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Triple Triplets!
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Apr. 2nd, 2008 @ 01:12 pm
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Lambing officially finished at eleven this morning with ... yet another set of triplets. That's three out of four giving a grand total of eleven lambs this year - enough for a football team (or soccer, if you're from the left side of the pond)
Here's one of the latest arrivals - barely two hours old - learning the joys of a good nuzzle.
Here's one of the older triplets demonstrating how useful mother's are - especially when the hay net is just out of reach.
It doesn't take lambs long to realise that the warmest, most comfortable bed is their mother's fleece. In a month's time most of our ewes are going to have lamb hair:)
And finally we have a lamb demonstrating what the best dressed lambs are wearing this year - thigh high brown boots with matching eye and nose markings.
For the interested, the lambs are Suffolk crosses - a Suffolk ram crossed with a 'sheep of the region'.
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Twin Triplets!
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Apr. 1st, 2008 @ 12:11 pm
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Lambing continues apace. And what a pace. Last year was the first year we ever had triplets. This year we've had two. And in between the triplets came twins so the maternity stables are somewhat full at the moment and we've had to take both stables from the horses.
Rhiannon is not amused at having to give up her warm stable but Saffron is the bigger problem. She likes sheep, she's curious and she has big ears - which block the LambCam when she pokes her head over the stable door to watch the lambs. And she's taken to nibbling the wooden box that houses the LambCam.
Anyway, here's the first of the pictures. These are the twins resting after a hard day being stared at by a giant horse's head.
Here are the second triplets when they were four hours old. We've got them pencilled in for the Olympic Synchronised Lamb event this summer. Two are naturals, the third needs some work.
Here are the twins trying out their new overflow accommodation - a summer house on the lawn.
And here's one of last week's triplets wondering where his summer house was.
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Triplets!
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Mar. 27th, 2008 @ 10:43 am
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The lambing season is officially underway. Nice Ewe, who was due yesterday and had been on the point of exploding since Monday, gave birth to triplets at eleven last night. For the interested, she had two girls and a boy weighing in at three tons each (according to the mother - who should know:)
Here they are at age nine hours and a quarter. Nice Ewe's eye says it all.
Even at nine and a quarter they're fast and inquisitive. Point a camera at them and one's off exploring and headless by the time the shutter opens. Here's one of the few non-headless snaps.
They're pretty much the same at ten and a quarter. Here they are outside on our lawn. We give them a couple of hours outside each day if the weather's good then release them back into the field when they're big enough.
And finally a close up. Note the patented newborn woolly jumper - several sizes too big to allow plenty of room for expansion. And in two months time they'll need it - they'll all be the size of large woolly beach balls.
Now I'm off to pack for my trip to Dublin. There'll be more lamb pictures on Tuesday.
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It Never Used To Be Like This In My Day...
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Sep. 26th, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
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"I tried to get rid of them, but they were having a party, eating all my bread, bananas and avocados and swigging bottles of wine they had taken out of the refrigerator,” said Carol White, manager of the Camel Rock restaurant in the quiet village of Scarborough near Cape Point, South Africa.
And to make things worse they ran off without paying.
Not only that but they're above the law - immune from prosecution as they're under age ... and a protected species. Yes, the wine-swigging louts in question were in fact a group of baboons who, having been fed by tourists, had learned two things. One, humans are an inferior species put on this earth to feed baboons and, two, it's easier to steal food from a fridge than it is to find it in the wild. Put the two together and you get Scarborough, South Africa. A frontier town where no banana is safe.
The baboons have burgled houses, raided stores and intimidated inhabitants. Security bars can't stop them. The ingenious baboons push their babies through the bars and get them to open the window latches. They've even taken on the local dogs - the previous top species in Scarborough - in a gang fight. The dogs, with studded collars and mouthfuls of teeth, entered the town from one end while the baboons, in leather jackets they'd stolen from the local store, clicking their fingers and whistling extracts from West Side Story, sashayed in from the other side. Mayhem ensued.
And the animal crime spree is not confined to baboons.
Elephants from the Ang Lue Nai wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand turned to crime in 2003. Large numbers blocked roads and used their trunks to steal sugar cane from lorries.
Colin Jones, a builder, hired a bodyguard this year after being attacked by seagulls in Brighton. Steve Jackow followed him wearing a fluorescent bib and a referee’s whistle.
Chippy, a male chimpanzee, was exposed in 2001 as the perpetrator of heavy-breathing phone calls after staff at Blair Drummond Safari Park, in Stirlingshire, recognised his shriek. He had stolen a keeper’s phone and learnt to operate the redial button.
Lewis, a pet cat, was placed under house arrest in Connecticut last year after attacking an Avon lady. He was ordered to stay indoors for the rest of his life.
It's a dangerous world out there, humans.
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Lamb Pictures!
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Mar. 15th, 2007 @ 11:08 am
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As promised here are some pictures I took yesterday. First up we have the oldest and boldest lamb - a three day-old girl born Sunday morning - who has already mastered the art of leaping on top of large rocks. She had some difficulty at first but now her favourite game is 'King of the Castle' and she stands on her rock - there's a granite block in her compound - and lords it over her brother who has yet to master the ovine art.
And now the youngest. This picture was taken minutes after her birth and already she's up on her feet. We had two lambs born Tuesday night and another two Wednesday morning. This is one of Wednesday morning's. They were both much darker than the others - we have a black-headed Suffolk ram so we get a good variety of markings from white through brown to black.
And here's a family group taken a few seconds later. Note the instinct to suckle. And if you can't find your mum you can always try a sibling.
Here's one of Tuesday's lambs smiling for the camera and showing the art of advanced ear control.
And here's her brother showing that the art of advanced ear control is not that easy to master. Both lambs are about twelve hours old in the picture.
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The Silence of the Rams
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Feb. 13th, 2007 @ 09:34 am
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Terrible news for rams. The moment we erected our new fence to separate the sheep, the weather changed. We went from cold and dry to monsoon. Harmon, our ram, has taken it personally. A week ago he shared a stone cottage with a group of woolly temptresses, now he has his own field ... and no shelter. We'd planned to build a shelter the day after we moved him over. But the wind and rain has made it impossible to work outside for any amount of time. Result - one very sad, wet ram.
So there will be no more writing today. The wind has dropped and the sun has come out. We have eight hours before the next deluge comes over. Which means eight hours of frantic measuring, sawing, hammering, arguing, re-measuring, blaming, hammering, pain, runs for bandages, slate cutting, roofing and defending one's legs from the attention of the prospective tenant.
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Fluffy goes global
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Jan. 29th, 2007 @ 03:41 pm
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It's not every day you get an email from an Emmy award winning comedy writer asking if your kitten could write for his website. But such has been the response to Fluffy's Nigerian Tuna Scam letter that Fluffy is a kitten in demand.
And forthwith will be appearing occasionally here
No one's fridge will be safe.
Meanwhile the Astraldome is being hosed down for the arrival of publisher and award-winning author (not to mention X-Men author) Chris Roberson. The interview is scheduled for tomorrow but I'm having problems with both the quantum computer and Doris the medium. For those unaware, every month or so I strap two mediums to a quantum computer and astrally project an author interview into homes and desktops all over the world. Sometimes this world, sometimes the next. The astral plane is unpredictable at the best of times and now that Doris is back on the bottle...
So watch out for tomorrow. There may be more ectoplasm than usual. Projectile ectoplasm even.
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Christmas
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Dec. 26th, 2006 @ 11:41 am
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Well the Christmas holidays are almost over and never have I had to dish out so much food as this year. Unfortunately most of it was hay.
The reason? Shelagh had to go to England to spend Christmas with her mother and, surprisingly, the invitation didn't extend to two horses, six sheep, two chickens, one dog and two cats. So I was volunteered to stay home and look after the farm. Paraphrasing Dr. McCoy, 'it's Christmas, Jim, but not as we know it.'
I toyed with the idea of simplifying mealtimes by moving a large trough into the house and having an 'open house' Christmas. A kind of Nativity barn feel with plenty of straw and no wise men. But that plan had to be abandoned due to a lack of Christmas spirit - none of the animals liked sharing and, as for party games, most preferred a game called 'let's see who's dominant' - a game which involved far too much head-butting for my liking.
So I've been running around - feeding, watering, exercising and mucking out far too many animals than one person can and still maintain a high level of chocolate and alcohol intake. Thank God Shelagh's coming back Wednesday night.
As for presents I've had four mice from the cats - none of them wrapped - and a stomach (probably mouse as well, but it's an ungrateful recipient who enquires too deeply about the provenance of his gifts) After all it's the thought that counts.
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Tree Climbing Goats!
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Oct. 20th, 2006 @ 11:52 am
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I saw this on French TV this morning and couldn't believe it. Goats in Morocco that climb trees! And when I say climb I mean really climb. Think infestation, think aphids. Imagine what this flock could do to your orchard.
Here's the picture. It's a classic.
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