up into his snowsuit, and bundle him into his buggy, and wheel him down into the lambing shed. He quietly observes the sheep and lambs, while I feed and water all the pens of sheep that have already lambed. Its a great way to keep him occupied, and get him used to the sound and sight of animals. After a while down in the shed, he gets tired, and becomes a bit grizzly with all the 'baaaas' and 'bheees', but with a gentle rock of his buggy (and a wee suck of his dummy) he manages to drift off into a wee sleep, so I can finish off my duties, as well as feed these two wee men! (above pic).These guys are very cute, and they welcome me in the mornings with a very high pitched 'bheeee'! They are currently under a heat lamp, and being fed by us to keep them strong. They were too small and weak to stay with their mothers, so we had to take them off her, so we could look after them, and keep them alive. They are the size of little kittens, but doing really well!
I currently have a very broody hen who has been sitting on eggs for a few days...unfortunately her eggs aren't fertilised, so I have turned them into pancakes, and through the power of Ebay, ordered half a dozen Cuckoo Maran eggs so she can hatch them! Its crazy how you can order eggs on Ebay, but wonderful for times like this!I really hope they are fertile, and that myhen hatches them successfully!
We are days away from lambing, and after all the cold weather we dont have any grass. When the snow melted, it exposed what little grass we had, and what their is, is almost dead, and needing some heat about it to make it grow. This is a concern, as once the sheep have lambed, we put them outside into the fields, and if their is no grass in the fields, their is no food for the sheep. So we needed to look for a cost effective way to feed the sheep while the grass tries to grow! Turnips were the answer, and this morning an artic load were delivered, all ready to be munched on!! It takes the sheep a few days to get used to the taste, but once sampled a few times, they love them.
A lot of turnips.....I think Duncan forgot how much an artic could hold!!! But at least we'll have happy sheep!!
After seeing so much snow over January & February, we had really hoped to see the back of it, especially with lambing fast approaching. We are due to start in a few days, so we really want to get the sheep indoors before any lambs are born outside in this new dump of wet, nasty snow!
It is so much harder to feed the sheep, as the snow is too deep for the quad bike to pull the snacker (above). We have had to hitch the snacker onto the back of a tractor to reach the sheep up on the higher ground! The snacker has been a great piece of machinery this winter. We have been feeding the sheep with it since the 28th of December, as the grass has been lacking in so much nutrition because of all the cold weather. The snacker is divided into two parts, the small part holds treacle, and the large part, mixed grains. When the wheels of the snacker move, it turns a wheel, which mixes the treacle with the grains, which then drops the mix onto the ground in small clumps! The sheep go mad for it, as it has everything in it to make their baby lambs grow.
Quad bike noise equals food! They can hear it from fields away, so are always at the fence to greet the bike!
We bought a plain Beige sofa around 4 years ago, and I have just found it too boring for our colourful cottage. I bought some wonderful stripy fabric from Ikea around a year ago, and have been meaning to use it for ages...so between baby naps this week I finally got round to covering the scatter cushionson the sofa, and this is the result
I'm pretty pleased with it, and I feel it is in keeping with the rest of the cottage now. It was the wonderful colour and stripes of Gudrum Sjodens Spring Catalogue that inspired me to do this...but on an ikea budget which is even nicer!!
Don't you just love discovering new and exciting websites and blogs. Over the last few days I seem to have been doing a lot of 'internet-ing'. It really is amazing what is available on the web! Over the last few days I have done everything from booking baby swimming lessons, to buying baby D a mini wetsuit for his lessons, to finally ordering some relief paint for the many goldfish bowls I need to paint for my new order! Whilst booking and buying these bits and bobs, I came across a wonderful website called Mable & Violet. I have spied some wonderful wallpaper for me:
and for Baby D
So far this week I have been busy painting a new order of Wedding Table centres in the form of goldfish bowls for a wedding in September, but she would like them for April...so its all systems go!!!
We've also been busy treating sheep for an eye infection, sometimes known as snow eye! Around 40 developed it over the snowy weeks. It temporally affects their sight, which is caused by the reflection of the snow. So we have had to apply cream, and in some cases inject them, to help their full sight return.It is a very stressful time for sheep, as they are heavily in lamb, so we have to be very gentle when we work with them, so they don't abort their lambs early. We are due to start lambimg in the 1st week of April. Have you seen Lambing Live on BBC2? It has been a tremendous documentary following all the work, effort and emotions that go into a lambing!
It was also my first Mothers Day on Sunday which was very special, I got a cute tub of daffodils. Duncan is now 11weeks old, and really starting to interact and smile lots!
