Diary

It never rains but pours. This morning when I was feeding the ewes at Houghton I noticed one hanging back on her own when the others came to get their wheat. This is never a good sign although she looked perfectly healthy. I went to investigate and discovered the reason she looked so dejected, she had lost her lamb. She is baaing pitifully at me as if to say, ‘come on sort this out human’, but there is nothing I can do. Its 5 weeks to lambing and its defiantly dead.

The boss is away and I’ve been left in charge. This is quite a daunting prospect as things tend to keel over as soon as she goes away. Today disaster is averted though when I spot Beechnut acting oddly at Wallace field. She is up near the fence and looks like she is eating the grass through it. I go past again and have a closer look about 20 minutes later and she is still there, that’s not right. I go over and sure enough she has got her horn stuck in the fence.

Wasi’s calf June is looking a bit on the skinny side. We have been watching her for a few days now and suspect that she is not getting milk. Its time to intervene, we get Wasi and June out to Tarraby and load them up to take to Wallace Field where hopefully we can feed her up a bit. What we need (and don’t have) is a calf creep, which is a feeder which will allow June in to get to the food, but that is too small for Wasi. We put our heads together and have a scrounge around for materials.

Im feeding the creatures at Houghton. Six bales are in the trailer and two dogs are eager to assist. It’s a fairly simple process although with all the gates it does involve a lot if jumping on and off the quad. The bales for the cattle are put out in the water meadows, they are happy to see me and I have to dodge their horns as they come charging over for breakfast. Best place to be is in the trailer. The ewes are waiting too and theirs goes in the two hecks that are in the field.

The second of my seminars was this weekend. First we visited Daylesford in Gloucestershire, a wonderfully large operation with a very fancy shop which I felt somewhat out of place in my muddy wellies. Later it was on to Abbey Home Farm where our seminars were to take place, those of us staying over were to sleep in the green room, with its lovely roaring fire, in a somewhat school-trip themed pile on the floor.

We are trying to take greatest advantage of the grass available to us at Wallacefield, this means moving people around quite a bit. We are taking four of the heifers to chestnut field, which is always something of a mission as they generally wont cross the stream down the bank so have to go by the road. It has to be a military planned operation and I am dispatched to just after the turn off to make sure they don’t head off toward Carlisle.

The boys and girls have got mixed up at Wallace Field. The boys wanted to hang out with the girls and have jumped the fence to be with them, they cant do any real harm, they lack some essentials but could possibly do some damage trying. So we have got the three boys separate from the girls and are moving them down to one of the bottom field near the river and moving the heifers into a field with a better boundary.

The cattle have got in a muddle at Wallacefield. Somebody left the gate open and the two young bullocks have got into the same field as the four cows and calves. Not a massive problem as the cows are all in calf and the calves are all quite young, but a muddle all the same. They say many hands make light work and this is proved today as the Open Doors group are here to help and take on the task of sorting them out.

The wheat is dry at Wallace field. We have had to treat it and leave it spread out in the barn as it was too wet when we cut it. The weather has not been very helpful in September. Now the moisture is down to 19% its okay to bag. Now bagging it by hand would be an enormous task but neighbour John who helps out on the machinery front has a plan. Scoop it all up with the tractor and put it in the big trailer then pour it into the bags from that.

The new ewes we got last week need vaccinating against Toxoplasmosis, which is a nasty parasitic protozoa which causes sheep to abort. The vaccine is live so has a shelf life and must be used within 2 hours of opening it, so we pick it up from the vets and head to Wallace field. I’m anticipating getting some practice of injecting sheep, having never done it before and being on a very ‘learn by doing’ farm.

We arranged an open afternoon at the croft for Organic September. Of course the weather was foul. Mike and Debbie from Eva’s bravely pitched their gazebo in horizontal rain in the orchard to show people around and give them tasters. I pitched the BBQ gazebo strategically behind the lambing shed, out of the way. A fair few brave souls ventured out and sampled our cream teas, burgers and of course apples.

I’ve been away camping for bank holiday weekend to Scotland. As I’m bringing my equipment back to the house and the chickens come rushing around the corner to greet me, or see if I have any food (more likely). If you have ever watched Jurassic park then the way a chicken runs will be horribly familiar to you. They truly are tiny Velociraptors. I’m just glad they aren’t bigger; I can’t get the image out of my head now.

Its time for the lambs to be weaned at Houghton and Aglionby, this means separating them and taking the lambs to clean pasture, which hasn’t had sheep on this year. Obviously this is a fairly stressful time, although the lambs seem to take it better than the ewes, who spend several days vocally complaining about the situation. The lambs have gone to Wallace field and are enjoying being all together in a lush new grass field.

On Monday we had the vet to see the cattle at Houghton. We need to find out how many of the cows are in calf and at least six of them should be. So we have separated them from Jeremiah the bull and into the pens. The vet has some rather extraordinary looking equipment, a small backpack with a wire and sensor and a pair of very futuristic looking glasses; the ultrasound.

It sounds like we may have otters on our stretch of river, which would be very exciting. Irene, who works in our B&B, told us that one of her children saw an otter with some young when she went down to the river with the school. Then a good friend of ours saw otter prints and then otter poo a little further upstream. So I went down with my camera the other morning to try and get a photograph. No luck with the otter, but the mist on the river was very beautiful. Will try again.

My first week has been a busy one; there is always a job to be done on the farm. One task that always needs attention is the control of pernicious weeds! Being Organic there is no weed killer here, so sickle in hand I found myself slicing any dock, thistle or nettle in my reach under a blazing hot sun at Wallace field. Its hard work, but satisfying when a big swathe is clear behind you.

Today we managed to get the ewes clipped. It was touch and go as the wet weather has caused a bit of a backlog with the shearers and we were quite lucky to get someone to come at short notice after the sunshine yesterday. Its a great relief for us and the sheep to get the fleeces off - they were getting itchy and uncomfortable and we were worried that a sudden improvement in the weather could cause a problem with flies infesting dirty old patches of wool.

Lambing is well and truly underway now. It's hard work, but really is a lovely time of year with the grass starting the grow, the wildflowers appearing and the lambs skipping around the fields.