The toboganning sheep and other sheep adventures

Saturday 7th April 2018
Brown ram lamb has taken to the bath tub recently. Rambo is bemused.

Monster chicks, your time is up
The day started off with a bit of chicken culling. The time had come for some of the monster chicks as four of them met their maker. They have grown absolutely massive compared to the traditional breed meat birds we have been keeping. Two we jointed and two we kept whole for roasting. They were 3 and 3.4kg. Yes, kilograms, not pounds! I'll write a blog in the near future to summarise our experience of raising the monster chicks.

Fun and games with Rambutan
With Rambutan now two weeks old (how time flies) and looking strong, we decided it was time to move him and mum down to the paddock with the other ewes and last year's lambs.
The actual move was remarkably easy. Rambutan is being bottle fed, so he just followed me all the way down the land. The biggest difficulty was not tripping over him. And Ewe 0004 followed Rambutan.

There was the expected hustle and tussle when everybody met up again. This is always the most difficult time for the lamb as the ewes reacquaint themselves and sort out the pecking order. For maybe half an hour the lamb is vulnerable. Rambutan got butted over a couple of times but lambs bounce back up very effectively. However the young ram lamb was being a bit rough with him . I had considered this might happen. Luckily rams come with horns which in an emergency act as a good handle for catching hold of them. The only reason he had moved up with the ewes was because grass was in short supply in the top paddock, but now that spring is allegedly here that won't be an issue for much longer.

It was time for the older ram lamb to come back up to the top paddock with Rambo and brown ram lamb. For an hour or so he probably wished he had been gentler with Rambutan as the other too chased him around the paddock. Order was soon established though and no serious damage was done.

With that operation over and done, I headed for the veg plot where the soil was freshly worked and dry enough for me to plant my first early potatoes and my onion sets. The potatoes especially are a couple of weeks later going in than I would have liked, but sometimes in the UK you just have to bend with the weather.
I kept checking on Rambutan and was happy to see him following mum around the paddock, now separated from the rest of the flock. Everything had settled down after all the initial excitement.

I decided to take the dogs for a walk around the circuit path which passes the sheep. Boris and Arthur are fantastic farm dogs who have grown up with other animals. In a young lamb Arthur just sees the potential for another friend.
As we passed the sheep paddock, Rambutan came running over but he didn't stop at the electric fence. He carried on straight through it and started following me. The trouble with bottle feeding is that he now thinks I am his other mum.
I tried putting him back over the fence but every time he came back through. In the end I gave up and let him trot round the circuit with me and the dogs.  It must have been quite a sight! When we got back towards the farmhouse I put him over some metal hurdles to go back in with the flock and left them to it.

I briefly forgot about the sheep as somebody turned up to buy some of our turkey eggs for hatching out. I introduced them to Rambo, who turned on his charms, and we chatted about sheep and chickens and turkeys. It was at this point that the whole sheep moving plan went wrong. For our neighbour turned up on the doorstep holding Rambutan! He had become separated from mum again and was trying to get in with next door's four ram lambs.
I am not sure if he had actually got through the stock fence to next door, but they were worried about him if they took their hounds (their word, not mine) along the path, for they are not trained to be with livestock.

And so, for now, Rambutan and Ewe 0004 have returned to the back lawn. I shall have to come up with another plan!

Rumours of a resurrection would seem to be true

So here's a quick update on the sheep situation. After a poor prognosis from the vet, Ewe 0004 picked herself back up enough to deliver two live lambs, but the effort of the labour took it out of her.
Saturday 24th March 2018
After last night's surprise twins, Mum and both lambs were doing ok.

We were confident enough of their health to go out for the evening to the first meeting of the Fenland Smallholders Club Winemaking group.



We had a lovely evening, but a horrible shock was waiting for us when we got home. For one of the lambs was breathing its last few breaths. Despite our best efforts there was nothing to do to save it. It had seemed the strongest of the two.
Here is the last picture we have from its sadly short life.

Sunday 25th March 2018
We kept mum and the remaining lamb in the stables today, but mum is hardly eating and we have started to bottle feed the lamb.

Monday 26th March 2018

With mum still not eating I decided to move her and the lamb onto the back lawn. The lamb followed me out of the stable and into its new enclosure and mum followed the lamb. Straight away she started munching away at the grass and she even had a nibble on a mangel wurzel. The lamb is still being bottle fed.

Rain was forecast overnight so I put mum and lamb back in the stables overnight.

Tuesday 27th March 2018

A cold, soggy day. I constructed a shelter for the lamb to keep out of the wind and rain. Mum has taken another turn for the worse today. Things are not looking good for her and she looks like she has given up. I have come up with an exit plan for her should I think that she is suffering too much.
Meanwhile the lamb has been enthusiastically chasing a chicken around the pen all day!

Wednesday 28th March 2018
Ewe 0004 has not been seen to eat or drink for two whole days now. She occasionally gets up and wanders around her pen sniffing at the various food offerings but not being in the least bit tempted.
I think it is only having her lamb with her which is keeping her going.
At the lamb's midnight feed there was a heavy frost. Of course the sheep are adapted to deal with this, but I am not sure how a very sickly ewe is going to cope.

Thursday 29th March 2018
Seemingly oblivious to the heavy overnight frost, Rambutan the lamb was bouncing around his pen early morning.
Mum was licking the water from the hurdles - the first time I have seen her even drink since Monday.
I threw in a couple of mangel wurzel tops before I left for work and she actually had a very light nibble on the leaves.
Things remained the same when I returned for the lunchtime bottle feed, with Ewe 0004 still nibbling very lightly at the mangels and a little bit of straw - sometimes just a little bit of something really plain can be what we need to start a recovery, but I don't want to build up any hopes. Ewe 0004 has been up and down for too long now and every glimmer of hope seems to be quickly snuffed out by a downturn.
When I returned from work late afternoon, mum was walking around the pen much more and showing none of the adverse symptoms of recent days. She is obviously still weak and has lost a lot of weight and we are most definitely not out of the woods. But I am not giving up and it seems neither is she.
Friday 30th March 2018
Mum has been nibbling at various offerings today. A bit of mangel wurzel, a bit of cabbage, a bit of dried up old leaf, a bit of willow bark. She is clearly still not back to normal, but this is another slight improvement. She seems more assured on her legs and generally more alert. I don't want to get my hopes up, but things could be worse.
Saturday 31st March 2018
Ewe 0004 was eating grass for the first time today. Not a lot, but it was great to see her grazing again. She tried some of the soaked sugar beet pulp too.
Sunday 1st April 2018
Well, if you'd told me on Wednesday that Ewe 0004 would still be alive today, I would have taken it for some kind of sick April Fool's joke.
But she is. She has cabbage, willow, mangel wurzel, hay, grass, oats, sugar beet and carrots to choose from! She isn't exactly eating a lot but nibbles at bits and pieces.

I think she'll have company soon, hopefully not another sick ewe but the other fawn ewe is looking very, very pregnant indeed.

Monday 2nd April 2018
More improvements today. Rambutan goes from strength to strength. He runs over to me for milk four times a day, though he usually wants it about an hour before it is due.
Ewe 004 seems much stronger. She is confident on her feet and stamps the ground when the dogs appear to look at the lamb. She is eating various bits and pieces, from willow bark to banana skins to brassica leaves.
Tuesday 3rd April
If it weren't for Rambutan, I would try moving Ewe 0004 down to the paddocks with the rest of the ewes. But there is always a bit of head butting as they settle back in and this can be a worrying time for the lambs. Besides, with bottle feeding it makes sense to keep the pair close to the house. With all this recent rain, they may be the only way I can get the lawn mown for quite some time.

So that's it. I don't want to declare the problem over yet, but the future is looking a  lot brighter than a week ago.
Where we go from here with the sheep I do not know. If we carry on breeding then it is unlikely Ewe 0004 will stay with us. But that is a big IF.
We just feel that we are in beyond our depth. Even though Shetland sheep pretty much do it by themselves,there have still been significant worries every year. This is mainly down to our lack of experience, but that experience often comes through some very worrying times.
It is lovely having lambs each year and an economical way of getting sheep for meat, but at the same time we have to maintain our breeding flock which often involves having to keep males and females separate. This has implications for our land use, plus keeping horned rams means that we cannot afford the sheep with any sort of decent shelter, for it just gets destroyed.

So what if we don't continue to breed? Well, Rambo would have to go, which I would find hard. The older ewes would probably go too, maybe over a couple of years as that is a lot of mutton! We used to just get orphan lambs in each year to rear up. This worked well in terms of resting the land over winter but we often couldn't get them before the grass was knee high and going to seed. This was the main reason we decided to get our own flock.

But there is a third way. We could keep a non breeding stock of Shetlands, mainly for grass cutting and for wool. Then we could just bring in what we need for meat each year.

We have a few months to decide, so no knee-jerk reactions.

Felt Flowers

17th March 2018
Cooking and Crafts for a Cold Day
More snow and biting cold easterlies again. It wasn't the best day to choose to move a new house into the turkey enclosure, but they have started laying now and need somewhere to sit.
That was it for outdoor jobs. This was a perfect day for cooking and crafts.

First up was a parsnip cake - a bit like carrot cake but, you've guessed it, with parsnips instead. Easy apart from the grated parsnips!
I had dug up too many parsnips so made parsnip and potato hash browns for the freezer too. It's astonishing how much mess grating a kg of root veg can make!
The parsnips are lovely and sweet now - reputedly they sweeten up if left to stand a few frosts.

Next up was my first ever felting. Sue purchased a box full of different coloured merino wool for her birthday. One day we hope to be able to prepare our own wool from the Shetland sheep and dye them with natural dyes from the farm.
The actual process of felting is somewhat magical. You simply arrange tufts of wool as you want them, which is hard to judge when you've no idea what's going to happen, then agitate them with increasing vigour sandwiched between layers of bubblewrap. The fibres of the wool intermingle inextricably until felt is formed. And that's it.

Mine is the best one. 

18th March 2018
Things are Looking Up
A busy day ahead. It started well with Ewe 0004 finally standing up and looking a little stronger. I am still feeding her the bright pink glucose liquid. I think she actually quite likes it, but I can tell she is getting stronger by her initial resistance. Up till now she has been too weak to protest.

Today was the Grow Your Own group, hosted by some members down in Ramsey. I had arranged to visit a smallholding on the way with a view to it opening up for a summer smallholders meeting. I had also arranged to pick up a meat slicer which I had jumped on when it came up on Facebook. Three birds with one stone.

The smallholding I visited was delightful, even in the harsh weather. I was greeted by four very large, barking dogs. A few years ago I would have buckled and turned away, but I am now a dog lover (once I know they are definitely friendly). They no longer smell the fear in me.
Then it was time to meet the goats. I have not yet kept goats (note the 'yet') but I am always surprised by how friendly they are and how soft their coat is. I am co-ordinating a Goaty Day (nothing to do with funny little beards) for the Smallholders Club late in the year. Hopefully I will be able to resist their temptations. Seriously though, they are one of the trickier species of livestock to keep so I don't think we'll be getting one any time soon.
This is a shame, for I do fancy the idea of our own dairy products. A cow is out of the question and I am pretty sure the Shetland sheep would strongly object to being milked.

I stayed longer than I should have on the smallholding so was late leaving for the Grow Your Own group get together his wasn't helped by the total absence of mobile internet signal in Ramsey. Maybe I am too reliant on my smartphone.
Anyway, the meeting was most enjoyable as usual. We discussed perennial vegetables - ones that you just plant one year and reap the harvest for many more years. Asparagus, rhubarb, globe artichoke, Jerusalem artichoke to name a few. Oh that all vegetables were like this.
Everybody brings food along to these get-togethers. There is always way too much to eat and plenty of cake!

It was late afternoon when I returned to the farm. Time to give Ewe 0004 her last dose of glucose and to hand feed the wonky-necked Silkie hen. She is not yet showing any signs of improvement but we will persist for a while yet.
Her twisted neck causes her occasionally to completely lose her sense of orientation. It shouldn't be funny, but after feeding her, if you put her outside her little house facing away from it, as soon as you let go she quickly retracts backwards into the house. It is hilarious to watch. You have to have a sense of humour when things go wrong (paired with a strong sense of compassion).

The Beast From The East Approaches

By the time I get round to publishing this post, The Beast from the East may well be the Blast from the Past, but here goes anyway.

Monday 26th February 2018

A terrible practical joke

The beast from the east is looming. We had a light dusting of snow and the cold air outside is starting to feel more uncomfortable than invigorating.

Worst of all, somebody had decided to play a practical joke on me and fill the pond up with tiny polystyrene balls.

I decided to light the fire and stay inside sowing seeds.

Arthur was not well today, which is always worrying. He was sick several times and was feeling very sorry for himself.

Tuesday 27th February 2018

Snow surprise

A fairly restless night as Arthur was sick twice more... on the bed!

I eventually woke up just short of 9 o'clock to see snow falling thick and fast outside.

Gerry was in two minds whether to go out or not.

I let the poultry out. Some of them were pretty bemused. Only Elvis, the guinea fowl and some of the geese have ever seen this much snow before.

Considering their tropical origins, guinea fowl are incredibly hardy.

They spent the night outside on the fence as usual.

Elvis is a veteran of the snow

The most snow the Muscovies have ever seen. They seemed unperturbed.

I checked that the turkey netting was not accumulating snow and let down the brassica netting before it weighed down too much. Then I wheeled a fresh load of hay down to the sheep. They are incredibly hardy and look in their element in this weather. I doubt the cold and wet penetrate very far at all into their thick, lanolin filled fleece.

The Shetland sheep don't even bat an eyelid.

They make Northerners look like soft Southerners!

For today that was it for snow. In fact it turned into a sunny day, with just the occasional flurry, and by late afternoon most of the snow was gone again. But we are in for colder days and may be lucky to see the thermometer top zero before the weekend.

News on Arthur. He is gradually looking better, although still feeling more than a little sorry for himself. He did venture outside for a little bit of fresh air while Boris engaged in the fruitless task of chasing snow balls!

A Fedge Cathedral

Sunday 28th January 2018
A New Fancy Fedge
I have been trying to arrange a fedging work party for ages and today everything came together.
A fedge is a cross between a hedge and a fence, exploiting the unstoppable urge of willow to take root and grow apace.
This can not be done when the ground is hard and frosty and is no fun in the rain, which is why I changed it from yesterday. Today's weather was perfect - exceptionally mild, dry and not too breezy. The only unforeseen problem was that the bees were out in force while we were trying to harvest the willows right next to the hives.
I had to tell one of the participants quite forcefully that it really wasn't a good idea to stand in front of the hives watching them. Meanwhile, I lopped the new growth off as quickly as I could.
Each willow yielded about 50 whips up to 12 foot or more in length - amazing.

The team was a good one and the students listened well. I was happy to let them make decisions and get on with things on their own. By lunch we had the willow harvested and sorted, the ground fabric in place and all 22 uprights in place.

After lunch I showed Dans and Tom how to weave in the binders which stabilise the uprights, then in went the weavers. This is the most satisfying part where everything suddenly comes together. Final job was to tie everything in, trim off the loose ends and decide the final design for the top.

This was my most ambitious fedge to date, with two straight lengths linking in to a central archway.
It will provide a fitting entrance to my new butterfly and bee meadow area which is being sown later this year.

All finished. One wonky upright which I will replace.

Dr Dolittle relaxes in the evening

In the evening I prepared a Jerusalem Artichoke and Orange Salad, another meal which Sue awarded more than ten out of ten!

Monday 29th January 2018

A New Wether Map

First job of the day was to move one of the young male sheep down to the main paddocks. There is no grass left in the top paddock so the sheep are reliant on hay and sugar beet nuts. I would move them all, but the brown wether needs a proper fence and Rambo needs to be kept away from his daughters.

Rambo with  the brown wether - no name as he will be dinner later in the year.

He can't be down in the paddocks as he ducks under the electric fence with impunity.

This young wether (castrated male) has been moved down with the ewes.

He is small so I am keen to get him onto longer grass. 

He spent his first day being very rammy.

I put some finishing touches to the archway in the fedge, mindful of a forecast of rain later in the morning.

It didn't let down and came suddenly enough to drench me. 

Wandering Geese
The geese have been wandering further and further in search of grass and managed to find where the fence ends. They wandered into next door's paddocks. This was never a problem when Don lived next door, but the geese need to learn that this is now out of bounds.

I herded them back, but was not about to start working on the fence in the rain.

Half an hour later they were back next door!

The geese can get around remarkably quickly when they want and can be both stubborn and stupid in equal measure.

Tomorrow I will attend to the fence.

Winding down for winter

Monday 13th November 2017
A birdy day
The gorgeous, crisp weather continues.
I spent the day cleaning the chicken houses and liberally applying diatomaceous earth to keep spider mite and lice at bay.
After that I topped up the bird feeders. They've been empty for a while as I didn't want to be feeding the rats, but now that the annual incursion seems to be under control I can revert to feeding the needy birds.

Tuesday 14th November 2017
Thank god for Kevlar gloves!
Most of my day was spent pruning gooseberry bushes and I didn't even get the job finished. I was on my hands and knees clearing under the bushes and clearing the lower branches, many of which had drooped and started to root in the ground.
Last year we got very few gooseberries. Let's hope my efforts are rewarded this coming year. The rather messy looking cardboard you see on the ground is how I keep the grass down between the soft fruit bushes. It doesn't look too pretty but it is very effective and the soil underneath is kept in excellent condition. I mulch on top of the cardboard and it just disappears.
I had plenty of help from the chickens who enjoyed scratching about in the newly disturbed earth and litter. They do an important job clearing away bug eggs and larvae from under the bushes.

Rambo goes into action
For the first time today I actually saw Rambo getting it on with one of the ewes. Number 3 it was. We should really use a raddle, which I swear is a made up word from ram and saddle. It is basically a coloured marker so you can see when the ram has done his job. We don't bother with this as we are fairly laissez faire about it, but I have to admit it would be nice to know more precisely what to expect in 145 days time. Note for next year.

Welcome return of the Tree Sparrow

With the recent cold weather, winter bird numbers are starting to build up on the smallholding. There were 6 Reed Buntings today and 14 Meadow Pipits.

I was delighted to see a Tree Sparrow back and a Greenfinch (both sadly scarce birds now). Presumable they have already been lured by the freshly topped up feeders.

Wednesday 15th November 2017

Fog

Not much to see.

This was about as good as visibility got today.

Friday 17th November 2017

Fire in the sky

These days I have to dash home from work to take the dogs for a walk and give the chickens their afternoon feed. Today there was an amazing sunset, gone as quickly as it came. Unfortunately the phone battery went dead just as it was developing, but you get the idea.

Saturday 18th November
A New Dust BathHere's the special dust bath which I built the chickens. The paddling pool is full of dry sand with diatomaceous earth mixed in, so that when the poultry decide to use it for dust bathing it will kill any lice and creepy crawlies hiding in their feathers. Unfortunately the chickens don't quite know how to use it yet. In fact, Arthur is showing more interest.

Sheep moving day
Main job for the day was sheep worming which went very smoothly. After this we separated the ram lambs from the ewe lambs as the paddock up here is not large enough to keep five sheep going in winter time.

Maybe some good news for the turkeys

With this completed so easily, there was time to move the chicken pen. I thought this would be a four person job, but it was surprisingly easy (once I'd removed the ground pegs!).

This gives the Ixworth chicken trio some new ground to go on, but more importantly makes space for a new turkey enclosure. The turkeys will appreciate the nettle growth. They are about the only livestock which effectively deals with these.

My hope is that I might be able to let a couple outside the cage each day and that they will hang about because the other birds are still there. I can't do this at the moment as their housing is too close to the boundary fence and next door's dogs. It would be lovely to let them free-range again, at least in a limited manner.

Ramalamadingdong!

Sunday 22nd October 2017

Sheep moving day.
Near the beginning of August Rambo has to move away from his ewes. This year he moved up to the farmhouse paddock with this year's two ram lambs (known as wethers as they have had the chop - not actually achieved by chopping anything off!). He has actually been quite calm, for sometimes at this time of year he will be headbutting everything in sight. This is the reason why the wooden fence posts in this paddock now have the protection of an inner electric fence. He has single handedly destroyed the sheep shelter too.

But today was Rambo's big day. The day when he went back in with the ewes. All we had to do was to separate this year's three ewe lambs from the adult ewes and to separate Rambo from the wethers. The operation went fairly smoothly- the only problem was that at some point Rambo would need to pass the three ewe lambs and we would need to encourage him to ignore them! Easier said than done.

As you can see by the photos, everything was soon sorted. With Rambo introduced to the ewes today, it means that the earliest possible lambing will be mid March 2018. Our Easter holidays start at the very end of March, so hopefully lambing will happen while we are not at work.
Two years ago three ewes lambed within 24 hours of the earliest possible date. But Rambo must have slowed down a bit for last year we had to wait a couple of weeks and one ewe was a whole month behind the others.

Let's hope that this year lambing is a bit kinder to us and is over quickly. And let's hope that Rambo produces the goods.