Lambing Update

Firstly it's been lovely to have some supportive messages and sharing of experiences following the last post. Today the situation is as follows. 4 down, 2 to go. It's seemingly been the longest week of our lives. Checking on sheep every 3/4 hours can only be described as 'hardcore.' That, or stupidity. Minty is up and out in the field. Sweetpea remains small and to be honest, Minty's not a great Mum. It's a bit like having the kid to get the benefits. Sweetpea survives but Mum really doesn't want her style cramped and often she is alone while Mum is elsewhere. She'll be topped up with milk if she remains skinny.
Luckily Aunty Ollie delivered her twins to keep Sweetpea company. Unluckily for us she chose to do this in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Yay Ollie. Just what I wanted with a full days work ahead of me to be standing in a barn at 1 in the morning listening to Ollie the first timer, baa-ing at world record decibel levels. To be all scouse about it "I felt ashamed." She was sort of like something out of One Born Every Minute making the most almighty fuss and drama. The scene was set. It was a mild, clear night. The barn owl hoots and there are no cars, planes (or number 29 buses) to disturb the night. A zillion rabbits hop on by (and the odd rat) and here's Ollie baa-ing roughly every 5 seconds loud enough to wake the teenagers in nearby Uckfield. But she had a lovely boy (Orion) and girl (Celeste) and they are incredibly different to any other lamb born. They are furry and soft and absolute crackers. All being well Celeste is already a keeper. Unfortunately for the lambs they have one loud mouthed Mother!
So that meant Minty could leave Sweetpea with Aunty Ollie and do her own thing. Thankfully Ols is the most amazing Mum and watching her instinct kick in on Wednesday morning and form those bonds was really magical. Again, the work of nature. Friday was a dire wet and cold sort of day so obviously lambs were going to be born. I returned home from work to find Rosemary standing as far away from the barn as you could possibly imagine with 2 soggy lambs at foot. Another girl and boy - beauties at that and after the sheer bloody minded task of getting 2 wriggly lambs and mega stressy Mum over a couple of acres, through a gate without the others following and then into the barn in the most diabolical rain for ages, so it all settled down and Bertie and Blossom stopped shivering.
Bonnie (my favourite) ewe was looking all funny and being very quiet last night so we penned her alone for the night. It's been a long and difficult week and I felt, after my heroics with Rosemary, that I'd earned a couple of glasses of Prosecco. Fatal error. I fell asleep during the final of Mastermind (rock and roll eh? But then, who on earth chooses Scottish lighthouses as a subject?) and fell into a deep slumber as the night wore on. Luckily DH did the 5am check. Unluckily the house phone ringing at that time of the morning sent me through the roof and, as I type, I haven't quite recovered from that. Bonnie was indeed in labour, but being Bonnie I felt assured she'd lamb ok and was excited to see what she produced. I did the decent wife thing and told DH to ring me when he saw a lamb and thought I'd drop back off to sleep. Needless to say I couldn't settle and DD had been woken earlier by her 'dear Daddy' switching the lights on and muttering about where to find the buggy key. So. We trudged down, in the rain, with the dogs, at a very unsociable Saturday morning time. I'm all for nature but clearly Bonnie was struggling. It became apparent that only 1 hoof and a nose was present so one leg was back. Reality kicked in with DH and I and you can stick any fluffy Springwatch "you just have to do this and it'll be alright" mentality. Mild panic set in when I realised I'd need to do something. My favourite ewe as well. Entirely green, nervous and concerned I put the marigolds on and DH disinfected them. Nope. Couldn't do anything. No frickin' idea what I was looking for or what to 'do' even though I knew I had to sort that leg out. The books don't prepare you for this. This is 'lambing live.' With Bonnie becoming tired and more distressed and time running out for the twin waiting I called our dear farmer friend from up the road and, as always, he proved to be an absolute star coming down. By the time he got here though I had got a hand in (so to speak) and Bonnie was pushing so hard that between us we created enough space to get the whole leg and head out. Still not ideal as the other leg was still back. A little worried for the lambs leg and completely shocked at a) how strong the contractions were (enough to push a human hand out) and b) how slippery it all was and subsequently how useless gloves were (but weirdly rationalising this in my head by wondering how I would retrieve my diamond rings back and if gelished nails would stand up to delivering lambs) Crispin stepped in and dragged lamb out, leg back and all. This is where experience in the real world counts in all walks of life. At this point I would have let Bonnie deliver her twin naturally. Had I done so it would have been dead. The twin was injesting some of it's delivered meconium and her own. Crispin, didn't leave it to nature and pulled it out, just saving it. So. Another girl and boy and much learned from Bonnie's experience. Alice and Alf by the way, in case you were wondering. First semi-delivered lamb by me, a good Sat morning laugh back at the farms household I'm sure! Mind you, I've provided plenty of those over the years! See the photos I've put on.

Weather: After a dismal start, its a lovely warm sunny afternoon! Come on the Double DD's!! Get lambing!

Sheepwatch

It's a bit like Baywatch only without the Hoff. Or the beach. Or Pammy...although we have some Ewes with serious udders right now...

Yes it's the annual sheep obsess time of year. Lambing time where the sheep - having ignored them for most of winter all of a sudden become very important. 3 hourly checks, 24 hours a day. This year, I did some cast iron research to gestation dates etc (well I Googled it) and came up with a lambing period from 6th April - 25th April. I realised this on the 12th April...oops. Minty delivered twins on 17th April. As only a sheep can she waited till DH was out on a full London day leaving DD and I to sort her out. She also decided lambing the day before the barn was being prepared was a good idea and then waited to deliver in the 20 minute window DD and I had to head up to the house, grab a drink and a wash. Sadly, in that time the 1st lamb was born and found dead in the sac. The second teeny lamb was fighting for air but after a quick clearance of the membrane and a brisk towel rub followed by a literal shove under Mum's nose all was OK. It's a moment of natural wonder one completely unexplainable in words as a mere human but an event that sums up all of our existence - nature. As little lamb and a very tired, traumatised Mum bonded so the dead lamb was removed but not before Mum struggled up, sniffed it and gave a pitiful bleat before throwing all her efforts into cleaning her live lamb up. Nature is all about survival. DD at 6 was 100% entirely accepting of what happened - there was no 'disneyfied' way of glossing over this. No magic involved or any such thing. Happy to say, 4 days in Sweet pea (as she has been named) is doing extremely well though no lamb friends yet...


Yes I am thoroughly fed up of staring at sheep's bums. It's not a usual past time of mine (though I've met plenty of ar*es in life to date.) Every time a Ewe is quiet/loud, sitting/standing, alone/with flock I'm convinced it's a sign lamb(s) on the way. As I type - nothing more. Though I'm sure you can guess what I'll be doing after I hit 'post.' In saying that I'm being utterly lazy and viewing them by day using the binoculars I've got upstairs. Who knows what the patrons of the number 29 think? Quite frankly, who cares?

Each night the sheep are rounded up and put in the 'maternity barn.' Not difficult as they're greedy beggars and will follow anyone for a sheep nut. Then it's a case of flooring the golf buggy every few hours straining to hear a new bleat in the dead of night. All you can hear at the moment is my cursing at the said buggy and its dodgy carburetter leaving me stranded with Blaze more often than not! Last night it managed to do it a 10pm, leaving me no choice than to call the DH to retrieve the buggy as I trudged back with my 'security labrador' (ha!) and a torch with a dodgy connection that keeps going into 'strobe' mode giving the dog and I some funny eye turns.

So I'll update with news and pics as I've more to report. In other news, the swallows are back in the garage for the 3rd year running. The bats are awake much earlier than usual. A young kestrel is back surveying the fields - a bird lost last year by a dominant sparrowhawk. The buzzards are here as usual and we have tits, wrens, brown birds all nesting around the house and a gorgeous family of bullfinches nesting in the hedge. Lovely to see nature so close. Took DD on a wild flower hunt and she loved it. Being a City girl we both learned an incredible amount and I've promised to take her wild flower spotting by the stream - given she can trip up over fresh air I reckon I'll have to attach a mountaineering type harness to us both!

Have some new chickens to bring you up to date with. Blimey, that's all drama and a half too but for now, you'll just have to wait. Hen-asty will be on soon, tune in next time for another Sheepwatch...

Mind your udders...
Mx


Weather: Mild, sunny, dry... Land facing soil analysis though. By god it's taken a battering this winter. Still spongy in parts from total flooding.