A busy Easter in the veg garden

As we've got 3 ewes that are overdue to lamb, we've been staying quite close to home and with the weather being so nice, well fine at least, I've had no excuse but to get on with the veg garden. Tim has put together the wood boarders to the veg plot near the shed, creating a bed 12' x 18', which I've so far planted 1 row of Broad Bean plants, shallot bulbs and red onion sets, sown 2 rows of parsnips and a row of beetroot. The greenhouse has seed trays containing sweetcorn, french beans, tomatoes, sprouts, red cabbage, leeks and bulb fennel all of which I got sown when the Hobbits were here last week. 3 more veg beds (6' x 15') have been marked out ready to be dug over before the end of the month, in the new veg area. The one veg bed that Tim got ready before his accident, now contains 3 varieties of potato (Kestrel, Pink Fir Apple & Bambino) covered with a good layer of home made compost, I think I barrowed over 30 loads of compost to get the potatoes covered on Good Friday. It should make them grow.
I will post photos of the veg plot, today has been fine but with a sea fret, so it's been very foggy, not ideal photo weather.
I'm now off to soak in a hot bath, that is if I can move without disturbing 2 very tired dogs!!!!!!

Brazil has twins

Feeding the ewes this morning Brazil was making quite a racket, initially I thought she was hungry, but when I gave her some feed she ignored it completely. So after feeding the rest of the ewes we decided to hang around to see what she wanted.
We didn't have to wait long as a water bag burst and was quickly followed by a pair of hooves and legs, then nothing and it was obvious that Brazil was struggling to push her little lamb out, so I pulled hard on the legs and out came the first lamb, quickly followed by the second with no assistance from me, (who by the way had remembered to remove her gloves before assisting the birth!!!!).
Brazil has has a tup and ewe lamb. So far we have 9 ewe lambs and 6 tup lambs.

Another set of twins!!!!

On this mornings early lamb check, Abbi was in her pen happily licking these two little ewe lambs. I sprayed their navels and gave them a dose of Sustain for Watery mouth before feeding the rest of the sheep. The 2 little lambs are a good size and weight. To date Abbi is the only ewe who has delivered on her predicted date!!!!
Only Brazil (due yesterday), Beatrix (due this coming Saturday), Anya and Cully (due last Monday) to lamb in this first batch of ewes. I just wish Anya and Cully would GET ON WITH IT.
The house is evening is very quiet, two very tired Hobbits went home this afternoon, they've had a busy few days since their arrival on Saturday. 13 lambs have been born, two of which they saw being born, every morning they have helped feed the ewes by wheel barrowing slices of hay bales to each ewe in the lambing pens, helped weigh each of the new born lambs, moved Yellow Neck, Carolyn and Missy with their respective lambs into the new mum's field and played endless games of football with the dogs. They'll be back in the Summer.......

5 lambs born today

The early morning check revealed that Carman had given birth to twins, a tup and a ewe, unaided, within the last hour. Both lambs had been licked clean and were up and about calling for mum. So no problems with this new family.
A little later whilst I was feeding the ewes, Tim noticed that Ariadne was holding back from the rest of the ewes, she wasn't due for a couple of days, but with the very cold, strong biting wind that was blowing, we decided the best place for her was the barn, along with Abbi, Beatrix who are also due over the next couple of days. No sooner had we got them all in the barn and Ariadne in a pen, when we noticed a water bag, a sure sign of the early signs of lambing, so we hung around to make sure she was O.K. After a while it became apparent that she would need some assistance lambing, nothing too serious, the lamb's head was showing, so a quick tug and it was out, a little while later a nose and feet could be seen, so again a bit more of a tug on the lambs feet and it was out. (Slight note to self, when lambing a ewe remember to remove your wool fingerless gloves!!!!!). We watched Ariadne for a little while and thought she was going have another lamb, but she was just expelling the after birth. So we left the new family alone to be checked on an hour or so later. By which time the 2 lambs had become 3, all are ewes and it looks like she will be able to feed them herself.

Ariadne's triplets which we'll keep in the barn for a couple of days to make sure she's coping with them O.K. We know she did last year with her triplets. What a star ewe she is.

Carolyn & Missy follow Yellow Neck!!!!

Doing my early morning check of the ewes in the barn and out in the paddock I noticed Carolyn away up the field by the fence walking round and round a small black bump on the ground, as it was not yet quite light, I wasn't sure if it was a lamb. A closer look revealed it was and this was quickly followed by a second lamb. I now had the job of carrying two wet lambs to the barn walking backwards so that mum could see them.

As you can see from the picture they are again black with white on their heads.

Both boys by the way and pure pedigree Shetlands. The first this year.

Missy on the other hand decided to wait until this afternoon to deliver her lambs, whilst she had an audience. A chap Tim shared a ward with in hospital brought his 6 year old daughter to see the lambs. 5 minutes before they arrived I noticed Ghilli & Grommet staring intently over towards the ewe's paddock, this could only mean one thing!!! New born lambs and sure enough Missy had given birth to a lamb. Again I had the job of carrying this wriggling, wet lamb, backwards towards the barn, Missy following and nearly stood on me when I tripped over the mineral bucket hear the gate. We all thought that Missy was only going to have single lamb, but once in the pen she very quickly produced a second one.

Again note the colour - Black

Missy has had a tup and a ewe lamb. We will keep her in a little longer than normal, just to make sure she is O.K especially after the scare we had with her last month.

So far our lambing % is 200%, with 4 ram lambs and 2 ewe lambs.

As both Carolyn and Missy were 2 days early giving birth, we've had to build 2 more pens in the barn. We've put Brazil into a pen as well now as she is due any day soon. I just hope Cully and Anya (who were due today) don't hang onto their lambs for much longer, we're running out of lambing pens!!!!!

Yellow Neck delivers 2 days early

We decided on Saturday evening to bring in the ewes that are due to lamb on Monday (Yellow Neck, Cully & Anya), putting them into their own lambing pens. As the ewes came in to be fed, we shut the barn door to separate the 3 girls off, (plus Carmen, who is due on Tuesday). We got Cully, Anya and Carmen into their respective pens, no problems and we're stood looking for Yellow Neck, when the youngest Hobbit pipes up with, "there's a white sheep out in the field". Sure enough it was Yellow Neck in the early stages of giving birth. As there was a cold biting wind, we were a bit concerned, as we didn't want her lambs to get chilled. We left her for a while, but nothing was happening, so Tim cautiously moved her towards the barn. she went easily into the barn and pen. So the wait began. After 2 hours I rang Pete, a local farmer for advice, who fortunately was just about to come out, to check on a cow that was calving and he would have to pass our lane end. But just as Pete arrived Yellow Neck delivered her first lamb no problem and when Pete looked at her, the hooves and nose of the second lamb were visible, so he gave them a quick tug, and out popped the second lamb.
She's had a ram and a ewe lamb, or a tup and gimmer lamb, depending on where you come from.
I took this photo this afternoon and as you can see they are a typical Meadowcroft Farm lamb. Black with white heads.
Mum and lambs looking very relaxed. If the weather is O.K in the morning we will let them out to enjoy the sunshine and fresh grass.

Update on Tim's hand and a bit of a disaster

Tim saw the consultant on Thursday and everything is going really well, to the point that he has been told that he can start working again, all be it light duties, but it's a step in the right direction. Tim is telling everyone that he's had some bad news from the consultant!!! Needless to say everyone is concerned at first and then laughs when he tells them why! He's not back to see the consultant for another 3 months, but this is backed up with weekly visit to the hand therapist.
The bit of disaster this week, is that the bread maker is broken, well the pan has fallen apart and with the arrival of the Hobbits, I need one to keep up with the bread we will go through. Tim managed to find a new pan on EBay, but it's out of stock, so we've bought an identical bread maker to the one we have now, with the idea that when the spare pan arrives, we'll always have a back up, or I can run both of them when we have a house full of people. Needless to say the bread maker today has make 2 batches of bread buns and 1 loaf. Those Hobbits sure know how to eat.......