After the snow now the big thaw.........

After the 5" of snow that fell on Thursday, it is now thawing and on Friday I discovered that one of my wellingtons leak!!!!! So a trip to Whitby to find some new ones. No such luck it would appear that there are no wellingtons in my size. So I've had to resort to the Internet yet again to get them, and hopefully they will arrive on Monday. Happiness is dry feet!!!!!
With all this snow we are going through our supply of hay and at the beginning of the week I used the last of the hay we bought last year, thankfully we've got 50 bales left over from 2007, but at the moment we're going through 10 bales a week, so I'm going to have to get some more for when we're lambing. Everyone has been going through hay at an alarming rate due to the snow, so no doubt hay will be at a premium. It has been suggested that we try silage as opposed to hay as silage is in greater supply and easier to bale than hay. We may have to try the sheep with it to see if they will take to it.
On Wednesday we weighed the ram lambs to see which ones are ready to go to the auction mart as light lambs on Monday. There are now 3 lambs in the barn waiting to be taken to the mart tomorrow morning. But the other more encouraging news is that the Wiltshire Horns have each put on 5kg in the last 2 months and the Shetlands 2kg. Considering the weather we've had and the quality of the grass etc, we're pleased with this weight gain. The lambs that are not going to the mart have had another dose of wormer, as per instructions from the vet, and are now fighting to see who is top dog, or sheep, now that the 3 biggest ones are being taken to the mart. Makes feeding them interesting as they head butt me at knee level, but a quick slap with the feed scoop quickly brings them into line!!!!
The ewes are looking well despite the snow, it's not been particularly cold, and they have had plenty of access to hay so that has helped them. At this time of the year it's a balancing act of making sure the ewes get enough to eat to maintain their body weight and the lambs their are carrying grow well, but not too well that they are so big they have problems giving birth. Not long now to the 6th April and the start of lambing.....