Emma and I planned what time she was coming to my house to car share to the farm. Then I messaged Neil and found out that he needed help after getting them in so Emma and I immediately changed our plans 😂 She had physio at 12.30 so we made our own way to the farm separately. I was there a few minutes before her and had just let the ducks out when she arrived. I had tipped the alpaca food out and shut them in when she got to the barn. I fed Rascal and we tried to cut more bale plastic off. We struggled with it but got a few armfuls out and gave it to the girls. We left in the jeep because we had a job to do!
I drove down but didn’t cross the bridge. We crossed the brook and loaded up the buckets. Emma fed the boys while I put my phone on the selfie stick. We had a video chat to do with Greyce and her adopter. I put the food in the trough and Emma fed Ffion while I called. We had just said “Hello”, when my phone shut itself off 🤦♀️Old people and technology 😂 It took ages for it to load back up when I switched it on. Then, there they were, looking at Greyce. Luckily, she’s not afraid of me and allowed me to get fairly close. Pointing the selfie stick allowed me to get closer. The young person who adopted Greyce, had already been for a visit but fell in love with Greyce so she chose to adopt her. Even though she follows Garth Hall on Facebook, and has seen photos of Greyce, she was soooo surprised to see how big Greyce is now. It was raining a little but I stayed on the phone as long as I could to answer lots of questions. I heard the quad in the distance, coming closer. We needed to get a move on to help Neil so I said “Goodbye.”
I fed the far field lot and Texas Hold’em came right up to me again, asking for food. I fed him and Bernadette repeatedly spat at me. I was glad that Emma had gone to feed the rams instead, after the last time 😂 She said she had left her coat on the line for 5 days, to get rid of the smell 🤢We were done and we walked over and drove back up. Just as we pulled up, he shut the wellfield gate on his way out. All the ewes were in there👏 They follow a bucket so easily. Next we had to get them in the paddock. That wasn’t as easy but we did it. From the paddock, they had to go in the airlock. Despite this being a small field, it can take us ages, going round and round. I wasn’t having it. I grabbed a bucket, went into the airlock and called. They all followed. Work smarter not harder 😂 Firstly we filtered out silvernoses and the ewe lambs. It didn’t take long. The ewes were then sent back through the airlock into the paddock. The last job was letting the silvernoses and ewe lambs out of the wellfield. It didn’t take long. We all went in the barn to help load some hay into a medium sized trailer for the sheep to eat whilst in the paddock. Neil cut the plastic but I still couldn’t reach the hay so I went to Cai for a small ladder (not the world’s smallest ladder, that’s to hang the banner) By the time I’d traipsed there and back through the mud, Neil and Emma had filled the trailer🤦We were done for the morning. We decided to reconvene at 2pm, ready for the scanner at 3pm. Neil decided to put bales of hay out for the sheep and alpacas, while there were only a few sheep to get in his way.
I got fuel from Corner Park and then went home. By the time, I’d made dinner and walked Skye, it was pretty much time to go back up. I scheduled some posts and met Emma outside. We were at Garth Hall a bit before Neil. In the barn I decided to move the hurdle barrier a bit after he had taken hay. When he got there, he immediately dismantled the hurdles and took them to the pen for us to use 😂 I climbed the gate to take a bird’s eye view of the pen of sheep. I took the photo but when I climbed down, I ripped the zip on my brand new waterproof. Totally wrecked it 🤬 Josh messaged about a possible truck for me and ended up Facetiming me. It was lovely to see smiley William ❤️ All too soon the scanner arrived and it was all go. It’s a very fast-paced operation but the ewes refused to go into the run Neil made. We finally got the hang of things and used the hurdles. The last one scanned was Munchie. Of course 🤦♀️
The result was 100% There were 6 empty but 6 with twins, hence 100% Molly is potentially having twins but the scanner saw something strange. The one foetus was completely encapsulated. He thinks she will lose this one. However, he saw the same thing last year and there were 2 live twins so 🤷♀️It’s a waiting game. Two of the three black ewes are marked as carrying twins. They are prolific that little family! There were 4 boys born last year so it’s 🤞 for girls. And Munchie, despite looking incredibly fat, is having a single. Blossom, aka Duchess is also having a single. She’s had boys so far so we’d like a girl from her, and Munchie. Hopefully Molly will have a girl too. Neil left and Emma fed the ducks while I fed the Peckys. We did Rascal earlier when we were in the barn because he wouldn’t stop pestering for food 😂
I’ve burned off a lot of calories today and I’m shattered but all in all the scan results were good and the alpaca video chat went well 😁
Helen x
