First times

I have neglected, again, to write my blog over the last few months. I keep thinking about writing it and then get waylaid with life.

Scout & Ted

Never, in a month of Sundays, did I think my life would be where it is right now. Two gorgeous collies, 31 sheep and a beautiful cottage in the most magical place on earth. A job I love and a mass of incredible family and friends who are my support in all things, from keeping my feet on the ground to teaching me the way of sheep, felting and splitting logs. I am incredibly lucky.

But lately I have been in a dark place with all the the 'first times'. Maybe that's why I've not written this for a while. Almost three years in and I still feel like I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing when things go wrong. I wonder if that feeling will ever stop?

Marilyn aka Big Mutton, lambed prematurely. This was a huge disappointment as her ewe lamb from last year is a great Shetland x and it'll be interesting to see what her lambs are like next year. We used an adoption gate with an orphan lamb and Big M now has a total dude of a ram lamb.

Marilyn / Big M

4 orphans arrived from Proper Shepherd. Breeding stock for 2022. Totally in love with them.

One developed a condition called Entropion which is an in-turned eyelid. You can just kinda roll the eyelid back and it pops out and maybe a dose of ointment too. Not having their own mumma makes them super tame and they are the sweetest things.

There’s a little black orphan who, according to Not So New Now Shepherd, PS didn’t want to sell. I've got her and named her 'Keith'. They are all thriving. They were on lamlac to begin with, a milk powder / ewe milk replacer. The four of them had access to three of six teats which made for comical swapping, nudging and general carnage and the noise they make when they suckle is like nothing on earth.

Advice reads 'wean abruptly' so I did. I made a creep feeder out of an old pallet and some hurdles. Aside from eating the creep, the orphans took to sleeping in it, along with a number of pheasants and the Shetland lambs.

They all seem extremely happy, and creep gives all the lambs (and pheasants?) supplemental nutrition.

Then the vet was needed. The ewes had a condition called Pink Eye, largely spread by flies in the summer, which makes their eyes glaze over and they look like they're blind. It isn’t pretty but it is fixable.

The vet administered antibiotics to the worst and finally, a month or so on, everyone is fixed. I learnt how to administer the antibiotics so another first time and I now feel confident doing it myself.

Me & the gang

The flock are all bucket trained, so catching them is easy unless there is a stranger in the field at which point they all scatter, skipping away, flicking the bird, and heading off in all directions!

My field is split in three. Earlier in the year the ewes, lambs and orphans were in one, ram and wether in another and quarantine in the third. One evening, Ted and I sauntered up to the field. When we arrived there was a fence down and a few ewes in with the ram. Not ideal. I caught the ram and penned him taking him out of the equation, or so I thought. I watched the rest of the flock hop over the fallen fence to join the wethers. Penknife nowhere to be found everyone was in the wrong part of the field. The only way to get the girls away from the ram, without mixing them with the quarantine bunch, was to spend way too much time trying to undo a muddle of bailer twine which held the gate together. By this time the ram had escaped and was seen gallivanting around the field on tip toes, smoking jacket floating gracefully behind him, wisps of smoke emanating from his cigar, lips curled and ready for action! I spent the next 20 minutes trying to catch him, at which point I gave up, wrenched the gate open and shooed all the ewes, lambs and orphans into the quarantine field. One escaped and shot up to another field. Spying Ted patiently waiting, lying down in the field with all the girls I thought, this is it, this is why I have another dog and he's going to help me.

Ted

We've had a few training sessions with Rob but I have neglected training due to too much other stuff going on in my life. Ted followed me and somehow, slightly too keenly but at this point it really didn't matter, he wrangled the ewe and pushed her through a tiny gap and brought her to me. Finally everyone away from the ram but all mixed up with the Pink Eye posse. Soooo, a few more infections but nothing too severe.

Ted and I are off to see Collie Boss in a few weeks for a few more sessions, basically to start again...dreading my telling off!

Proper Shepherd came to shear the flock. He gave me half a day to panic about getting them all penned as I know he is flat out busy. Arriving to see my flock dispersed all over the village would not have been ideal! I set up a pen and surprisingly got them altogether and shearing is now complete.

The highlight of the year so far has been a trip to Devon to meet lovely Rosie who makes the most beautiful felted sheepskins. I spent a very hot day in her workshop with her mum and gorgeous dogs, picking through an Icelandic fleece and then felting it. It’s now home, dried and looks stunning, unlike me in this picture!

The rug I made with Rosie in Devon

I have a beautiful fawn and chocolate brown fleece on my bench ready for felting. It’s a long process which takes hours and hours but the rewards are immeasurable. I can't wait to get stuck in to making more.
I spent the early part of this year in a state of mild panic and spinning round in circles not achieving very much at all. 6 months into the year things are way more settled and I feel like I have a handle on life once again! Those first times? There'll always be first times but it's how you deal with them which makes all the difference.