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Sunday 1 April 2018

First lambs

Our first lambs have been born. One, in the worst of the snow storm nights, lovely little Portland ewe lamb we are calling Snowflake and she is a beaut! Born in the field, in the snow, poor little might, but she survived and was swiftly tucked up with mum in a straw filled stable, as soon as we discovered her.
Water, mud and snow may have put back our opening time from Easter to May because the grass and driveway are just not ready to accept customers, but it has not stopped our lambing.

Apologies to all those who believe in purebred lambing, but we have crossed our Portland ram Moonlight with a couple of our Zwartble ewes this year, to see whether this crossbreeding enhances the flavour and quality of the meat. Never fear though, the Portland ewe lambs have been retained as purebreeds.
Not a bad year for our tiny flock, triplets, twins and a single Portland and the triplet ewe seems to be feeding all three without any supplements.
Have been a bit 'soft' and kept them in the stables for a couple of weeks and overnight for a few more nights, more to give them a bit more of a start and help the ewe with triplets to produce enough milk, before turning them out to face our wet and furious weather.
Put them in the sheltered reservoir garden for a few days, to crop the grass.....the ewes seem to love the pennywort on the walls!

Although we keep a few sheep, we do not profess to be shepherds or farmers and we aren't great at herding. We try hard, but I am sure most sheep farmers would find us embarrassing! So in an effort to perform a little better, we have decided to increase our menagerie with a 'man's best friend', one who is supposed to have a 'natural' instinct for herding sheep.
So, meet "Devonairs Quad" our newly acquired Australian kelpie.
Poor chap is on information overload at the moment, never been in a car before, not sure if he has ever had a bath before, never met horses, or geese, or chickens before. 
But he seems to be coping with it all, although very sensibly more than a little bit wary of the geese, who are particularly grumpy at the moment because they are laying lovely, large eggs.
And fortunately our labrador Rowan seems also to be coping with having a six month old puppy on the property. Let's hope they become best of friends.
  And let's also hope that spring is only just around the corner.


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