Tuesday dawned way too early for me. I’d had a late night and a poor sleep. I woke up with a headache. I dragged myself up as soon as I could. Luckily Josh agreed to feed the pet lambs for me.
I went to Tregurnog with my father and the dog in the morning. He went to the back of the barn to start feeding the sheep and I went in to see to the chickens. Over the last two days, there haven’t been many eggs. I was on a mission as I suspected they had found a new laying place. I searched about and then I found a hen. She was in one of the old lambing pens, made out of pallets. Too high for me to reach over or climb into. She was in a big massive metal bowl. There were quite a few eggs. Was she broody? Then another hen headed for the same place closely followed by a third. Ah, that’s better. The eggs would only be a few days old if 3 of them were using it. I made my way further around and finally found spot where I could climb. I collected them all but put them in a separate bucket to check them later. I then gave them all water and went out to get the dog. There as a funny noise from in the barn. I needed to investigate this now.
I made my way around the barn door. There was an ewe and lamb, right at the front, near the cat’s bowl. “Oi!” The ewe turned. It was Blossom. Of course it was. She was a pet lamb a few years ago and is greedy! I made my way towards them and she turned and went further into the barn. I had her cornered. Then she jumped up, over and out. I didn’t have her cornered 🤦♀️ The lamb was slower to jump but she followed her mother. I couldn’t get through that way, I had to go all the way around. After a bit of pointless running around I got them out of the back part of the barn and tied the gate.
After Tregurnog I had to go to Garth Hall to meet Chloe for the poo pick. We met in the barn. Chloe was cuddling Kitty like a baby. She does this at any opportunity. Kitty is her favourite and to be fair, Kitty likes a Chloe too. When I went to open the gate I noticed the catch had broken. I searched around for more wire but came up empty. Chloe had the idea of using a zip tie. I suspect (and hope) Neil can fix it later.
We cleaned the poover out and then shut it and drove off into the boys’ field. Chloe was in her element. She lives poovering almost as much as she lives Kitty! To be fair, Chloe is good at it and very thorough. We were going great guns. The only bit left was in the ‘danger zone’ that Neil had marked out. I wasn’t on my own and I went slowly and carefully. When I got near I stopped the quadling and we unhitched it. I slowly drove it back to a safer place. The poover is higher and less stable so too dangerous to turn in the ‘danger zone’. Chloe picked the poo up and then we slowly turned the poover around and then dragged it to the quadling. It was hitched back up. We moved onto the next pile. It was the last but one pile in the field. Just as Chloe got started, the poover stopped. Out of fuel. With only a small bit left to do we chose to go and empty it. Good job too it was full! We filled 5 bags and then left for our dinner.
I didn’t get home til gone 2pm. I made myself dinner but I was still tired. I convinced Josh to go to Garth Hall. At the time, I just wasn’t feeling quite right but maybe it was a sense of self preservation. After he had been gone a while he sent a photo of a lone lamb. NO! REALLY, NO! Then he sent a message. It’s twins. So we are back to night feeds then. Absolutely bloody marvellous. I sat in the kitchen trying to block out what was about to happen. I heard the front door open. My heart sank. But it was Jordan so we had a chat. Then Josh arrived with Ant + Dec. Good names tbh. They are tiny.
I got the colostrum tub back out and the tubing kit. Ant + Dec look fit, well and looked after. But if their mother isn’t around we need to take over. Josh put fresh hay in the cage and sprayed their navels. I made the colostrum, added glucose and we tubed them. It gets nutrition in them much quicker. So I’ve done 6pm, 8pm and 10pm. I’ve also made the milk for Josh to feed the other 8 pet lambs. We aren’t sure what’s happening with Apache at the moment. She got out of the barn and won’t come back. We will monitor her closely. Josh did the 2am feed. They will stay at the house until we are sure they are healthy enough to go with less feeds. Probably about a week.
Helen x
