Back to reality !

Well what a week !!!! and where to begin filling you in on our adventures …. living the dream!
So Sunday morning last week we had our first batch of piglets 2014.

Snowdrop had 8 little lovelies and Primrose was not going to be far behind her. So we decided due to the inclement weather we would move Primrose into the barn to farrow as the weather was just horrid. With our trusty helpers Emma and the kids, Daniel and Annie … Primrose was settled into the barn and I was just about to go for a snooze …. when she walked past the caravan on a mission … having lifted the gate off its hinges and escaped.

She had a good look around the barn and eventually we got her safely back in her pen and she had 5 piglets on Monday night 🙂

So Sunday afternoon after all the pig fun we cleaned the stove chimney ….. and had a few problems … I got the brush stuck so Kate had to climb on the roof and push it down and we then couldn’t get the oven back in. Undeterred we had a fire and on Monday when I got home from work ( very tired) I found all the windows open and the fire nearly out. So I stoked up the fire, closed the windows and went to find Kate in the barn. She then informed me we had a problem and the stove was leaking Carbon monoxide so she was letting the fire go out ….. whoops! So Benson and I went to my Mum to sleep and Kate spent most of the night in the barn as we had sheep and pigs to load at 5.30 am. Benson thought it was great …. gas fire, double bed and I had a difficult night with the elbows Benson convinced he should sleep under the duvet and Mum’s cat moved out. Kate was ok and that was the evening we had 5 piglets.

So Wednesday night Kate mended the stove….

and this afternoon I finished the job by cementing back in the chimney. So this evening the fire is lit … the Carbon monoxide monitor is quiet and I have shoulder of lamb roasting in the oven.

So all in all we have had a bit of a week. Life is tough, but we are still both singing in harmony from the same hymn sheet, but the hymn this week has been more Fight the good fight than All things bright and beautiful !

But on a positive note … I heard the skylarks singing yesterday and we have some gorgeous happy piglets.

Back to reality !

Well what a week !!!! and where to begin filling you in on our adventures …. living the dream!
So Sunday morning last week we had our first batch of piglets 2014.

Snowdrop had 8 little lovelies and Primrose was not going to be far behind her. So we decided due to the inclement weather we would move Primrose into the barn to farrow as the weather was just horrid. With our trusty helpers Emma and the kids, Daniel and Annie … Primrose was settled into the barn and I was just about to go for a snooze …. when she walked past the caravan on a mission … having lifted the gate off its hinges and escaped.

She had a good look around the barn and eventually we got her safely back in her pen and she had 5 piglets on Monday night 🙂

So Sunday afternoon after all the pig fun we cleaned the stove chimney ….. and had a few problems … I got the brush stuck so Kate had to climb on the roof and push it down and we then couldn’t get the oven back in. Undeterred we had a fire and on Monday when I got home from work ( very tired) I found all the windows open and the fire nearly out. So I stoked up the fire, closed the windows and went to find Kate in the barn. She then informed me we had a problem and the stove was leaking Carbon monoxide so she was letting the fire go out ….. whoops! So Benson and I went to my Mum to sleep and Kate spent most of the night in the barn as we had sheep and pigs to load at 5.30 am. Benson thought it was great …. gas fire, double bed and I had a difficult night with the elbows Benson convinced he should sleep under the duvet and Mum’s cat moved out. Kate was ok and that was the evening we had 5 piglets.

So Wednesday night Kate mended the stove….

and this afternoon I finished the job by cementing back in the chimney. So this evening the fire is lit … the Carbon monoxide monitor is quiet and I have shoulder of lamb roasting in the oven.

So all in all we have had a bit of a week. Life is tough, but we are still both singing in harmony from the same hymn sheet, but the hymn this week has been more Fight the good fight than All things bright and beautiful !

But on a positive note … I heard the skylarks singing yesterday and we have some gorgeous happy piglets.

Kate Daniels media star!

So Kate is on the radio tomorrow morning at 6. 30 am as Farming Today came to the farm today to record and interview with her. I don’t know how she had time as Operation Christmas is in full flow … but she did and I will be glued to the radio tomorrow to hear what she said!

The week on Farming today has been all about Small holdings / Small farms and it was even suggested that it was a hobby !!!!

This is no hobby… it is a vocation….. keeping animals as we would be like to be kept if we were them and producing exceptional meat products.

Kate is so good at talking as quickly as she thinks … and that is quick !!

 

Ali in Charge of lambing !!

Now most of you blog followers will be aware that I am pretty skilled at most things on the farm…ok I may cry first few times around but generally I am a good right hand person to have about the place.

However it is Kate that is the expert when it comes to lambing having dealt with more unusual presentations than …. I have had hot dinners .. (in the last 2 weeks) But this year I have been doing a little better and getting more involved so when a ewe went into labour just as Kate was setting off to collect a bacon slicer ,,,, I waved her off saying that I would be fine !!

And fine we were and the little ram lamb popped out very easily and was a text book birth. …… and then there was his twin ….. how exciting ….. until only his head was sticking out of his Mum’s rear end1 So I phoned Kate for advice and then scrubbed up …. found the lube and climbed into the pen ….. to discover the lamb had been delivered and I could chillax 🙂

2 boys and both are fine… in fact to see more click here

And now I am sat once more in the little caravan on watch …. Dolly Parton was pawing the ground earlier so I am checking her 1/2 hourly but I think the urge has past her by.

The weather has been soo much better today and the ewes and their lambs have been enjoying the sunshine.

So far we have 32 lambs from 24 ewes and 4 more to go …so the end of all night vigils is in sight 🙂

Oh what a beautiful morning!

Don’t worry I am not about to launch into another song …. after Kate read my Lambing Alive blog she did comment ‘ what goes on in your head !!!’

Anyway it is a beautiful morning … we have 15 healthy lambs in the turkey house / lambing shed and all the expectant Mums are looking relaxed and not showing signs of starting any thing.

It has been quite full on though ….I got home from work on Monday to find Kate in the shed reviving one new born lamb with smelling salts and swinging it round in the air…. it survived and was the second of a pair of twins 🙂

Then later on that evening when Kate was snoozing David and I were keeping half an eye on a Welshie who was isolating herself from the flock and the one push and she popped out her single.

Acouple of minutes after she was born this is what she looked like …. click here

Then before the evening was done we had a traumatic delivery of a single Ryeland who was breach … bum first and huge … so much to our delight he was pulled out alive and well.
No pictures as I was busy helping.

So what will today bring ?! Who knows but we are surviving and the shed is full of new life and the weather is going to warm up again this weekend so we may have another Saturday Night feverish … Lambing Alive !!

Lambing Alive !

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I’m a Smallholding woman: no time to talk.
Music loud and the caravan warm, I’ve been mucking about
since I was born.
And now it’s all right. It’s OK.
And you may look the other way.
You can try to understand
the lambing time effect it has on a woman.

Whether you’re a Welshie or whether you’re a Ryeland,
we’re Lambing Alive, Lambing Alive
Feel the my back breaking, and my legs a shaking,
and we’re Lambing Alive, Lambing Alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,Lambing Alive, Lambing Alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,Lambing Alive.

etc etc ……….. remember Saturday night fever ? Well we had a Saturday night of our own last night!!!

A slight recap … Kate asleep at 9 and me on blog duty… lambing duty…. perfectly in control and watching youtube before settling down for a snooze….. also ate all the nights supply of chocolate!
Then at about 11.30 it just sounded a little different out there.
So I had a look and oh yes we were in business with 2 Ryelands showing early signs of lambing….

Now last night we decided to let them have free range of the field …. so picking them out in torch light was not easy……. also one of them was grunting away so I rang Kate. So the long and the quite short of it was we escorted the two ewes into the lambing shed so we could monitor them more easily.

Then we had a front foot and a nose showing on one and no progress for an age. So Kate went in and we tipped the sheep up over a bale of hay and pushed the lamb back in and let nature take its course. If the lamb had been a sweet little thing she may have been able to pop her out without our intervention … but this lamb was a thumper with shoulders to match.

So the first lamb of the night was born around 1.30.

I think this is him 🙂

Cos then the night went a bit crazy……

This little fella and his twin sister were popped out by their Welsh mother in the field and if it hadn’t been for a gentle bleat we would never have known. So we escorted them into mothering up pens in the barn….. of which we had 2 ready…. cos we have never had many born at the same time.

So we still had a Ryeland in slow labour and we also had a naughty Ryeland ewe who was had taken an avid interest in the Welshie and her twins who was seeming likely….. so we penned her up.

She then had twins 🙂 both of whom are doing well.

To see one of them trying to feed click here
They are both feeding expertly now thanks to the help of Tara our rescuer today 🙂

Around then … about 5 am still no sign of the Ryeland giving birth……. not dilated much but pushing and passing brown gunk…( technical term )

And then we found another set of twins courtesy of a Welshie in the field… just born.

Doing well. So the count so far 3 sets of twins … boy and girl each set….. One big thumper of a boy …. and a Ewe with a lamb in distress that we could not sort out….
So we rang the vet and Kate had to hitch up the trailer and take the ewe in.

Oh we had also tube fedd 3 lambs as 2 of the Mums had not let their milk down yet and the lambs were becoming listless.

So I really did not expect to see the ewe or any off spring but at 7 Kate rang me to say Mum and her gert great big ewe lamb were coming home. She had got a dead lamb in side too and the two were a bit muddled up so not straight forward.

But doing well now.

So all in all a busy night with 8 lambs born.

Sadly we have had a lamb born today that did not ever get to breathe, it was a Welsh / Ryeland cross. But other than that it has been a lovely day…. helped by Tara to regain some semblance of sanity.
The lambing towels are clean and dry, I have tidied the little caravan and Kate, who is asleep now is on duty from 9. Who knows what tonight will bring…. who is next?

Lambing Live 5/4/13

Ok no lambs but look what Kate woke me up to see this morning …..

click here

for those of you without broadband (Denise) this is what I was woken to see……

Sapphy, who was the first piglet ever born here at Willow Farm, had quietly with no fuss at all, given birth to 7 lovely little piglets sometime between 4 am and 7 am. This is her first litter and we were not expecting them just yet as she was not showing much in the way of signs of her milk coming in. Young Mums eh!

So what did happen with the sheep today …. well …. they looked at us looking at them… looking at us and they sat down a bit and stood up a it and generally did not do much at all. One of them looked a bit droopy so we gave her some calcium and keetol ( injection and drench ) and she perked up ……( Twin lamb disease) and we watch and wait.

I am on watch tonight and am trying not to wake Kate until it is nearly light 🙂 I need her to be the brains of the outfit tomorrow as she is actually better than lambing than I am… although I draw up injections better … she has more skill at assisting at difficult births…. so I am actually being quite selfish in ensuring she is fit for work 🙂 I am excellent at snoozing and make a good backstop …. essential in any rounders team!

So the night ahead will be regular checking of livestock and viewing of youtube stuff, reading and keeping the fire going. All in all a good night ahead….. as to lambs … we wait ……………