Author: Holly and Me

I am a photographer and dog mama to Holly, the star of this blog.
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More farm dramas … Ema has pneumonia

Oh dear our poor wee Ema … she’s had a rough start to life. She’s hanging in there and is ok this morning, be it that she (and we) had a rough night.

At the 4pm feed yesterday she didn’t drink all her bottle, now that is nothing to worry about, but when the 8pm feed came around she wouldn’t drink at all. Mama Clare was going to have an early night (I know 8pm but remember I do the 4am feed), anyway I got up and had a really good look at her, tried her again but nothing … then I noticed that she was having trouble breathing and she was coughing these little coughs. Leigh and I decided to call the vet as we were worried … and she deserves a chance.

A emergency vet (a lovely lady from Christchurch) came out (took an hour) and gave Ema the once over and declared that Ema had pneumonia. Oh no, not another sheep… was my comment and relayed what had happened to ‘Sugar’ and how Ema came to be found after the storm (read a previous post).

Ema was given antibiotics, antihistamine, pain killer and hopefully she will recover ok. She’s on ‘bedrest’ for today and will have a booster shot on Saturday at our regular vets.

She had a reasonable feed at the 12am feed – well little over half and again the same at the 4am feed but by the 8am feed she was up and running around the pen and drank the whole 150ml of milk. Well done Ema … you are looking much better.

Oh and by the way, we had snow last night too, and all the flock are present, correct, and no more new births yesterday … huzzah!!!!

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A little ray of sunshine … Ema

Day 2 of our hand feeding Ema – the twin girl that was born in the storm Tuesday. Was it only two days ago? Feels like a week!

We have been feeding Ema colostrum up till today, now we’ve started on the milk replacement. She has six feeds a day, and our day starts at 4pm, so 4pm, 8pm, 12am, 4am, 8am, 12pm. I have elected to do most of the day feeding (unless I have to go out in the car) and Leigh does the night feeding at 12am, I do the 4am.

Ema is adapting well to our life (as different from the flock). Ema lives in our house garage inside an area which has straw and hay and a bean bag (for Mama Clare to sit on).

We intend to keep taking Ema out to the flock twice a day (morning and afternoon) when we feed the flock sheep nuts, that way Ema gets to see the other lambs, interacts with the flock and she still bonds with the flock (well that’s the theory).

We have now birthed six of the seven ewes and have: six boys and three girls.

Aug. 16th # 2 Lumpy – twin boys
Aug. 28th #4 Suzie – twin boys
Sep. 13 #8 Wire – twin boys (ooo not very happy at this point, thinking all those boys)
Sep. 14 #10 Chocolate – twins – 1 (d at birth) 1 girl (at last a girl)
Sep. 15 #9 Nickel – twins girls (Ema – rejected by mum) but mum looking after girl 2.

Still waiting for $6 – Salt and #7 Pepper.

I hope you are all enjoying the blog … it is a sad and happy time farming. One that I know a lot of you will understand.

Cheers for now…

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A sad day …

What a day this has been … a happy and a sad day. We had more lambs born today just before a storm hit our block. The mother “#9 Nickel had twins born outside in the shelter belt, she obviously cleaned them and gave them a feed, but when the storm hit she must have taken off for the barn with only one of her babies.

An hour later I went out to check on them all because I heard a lamb bleating; only to find the lamb lying next to a sheep, not Nickel it was Sugar the wether but he must have died in the storm. Oh… so sad… we tried all we could to save him. Anyway I picked up the lamb and took her to her mum, but because the lamb smelt probably of Sugar, Nickel rejected the lamb (head butting it when it tried to feed). So now we have to bottle feed the wee one, AND it’s a girl, and at this point I think the only girl out of the lot!

Oh such a shame but we will try to keep her going, she is in our house garage with straw, her mother’s wool shorn last month and a hot water bottle. She’s had a feed of milk from a bottle and is sleeping at present. It’s going to be a long……night as she will need feeding every 4 hours.

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Nico #11 … I’z broke it

Nico here … I’z very clever boy and at 11 months old now I can feed my ‘mama’ Clare and Leigh. I’z try to bring my food to them in the house but they shut my door and I can’t show them what I catch…

They’z not like … I eat them, they’z hide them from me. I’z have to eat what they put in my bowl.

Also I’z been out to see the new lambs … I’z like to play with the little fellaz, see me and Mama Clare with the lambs. We’z now have six boy lambs and one girl lamb. wow.

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Today in New Zealand – 11th September …

This is a reflective day for me today … I remember … this month is hard for my friends and acquaintances everywhere.

September is hard for Canterbury too as we remember our own.

I woke up this morning to more snow which is starting to fall on the ground. Snow always seems so peaceful when it falls and covers the ground like a protective blanket. I fed the sheep in the barn this morning, nuts as usual.

Sugar #1 wether is looking a little better today and I am very pleased to say that I managed to inject him with the antihistamine that will also improve his health.

Take care my friends … we will get through this and anything else that life has to throw our way … we are stronger with friends …

Some local shots from my camera

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What can you do … stroppy bl***dy sheep

Remember I mentioned that one of our wethers was unwell last post?

We decided to ask the vet to come out and look at this boy as he was still not eating as normal and was going off by himself and not staying with the flock. Unfortunately because of the weather … haha no pun intended, (the wind was blowing from the north again which makes everyone, sheep and humans, feisty and bad tempered) we had the ‘devil’s own job’ to get the sheep to go into the stock yard. With no dog and the girls all ‘up in the air’ with their lambs I didn’t want to upset them too much either and so we didn’t manage to get them into the yards for the vet to look at the unwell boy.

The vet had a look at him in the paddock and believed that it was a similar illness to what he had before and after a good discussion we decided to watch him and try and get a dose of antihistamine into him … well that is an interesting exercise in patience and to date we are still trying to catch him to give that to him.

I don’t know how many of you are farmers, or have flock animals, but it is a known fact that animals that live in groups/flocks etc do not like to let on that they are ill; they do everything possible to appear well or normal “I’m ok, I’m ok, I’m ok I’m dead”. I understand the logic but it is frustrating for the farmer/shepherd who is concerned for the animals and wants to help them.

When Sugar #1 is on form he is a real ‘honey’ to work with but at the moment he is being a right pain in the b..tt. Animals… you gota love em… but they are frustrating too.

Hopefully we will get the injection into him tomorrow … watch this space and we’ll update you on his progress.

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How are we… down on the farm?

This month has seemed very long … and it’s only the 9th … that’s because we are still waiting for our ewes to produce their lambs.

We have also found that one of our wethers – Sugar #1 is not well again. It seems that when we get nor’west winds he gets a bout of pneumonia and why that is, we don’t know yet. We are having the vet look at him today, and we are concerned about a seeming unusual lopsidedness to his abdomen so it’s not looking good for our boy. I know… he’s only a sheep and a wether but I worry about all our sheep – I take my role as shepherd very seriously. Having said that… I also know (although this is hard) that we can not keep all the sheep we bred as we will be overrun and that is no good for our pasture or our breeding programme. In order to keep the best of the bred I will have to sell on the new ram lambs and wethers. The good news is that I have found someone wanting a ram lamb for their new flock, so one little boy will have a good life. I am hoping I get more interest in some others.

Spring is definitely making us feel better and the lambs we do have are now old enough to run around together – get into mischief and generally make a nuisance of themselves with the other ‘nearly mums’. Nico is also making himself known to the lambs, and of course he too is getting into mischief …

Well that’s all for now… see you all again soon.

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First of spring… Shepherd Clare’s morning

What an interesting start to spring… we are having our first real snow dump for 2020.

Luckily the new lambs are now old enough to cope (2 are 2 weeks and other 2 are 4 days old) so they won’t have too much trouble with the ‘white stuff’. They have a barn anyway so that will keep them warm.

I gave them sheep nuts and hay this morning so they will be ok. Hopefully no gals will decide that today is the day to give birth (we have 5 more mamas to go).

Nico has asked me to post for him… he said he’s too cold n wet to do anything but sit by the heater now…

Well I’m off to get breakfast and a hot coffee… cheers to you all….

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Fleece for sale…

Hi everyone, well now that shearing is finished and I have tidied and cleaned up the wool it is now ready for sale.

If anyone would like to visit us in Springfield, Canterbury to talk fleece either in the raw or carded, please contact me and we will arrange a viewing or send samples to you.

The price of the fleece depends on the quantity and whether you want the fleece in the raw (as is) or whether you want it ready for spinning (washed, carded, gilled) in which case the price will vary. You will also be given information on the individual animal as part of my ‘Living flock’ process.

At this point I do not have enough spun wool to offer for sale unfortunately.

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Nico and the lambs…

Well I know… all new ‘parents’ think their kids are the greatest… and shepherds’ are no exception, they think their ‘lambs’ are the best and cutest…but just look at this… I just think that the combination of the ‘shepherd’s cat, Nico and the lambs is just too cute not to take photos of… and that Mama Lumpy #2 is the best mum for allowing Nico to ‘talk to her babies.