Me and My family (including the four legged ones!)

Tups fighting!

2012-01-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

All the boys have been in the shed now for over ten days and we have been keeping them penned up quite tight to try and avoid big fights. So today, out came the trailer, all loaded in and up to the field behind the house. Several serious bouts of headbutting later, some chasing about, some bloodshed (especially Jarvis because he takes such a long run up to a butt) and now it is dark so we just have to hope they have sorted the pecking order out and no serious damage is caused overnight. Fingers' crossed.

At a farm sale yesterday, we managed to pick up a bale sledge to make haytime easier, as this deposits the small bales in heaps around the field instead of one by one all over, and a calf restraining crate to make tagging easier.

We have had to haul a couple of windblown trees out of the river just below High Stocks Bridge caused by the storms, but the weather has been lovely the last few days so lets hope it continues.

Only seven and a half weeks until lambing, so lots to do!!

High Winds

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

Well it is windy today, but not as bad as the south of Scotland. It was lovely yesterday, the kind of day that makes you start planning lots of 'spring' jobs but back to normal today with the river on the verge of flooding and the wind blowing like a good un! At least it has given me a chance to clear up after the festivities, only the Christmas trees to take down now so that will be tomorrows job as even more rain is forecast.
Looking to get the hall and landing decorated before we open for spring so need to get on with that and also on farm, need to try and get sheds ready for lambing time, not easy when they are fairly constantly full of sheltering animals.

2011-12-29T12:51:00.000-08:00

Well - two wet and windy months later and I can happily update that after scanning just over 100 ewes today all the tups have done well, and Toddy has four sets of twins and four singles due so far, with five more shetlands to scan in early February, though he has also been running with eleven of our smaller ewe lambs too, in the hope of giving them a small lamb for an easy first lambing.
Over fifty ewes have been housed for three weeks now, as we battled constantly with muddy fields and the threat of flooding. The remainder have constant access to a shed with haylage feeders and it is amazing how much they use it. It makes all the difference to them to be able to lie down somewhere dry.
A lot of our sheep have suffered a terrible eye infection known as 'pink eye', caused largely by the wind and rain (storm blindness) - we treat with various different antibiotics, creams and sprays, and in the worst cases long acting antibiotic injection. Some really struggle to fight it off and need extra special care - but we are good at that here, so our vet says anyway!!

Todhill Singleton

2011-10-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

At the Rare Breeds sale at Carlisle in September, we bought a shetland ram to run with our ever increasing number of pedigree shetland ewes. He is black and polled, which means he is naturally without horns. Hopefully we will be able to show him and one or two of the ewes. We have done a little bit of halter training but will do more when they come in for lambing next spring.

Autumn update

2011-10-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

After a very wet August and September, the early part of October had a very warm spell which gave the grass another growth spurt so although the fields are still very soggy there is a bit of grass about for the various groups of ewes, some running with tups since 13th October. The cows and calves are in now but the in-calf heifers are still out, and the blue greys are still on their scabious marsh field. A trip to Newcastleton in Scotland has resulted in six new additions to the cattle herd, three heifers the same age as the fen group, and three babies, only six months old.

On a brighter note......

2011-06-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

The Blue Grey heifers are doing really well, grazing a rough pasture at the far end of the farm. This pasture has quite a lot of Devil's Bit Scabious, a host plant for Marsh Fritillary butterflies, and Natural England are keen for us to manage this pasture in such a way as to maximise both the plant and the butterfly. This involves grazing with a small number of cattle over a long period of time to create a mosaic of different lengths of grass, flowers and other desirable species. Top photo is Tinkerbelle, bottom one is Breeze.

A difficult moment

2011-06-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

Still waiting for the last heifer to calve - we have five calves so far. Unfortunately, Chrisna, one of our older pedigree Saler cows lost her calf after a extra-long pregnancy and a breech birth. Kev and I were both devastated as this is the first calf we have lost in all our calvings since taking over the farm. The calf was very big though, and obviously late (about two and a half weeks by my reckoning) and although the vet got him out fairly easily once he had found both legs, he had swallowed a lot of fluid and just never got going with suckling. Chrisna has had some antibiotic treatment and a week on straw and water diet to try and dry up her milk. We did not fancy trying to adopt a calf onto her as she wasn't too motherly with her own in the time he was alive, so she will just go out with the dry heifers and back to the bull in July.

Some photos from lambing time

2011-05-12T03:20:00.000-07:00

A few photos:- a shetland stands proudly with her twins, a lamb hiding in a feed ring, two jacobs with their black charollais x lambs and the first one to lamb, Eve with her twins ready to go out to grass.

A lovely straw bed ready and waiting

2011-02-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

I have spent this last week getting the large lambing shed mucked out - Kev loves the mini-digger we have on hire as it makes things like this so much easier. I then hot pressure washed it and sprayed it liberally with disinfectant. Two of our girls were in a little shed as they have been lame and somewhat under the weather, so after bedding it up this morning with lots of straw they have the privilege of the shed to themselves tonight. Tomorrow will see a lot of the triplet-carrying ewes come in plus up to a dozen of the first to lamb. Its just that it keeps raining and I need to preserve some grass for after they have lambed. There is enough mud about for now!

Scanning

2011-01-13T12:28:00.000-08:00

The boys have done a good job and despite all the snow and ice and desperate temperatures the girls are having plenty of lambs. There are 14 sets of triplets due, with several of the usual suspects - Gizmo, Blanche, Daisy, Sacha and Stiffie all had triplets last year too! These girls have been separated out into a small field and are starting to get a few high protein ewe rolls to help them along. There are 73 sets of twins due, 16 having singles and some of this years lambs -12 of them - 10 having singles and the two black ones out of the jacobs, Jem and Jet, are having twins. There is lots of work to do yet, as all the sheds need cleaning, washing and disinfecting, and the triplet group need to come inside around mid-February - possibly sooner if the weather stays wet.

Well done, boys

2010-11-24T14:53:00.000-08:00

The three tups, Merlin, Charlie and Jarvis have been out with their respective groups of ewes for just over five weeks now, and everything has a coloured bottom of one sort or another, so if there are no disasters, lambing will be a fairly compact five weeks, but it will be quite crowded at times in the sheds! Lets hope for plenty of spring grass and sunshine.

Autumn's new additions

2010-11-04T06:24:00.001-07:00

Carlisle Rare Breeds sale at the end
of september saw us come home with 7 new shetlands and a jacob gimmer lamb. Three further jacobs have been purchased locally, and a trip to Newcastleton last week saw the arrival on farm of six blue-grey heifers aged between 6 and 12 months. These are a very hardy breed, a cross between galloway and whitebred shorthorn, and are intended to graze our marsh areas to help with the conservation aims, and then later to breed from.

2010-09-12T06:38:00.000-07:00

After the drought came the rain, and it rained for the better part of July and most of August. Further fields of silage were snatched in short dry spells and we now have enough to see us through the winter and also some to sell, despite the lower yields this year. The lambs were all weaned by mid-August, and a couple of loads have gone to market, and one small group sold for breeding. The gimmer lambs we are keeping are all named and double tagged with the new EID sets we have to use. Pebbles and Samson were weaned this weekend too - later because they were so much younger. Most of the ewes look well - fit not fat - but one or two are in the shed on a straw-based diet in an attempt to slim them down a bit before tupping. If they are fat they either do not get in lamb or only have one.
Marty the cat has been in the wars - he was missing last Sunday until teatime, when after an extensive all-day search, Kev found him in an old shed round the back of the farm. He was in quite a sorry state and not able to walk much. A trip to the vet revealed he had dislocated his elbow and had a pad on the rear foot torn nearly off down to the bone. He had the elbow re-set and strong antibiotics and stitches to deal with the pad injury. He is very frustrated as we a are having to keep him in a cage to prevent him going outside and aggravating the problems.

And now a drought......

2010-07-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

Who would have believed that after all the water we had only 7 months ago that we would now be in the middle of one of the driest ever summers. With a private water supply, we have been more aware of this for longer than most people - the stream that runs through the field adjacent to the house has been virtually dry for over a month now. We still have enough water and an overflow but have to monitor it carefully and will have to move cattle and sheep away from the house supply if necessary.
All the cows have calved and we have four boys and only one girl - we had been hoping for at least half and half in our vain attempt to breed our own replacement cows. So this year we have booked a limousin bull to hire and we will sell on the calves at the usual 12 months old and buy breeding heifers - we aim to have a half Salers and half Angus cross herd, hopefully about 15 cows in a couple of years.
We have been approached by Natural England and are going to enter Higher Level Stewardship in the new year. This means working to achieve both conservation aims as well as an efficiently run farm.

Pixie's surprise

2010-06-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

One of our oldest sheep, Pixie, was scanned as not in lamb in December and because she is such a pet, was allowed to run with Jarvis for a few weeks more - the result is a June lamb, Pebbles. They are in the back field with the pet lambs and Pixie is very protective and constantly butting the pets.

Kev's rescue mission

2010-05-29T15:20:00.001-07:00

Kev had noticed that a tawny owl had been nesting in our bottom shed and on Thursday evening, he was working in the bottom yard when he noticed an owlet sat on the ground. A quick telephone call to a local sanctuary confirmed that it would most likely perish if not put back in the nest box - it had obviously tried to fly a little too soon!

All seems well and mum seems to have come back to the box too, so its just fingers crossed now.

The great escape

2010-05-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

On a happier note, the six pet lambs were turned out last week having been weaned off milk, and they loved the freedom.

Jazz and her boys, however, have joined the larger group of sheep in the field across the road, so she is back with her other Jacob friends.

Sad news

2010-05-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

After looking like she was going to come through all her various problems, sadly this morning little Splinty had died - it was sudden and unexpected, as she had not looked ill. However, Splinty was a victim of nature, as she was conceived during last year's terrible floods when all the sheep had to go in together, and Splinty was one of a couple of lambs that were in-bred due to the Mums running with their own father, Charlie the tup, for a few days. This was probably why she had her leg problems, and was most likely why something caused her to just die. It was a very sad moment, for me and for her mum Cassie. RIP Splinty.

An update on Splinty

2010-05-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

Splinty has done really well and has been out in the back field with Rock and Roll and both Mums for a couple of weeks now. She wore the splints for about two and a half weeks, and when she first went outside we would shut her and Cassie in at night in a little corner that is fenced off so that she had to rest a little, and gradually her legs got stronger and straighter. As you can see from the photos, she looks super, as do Rock and Roll!

Samson

2010-05-22T07:14:00.000-07:00

Sooty lambed on Tuesday evening - she has had a cracking little tup lamb and we have called him Samson. She is very proud of him and very protective when the bigger lambs try to have a closer look at him.

I survived!

2010-05-14T07:36:00.000-07:00

Both the One Day Event and Lambing!

Lambing was completed (if you don't count Sooty who should be able to manage herself I hope) last Saturday - the final mule had to have a lot of help as the lamb was quite big and had twisted a little bit in its attempts to be born, but all's well that ends well.
Both horses were stars at the One Day Event, especially Fizz who had the best dressage score of the day. They both jumped double clear and were second in their respective classes. It wont be long before Rachel can ride again so she will be stealing him back I guess. Never mind, I get to take him out once more on Sunday at a pony club one day event.

Horsey stuff

2010-04-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago, just after Easter, Rachel had appendicitis and spent two days in hospital, undergoing keyhole surgery. She was quite poorly for a few days and is not allowed to ride horses for a minimum of four weeks. I have, therefore, been given the delightful task of getting Fizz fit as well as Sonny, and the dubious pleasure of competing the Riding Club One Day Event on him. I asked if we could do novice but she said 'No' so we are having to do intermediate - 2'9" jumps and I haven't jumped Fizz for about three years!
First thing was he had to go on a radical diet as his belly was so big it pushed his saddle forward so I felt like I was sitting on his neck - his haylage is now all measured out - evry last little bit and I dont feel sorry for him like Rachel does!! He looks a lot better already but needs to lose about 50 kilos to be event fit, so we are doing endurance training and lots of stretching exercises.
both horses are doing the Riding Club Dressage to Music class at the end of May, so we have also been working out suitable music and a routine for that - it is quite addictive, but Kev doesn't rate my singing along out loud to my i-pod, he thinks I want locked up.

Jazz and her boys, Rock and Roll

2010-04-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

Jazz is one of the four Jacob gimmers we bought last September. They have all four had black lambs, and Jazz had twins. They were very weak at first but Rachel and I gave Jazz a radical haircut to show the way clearly to the milk! After a couple of days of special care, they were soon bouncing around as befits their names.

Meet Splinty

2010-04-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Splinty was born very early on Saturday morning 2 weeks ago - it was a very difficult birth as both her legs were back, meaning that they were still tucked back inside the womb whilst her head was well on its way out. I managed to manipulate one leg forward and fortunately the other was totally straight back and not bent, so I was able to pull her out as there was no room to get the other leg forward. Her head was quite swollen for a few hours due to the pressure she had been under, but she recovered well and was soon up and sucking. It became apparent quite soon though, that her legs were slightly twisted and also she was knuckled over on her fetlocks. Often in mild cases this will correct itself but this was too much, so off she went to the vets on Monday morning for a check up and on went the splints. She is actually very nimble on them, and can do all sorts of spring lamb stuff, and even seems quite proud of them! Her mum, Cassie, loves her very much despite the fact that she is definitely different!

Jill's babies

2010-04-15T06:09:00.001-07:00

Sprite and Jill

2010-04-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sprite is a herdwick who is 4yrs old and was hand reared by Rachel. The first time she lambed she loved her lamb but definitely did not want him to suckle her so she had to be very closely monitored. Last year she was fine just having one lamb, all by herself, Lilt. This year however, she has had twins, Dandelion and Burdock, and much as she loves them both only Burdock is allowed to suckle any time he likes - Dandelion is kept at arms length. She seemed to come round a little and acceptm her, but after a few days in the field, Dandelion was looking more than a little hungry last night. So, back in they all came, and Sprite is now in the Dancing Gate version of sheep borstal - a fairly small pen where she can not get away too easily, and she is handheld too, three times a day - she will rear BOTH lambs and lump it!

Guess she wouldn't fancy being Jill, another herdwick, who has triplets, but who cares for them all beautifully.

sleepless nights!

2010-03-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm still here but haven't had much time to post as lambing has got into full swing. Six of the ewes having triplets have lambed and so far four of them are coping fine with their lambs. We aim to leave them as long as possible but if a lamb slips back we take it off (pet lamb!!). Toffee lambed a few hours before Pearl who was having a single so I tried a wet adoption where you put the adoptee lamb with the newborn and the birth fluids and rub them well together and hope the ewe is convinced she had two lambs. It is sort of working but she is not 100% sure so until he is really strong to keep up with her and the other lamb, they will stay in an individual pen.
Ten of the ewes and their lambs went out for about a week but because of the awful rain that group has come back into one of the sheds for a day or two, as we prefer the lambs not to slip back because of cold, wet weather and also because their is still not much grass so the less it is trampled in the better.
Most of the ewes have plenty of milk but one or two have suffered with the long cold winter and are taking a couple of days to come into milk - in the wild these lambs would die as they need colostrum within an hour or two or they become hypothermic. We have got through two tubs of artificial colostrum already.
Our busiest weekend approaches with over thirty ewes to lamb between now and next Tuesday.

A trauma for Eve (and Me!)

2010-03-17T02:02:00.000-07:00

I got up this morning to discover Eve, who had been fast asleep at 3am checks, trying to lamb but the lamb had not presented his legs and so was stuck with just his head out. Quick work by me and Kev got her tipped slightly upside down to make a bit more room and I managed to get one of his legs forward and deliver him - and despite his ordeal, he was fine. After half an hour, she gave birth with just a little help to his twin. All are doing fine, and after the first day, Eve, Gizmo and their lambs moved into a bigger shed together. They can all go out as soon as there is some grass for them - maybe it will start to grow this week as the weather is a bit warmer and some rain is forecast for Thursday.
All the other pregnant ewes have had their vaccinations (which helps to give the lambs extra immunity to several diseases via the colostrum, the first milk) and there are now 32 ewes in the main shed. Unfortunately one of the shetlands who was having triplets in about a month shed her lambs so she has had to go on antibiotics and be isolated from the others for a short while and I have my fingers crossed that it was just an isolated incident due to improper development rahter than the start of an abortion storm. Our flock is vaccinated against toxoplasmosis - one cause of abortion passed via hay, straw etc contaminated by young kittens/cats. However, we have not yet vaccinated against enzootic abortion, but also who knows what bacteria etc the sheep were exposed to during the floods which is when they were in the early stages of pregnancy.

All has gone quiet again.

2010-03-14T13:38:00.000-07:00

Gizmo and her babies are doing really well - she has recovered from the mastitis and I took them to the cow pasture yesterday for a couple of hours but there cant be any grass as she frogmarched them round the field a couple of times at full speed (well, Gizmo's full speed, but it was quite fast!). It was cold in the wind, though so I brought them back in after a couple of hours. Nobody else looks like lambing yet, but on last night's 3am check I found the girls had been 'playing' with the water supply and pulled a joint apart so there was quite a lot of water gushing into the lambing shed so I had to turn off the stop tap until a more sociable hour when Kev could fix it. We brought five more sheep into the shed today, ones having single lambs, although one looks quite enormous so we'll have to watch her in case the scanner got it wrong as she hasn't had much feed and so would maybe struggle if she did have twins.
Mother's Day brought a lunch voucher for Lyzzick Hall including a bottle of bubbly from Matt, and a set of Rachel's beautiful hand-made jewelry, so they are both in the good books at the moment - long may it last.

Little cuties

2010-03-11T13:51:00.000-08:00

More pics of gizmo and babies

What a day!

2010-03-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

Well, Gizmo gave us our very own 'lambing live' on Tuesday night. We went down to check her just before 8pm and she was just popping the water bag out so we gave her half an hour to get on with it. Rachel was over the moon - in eight years of lambing sheep no lambs have ever arrived on her birthday, so this was a first. However when we went back to check it was apparent that things were not going to be straightforward, as she was only trying a little bit and then sort of giving up. An examination quickly revealed that the first lamb was lying sideways on to the womb entrance and although I could feel the front legs of the next lamb I couldn't find the head or tail of the lamb whose back and ribs I could feel and I couldn't move him out of the way. We immediately decided to whizz her down to our vet as this was beyond my expertise and with three live lambs I wasn't for taking any risks. Anyway, all's well that ends well and the vet expertly turned him round and got him out closely followed by a brother and a sister. Gizmo is a wonderful Mum and got them dried and well fed really quickly.

The next morning, however, I noticed a cold area on her udder - the dreaded mastitis - so as well as the antibiotics that the vet had given her for the difficult lambing, I gave her a different one that helps fight mastitis. She is also still getting a daily dose of her high energy 'medicine' which she loves, lots of her favourite mix (Jim Peet's 321) and some soaked sugar beet shreds.

Just to complete the hectic twenty four hours, one of the young ewes was discovered with a slight prolapse which had to be cleaned and popped back inside and then she was strapped into a harness which she will wear for the next month until she lambs. This will hopefully stop her straining and so stop it happening again. She is now Mathilda's new companion so that I can keep a close eye on her.

The horses, or more specifically Buster, also got in on the act - he came in last night with possibly the most swollen head I have ever seen - you could not see his eyes at all, he was slightly trembling and his breathing was elevated - a classical allergic reaction, but heaven knows what to, the vet suggesting an insect bite as the most likely cause. He was given a steroid injection intravenously by James from our vets. He was very sweaty through night but was much better by this morning.

Hello to Jamie and Holly

2010-03-09T00:38:00.001-08:00

The guests in the holiday house in February half term included Jamie and Holly, who absolutely loved the horses and very kindly sent us a lovely hand-drawn picture of Sonny and Fizz once they had returned home - thank you both very much, Fizz loved it and added it to his fan mail collection - make sure you keep up-to-date with his activities by following his blog too.

It's a waiting game

2010-03-08T23:57:00.000-08:00

I have spent the last week on tenterhooks as Gizmo approaches the end of her pregnancy. She is absolutely huge at the moment and last week we separated her and her Mum Mathilda (for company) out from the others in the shed and put her in a little pen of her own so that she did not get knocked about too much in these last few days. I have also started giving her a small measure of twin lamb formula which helps maintain her energy levels at this late stage. She is supposedly due on Friday but does tend to lamb early so watch this space!

Tucked up warm (sort of!)

2010-02-23T14:49:00.000-08:00

I brought the first group of sheep in today, as with snow forecast for tonight I thought those having triplets would appreciate a bit of comfort and shelter. They were all wormed and stood in the footbath for a good 5 minutes each and then put in the big shed. It was so cold today that the little drip from the pipe supplying their water had formed an icicle on the ground even inside the shed! A fair few of the twin-carrying ewes will come in too this week, although they have been enjoying the dry weather and the little bits of sunshine each day, if its going to be wet and miserable they will be happier inside.

Maternity wards nearly ready!

2010-02-19T14:17:00.000-08:00

I've been busy this week pressure washing the big lambing shed and today I sprayed all the walls and floor with disinfectant. Once its dry, I can get some straw in and then the first batch of ewes can come in, although they will stay out until next weekend unless the weather turns nasty.
We've had lime spread on some of the fields this week to bring up the pH as the soil analysis done last spring showed a lot of fields were too acid for the fertiliser to work really well. Now we need some sunshine to warm things up and get a little bit of grass to grow.

2010-02-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

The horses are getting quite fit now after a month of walking and trotting. They have both had a full clip (except for Fizz's head as he wont let us touch that) and are working for up to an hour a day. Fizz had not been out since late November due to an injury and being on box rest until that healed. We find it difficult to know what to do for the best with him as he behaves terribly in the field and this is usually where he injures himself, but after 3 months, he needed to go out as he was becoming too excitable and a bit scary to ride. He was quite stupid and galloped round like a nutcase for about 10 minutes, at times the speed was hair-raising, and yes, he tweaked something as he came in slightly lame. However, on Sunday morning he was not noticeably lame, so he will continue with a couple more weeks walking to let it settle down, and Sonny will go to the Pony Club rally this week.

Sonny will be for sale this summer as he has the potential to go further than I have the time and money to take him. This will be sad, if he goes, but if he has the ability to succeed at higher levels, now is the right time to give him that chance.

Rachel is returning to university in September to do her PGCE as she wants to teach primary school, so time will be at a premium as she will not be around to help me much over the winter.

We have been introducing Buster to riding (see pic) and this will need to be carried on through the winter, and in the spring when he is four years old, he will be able to do his first ridden classes. Rachel has said that I can ride Fizz next year if Sonny has been sold -thanks Rachel!

How many lambs?

2010-02-15T12:51:00.000-08:00

All the groups of sheep have now been scanned and I am pleased with the results especially considering what they all went through in November. We have 14 sets of triplets due - rather too many for my liking as if all is going well we often leave them all on if the ewe looks like she is coping, and with this many sets it will be harder to keep a check. Several of this group have had triplets before - Gizmo, Toffee, Steffi, Joey, Jill (pictured right) and Blanche, and also Sacha who was Percy's mum so as she rejected him last year she will need to be watched carefully.
Also in with this group at the moment is Betty, one of the few ewes we have with horns. They are only small scur-type horns, and unfortunately she must have banged one quite badly at the trough as she stopped going for food and on examination it is quite sore. She has had antibiotic and lots of blue spray and this will hopefully keep her okay until she lambs mid-March. Then, it will be re-assessed and the vet may have to remove it. She currently eats her ration out of one of my little blue buckets while I stand guard to stop any of the others trying to steal it!
Most of the young sheep are having singles which is good as they cope better with one first time round.

2010-01-17T12:09:00.000-08:00

Milder weather this last couple of days has allowed us to hack the two event horses out (Sonny and Fizz). We are also starting to back Buster, and although he doesn't mind Rachel on his back, he has no concept of forward movement at the moment - we persevered with patience and me on Sonny leading him and got him along the old road and back today.
It was quite alarming yesterday as the thaw was in full flow to see how fast water levels rose - our main stream and the river Derwent were both about to burst their banks at the peak and the lonnin was also flooded somewhat - it all went back down as quickly as it came up, thankfully.
This weekend I have got most of the inlamb ewes dosed for liver fluke as they were coughing a bit and the vet said it was a possible cause - especially as they have been living on wet pastures since about June. We have to dose them about every 10 weeks living in this flood plain. Very soon those having triplets will come inside until they lamb - the shed has a lovely new roof and just needs a hot pressure wash.

Gizmo -supermum!!

2010-01-09T11:12:00.001-08:00

Gizmo has been scanned as having triplets - she looks happy, doesn't she!

from flooded to frozen in six weeks

2010-01-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

Six weeks ago, the lonnin stream overflowed during the floods, washing a lot of gravel out which all had to be repaired. Now, its reduced to a small trickle under a thick bank of ice. Both the Keswick lakes are freezing over, too

New shoes but nowhere to go

2010-01-08T14:48:00.000-08:00

Fizz and Sonny had their shoes put back on just before Christmas in anticipation of starting their 2010 fittening programme - I think their has been frost ever since! So, Fizz is still confined to his stable due to behaving badly in the field and laming himself when given the chance, and Sonny has the occasional day out on his own in the field due to his constant niggling of the others to (play)fight if he goes out in company. Buster and Roscoe go out during the day and Jaffa lives out but now has two rugs on.
On Christmas evening, we tucked Fizz, Sonny and Roscoe up in their stables and fed Buster and Jaffa at the gate at 5pm - four hours later the police called to say some horses were out, were they ours, and it was them - I thought they must have broken the fence, but someone had opened the gate, untwisted the barb wire round it and pushed it inwards to open it - A stray walker, a drunken prank or an attempted theft? Nothing has been ruled out and those that were not microchipped now are, which along with the ones that are freezebranded at least will help us to find them if they get out again and make it more difficult for people to move them if they are stolen.
Hopefully we will soon be able to get them all back into work, with several weeks of road work to strengthen the legs first, and then some local dressage classes before lambing starts.

Happy New Year 2010

2010-01-08T14:28:00.000-08:00

Christmas has been and gone, with plenty of food and a little bit of drink, and an awful lot of cold weather. Its just getting colder and colder now and it makes life on the farm more difficult as most of the water troughs are frozen up and any grass there was is under snow or frozen solid. It is safe to say the ewes are currently eating us out of house and home! Each day over 100 gallons of water have to be carried by bucket to the cows and to the various fields of sheep.

The first batch of sheep were scanned on 28th December, and 14 are carrying triplets, so these have been separated to be given extra feed. Pixie, one of our older ewes and Rachel's favourite, was not in lamb so she has been chucked back in with Jarvis and if it works this time this will be lambs in June.

The Great Flood of 2009

2009-11-30T13:48:00.000-08:00

Well, we are nearly all still here after the worst floods to hit the county in living memory. We unfortunately lost 2 of our lambs when a field that had never before flooded did so and to such an incredible depth that water actually entered the bottom shed to a depth of about 2 foot.

In desperation at the extent of flooding, Kev and I ended up taking his fishing boat across the flooded fields (not a fence in sight underneath us) to attempt to rescue our lambs - they were trapped by water up to their tummies in a hawthorn hedge, but it was the dyke kest that saved their lives due to it being built up from the field. We cut lots of the wire fence and dragged them through, sadly two were missing, and five were very hypothermic and had to be ferried back in two more boat trips to my sister and Rachel who were waiting with hairdryers, hot water bottles and straw to dry them and warm them. Thankfully they all eventually came through okay. We also recued a couple of baby deer from the water and later in the day one had just laid down in the field so we decided that it would probably die if left and took the risk of the shock being too much for it and took it back to the farm and left in a dark shed overnight, by which time it had come round and it was released up the wood behind us.

We also rescued our neighbouring farmer's cows who had got washed over a fence and were wedged up in the corner of our field, belly-deep in water and extremely hungry. More cut wire and they joined all the sheep in the Hill field - this 6-acre field rises very high but had only about 4 acres not under water so although stock was safe in here with 114 sheep and 8 cows it was a total mudbath. We rolled them out a bale of silage that was floating about (yes, really, they all floated about, the stacks of bales are now all on the ground!) and brought some hay over on another boat trip.

For three days we fought on keeping the animals fed and eventually on the Monday, although there was still 2 foot of water on the lonnin we brought all the sheep up home in the trailer - a bit of a rocky ride out given the deep ruts at various places caused by the rushing water, but with more rain forecast we felt we had to. The cows had to wait until Saturday for the water to go off the lonnin so they could walk up and get loaded into a trailer at the farm to go back to their home.

Walking around the fields now, it is eerie going past trees that have debris hanging on them way above my head. We have lost a few fences and have a lot of plant debris but are in a lot better state than many people. The photo shows us setting off in the boat, with a deer in the background swimmimg to freedom!

Oaklands Dorcas

2009-10-31T15:36:00.000-07:00

Another new addition, Oaklands Dorcas, was purchased last weekend from the Livingstones - she is Anah's daughter from last summer and we saw her when we collected Challenge in July and were very taken with her, so when Challenge went home at the end of September, we looked at her again and decided to buy her. She is 16 months old and will live with the other cows, going to the bull next summer and having her first calf when she is three years old.

She was rather shy about having her photo taken, trying to hide behind one of the bigger cows!

New cats

2009-10-29T13:52:00.000-07:00

Due to the loss of Tiggy in July at the grand old age of 18, we felt we needed another cat to discourage mice around the house and farm. We didn't really fancy a kitten, especially with all the dogs around, so we went down to our local cat rescue centre and two cats straight away chose us as their new owners.

Marty (bottom photo)is a semi-longhaired grey and white cat, with a very cuddly, loveable nature and he climbed all over Matthew as if to say take me now.

Stevie (a girl!) is a short haired grey and white cat and loves to be stroked but does not like being picked up - obviously something has happened in her past, but we hope she will settle down. She can certainly purr when she wants!

They have both settled in marvellously, with Stevie (pictured top) very much boss of the dogs, although I think due to failing eyesight with age that Lottie is slightly oblivious to their presence. Marty looks at the dogs with mild curiosity, but does run if challenged. Stevie had a slight touch of cat flu which apparently happens a lot in re-homed cats, but they are both now micro-chipped and vaccinated and fully settled in.

Scottish adventure

2009-10-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

Following the cancellation of Hutton, Fizz and Sonny were rapidly re-routed to Turnberry horse Trials in Ayrshire. Overnight stabling was arranged and Rachel and I packed our woollies!

The journey took just under four hours and we went to the event location first and walked the courses. Then we set off to find our accommodation (stables for the horses, sleeping in the lorry for us!). Sonny was really funny, he was scared stiff of the strange stables and wouldn't go in for ages, but Fizz strutted in and made himself right at home. It was a really cold night but we had a giggle as we were wrapped fully-clothed in our sleeping bags!

Both horses did moderate dressage tests, so for Sonny, who was competing in a BE90 regional final with the chance of qualifying for the final at Badminton Horse Trials in 2010, that put any hopes of that out of the window. He redeemed himself slightly with a double clear show jumpimg and cross country, although amazingly after all our time penalties in the past, we had 3 time penalties for going TOO FAST - perhaps the time spent trying to train him to gallop better has had a result.

Fizz was also relatively naughty in his dressage, but his judge must have been wearing rose-tinted spectacles as she LOVED him and he still had a good score. He also jumped clear show jumping and cross country (see photo), jumping superbly through several tricky combination fences including a double of angled hedges. However, Rachel nursed him round due to him feeling a leg in the run up to the event, and he picked up a few time penalties which put him out of the placings.

Westmorland County Show

2009-10-29T13:25:00.001-07:00

We took Roscoe and our friends' Highland pony, Jethro and were pleasantly surprised at how dry the field was after all the rain recently.

Roscoe excelled himself with a 4th place in his coloured in-hand class and also a 4th in the in-hand veteran class from 18 entries. Jethro was slightly inattentive in his working hunter and had a refusal and a pole down, but having annoyed his jockey he thought he'd better be good in the Mountain and Moorland ridden class and went beautifully to take 5th place in a strong class of welsh cobs, fells and dales and where he was one of only two highland ponies.

Our new jacob sheep

2009-10-29T13:14:00.000-07:00

At the end of August, we bought four Jacob gimmer lambs. We have named them Jewel, Jazz, Juno and Jinx. They will run after me for feed but will not yet be stroked and definitely, now they are out in the field, try their best not to be caught! They are out with six home-bred gimmer lambs and hopefully this group will be big enought to tup with Jerome, the young Charollais tup. The photo shows them in the shed when they first came.

Where did the summer go?

2009-10-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

Last time I wrote at the beginning of August, the weather was wet and it just got wetter for the next month. Keswick show went ahead on Bank Holiday Monday, but the field was a terrible mess afterwards. Several more local shows were cancelled and the Hutton International eventing fixture for 12th/13th september was also cancelled. We did however manage to get to Westmorland county Show, and to a couple of horse trials in late September.
Kev and I then had a week away from it all in Portugal, and whilst the weather was mainly very hot and sunny, there was the most amazing rain on our second last night - it bounced of the pavements, but thankfully we were in a restaurant at the time!
Back home now, and lots of jobs to catch up on! The trees are changing rapidly, with some glorious autumn colours at the moment, but it is a shock when the clocks go back at how quickly it gets dark.

Summer floods

2009-08-03T06:36:00.000-07:00

The sheep all got clipped - the lambs then spent the next couple of days wondering which one was mum! They were then all taken down to the low fields, but had to be brought up to higher ground in a hurry last Wednesday when there was a danger of the fields flooding (July?!?). Hopefully now there will be some better weather on the way.

Last ever Pony Club area competition

2009-08-03T06:29:00.000-07:00

Rachel is 21 now and this was therefore her last ever competition representing our Pony club - we all trooped over to very nearly the East coast, 3 teams of dressage riders and Rachel doing the open as an individual. Two teams had second placings, the other a third, and several children were placed individually too. Rachel had the unfortunate bad luck to be doing her test as a group of children (competitors who should have known better) clattered up the road behind the arena. This proved rather too much for Sonny to concentrate and his test was quite tense, although Rachel rode him really well considering he just wanted to gallop off with them. She then helped with the novice team, and was really chuffed that Jethro came 2nd in his arena.
Rachel's college friend Anna and her Mum came to see us with their beautiful 7-month old Newfoundland puppy, Ruby, who was an absolute hit with everyone!

A very wet July!

2009-08-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, Cumberland County Show on 18th July was cancelled due to the overnight rain (plus the rest from the previous day!) causing the high risk of flooding on the showfield. We did however go eventing on the Sunday with Sonny at Cumwhinton. This was his first attempt at a slightly higher level, cross country fences at 1metre high, so I was a bit (understatement) nervous. He was super though and had a double clear which put him in 11th place.
Back to Cumwhinton the following Sunday, Rachel aboard him this time for Pony Club area, he again went really well with a great cross country clear. Fizz is back in work after his back injury but was not quite up to a cross country run at this stage.
Last weekend it was Cockermouth Show on Saturday, a lovely day out, some red rosettes among our little gang (Fizz, Jethro and Billy pictured above) and a couple of trophies too.

summer update

2009-07-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

We had a really busy ten days when all the rest of the grass was cut and gathered in. We now have plenty for the cows and a lot of horse haylage which we will try to sell from September. We had to lead it from the fields really quickly and cover the stacks with a netting to prevent bird attacks - they go after the bugs that land on the bales because of the warmth.
The cows have had their feet trimmed by the vet as some of them had quite long toes. We have collected a bull from the farm that Anah and Valerie came from - Oaklands Challenge. We let him out of the trailer and all the cows ran to greet him - poor lad, he turned and ran away! He's now quite happily munching on grass and following the girls around.
The sheep are still waiting to be clipped but the weather just keeps postponing it - annoying showers that just keep making the fleece damp. We are wanting to move a lot of them down over the river to eat the new grass appearing on the cut fields, and this would allow a lot of the top fields to have a good sheep-free period.

First fields in!

2009-06-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

We managed to get our first lot of silage made last weekend. The grass was cut on Monday and Tuesday evenings last week, and the baler came on Friday night. There were 75 big bales of really good dry silage which will be a good half of what we need for our cows this winter. We still have 40-plus acres to gather, some of which we will make into horse haylage, both for our own and to sell. This needs to be really dry, about one day off being hay and so needs three or four really good days in a row - we're not getting that at the moment so we'll just have to be patient.
the new bales were stacked and then we put a fine mesh netting over them to stop birds pecking at them and making holes in the plastic, which causes bales to spoil.

Anah has a boy

2009-06-17T15:07:00.000-07:00

The last of the cows calved early this morning in the (fairly) torrential rain. We went down the field in the truck at about 10.30am to see if they were ok - all the other cows and calves were sheltering under some overhanging trees near the gate, but Anah and her calf were lying in the middle of the field in all the rain. They were cuddled up together, and as we approached she got up - she looked like she had had a bit of a rough time, but the calf seemed fine. He was shivering a bit, but that's nature's way to warm up, and when he got up he went straight to Anah to try all four teats for a suckle, then they trotted off together into the rough marshy bit to escape from us!

Who could be the naughtiest horse?

2009-06-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we went to our Riding Club's show jumping day. My back has been a bit sore and Rachel had been riding Sonny through the week to give it a chance to get better, and so I suggested she maybe could work him for 15 minutes to settle him down a bit without pulling on my back. She tried her best but he had other ideas and just proceeded to go at the speed he felt appropriate, so he was brought back to the horse wagon in disgrace and a stronger bit put in and I got on. After a serious battle of wills, he decided to give in, not grunt on the way in to a jump and actually go at the speed I wanted to. He had a clear round and a knockdown in the jump off of the 85cm class. Meanwhile, Fizz was trolling round with Rachel, looking very angelic. Sonny and I jumped clear in the first round of the 95cm and then it was Fizz's turn. Well, I nearly fell off with shock - he cantered steadily round to fence one and then the touch paper was lit! He jumped it really big and babyish and nearly got rid of Rach, then did the rest of the round like a quad bike cornering on 2 wheels before hurtling out of the ring and dropping in to stand beside Sonny looking totally innocent again. We all burst out laughing, including Rachel, but I do think Fizz won the prize for being naughtiest! He did redeem himself by steadying up and jumping a couple more classes in a more refined style, and Sonny was very proud to win the style jumping (but the judge did say he had a soft spot for greys).

Today we have been to Hexham, cross country schooling. The weather was lovely and the ground conditions excellent and they both jumped everything we wanted them to so a good day was had by all.

Its a heifer!!

2009-06-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

Oaklands Valerie, one of our newly purchased pedigree Salers cows, gave birth on Saturday evening. If you had seen our attempts to find out what she had had, you would have been in stitches. As it was, we had to wait until Sunday morning to discover that the new arrival was a heifer, and so another addition to the breeding stock at Dancing Gate.

Valerie (left) and Anah (right) are pictured before they were turned out.

Percy, Polly and Pandora 2

2009-06-03T04:59:00.000-07:00

The pet lambs have now been weaned - a rather noisy process so they went off to the big field with the other sheep for a couple of weeks until they accepted the idea. Pandora especially did not take kindly to the idea of no more milk and you had to wonder sometimes how something so delicate and pretty could make such an awful racket! They have come home now to live with the tups again and so they can have cake every day. They have two friends as one of the ewes had been poorly and on antibiotics so she is in the back field too with her lambs. Polly is becoming very pretty and poor Percy has sunburnt ears as they are quite bare due to the Charollais in him so he has moisturising cream rubbed on at night.

Dancing Gate Holiday House

2009-06-03T04:49:00.000-07:00

The house is all finished and the first guests have been and gone and loved it - it does look fantastic, so clean and new! The pictures are now up on the website for anyone interested in booking or just looking!
This week we have put the shed in for cycle storage and added a garden bench for sitting and admiring the wonderful views. The window cleaner came and tidied up the mess that a rather persistent pied wagtail keeps making around and on the bedroom windows - he sees his reflection in the glass and attempts to woo himself. Its quite funny but I wish he would give up and go away.

Summer calves

2009-06-03T04:45:00.000-07:00

Our four original cows have all calved now, two have had bull calves and two have had heifers. The calves get tagged with individual i.d. nos and are disbudded in the first couple of days so that they do not grow horns. The two new cows, Oaklands Valerie and Anah arrived on whit monday and have settled in really well. They spent a few days in the shed to get to know us but went out on Sunday afternoon and are loving it. They are getting to know the others over the fence and hopefully they will calve soon and they can all go together.

Plastic recycling

2009-05-13T15:38:00.001-07:00

During the winter months, we feed all the silage bales we have made during the summer. The plastic that comes off gets hung over a gate to dry then rolled up tightly and put in our store area. Tonight we have been packing Solway Recycling bags with the various streams of plastics for a collection at Cockermouth tomorrow. Black, white and all other plastic feed bags comprise one stream of plastic. Woven plastic (e.g. the outer part of fertiliser bags) is a second stream. Buckets and plastic cartons - well-rinsed out - are another separate stream and string and net is the fourth type. This plastic is all recycled to form useful items like portable lambing pens and cattle feedrings.

New cows

2009-05-13T15:32:00.000-07:00

We went to look at some more Salers at Carlisle at the weekend. All being well with vet checks, we have bought two in-calf cows, and may possibly have found a bull to hire for this summer.

Yet another waiting game.

2009-05-03T14:46:00.000-07:00

We are now waiting for our cows to calve. We have three pure-bred Salers, beautiful deep red coloured cows, but extremely big, and one little black Angus/Friesian cross. We check them twice a day, as although calving problems are not as common as lambing problems, it is important to ensure the calf has suckled and so received the vital influx of colostrum

Percy, Polly and Pandora

2009-04-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

We have three pet lambs - Percy (pictured right having fun) came first, his Mum simply did not want him and he started to hide behind the water bucket, so as he had two stronger siblings, we had no choice but to take him off his Mum as he was not getting much milk. Percy is now a champion milk bottle sucker!
He was very distraught when we introduced Polly, trying to kick her out of his nice straw bed and even weeing on her head once. He has now become quite fond of her. Polly was also a triplet, but they were all quite big and so one was always going to be short of milk. Polly was last to be born, and was a bit slow so she joined Percy in the pet pen. She loves sitting on your knee and being cuddled and stroked.
Then along came Pandora. Born at night in the big shed, Pandora strayed slightly too far from her Mum (we are only talking about 15m here but its enough for a sheep if they are that way inclined) and on being reunited Pandora was ecstatic but Mum said 'No Way'. We tried for a week to get them to bond, Pandora was game enough to stick in and suckle but her mum just seemed to hate her so we finally gave up and Percy has his harem! I should add here that Pandora's mum is a shetland ewe so she has the cutest face ever.

Sniffy Knees and all that

2009-04-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

Only one left now, as I think the last one is not in lamb. We have a couple of problem sheep left in the sheds. The first one is nicknamed 'sniffy knees' as she took very badly with lambing (a first timer) and really did not want to be suckled. She would let them suckle if we stood over her, but constantly seemed to draw comfort from sniffing her knees. The lambs were strong and worked as a pair and soon bossed her, but when we had a trial run in a bigger shed, they couldn't get her pinned down to suckle, so back in the small shed she went. We'll let her out in a couple of weeks when they are needing less milk so it won't matter so much if she runs off! She does however seem to be getting fonder of them so who knows?
Also back in is Pixie, as one of her twins is lame. He has been treated by the vet but it's just a case of time for whatever he has hurt to heal. Daisy is also a first timer and the lambs have been overpowering for her and have ravaged her teats - their teeth are very sharp! Hopefully the antibiotics she has had will prevent mastitis occurring, and the teats are being covered in udder cream three times a day and are healing slowly. The lambs are penned to one side of her and only allowed to suckle for very short spells under supervision. They are very stubborn, though, and will not take extra bottle milk so may end up being weaned at 5 weeks old, next week. This would allow Daisy to recover fully and hopefully be okay for next year.

Little and large!

2009-04-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

On Sunday evening we had the unexpected (a week early) arrival of the smallest lamb we have had this year. We had vaccinated for bluetongue on Friday and although we kept things very quiet and low key it is likely that this young sheep, a first time lamber, was upset by it and so lambed early. She had licked the lamb clean when Rachel found them, and with a bit of help and the removal of a large amount of wool to clear a pathway into her udder, the lamb seems to be getting enough colostrum to still be surviving four days on.
The next day I was home alone, without the 'lambulance' - the new name for our daihatsu truck! - as it was away for its MOT, and another first timer was lambing. This was the complete opposite, a very big lamb and with one leg still right back. Thank goodness for Countryfile, where two weeks ago he demonstrated tipping a ewe up on her head to get help from gravity in order to push the lamb back in to be able to find and straighten the missing leg. A lamb this big could not be born without doing this as there would simply not be enough room to get it out. Anyway, alls well that ends well and the lamb was fine. Mum was a bit shocked though, and it took her until the next day before she really came round to thinking she maybe did like her baby after all.

more lambing news!

2009-04-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

Its been a hectic fortnight since I last wrote. More than half of the sheep have lambed and many are now back out at grass. Its lovely to see the groups of lambs playing in the evenings, but very noisy at feeding time for the ewes when a lot of the lambs temporarily lose 'Mum'. All the expected sets of triplets have arrived plus a couple of extra sets. Some ewes cope but others cant handle it or one of the lambs isn't feisty enough to stick in and get its fair share of milk, so inevitably we have ended up with a couple of pet lambs so far. I'll post some pics in the next couple of days.

lambing update

2009-03-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well everything got going last weekend, with two of the girls delivering healthy sets of twins on Friday 13th! Rosemary, who was due on friday, managed to hang on until Sunday afternoon and then required a trip to the vet in Cockermouth to get the lamb out safely - I struggle with heads that are turned backwards as there really is very little room to correctly position the lamb and keep it there for delivery. Mother and daughter are now doing fine and out in the field enjoying the beautiful spring weather and the juicy green grass.
The unscheduled delay in Rosemary's delivery foiled our plans to take the horses to do a dressage competition at Newton Rigg college near Penrith. They were both beautifully clean, Rachel had plaited their manes and tails and they were ready to be loaded onto the wagon when the lambing drama started. Fizz was not amused when he was finally put back in his stable an hour later when the trip to the vets became inevitable!
Another set of twins and a set of triplets have arrived since then and several are due this coming weekend. Unfortunately, people are saying the weather is not going to stay as nice as it is, but I guess we'll just wait and see.
Dancing Gate house is also coming on, with most of the bedroom furniture now here, several sets of curtains are now up and the beds are also all here. Bookings have started to come in, and our first week of letting is mid-May.

Meet the dogs

2009-03-05T13:34:00.000-08:00

For those who have not met our dogs, here is a brief introduction. Lottie is a 12 year old golden cocker spaniel whom I bred myself in 1996. She is very cuddly and lovable but tends to bark a bit more now as she has cataracts and so cannot see too well. She also feigns selective deafness when there is something more interesting to investigate.

Jasper is almost five years old, a blue roan cocker spaniel who can run like the wind, but also likes to cuddle his favourite toy, an old teddy bear called smudge.

Hamish a West Highland white terrier, came to live with us two years ago when my Dad died. He is thirteen years old and was originally my mum's.

They all get along well and like nothing better than a good run round the fields during our spare time.

Frosty tops

2009-03-05T12:55:00.000-08:00

A mixed bag of weather this week - wet, windy, snow on the tops, ice and frost, and even some beautiful spring sunshine occasionally.

All the dogs - Jasper, Lottie and Hamish have been clipped right out as they had totally overgrown coats, but I don't think they are very happy with me now its frosty again at night!

All the March-lambing ewes are in the shed in case anybody decides to drop an early surprise, and all the lambing pens are clean, disinfected and filled with lovely clean straw waiting for their first occupants. One week to go.

Hedging and fencing

2009-03-01T14:39:00.000-08:00

This weekend 77 herdwick ewes arrived on farm from Borrowdale valley. They had been scanned and the farmer sends all the ones having twins to lowland farms like ours where there is a bit more grass to help them along. We had been planning to do a bit of fencing in the field they went in anyway so on Saturday morning it was all hands on deck, Matty and me taking down the old fence and then Kev and Matt knocking in posts with a tractor-mounted post-knocker - a little bit easier than by hand with a mell hammer. Kev then spent the rest of the afternoon attaching netting and wire to secure the area and hey presto! the sheep can't escape (at least not by that route anyway!).
Today, he has been busy in a different field, forming a planting strip for a new hedge. This is being done as part of a conservation plan and we receive some funding to help with the costs. Hedge planting and laying have to be done from November to March, and our plan has just been approved so we are pulling out the stops to get two stretches of hedge in before the deadline.
The weather forecast is not so good for mid-week so the next couple of days will be spent getting some more of the earlier lambing ewes in the shed.

Lambing time approaching!

2009-02-24T14:09:00.000-08:00

After a couple of busy weekends in the B & B, I have now turned my attention back to the sheep and getting things ready for lambing, due to start on March 13th. The main ewe shed was hot pressure washed out a few weeks ago, and I have spent the last two days doing the 'maternity' shed, which is where most of the newborns start life and the next door shed into which they move once they are on their feet and bonded with mum. Only two more sheds to go!
I also have made a shopping list of all the lambing essentials that I need to buy in the next fortnight and tidied out the medicine cabinet.
Once the sheds are dry, I will spray them with disinfectant and then bed them up with straw. The first two ewes that are due are Rosemary, a South Down who is having just one lamb and one of her daughters, Pamela who is having twins.

B&B open for 2009

2009-02-15T12:18:00.000-08:00

Well, after a week of frantic running around getting lots of little jobs finished, I opened up the B&B again this weekend. Two parties of guests enjoyed a pleasant weekend of weather and the full english breakfasts were much sought after! With the B&B open again I will have to turn my attention back to decorating in the farmhouse, trying to get it ready for holiday letting as soon as possible (www.dancing-gate.co.uk). Kev is busy with the landscsaping of the garden area and parking - he has moved the sandstone gate stoops round to the side of the garden and rebuilt the front wall to keep the farmyard and holiday house separate from each other. Its hard to describe, but is starting to look great - he's even put some of Mum's old garden figures on the wall top and they look really cute.

With all the usual farm jobs and a Pony Club rally for Rachel on Sunday, its been a busy weekend! We also have my friend's highland pony Jethro here on holiday for a couple of weeks while they are away in the Canary Islands.

We did however treat ourselves to dinner at the hotel next door, Lyzzick Hall - it is to be recommended for special occasions as the food is superb and the atmosphere very cosy.

what's new in the sheep shed this week?

2009-01-23T14:56:00.000-08:00

We had all the lambing ewes scanned a couple of weeks ago. This tells us how many lambs they are having and helps us to feed them appropriately. Those having triplets need to be fed well through the last couple of months before lambing, those having twins need some extra feed gradually increasing towards their expected lambing date, but those having singles do not really need any extra as the lamb can get too big and then lambing is difficult.
We have seven expecting triplets and we put these plus some older ewes in the back field after the scanning as there was quite a lot of fresh grass on it. They were also enjoying the ivy that we cut off the wall for them (see pic). This soon changed after all the rain and by the beginning of this week we had to bring them into a shed. They now have a lovely dry straw bed but can still stand out in the rain in the yard if they really want to!

Location, location, location

2009-01-18T14:39:00.000-08:00

We are so lucky to live where we do - we just wish we had more time than we do to enjoy the beautiful place we live in.
For those of you who do not know us, we live in the heart of the Northern Lake District, just outside Keswick. Cherry Bank Bed and Breakfast, Dancing Gate Farm and the self-catering unit, Dancing Gate House all nestle together in the foothills of Dodd Wood with the mighty Skiddaw Range further behind. The views from here are breathtaking (see left), even for those who have lived in the area all their lives. We look across towards Grizedale Pike, with Winlatter Forest and, at times of higher water, the edges of Bassenthwaite Lake further to our right. To the left, we look up Newlands and Borrowdale Valley - Sca Fell can be seen in the very distance, Catbells in the foreground. To the far left we can see Walla Crag, and further round still, the Helvellyn Range. Completing the panarama is Latrigg Fell - an extremely popular walk and many people's starting point for Skiddaw.

Sheep - how it all started

2009-01-18T14:02:00.000-08:00

In the dark days of 2001, when the countryside was virtually closed down due to the foot and mouth outbreak, we had a flock of Herdwick ewes from a Borrowdale farm wintering at ours and as they could not return home due to the restrictions they all had to lamb here at Dancing Gate. This was a steep learning curve for me as we had not had sheep since I was a little girl and Dad put me in charge of them. Things mostly went okay, but by the time lambing was over we had four pets - either due to their mum dying or rejecting them. April, Pepsi and Toffee were all texel x herdwick and Sooty was a pure herdwick. As they were all girls and everyone had got so fond of them there was no question of sending them to market and so as things got more back to normal in the autumn a search was on for a suitable tup to borrow. Neighbours along the road let us borrow theirs when they had finished using him and so 'Sue's Flock' began. In May 2002 April and Toffee had a ewe lamb each and Pepsi had twin ewe lambs. Today, there are about 75 ewes, lambing each Spring.

Introducing us all!

2009-01-18T13:33:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone - my name is Sue and I run Cherry Bank Bed and Breakfast, with a little help (or not!) from the rest of the family, hubby Kev who is a Senior Forester with The National Trust, design-student daughter Rach and police student son Matty. We have three delightful dogs who you will get to know and love - cocker spaniels Lottie and Jasper, and Westie Hamish; Tiggy the tabby cat; an aviary full of colourful budgies; five horses - the one and only Bucks Fizz with whom we have travelled all over the UK with success at the highest level, including two appearances at The Horse of the Year Show, Sonny - my wannabe eventer who had much success as a four year old but who has been thwarted by the weather ever since with many events cancelled, Buster - the new kid on the block, sweet but slightly thoughtless at times, Roscoe - our lovely coloured boy whose best-loved passion is gymkhana games and Jaffa - my retired eventer on whom I had much fun and success almost twenty years ago.
Just over a year ago, Kev and I took over the farm next door, Dancing Gate, which had belonged to my parents when they were alive. We have been busy renovating the farmhouse for the last year and hope to have it ready for self-catering letting by Easter. We have kept four cows, three of these are beautiful red Salers and we have one Aberdeen Angus cross. We hope to buy more Salers cows this summer. We also have a sheep flock - we have several different breeds as we are quite fond of rare breeds. About half of our ewes are texel or charollais cross, but we also have two South Down ewes, two Ryeland/South Down cross ewes, six herdwick ewes, sixteen shetland ewes and a Suffolk cross ewe. The two tups are friendly boys - Merlin is a Dutch Texel and Charlie is a Beltex/Charollais cross.
Kev also has a collection of Vintage Tractors which he has spent many hours working on and which he occasionally uses on the farm instead of the more modern tractors we have nowadays.