fairwether farm
When is it going to stop raining and being cloudy?
“Oh it’s still winter”, I hear Dorian say. Bother, I’ve had enough doom and gloom. I need some fine weather to do some work around the place, like spraying and tidying, and maybe mowing some paddocks to spread out the sheep manure ready for the spring growth.
“Ha, not happening at present” he says.
But, we did get a few hours of sunshine and I decided to go out and take some photos of the flock and the mountains. Here is what I saw:
With all the ewes safely delivered of their lambs now we all can enjoy the antics of the ‘young’. Some mothers are more tolerant of their offspring and others ‘just want to go talk with the other mums’.
It is a busy time with spring growth; lawns to mow and weeds to keep under control.
But you can’t help but stop and admire the view.
After the first sets of twins we then had a single and another set of twins but unfortunately nature being what it is, the mother of the twins rejected one of them; she looked health to us, and feed from a bottle for the day but sadly died in the night. Life is hard sometimes and we had to say goodbye to the day-old girl.
On the other hand out of 4 ewes, we have 6 lambs (as yet unsure of the ratio female/males) but they have all survived their first week – two weeks.
Well we hope that we have seen the worst of the winter; but something tells me that it might not be the case.
We had such a stunning morning that it seems to me we may get an early spring.
The chores around the farm are nearly finished; for the winter at least. We have managed to tidy up the paddocks (topped Two Acre paddock) which means that new grass will grow easier and the new lambs (should there be any), will have spring grass.
The glasshouse is installed, we have 2 olive trees planted in pots, 2 citrus trees also in pots (lemon and lime) – my favourites! Picked up 90% of the leaves around the garden and have cleaned out the fish pond ready for more goldfish and new water plants.
August will be a busy month; planting potatoes, putting in my dye plants Woad and Weld, planting more strawberries (who doesn’t like a good supply of that fruit), and setting up the glasshouse with tomatoes and lots of other vegetables before planting out in the vegetable plot.
The Gotlands will be shorn in September; this is a necessity if they are pregnant as the wool could break after birthing any lambs. We intend to spin, felt and maybe sell some of the wool so it is imperitive that the quality is the very best. (see more on the Gotland page about the wool).
silva kurls 