Farm Diary (12)
11th & 12th April 1999
Looking forward to putting more sheep and lambs out in the field tomorrow.
Down in the woods I couldn't find the young stock at first, and it was a nice excuse to have a bit of a wander and listen to the birds singing over the noise of the river.
There isn't that much for them to eat down there. We'll move them to the Ham as soon as it dries out. They've been fed on hay and silage all winter
Young stock in the woods.
Getting in the way round the quad
Enzo always looks a bit gormless, but then he didn't see another cow til he was 4 months old. (I'll tell the story sometime)
The whitethorn (otherwise known as blackthorn or sloe) has been lovely. It flowers on bare wood, before the green is showing on the other trees.
The sky was brilliant last night. No moon so the stars were incredibly bright. Tonight it is blowing a gale but it's dry and the stars look good with whisps of clouds moving fast across them. A nice set of twins born about 3.30
Jess and Patch have found something in the bank, beneath the whitethorn.
1st twin nice and clean and
on its feet whilst the mother
licks the second one.
Now the 12th
I slept late this morning. I thought the noise of bleating that I heard was
James moving the rest of the sheep up to the field. Instead it was him and
Sally and the children driving them all down to the shed. There was a cold
wind blowing hard, and earlier there had been sleet driving horizontally.
The poor lambs had been looking very miserable. There's not much shelter in Gratna.
It was a day of mixed sunshine and heavy showers, some of hail, and a cold wind blowing all the time. The shed looked rather full though.
lambs inside
No 5 and her pillow again
For some other good farm diaries, link to:
Paul Stanbridge,
farming 500 acres of arable, 25 miles North of London.
A good example of a responsible, conventional farmer. I don't envy him his
problems with destructive humans.
Ford Farms, a small farm near us who has just started a diary page.
