Swallows and Lambathons

The first swallow soaks up the early morning sun

There is excited chattering above the smallholding once more.

Yay! The swallows have returned. And with temperatures already having reached 24C there should be plenty of insects for them.
That was Sue's wake up surprise for me on Wednesday.

Thursday's surprise was that we have our fourth lamb, an adorable all black single ewe. She was the offspring of badger-face number 00009. This ewe always drops her sprogs without warning.



So the lambathon bit of the blog title is a bit (well a lot) misleading. We have had four lambs - oh, did I forget to tell you about the twins born two days previously to Number 0001.

All are doing well. All were born with no problems for mums or babies. There are three girls and one boy which is a very good ratio. They were all born within our Easter holidays, as planned.


And that's about it.

Oh. They are adorable as ever!

Smallholding - because it's worth it

Today was everything that smallholding should be.
It started with Sue letting the poultry out and doing the morning feed while I finished off some rather rustic protection for my broad bean bed. I wanted to finish this before the escape committee got into the veg beds and scratched up all the Poached Egg seedlings I planted last night to look after the broad beans.

We started early, for the plasterers were due to arrive at 8.30am. We need some remedial work doing in two downstairs rooms, so we shall be spending the next few days in improvised living quarters squeezed between all the furniture which now fills one end of the kitchen and the conservatory (aka the potting shed).

The dogs are quite happy with the new living arrangements

We have been trying to arrange to have this work done for well over a year and have come to the conclusion that plasterers easily beat estate agents. lawyers and even politicians in the charlatan stakes! Not the one we are using I hasten to add. So it will be a great relief to finally get this work done.

Once it is all finished we will be repainting and turning one of the rooms from a bedroom into a communal room for our next exciting plan, hosting volunteers on the smallholding.

We have our first volunteer coming to stay at the end of this month and it now all seems very real.

With the plasterers set to their work, it was back into the garden where I was preparing the bed for some pea seedlings  to grow. Meanwhile Sue was busy with the new chipper shredder which I finally got round to using at the back end of last week (I am scared of power machinery and it often sits quite a while before I pluck up the courage to use it).

Sue was so enthusiastic about this new machine that she totally didn't notice the arrival of our next guests.

And so to our second appointment of the day with the caravan man. We bought a caravan off Facebook a while back in preparation for this venture to give the volunteers a space of their own but had not really worked out all the practicalities of actually using the caravan. But it was all good news. Solar energy won't be a problem, we can use a big gas bottle to power most of the appliances and the caravan man was quite impressed with the caravan.
Not only this, but he is going to look out for a second caravan for us. We don't do things by halves.

It wasn't yet midday but the weather somewhat reflected our day so far - a very foggy start had turned into a gloriously sunny day. All five bee hives came out to make the most of it too.

Sue and I busied ourselves on the smallholding until Sue decided to go into town to stock up for visitors coming later in the week. That plus the fact that the plasterers were getting through quite a lot of coffees and we needed more milk! (We don't yet have a cow)

But Sue's shopping trip was cut short.

I picked some old cabbages and took them down to the ram paddock - the six boys are being very laddish at the moment, full of the joys of spring. They spend most of their time chasing and leaping and butting.


But it was the ewes which caught my attention. One was lying by the hay feeder looking decidedly close to labour, but then I looked at the other of the fat girls to see her water bag hanging out the back. Lambing was upon us!
I don't want to boast, but this was perfect planning. We try to introduce the ram so that lambing happens during our Easter holiday and this was just about perfect timing.

I called Sue to come back in case assistance was required, but ten minutes later I was WhatsApping her a photo of the newborn lamb.
I would have put my life's savings on this ewe having twins but I was wrong. Instead it was one very sturdy ewe lamb.

All the other sheep came over to introduce themselves, but it was the other heavily laden ewe's behaviour which was interesting. She licked the lamb just as if she were its mother and spent the next couple of hours trying to adopt it. Fortunately the lamb, although occasionally confused, bonded with the right mum and was doing all the right things to get its first feed.

For now we have brought mum and lamb and heavily pregnant aunty up to the stable. There was a chilly north-easterly blowing this afternoon and it is easier for us to keep an eye on things if the sheep are inside. I'm sure they would rather be outside though.

So that was pretty much the day done. Just about the perfect smallholding day.

But it's never that straightforward. A strange noise mid afternoon turned out to be one of the turkeys with its head stuck in the gap between the gate and the heras fencing panel. This has never happened before and fortunately the girl managed to free herself when I approached. But half an hour later I heard the same noise with the same result. This time the stupid turkey appeared to injure its neck in its efforts to free itself.
It is now looking pretty sorry for itself. Whether it survives the night or not I wouldn't like to bet.

And there you have it. The many highs (and occasional lows) of smallholding.
I'm sure that with more lambing there will be plenty more ups and downs in the next couple of weeks.

Everything A Little Lamb Could Want For... Except A Mum... And Milk

26th May 2018
Bleating Hell
Last year we let the lambs wean naturally, which means just leaving them with their mums until they decide that grass is enough for them or until the ewe decides that enough is enough.
But with the lambing problems this year, far from unique to us, I decided to be on the safe side and take the lambs off the ewes on the early side rather than late so the ewe could build up their strength again.
Shetland lambs start nibbling at everything in sight within a day of being born, mimicking their mums. The four lambs who have been in with the sheep flock are already getting a large part of their nutrition from grass.

It is a different story for Flash and Rambutan though. Rambutan especially has never really enjoyed the taste of grass and has been very reliant on the bottle. Flash, though younger, has a more rounded diet.
But I am pretty sure that neither of them realised when they were fed this morning that it would be their last ever feed. From now on the lambs must be self-sufficient.

All penned up ready for worming and separation

While we were moving everything, we took the opportunity to worm all the sheep and to check them over. Then we carried the lambs up to the paddock by the farmhouse where they met Flash and Rambutan, who they have not seen in a long while.
We then moved the ten adult sheep (Rambo, four ewes and last years lambs) as far up the land as possible. The lambs can still hear the ewes calling and the ewes can still hear the lambs bleating, but the greater the distance apart the better.
Besides I don't like putting young lambs in the furthest paddock for this is where the sheep have previously been chased by dogs.

At the moment it seems that all is working out well. Flash and Rambutan are already eating creep feed and grazing, learning from their new friends. And the fact that these two are more settled down this end and not calling to their mums is helping the other four to settle in.

Settling in well and looking good

Cuddles still required for Flash and Rambutan

Flash tucking into his creep feed

edit This post got stuck in the unpublished pile for a while, so here's an update:
The lambs stopped bleating after a couple of days. Before that there was a constant bleating from the nearest paddock and a deep baaing from the sheep field. Even next door's sheep joined in.
Rambutan quickly learned to eat grass when he saw the others and realised that milk would no longer be on offer. All the lambs took to the creep feed too, a specially formulated pellet to help them make the transition from milk to grass.
The ewes' udders swelled to gargantuan and uncomfortable proportions - I was glad I changed my mind about moving them onto the lushest pasture. This is when mastitis can set in, but they have now subsided again so hopefully all is ok.

Flash and Rambutan have not been without their mishaps though. Little Flash picked up a nasty limp in his back leg. I was away for six days and when I left we were just hoping it would sort itself out - lameness usually does with sheep. And indeed upon my return Flash was walking about right as rain. But Rambutan had been in the wars.
He had got his horn caught up and then managed to rip it off. I wasn't there, but Sue said there was blood everywhere. Anyway, by the time I came back from my little trip everything had healed up nicely.

Flash Recovery

Finally a heatwave is on the cards.

Time to go back to work after a cold, soggy and breezy Easter holiday. Typical.

Wednesday 18th April 2018

Sue and the dogs looking after Flash

Temperatures hit 23 degrees today and are forecast for even higher tomorrow. The soil will be workable for the first time in a long time. At the same time, the grass will need cutting and the weeds will be growing.

Everything will be playing catch-up. But not me. Not only am I back at work, but I have a very big day coming up on Saturday.

For it is my first meeting as Chair of the Smallholders Club and, along with the Grow Your Own group, we have a very busy event planned. I have talks and games to prepare for and display tables to get ready, as well as food to prepare for catering.

It will take up all my evenings and the whole of Saturday.

I don't really mind, but the timing on the weather could not have been worse. Not only are my hands completely tied as soon as I could get out and making proper progress in the veg plot, but the first sunny weekend of the year is sure to keep people away from the event which is taking up all my time to organise.

After Saturday, the forecast is for thunderstorms on Sunday before a return to cold and grey again!

Enough moaning though. Life is still pretty good.

Flash has continued to worry us. He is not bouncing around like a week old lamb should be. For the first few days of his life we felt that every day we could keep him alive his chances of survival would be increasing. But he is still not strong in his legs. He totters about stiffly and struggles to get up when he has been sitting. Most of his time he spends just sitting. Last night he really struggled to stand on the straw in the stable, but this morning he was looking stronger than ever.

Thursday 19th April 2018

Scorcher!
It was 29 degrees today. Not Fahrenheit! The thermometer in the polytunnel hit 120. This brings its own problems for the delicate little seedlings in their pockets of compost.

Dentist.
This has been worrying me for quite some time so the hour long delay in the waiting room was most unwelcome. I survived, but only because they did no work today!

A Visit to the Vets
After that, we had arranged to take Flash to see the vet all the way over in Norfolk.

He started out in a cat carrier, but quickly ended up cuddled in on Sue's lap. Like us, the vet could find no obvious problems, but administered antibiotics (just for luck) and an anti-inflammatory.

It was like a miracle. Within five minutes fFash was able to hop over the step of the vets without stumbling or falling onto his face.

By the time we got him home he was trotting up and down in his pen and by the next morning he was running up and down with me and Rambutan.

Friday 20th April 2018

Work and final preparations for the meeting. Parsnip Cake and Butternut Galette.

Turkey Runaround

Monday 16th April 2018

A day of compost turning - very satisfactory.
The turkeys have a new house (really just ramshackle shelters where they can lay their eggs) and it is pleasing to see that each of the hens has now moved into her own house.

The two lambs have made friends now and Boris has discovered a new play mate in Rambutan.

Tuesday 17th April 2018
Turkey Runaround

Dry today with a strong warm breeze. Maybe finally some of the moisture will be driven from the surface of the land.

I ordered a new chicken pen on Sunday night and it arrived bright and early this morning, so I started erecting it straight away. As soon as construction is finished it will be home to the 20 commercial meat birds which are currently living in the garage.
They are growing astonishingly fast and already need more space.

This new chicken pen is part of a slight redevelopment of the old pig pen and spare veg patch. To fit the pen in, I removed some of the rickety old fence today. With the two hen turkeys sat tight in their houses, I let Silver Stag out for a bit of a wander. He doesn't go more than a few feet away from the girls as he spends all day huffing and puffing in his new role as Chief Protector. In fact he was too busy thumping his chest and ruffling his feathers to even notice the lush new nettle growth beneath his feet (turkeys are about the only animal which will effectively remove these)

I busied myself with taking down the old fence, only to look up and see that the turkey door had swung open and the two hens had decided to stretch their legs. They did find the nettles and were pecking away delightedly. I decided to leave them be as they weren't wandering far. Big Mistake.

Distracted by my work, I did not notice all three turkeys embarking on an exploration of the smallholding. By the time I did, they had a taste for freedom!

I spent the next 45minutes turkey-chasing. I think of the smallholding as the world's best gym. Yesterday's turning the compost was the muscle exercise and the reps. Today's turkey chase the aerobic exercise.

Anyway, eventually the turkeys were back where they belong. It is such a shame they can't be free range any more, but they had become too confident and started wandering too far and getting themselves into perilous situations.

Meanwhile, all was well in the sheep field.

Flash and Rambutan go it alone

Sunday 15th April 2018
A big day for the sheep
Mums and lambs were moved back outside. They are much happier in the fresh air under the open skies. They only come in for their own protection.

Flash was kept back and put out on the lawn with Rambutan. The size difference is impressive. Rambutan has grown particularly quickly and Flash is a tiny lamb.

The others settled quickly into the field with the rest of the ewes. Mums didn't really seem to notice that two of their lambs were missing. The bond is significantly less strong if the lamb is not feeding directly from mum.
In fact the lambs bleat more when I leave them than when they were separated from their mothers.

Typically there was an absolute downpour in the evening. We moved Rambutan and Flash back into the stable for safe keeping and the ewe mothers protected their lambs down in the sheep field.

Flash News

Tuesday 10th April 2018
Most of today was spent on and off tending to Flash the ram lamb. He has been weak and has not been seen to feed from mum, even though both the other lambs are now suckling well.
He is resistant to bottle feeding too and we have had to keep him going with Lamb Boost, an energy liquid.

Flash is the little one lying by mum's tail

Ewe 0009 and her lambs seem really healthy.
She is tucking into her oats and hay.

Early evening his mouth was no longer warm inside, a sure sign that hyperthermia was setting in. This is the main cause of death in a lambs first days, though I think it is more a symptom than a cause.

Sue brought him into the house and nestled him in a blanket with a hot water bottle. I down-played his chances of survival. But by late evening we were able to put him back with his mum and brothers. If he survives, I would be surprised if we don't end up bottle feeding him.
At the moment, Flash's future hangs in the balance. We are trying to get him to feed every couple of hours and topping up with Lamb Boost. The longer we can keep him alive, the better his chances of getting through.

On a different note, the Muscovies are thoroughly enjoying the fact that the giant puddle has topped itself up again.

Lamb Triplets and Twins Arrive

Monday 9th April
You Might Want to Come Down to the Sheep Field
Main job for the day was to finish constructing the pond which I began digging out yesterday evening. This pond is purely for the ducks, who will soon be moving into the veg plot.
The weather was dull and drizzly, but I decided to ignore getting wet and carry on till I was finished.

Pond dug, liner ready

Lined with old carpet underlay.
Just a precaution as stones are rare in our soil.

In goes the water, straight from the water butt

Filling up nicely

So by midday the pond was well on its way to being finished. I had only been working on it for about six hours. It should be completed before dark... or so I thought.

It was 12:30 when I heard the sound of bleating from the sheep field. I went to investigate and here's what I found.

I phoned Sue, advising her that she might like to come down to the sheep field. While I was away, the geese decided to test the new pond. It seemed to meet with their approval.

We moved Ewe 00010 up to the stables as there was heavy rain forecast overnight. I had already set up a pen in readiness for this moment. When we got there, she promptly gave birth to lamb number three! This is unusual for Shetland sheep. 

The only other time one of our ewes gave birth to triplets we tried to adopt one onto another ewe. It didn't work out and we ended up bottle-feeding. At the time we decided that should the occasion arise again we would supplement feed. This means leaving the three lambs with the ewe, but bottle feeding all three as a top-up. Without this, mum's resources would be overstretched, especially as the lambs grow, and all four would be at risk.

But the ewes are not in tip-top condition this year. It has been a difficult year for lambing for everybody.

By the time everything had settled down it was nudging toward 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I returned to the pond, still determined to push on and try to get it finished.  I just needed to edge it with decking.

But it wasn't long before I was interrupted again. More bleating!

I phoned Sue again. "You might want to come down to the sheep field!"

For there was Ewe 0009, one of our badger-faced Shetlands, tending to a newborn pair of twin lambs. This was the first time that either of the badger-faced ewes had given birth to more than a single lamb. Both looked good and healthy. The badger-faced ewes give absolutely no hints that they are about to give birth. The lambs just appear! I am not complaining.

So five lambs in two and a half hours. 

Sue leads the ewe up to the stables using the lamb as the lure.

I was carrying the other lamb.

Each new birth was accompanied by bleating and baaing all round.

Even the rams were taking a keen interest.

By now the rain had really set in and I was glad to have got both mums and all the lambs safely into the stables. I mixed up some oats for the mums and set up a couple of hay racks. They would be hungry now.

The triplets were struggling to get milk and Sue could not get milk out of one teat. It is essential that the lambs drink in their first few hours, since the first milk contains colostrum from the ewe which transfers all her antibodies to the lambs.
The lambs were small and mum was looking a lot, lot skinnier than she was this morning.
We called a friend more experienced in teat management than us. She could come over and help but I would have to babysit her two grandchildren. Joy!

I survived an hour with a three and a five year old. I had never quite clicked what a poor message Cinderella gives girls about their aspirations in life.

The ewe's teats had cleared though one of the lambs was looking quite weak. Having said that, at any one moment any of the lambs was looking weak.
It was going to be a long night.

For the rest of the evening I busied myself in the kitchen making Chicken Tom Yam soup. One breast from the monster chickens went a long way and I have to say it tasted very nice. I cooked to the background music of a live band, for Sue had brought the Sugarbeats, the Smallholder Club's very own music group, over to the house for their practice.

Regular visits were made to check on the lambs. By now it was apparent that the weakest lamb was the last born of the triplets, one I had already named Flash due to the white streak across the top of his head. Oh, I forgot to say, we had to wait till the last lamb to get a female. All the rest are young rams, which is not the best news. Boys are always more troublesome.

Compared to the newborn lambs, Rambutan at two weeks old is looking like a giant! He had his final feed of the day at midnight. I fed some artificial colostrum to two of the triplets too, just to make sure they got enough of this vital ingredient and to keep them going through the night.
I set the alarm for 4.30am.

That was quite some day.

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!