My kind, gentle mother, who is now in a dementia support unit, has turned into an aggressive, bad tempered old lady who is threatening to beat up the other residents and is frightening even herself :(( It is giving me many sleepless nights but as soon as the dawn chorus starts up at 5am I know it will quickly soothe me back to sleep...it is such a relief and any country walk will distract me from my worries as I get so absorbed spotting the emerging wildlife and, of course, there is always something going on in the garden. Our latest new visitors are two very attractive red legged partridges...
But the very BEST and TOTAL distraction from my mother's issues are the two days when I am on lambing duty at the farm:))))
I cannot put into words how much I enjoy lambing time. This year we are lambing outside so it involves a lot of walking between the various fields which I actually like, because, as well as seeing the sheep enjoying the sunshine after the long cold winter, we are accompanied by the sound of Skylarks above, while Swallows swoop over the grass in front of us and it is not unusual to see a fox (although with vulnerable lambs around I would rather not) and we frequently spot roe deer...
We also walk through a field of cows owned by the farmer that shares the farm so one can always admire Wellington the bull who is thankfully very friendly...
And some of the new born calves...
But back to lambing. This year the Project has a breeding flock of a few Herdwicks as well as the usual Beulahs and Jacobs. The Herdwicks are nice sheep but they really make one appreciate our flock of Beulahs and Jacobs. Over the last few years of lambing the then grazing officer has carefully selected only those ewes with the best temperaments to breed from and this has paid off as they are now so easy to manage with even the first timers causing few problems. The Herdwicks however seem to have a tendency to prefer to be with each other rather than their new born lambs and are not too keen on humans being around but thankfully within a day or two they have settled down to enjoy family life more. Their lambs vary quite a lot from all black, to strange combinations of grey. This one, who I've name Koala because he looks like a Koala Bear, was the first Herdwick lamb born..
Our Jacobs were put to a different ram this year and we have had some handsome good sized lambs. These twins that my hubby is holding are only a day old but are quite big, weighty boys...
But there has to be one that lets the side down and this Jacob has to be one of the smallest I've seen, however, she stands up to her larger brother when at the milk bar so I think she will soon grow big and strong. I've named her Crowpecked as when we arrived the morning after her birth we found her tail and back legs were all bloody where, unfortunately, a crow had taken a liking to her tail and pecked two big holes in it. We carefully cleaned her up (it is important not to change the smell of a lamb especially around its back side as this is where the mother smells it as one of her own) and with a dose of antibiotics and some time in the barn it was looking more cheerful.
I find I am beginning to like sheep almost as much as horses. They frequently make me laugh with their antics and just as the Jacob managed to up-end me (see last post) so a Beulah had a good go at doing the same to my husband and everyone else in the vicinity...note the tangle of human legs...lol...:))))))
We are about half way through lambing so I will hopefully have a few more Ahhhh pictures in my next post but here are a few more to be going on with...
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