Our lives have been so hectic for the past few months that just to take a couple of hours to myself has been something I've been craving for weeks.... 

Yesterday I found myself in a wonderful situation...

Sheep and lambs done... Washing and ironing done..
Nigel's parents.. who haven't been at all well.. settled and happy...
Food shopping done....
The house in order.. but the hoovering could wait!!

The Sun was out, the air was fresh, no visitors were expected.. and it was my day off so I could do exactly what I wanted... uninterrupted!!!

I spent all afternoon in my garden..... quietly sorting and weeding and taming nature just a little...... a snip here and there, clearing out some of the effects of our wet winter......... not all though as the mosses that have formed are quite beautiful..... our wet winter has left a magical carpet under the plants...

In my past life, just outside Winchester, I had a gardening business... maintenance mainly with 20 gardens totalling about 12 acres... split into weekly or fortnightly slots from 2 to 4 hours....... When I moved here I brought a favorite plant from each garden...... Many sat in carrier bags for years until I settled with Nigel at Grange Cottage...This clump of cowslips has taken 11 years to form from a single tiny plant lifted from Wendy's lawn..... Whenever I see them at this time of year I think of her.. she is one of my most admired people in the world and I still see her on occasion, she was retired when I started working for her, over 20 years ago, she is still incredibly active, and always an inspiration!

And this is another, an Erythronium... reminds me of a children's book of fairy stories that my Grandmother had when she was a child... I think my mum still has it... This was both a hat and a dress on one of the flower fairies.. and I've never forgotten how gorgeous it is.. and why there is one in my garden just outside the back door of the shop!

We had to do one of my most un-favorite jobs to do this morning, a visit to the abattoir in Bainbridge , with 3 of the last 4 sheep to go... to offset this we did a tour of all the bottle feeders, who got an extra cuddle.... especially Daisy who is now trained to leap into my arms on command... its hilarious!!!

We went to see Gerty to check her condition from last night.... She bounded down the hill, bright as a button.... and her little bloated tummy had gone down like a deflated balloon!!

She's fine.. thank goodness!

Mitsie and the other Ryeland mums are over at Steve and Reenie's field, together with Peewee's gang... I always pop over first thing in the morning after feeding Daisy and the pets, and also at tea time........ we were a bit late this evening, getting to them just before 7.00 am.

As the sheep stampeded  towards the gate, I noticed that Gerty, one of Rosie's lambs, was behaving strangely!  She is one of the lambs that I top up as Rosie only has one teat working properly, with her second working intermittently. Gerty was repeatedly stretching her back legs out behind her and looking rather uncomfortable.  She rushed over when we entered the field, and as she's a bit reluctant to drink her bottle with the others around I always pick her up... she drank her ration down without a problem, but when we put her down, she started stretching again..

We watched as she started jumping up and down, walking backwards, and then threw herself on the ground and started rolling about......... Nigel had the a mobile on him so we phoned the vet.....

One of our regular vets answered, so I described what was going on in front of our eyes........ "sounds like trapped wind" was the answer, sometimes lambs get uncomfortable, and actually need a good fart!  We got hold of her again and rubbed her tummy, trying to help her... we were advised to leave her for an hour then go back and see how she was............. 

An hour later she was much better, and was happy to be picked up again. with none of the previous behaviour....... we did give her some old fashioned lamb stomach powder dissolved in some milk, and she drank some enthusiastically! Will report of her condition tomorrow...... hope she's ok... she's a poppet!

This is part of our flock, secretly located off the beaten track near Redmire... a lovely pasture in an idyllic location, where Dudley pushed off the rails and escaped with his comrades into the garden last year... enjoying the fruits of Andy and Tina's labour by helping themselves to the majority of their vegetables..... Bad Boy!!  He was so pleased with himself that it was difficult to stay too angry with him!! ... but it did provoke a short story, written from his point of view, by means of an apology!

This years lambs are thriving....... there has been an exceptional crop of grass so far, the upside of the wettest winter in living memory!!  These youngsters are tucking into their new found favourite food, lamb creep feed... they love it....... And thank you again to Pete and Elaine from "Smithy Antiques" in West Burton, for the continued use of their spare feeder...... we couldn't cope without it!! 

I'm not sure how we came to have Holly, she was kept last year.  She was scared, and skittish, and not at all friendly, but she is beautiful.  I have taken great pains to try to socialize her and build her confidence, but until she lambed she had remained slightly distant, only occasionally letting me touch her face.

She went into labour one March morning, and wouldn't be caught in the barn.. so armed with a bucket of nuts, fooled the other sheep to feed at the trough and persuaded Holly to follow me to a pen... which she eventually did.  The next stage was to gain her trust so that I could help lambing her. 

This was the day that I discovered that using her mothering instinct to my advantage was a real help.... If you smell of the various fluids that a sheep is "passing" lets say... at this very delicate time.... and present them on your "gloved hand" to the ewe, she will lick them as if you were a new born lamb, thus bonding her to you and relieving the anxiety that she is feeling... The change in her was immediate and lasting... She clearly understood I was there to help her.

She delivered two grand lambs, and licked them clean... once this was done, Holly wanted to keep them in sight, obviously as a first time mum, worried that if she couldn't see them then she could loose them... It was the point at which they had backed her into a corner, so she couldn't move, I realised that it was becoming an issue so I intervened... pressing her against the side of the pen so she couldn't go forward of backwards and pushing the lambs under her, one on each side.  She soon got the idea that sucking lambs was a good thing... and that they wouldn't be lost.

We kept her inside for 48 hours and then let them out into home field... She took them to a close corner just under the wall, and stayed there for the whole first day outside... Now she is one of our babysitters, and is so much calmer and confident with us as you can see... she's a fantastic mum and her lambs are really sociable... we may keep her daughter as she's a little belter,.... and still has the blue dot on her bum!

Mitsie is my beautiful coloured Ryeland ewe, she is the first sheep I ever owned, and she is a real character... 

The first year she lambed with us was my first ever, and she duly lead us a merry dance on a stormy night in the field. It was before we had the lambing shed.. she would follow me anywhere, but when Nigel or James came near she ran as far away as she could. For years James had used an old garden shed to lamb, not ideal, as it was never cleaned out, and that year Mits had a lambs heads back and such a small pelvis that we had real trouble...  

The second year, we had the old barn set up, which was badly lit but had to do, with the 3 pens we had constructed... She had her first lamb and then a second which was so dark brown that we missed its birth completely, even though we were standing next to her!!  Then last year, which was again really difficult... similar to the first, but this time we ended up at the vet at midnight.. lost the first lamb, but ended up with Dixie.. on one of the coldest nights in March 2013, just before we had a deluge of snow... We did have the new shed last year, so a very sore Mits was duly returned in the trailer, and it took several days to lighten her mood... although she was the most attentive mum she'd ever been.

This year... hurray... I was there, and she decided to lamb during the day!! She looked at me pathetically and came from the main pen into an individual one without any problem at all.... I sat in the corner of the pen and she used me to lean on, sticking her face into mine each time to got up to move around... In the end I just gave a little help... with her rear hooves against my thigh for purchase...... made me smile all the way through!! She delivered two lovely boys... and was very pleased with herself!

The next day Mitsie had a visit..... Nanny McHawkins.. a friend from Newbiggin, knows a midwife, who, in mid March was staying with 5 other midwives in Swaledale, and who had requested a visit to Fabric of the Field and a visit to the barn too... So after some purchases were made, we all drove over to see the new mums... Mitsie of course was one of them.. and they loved her... you can see one of their pictures of her posing for the camera with her new lambs, on my facebook page... 

Since then she has had a sore teat, and started kicking one lamb off, as he'd bitted her, but we lubricated it in the field... she let us... and then topped up the lambs with a bottle... still doing that even though they are both fine.. they like it!

Mitsie seems to have continued her good mothering skills this season, rather than her latchkey attitude of the previous years, she's doing brilliantly....... 
We love her... moods and all!

Willow is a sheering, and happens to be Vincent's sister, born one of triplets to Rosie, the year that one of her teats stopped working. Willow was the biggest and brightest lamb, latching on to the teat that worked properly, claiming it as her own, so never needing a bottle. This is her first lambing, and our last of the season. 

She had started mid morning and I found her when feeding the lambs their elevensies.  I put her in a pen and stayed with her. She was clearly having trouble, so I calmed her down, gained her confidence and checked to see what was happening.  I managed to find 2 front feet, but couldn't find a head to save my life........ I tried for what felt like an age, and in my rising panic, decided to go for help. As I drove up the road, I saw a farmer friend, so stopped and wound down the window... I've got 2 feet but no head.... "I'll be two minutes" was his reply, so I turned round and went back...

"Small sheep and big lambs" was the deduction... a head was found, but a leg was lost, so a delivery was attempted with just the one.... No good, so everything was pushed back and another attempt was made... Finally Chester was born, rather worse for wear, but alive...... "Hope that leg will be alright" was the conclusion as he had been rather stretched, Willow would never have managed on her own.

Chester was duly licked dry and loved........... but his front left leg was very weak, and he didn't want to use it....... He had no trouble with sucking, so it wasn't going to prevent him from feeding, he was so big that he could kneel down of the front leg that worked properly and reach up for sustenance, but the other needed some physio!!!  

Each day I went to feed the pets, I picked him up and exercised his leg, moving each joint backwards and forwards, then massaging them, then the whole leg up and down, he clearly was in no pain whatsoever, but I did give him an anti inflammatory just to help things along. We put Willow and Chester out in home field with the others, and kept a special eye on them.  After a couple of days Chester had worked out how to jump the stream on 3 legs, and lolloped about after Willow in a sort of rocking motion... not even trying to use his 4th... until yesterday.

We had to round up all the sheep into the barn to check them before moving them to new pasture.... Poor Chester had no choice but to go with the flock...  at a pace he wasn't used to, running with them till I could grab him out of harms way.... we gave him another injection and then shipped him off with his mum and the other babysitters to spend some quality time in a much smaller group in the garth at West Burton...

So when I went to the field at dusk to give the pets their bottles, I was delighted with the sight that met me. There was Chester, now 10 days old, at the side of their pen, leaping up and down like Tigger, asking them all to join him in the evening chase..... while I was there he spent the whole time running about on all 4 legs and bouncing about with his new found confidence.... Here he is this morning, still with a slight limp, but now we know he will mend, and recover from his uncomfortable start!

Best of all Willow loves him!

Each year our beautiful village of West Burton holds a proper, traditional, May Fair, with stalls, games,a plant sale, a grand raffle and food for all the family. This year it is to be held on  Monday 26th May 2014, starting at 1pm. So do come and join in with your family... there are events for all ages, with the soapy slide on the village green being a particular favourite with the kids last year... so bring a change of clothes for them too!!! There is a keenly contested quoits competition for you to entre as well, and they'll be testing out our brand new pitches, just outside the village pub..... where there will be beer on tap all day and all evening!! Of course the shops in the village will be open for your enjoyment, including Fabric of the Field....... although I may disappear for a pint and a hot dog later on!!

Hope to see you there!

I've just got back from the garth behind the Reading Rooms where our new little band of poppets are spending their first night. It was dusk, and 3 of the 4 pets had already gone to bed in the trailer... only one was in the pen, with a new friend outside it in the field who was bouncing round like a lunatic!  Willow, who is Vincent's sister has had a single lamb this year, her first ever...... I'll tell you about him another day as there is a tale to tell, but to see him behaving like tigger was a sight for sore eyes.  I gave my lambs their bottles and a drop to Holly's twins as they always ask, then walked away. All 4 trooped back into the trailer as though it was part of their normal routine.... 
......... I'm so proud of them!

Well the training seems to have worked.  

Today we have moved all the sheep from the fields next to the barn. All the feet have been trimmed, all mucky bottoms clipped, and all the ewes dosed for worms... and any sore teats have been lubricated with vaseline... something that should work, as it was so brilliant in helping a wound on my face heal without leaving a scar, so in theory it should be perfect! 

We kept 3 of our new mums aside to be placed in the field at West Burton, to help teach our 4 pet lambs how to be sheep, Holly with her two, Freckle with Daisy's brother and Willow with her little lad ... the same babysitter job that Millie and Maisy did for us last year........ sadly as they both suffered from mastitis they are no longer with us, but we do still have Millie's lambs Jonty and Totty of course!!  

The Field training has worked a treat.... the 4 have been penned out in the main field every day this week, and are fully confident with the arrangement.  The only difference now is that they have a trailer rather than the barn with a pen attached.... They travelled to their new residence in the back of the pick-up, I sat in the back with them.... Daisy, who has travelled before just climbed into my arms and went to sleep, while the other 3 bunched up together and were kept on their feet with a careful hand.... 

We had placed their yellow bucket filled with water in the pen, had hung their hay net and creep feed bucket from the back of the trailer, filled the back with straw and had placed their bale of hay inside for good measure, as they like to sleep on it...... everything looked familiar... so when Nigel unloaded them one by one and placed them in their new home, there wasn't even a murmur, they just started eating grass....... Daisy had a good look round and a bit of a reassuring rub of her face, as she's only 2 weeks old and is yet to start munching grass, although it won't be long...  

We left them without a single sound being uttered! Job done, and worth the effort to prevent any anxiety!  Tomorrow we'll put another rail on the pen... one that will allow lambs in and out but will prevent mums from getting in.... by then they'll know where they are safe.. especially if it rains.