lambing update

Well everything got going last weekend, with two of the girls delivering healthy sets of twins on Friday 13th! Rosemary, who was due on friday, managed to hang on until Sunday afternoon and then required a trip to the vet in Cockermouth to get the lamb out safely - I struggle with heads that are turned backwards as there really is very little room to correctly position the lamb and keep it there for delivery. Mother and daughter are now doing fine and out in the field enjoying the beautiful spring weather and the juicy green grass.
The unscheduled delay in Rosemary's delivery foiled our plans to take the horses to do a dressage competition at Newton Rigg college near Penrith. They were both beautifully clean, Rachel had plaited their manes and tails and they were ready to be loaded onto the wagon when the lambing drama started. Fizz was not amused when he was finally put back in his stable an hour later when the trip to the vets became inevitable!
Another set of twins and a set of triplets have arrived since then and several are due this coming weekend. Unfortunately, people are saying the weather is not going to stay as nice as it is, but I guess we'll just wait and see.
Dancing Gate house is also coming on, with most of the bedroom furniture now here, several sets of curtains are now up and the beds are also all here. Bookings have started to come in, and our first week of letting is mid-May.

Meet the dogs

For those who have not met our dogs, here is a brief introduction. Lottie is a 12 year old golden cocker spaniel whom I bred myself in 1996. She is very cuddly and lovable but tends to bark a bit more now as she has cataracts and so cannot see too well. She also feigns selective deafness when there is something more interesting to investigate.

Jasper is almost five years old, a blue roan cocker spaniel who can run like the wind, but also likes to cuddle his favourite toy, an old teddy bear called smudge.

Hamish a West Highland white terrier, came to live with us two years ago when my Dad died. He is thirteen years old and was originally my mum's.

They all get along well and like nothing better than a good run round the fields during our spare time.

Frosty tops

A mixed bag of weather this week - wet, windy, snow on the tops, ice and frost, and even some beautiful spring sunshine occasionally.

All the dogs - Jasper, Lottie and Hamish have been clipped right out as they had totally overgrown coats, but I don't think they are very happy with me now its frosty again at night!

All the March-lambing ewes are in the shed in case anybody decides to drop an early surprise, and all the lambing pens are clean, disinfected and filled with lovely clean straw waiting for their first occupants. One week to go.

Hedging and fencing

This weekend 77 herdwick ewes arrived on farm from Borrowdale valley. They had been scanned and the farmer sends all the ones having twins to lowland farms like ours where there is a bit more grass to help them along. We had been planning to do a bit of fencing in the field they went in anyway so on Saturday morning it was all hands on deck, Matty and me taking down the old fence and then Kev and Matt knocking in posts with a tractor-mounted post-knocker - a little bit easier than by hand with a mell hammer. Kev then spent the rest of the afternoon attaching netting and wire to secure the area and hey presto! the sheep can't escape (at least not by that route anyway!).
Today, he has been busy in a different field, forming a planting strip for a new hedge. This is being done as part of a conservation plan and we receive some funding to help with the costs. Hedge planting and laying have to be done from November to March, and our plan has just been approved so we are pulling out the stops to get two stretches of hedge in before the deadline.
The weather forecast is not so good for mid-week so the next couple of days will be spent getting some more of the earlier lambing ewes in the shed.