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Colds, Lambs, a Donkey and the Green Bearded Horse Stampede
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Apr. 21st, 2008 @ 04:38 pm
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Living in the middle of nowhere has one great advantage - we hardly ever get colds. But the downside is that whenever I go abroad in the winter months... the cold germs set upon me the moment I reach the first big town. This time I thought I'd try Echinacea but the combination of train germs, Parisian metro germs, Dublin germs and aeroplane germs were too strong and I've been coughing and blowing my nose for three weeks.
On the plus side, the lambs are all doing well. We've had to feed one of the triplets who wasn't getting as much milk as her sisters. But she's now caught them up in size and speed. It's amazing to see nine day old lambs leaping off the top of four feet high boulders.
Then there was the donkey... We thought we'd do a good deed and arrange for our blacksmith to trim the feet of a donkey that's being kept on one of our neighbour's fields. The donkey's feet were terrible - so overgrown he couldn't walk right. So, on Saturday we set off to collect him, walk him back the half mile to our stable where he could have his feet trimmed without dragging the blacksmith all over the field.
As usual it started off fine. Shelagh caught him, slipped a headcollar over his head and led him out the field. The rest should have been easy as previously he'd been easy to lead. Then he saw our horses and everyone got excited. Our two horses whinnied and galloped and the donkey bounced and brayed. And turned, suddenly, setting off towards a track on the side of the road. A muddy track. Shelagh tried to pull him back, failed and fell over. And ... refused to let go of the lead rein.
There was some dragging - of the horizontal, stomach surfing kind. Mud was involved and at least one puddle.
Ten minutes later we managed to get the donkey into the stable. Not so good news about Shelagh's coat - which was drenched and slightly ripped. But cue happy ending. The donkey can now walk properly and Shelagh gets to buy a new coat.
Finally - and just to show what an action packed week it was last week - there was the stampede. Another of our neighbours was moving his young cattle from one field to another and, to do so, he had to use the road that adjoins our fields. This is not usually a problem. The road has little traffic and the farmer has his family at the front and back of the herd to keep order.
And what order - never had there been such a well-behaved herd of cows. They formed an orderly line, two abreast, ambling slowly past.
Until Saffron - our almost 17 hands French Trotter - saw them. She's fascinated by cattle and gets excited. And when a giant excitable horse gets excited, they get Excited with a capital E. She stopped what she was doing - eating large amounts of grass - and charged out of the woods.
This had an adverse effect on the young cattle. One, they hadn't seen Saffron before as she'd been hidden amongst the trees. Two, she was galloping towards them at great speed. And, three, she had a large green beard - a clump of grass that she'd torn off ready to chew before the cattle fever struck.
Stampede! The road was turned into Pamplona with fewer people and more cattle. Humans jumped into ditches, called out, squashed themselves against hedges. Cattle ran and bucked and bellowed. Saffron galloped, bucked and farted.
Luckily the stampede didn't last for long as the herd turned into a track away from the road and once out of sight of the terrifying green bearded monster they calmed down. Equally luckily was Saffron's clever green-bearded disguise. Because of it she's unlikely to be picked out of a police line-up:)
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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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Lambing 2008
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Mar. 24th, 2008 @ 04:23 pm
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Lambing is officially underway. It's due to start Wednesday but as usual no one told the ewes who all look enormous. Yesterday we caught up Nice Ewe - who's due on Wednesday - and moved her into the deluxe maternity stable ward. Today we set up the LambCam so we can monitor her remotely from the house (and, as the camera has a microphone, listen to her as well. So for the next ten days* I'm going to have the 24 hour Sheep Channel live by my bed - and you would not believe how noisy a sheep grinding her teeth can be:)
Rest assured there will be lamb pictures.
*I do get a respite Friday thru Monday as I'm off to the Phoenix convention in Dublin where I'm a guest.
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The Spring (Lamb) Olympics
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Apr. 13th, 2007 @ 09:21 am
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Is it really four years since the last Spring Olympics? Well the answer must be yes or this reporter has just been fooled into taking a lot of lamb pictures. And handing over a couple of dozen gold, silver and bronze ear tags.
First on the podium we have the medal ceremony for the knobbly knees contest.
And then there was this photo finish in the 50 metres, two hills and a large rock race.
As always there is a seamier side to the world of professional athletics. Here we see competitors queuing for the mandatory drugs test. On the left the two scientist lambs (you can tell by their white coats) carefully analyse the samples.
And here's Security coming over to confiscate the camera. Drugs in sport is always a touchy subject. "I told you - no pictures!" says the guard on the left.
Meanwhile, veteran athlete and now mother of three, Scrappy, shows what she thinks of having her picture snapped by the paparazzi.
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A Surprise Ending to Lambing
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Mar. 27th, 2007 @ 12:51 pm
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Yesterday was a long day. And even longer for Scrappy - our last ewe to lamb. She started to lamb in the morning but by the afternoon still nothing had happened. She wasn't pushing, she wasn't showing any distress - in fact she was distinctly laid back by the whole affair. But she was lambing - in slow motion - and dilating even slower.
Hours passed. Something was wrong. Could it be ringwomb? Come eight o'clock we called in the vet and he gave her a calcium injection for ringwomb (a tightening of the cervix that prevents dilation) Two hours and one breech birth later she produced an enormous boy followed by a slightly smaller girl. By eleven our lambing season was officially closed and the lamb TV monitor, which has kept me awake for large chunks of the last month*, could be turned off.
Then we got up the next morning to find triplets. Scrappy had had another boy in the night. Somehow it had evaded Shelagh's final check of the night before. Either that or an opportunist orphan had snuck in during the night.
Here's a picture of mother and triplets. The oldest is less than twelve hours old.
*Ewes snoring, wheezing and grinding their teeth a few feet away from your ears is not conducive to a good night's sleep. The worst night was last week when the snoring and grinding was interrupted by piglike grunting and kerfuffling. It sounded like a wild boar - which do visit us every now and then. The horses, in the stable next door, panicked and came charging out. So, add whinnying, galloping and farting to the mix. And loud agitated baas from Scrappy. The boar, being at that time the least wild of the assorted animals, decided to beat a hasty retreat. How do you get back to sleep after that?
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A Woolly Kitten's Guide to Disguise
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Mar. 21st, 2007 @ 12:58 pm
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This week's kitten's guide looks at extreme camouflage. Of course today also happens to be Human Fool's Day in the kitten calendar (as in most things kittens are 11 days ahead of their bipedal friends)
So, first up we see Xena cunningly disguised as a lamb (or maybe the rock - she is an expert) and Kai as her mother. Kai, always the martyr to his art, had to take on a lot of extra bulk for this role - which meant extra meals and snacky things, and a course in reverse liposuction.
'How is it done?' I hear your say. 'They look so lifelike.' To which the answer is - hours in make-up. The trick is to start off by using a fishy-flavoured foundation - always popular with the fashion minded kitten - then move on to the latex mask and the woolly jumper.
Talking of woolly jumpers, here's Kai disguised as another lamb playing King of the Castle on another rock - or is it Xena?
Here we see Saffron, our French Trotteur, coming over to watch the shoot. Xena, being a small animal, does what all small animals do when loomed over by a much larger animal. She pretends not to notice. Kai, on the other hand, unsure about Saffron's views vis a vis fishy-flavoured foundation, decides a hasty retreat is the thing to be beaten.
And just to show that none of the above pictures were faked, here's Kai disguised as a pop-up book from Amazon.
Remember, kittens, you only have until twelve o'clock noon to make a fool of your human. After that it's down to them.
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Snow!
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Mar. 19th, 2007 @ 04:43 pm
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Just as our garden was wondering if it was spring or summer ... along comes the snow and a couple of woolly mammoths. Well, woolly lambs anyway. The snow's melted now but we're in the grip of Arctic winds and intermittent sleet. Which means a busy time for us ferrying lambs in and out of the building - they shiver outside in the sleet and get stir crazy in their pens when it stops.
The lambs are filling out with every passing hour and can now leap tall boulders at a single bound. I've taken some video footage of them playing which I may post. Watching lambs play is endless entertainment. They are full of energy and have little co-ordination - so much racing around, falling over, four-footed hops, unexpected swerves and smirky cuteness.
On the writing front, I'm aiming to finalise my US tour this summer. I'll be attending Westercon in San Francisco (Jun 30- Jul 3) and Readercon in the Boston area (Jul 5-8) and I'm looking to arrange signings in both California and Mass.
As for the UK, it looks like I'll kick off the tour on June 7th with a joint book launch with fellow Brit and Baen author, John Lambshead. It may be at the Melton Mowbray pub in Holborn, London. Details are fluid at the moment - as they would be seeing as a pub is involved:)
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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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Dublin, Ancient Ones and Two Very New Ones
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Mar. 13th, 2007 @ 04:19 pm
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I had a great time in Dublin - my first SF convention, my first time in Ireland and only the second time I've been outside France in 12 years.
I'll give a fuller report later but here are a few highlights:
First, Dublin - a very busy, friendly, vibrant, cosmopolitan city. Walking down O'Connell Street I was amazed at how many different languages I could hear. And the nightlife went on until late. How late? Well, my hotel room was directly above a bar where a very loud cover band were belting out 'Show me the way to Amarillo' at one thirty in the morning. Luckily, five minutes later, someone did and I managed to get some sleep.
Late music aside, the hotel was good. As soon as I saw the review - 'Never under any circumstances stay in this hotel. The corridors are so narrow and twisty that if there was a fire no fat person would get out alive' - I knew this hotel was for me. I like old hotels with narrow twisty corridors. It was cheap, a one minute walk from the convention hotel and people with large appetites were cunningly slowed down during the rush for breakfast.
And what a breakfast. Full Irish breakfast of two sausages, two large rashers of bacon, fried egg, black pudding, baked beans and a 'spicy something with oats' that may have been hog's pudding but may also have been something a wise diner does not enquire too deeply into. Do I hear the word entrails?
As for the convention - there were about a hundred people there of whom, I'd say, about 98% knew at least a couple of other people. The majority knew dozens. As one of the few people who knew absolutely no one it was a bit daunting at first but everyone was very friendly - a real family atmosphere.
Pause for a bit of name-dropping. I went out for a meal with Kim Newman, Maura McHugh and Frank Darcy on the Saturday night. Had a long chat with Ken MacLeod (who actually asked me to sign a copy of Resonance), met Fluff Cthulhu and his prime minions Charlie Stross and Feorag, and next year's guest of honour Catie Murphy.
And I've been invited back next year as a guest. So I'll be returning to Dublin next April for P-Con 5.
Now, the Ancient One. A small child had been eating at a nearby table with his family when his eyes were drawn to Fluff Cthulhu. He thought it was a green frog but wasn't sure. His parents encouraged him to ask the nice lady. So he walked over and asked, 'is that a green frog?'
'No,' the nice lady replied. 'It's an all-powerful ancient one who exists outside of time.'
The child who, unless he too existed outside of time, looked about seven, froze. Except for his lower lip which began to tremble. This was not the kind of answer he'd been expecting. I foresee years of therapy in his future. And possible a career as a serial killer. 'The green frog made me do it.'
Here's a picture of the ancient one the next day flanked by the nice lady, Feorag, and her husband, 'the green frog made me write it' Charles Stross.
And finally, the New Ones - a boy and a girl - born on Sunday morning. Yes, lambing has begun and pictures will appear on Thursday.
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Earless in Bala
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Feb. 5th, 2007 @ 11:17 am
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Well Bridgend actually but it's close. This is the story of Weasel, an abandoned border terrier puppy who was born without ears. The full story's here . Vets believe he may have functioning ears behind the layer of skin that currently covers them.
I am reminded of a similar thing that happened to us a few years ago. We had a lamb born without an anus.
I'll pause here to allow the full significance of that last sentence to percolate. I expect you're about to say something like 'But how does he...' - people normally do - and the answer is, he couldn't.
Which is how the problem was discovered. The lamb was showing symptoms of bloating. He was only about ten hours old and we had no idea what was wrong with him. Checking for the presence of an anus is not on the smallholders postnatal checklist.
So we took him to the vet. Who tried to take his temperature. And ... noticed an unexpected deficiency.
What followed was amazing. The vet whisked him into the operating room. We were enlisted as nurses (it's a very small practice and time was critical) and he began to operate, hoping that somewhere beneath the skin he'd find a bowel he could connect to.
Which he did. He constructed a rudimentary anus and the lamb survived. Those still breakfasting might care to skip to the next paragraph for the treatment was not over. We had to ensure the anus remained functioning and didn't heal over. This entailed procedures also not mentioned in the smallholder's postnatal handbook. Procedures which had to be carried out every four hours or so for the next few weeks.
Four weeks later the lamb was bouncing around the field - as large and healthy as all the others.
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Fencing, Rams and Pole Dancing
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Jan. 23rd, 2007 @ 11:54 am
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Well, fencing time is upon us - not the pointy sword variety but the sharpened stakes and lots of work variety. Currently we're splitting our sheep field in two to make a ram enclosure. We tried an electric fence but Harmon - our ram - has broken through it two years running now. Which is why we're lambing three weeks earlier than planned:)
He blames Scrappy - one of our more brazen ewes - for using the apple tree next to his enclosure for pole dancing. After which, what else could he do but smash the fence down and show his appreciation.
Rams have little self-control.
So, it's either build a stronger fence or ban pole dancing.
We cut the stakes and hammered them in yesterday and cemented in the gatepost. Today we're hammering in the bracing posts then, weather permitting, we'll attach the sheep fencing and make a gate later this week.
Then all we've got to do is persuade Harmon that the grass is indeed greener on the other side of the fence. Always a fun manoeuvre:)
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News Roundup
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Jan. 16th, 2007 @ 09:59 am
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Tribble Alert! A certain tribble, whose name I can't reveal until tomorrow (for cliffhanger reasons:) has been contacted and photographed. Story and pictures will appear in tomorrow's Kitten's Guide.
Garden news: a rabbit (hopefully not one of the large German variety) is working its way through our Spring cabbage. We tried covering them with flowerpots - the cabbages not the rabbits - and that worked. When we remembered to do it. Covering and uncovering cabbages every dusk and dawn for three months is an easy task to forget - especially when it's pouring down with rain.
Sheep news: Scrappy Ewe is back with the flock after three days in the stable resting her leg. She started limping last week and we brought her in to have a better look. She's still not completely sound but part of that was her fault - trying to climb over the stable door to get back to her friends. Animals do not know the meaning of 'it's for your own good.'
Lambing News: Lambing should start around March 12th. And, yes, we will be setting up the LambCam again. So update your diaries - baby lamb pictures from mid-March.
Software news: I received my Dragon Naturally Speaking Speech Recognition software yesterday so sometime this week I'm going to install it and give it a go. Should be interesting. I suffer from Pirate's syndrome - the more I listen to my voice, the more I notice the West Country twang and before I know it I've broken out into broad Pirate.
Oo, aarrr, me 'ansome, open thy files.
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Kittens and Lambscapes.
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Aug. 16th, 2006 @ 10:41 am
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Yes, it's Kitten Picture Wednesday and first up we have Kai showing how a professional kitten model keeps his pose even when being attacked by a vampire kitten.
Next up we have Kai practising vampire kitten counter measures - aka boxing. Purists will note the perfection of Kai's guard - left paw tucked in to protect the chin, right paw preparing to jab. Yes, Kai's a southpaw.
Now, we have some outside shots as Xena discovers sheep. The sheep are amazed. For the curious, the ewe is called Scrappy- she's a 'mouton de la region' (i.e. unknown local breed) Her two lambs are Suffolk crosses. Our ram, not shown as he was probably flying F-14s over the Gulf at the time, is a pure Suffolk called Harmon Ramm - yes, we watched far too many JAG episodes.
Here's a lambscape showing First Contact - a nose sniff between Xena and the boldest of the lambs. Behind the lambs you can see one of our many granite boulders, two plum trees, and our sheep field sweeping up to the wooded Taille (centre and left). The Taille is a granite tor that was quarried for stone in medieval times.
First Contact was interrupted by Second Contact - the arrival of Saffron our 16.1 hands French Trotter who wanted to sniff noses with both Xena and the lambs. The latter pair took one look at the size of Saffron's nose and decided that that was a nostril too far and beat a hasty retreat. Here's a horsescape from a calmer time, showing Saffron and Rhiannon in the early morning haze. Our land is bounded by the curving lane to the right, the woods to the centre and the maize field to the left.
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