As of today (Wednesday 14th April 2010) we are out grazing the flock on the Forest again.  Details of where we will be can be found on the ‘Find the Flock’ page. 

As all of our signs were stolen we have turned this problem into an opportunity to change the way we manage the informing of people on the Forest.  We no longer want to ‘ringfence’ the flock against dog walkers using the signs. 

We want to encourage responsible dog ownership and management by making people more aware they may come across livestock out on the Forest.  There will be signs in carparks and at major entrances, but over a wider area and more permanent, so that people do not always know exactly where the flock will be. 

It is of course still possible if you find yourself alone and terrified with an uncontrollable dog out on the Forest and no lead, to ring the Forest Centre and find out exactly where we are.

They are coming pretty fast now. We have had triplets

In the pen behind is Ashdown Anya (one of our first year lambs) who is lambing for the first time. She is a fantastic mother to ‘Rabbit’ her tiny little lamb, but she seems to have a touch of mastitis, so we are supplementary feeding ‘Rabbit’ which is why they are inside.
Even smaller than ‘Rabbit’ this morning I found Fee (tus). She was sitting shivering next to a ewe with a very strong lamb. I supposed she must be this ewe’s lamb as she showed a lot of interest in her, but poor Fee couldn’t stand. She was quite premature and a bit rattly, and her mum started to wander off with her other lamb, so Fee came home with me and warmed herself by the radiator. She was too small to tube feed her, so I dribbled some colostrum into her mouth and she drank quite a bit, then settled down to sleep. I went off to snatch forty winks (Susanna was on lamb alert) as I had been up a lot of the night feeding ‘Rabbit’ and checking on every little noise! I was soon awoken by Fee screaming her lungs out for her next feed, so we went back to the field to see if we could reunite her with her mum. I saw what I thought was her mum and brother hanging about by some trees and we ushered them into the pen eventually, but found I had got the wrong ewe! We did need to attend to this one’s lamb however, as she had chewed the tip of his tail off in her eagerness to clean him! So we sorted him out and released them, then I found Fee’s real mum and brother, and we got them into a pen. Luckily Fee’s mum still had a bit of afterbirth trailing from her, so we popped the fluid out over Fee’s back and put her in the pen with her mum, who immediately took her back enthusiastically. We gave her mum some nuts to keep her busy and when I left Fee was feeding from her. I will keep them inside overnight though as we are forecast a lot of rain.

Here is a surprise early lamb – he has been named Geoffrey. Not by me I hasten to add! This year our registered lambs are going to be beginning with the letter C – so Geoffrey is an unofficial name although I doubt he will be registered, I only plan on keeping about 2 ram lambs this year.

Susanna sent me some pictures she has downloaded from her phone that she took this summer.  I think they are great – she has a special programme on her phone which takes lots of shots then glues them together in a panoramic picture.  Very clever and effective…

This one was early one morning just before tupping, we were feeding up the ewes on Chris’s field.

Here is one of damp Lulu and Ben.

Just to prove we don’t just work in good weather – a rainy day at the heathland behind Cats Protection.

Same shot, minus brolly and plus a soggy Ben.

Moody and atmospheric sheep shot.

The lonesome pines…

On to some better weather pictures…

This is one of my favourites – here I am taking the sheep between Cats Protection and the Vachery.

And above the view from under the shady tree at the Vachery grazing site looking South towards Nutley.

Here is Lulu looking content to be out lying next to Susannas’ boots and crook.  Sadly Lulu died suddenly last month after eating something which got stuck in her guts.  Not knowing this, the vet was treating her for a stomach upset when overnight she took a turn for the worse.  They operated, found and removed the obstruction but it was too late, Lulu died.

Sheep grazing near the Vachery.

A slightly different place near the Vachery, showing how the sheep like to graze in amongst the bracken, perhaps the slight shading of the bracken makes the vegetation more succulent?  Anyway, it has a good side effect because it encourages the sheep in there which tramples the bracken as well as them eating off the grass.

A lovely pic of the sheep and Lulu just peeking out of the grass on the left.

And finally, another shot of the cobwebby fence at Chris’s.

Knit your own cosy hat or scarf, pencil case, handy bag or capacious tote, all from Ashdown Forest Hebridean wool.  Help support the grazing project and learn to knit – or give as a present to someone else!

I have made the tote bag myself and it is really great, very easy to do and although it took me over a year this was more to do with my patience than the difficulty of the bag.  I did get a round of applause at the stitch n bitch when I showed off the finished bag!  It is great for shopping and I get lots of comments about it.  The thing with the bags is you knit them then felt them by washing them at a high temperature in the washing machine.  You end up with a really sturdy thick felted material, a beautiful Hebridean deep chocolate brown colour.

If you want a knit kit but can’t make it to the shop at the Ashdown Forest Centre, try ringing the office and they will be more than happy to send you one plus a little for post and packing…..

‘Holding back the ewes’

Charge of the dark brigade.  Heb ewes doing what heb ewes do.  I have found that Hebs have generally two paces – stand still and gallop.

We also have a snacker feeder and it tows my little trailer so I am hoping this will revolutionise our lives!  At least less bruising overall anyway.  It should damage the fields less than the Landrover when we need access in the winter for feeding and husbandry, and it will save our energy lugging about bags of feed for miles.  I also think we can use it for improving our fencing skills.  I will have to guard it against the estate team because they want to use it for mowing, but it is far too superior a machine to be seen mowing car parks and verges, so HANDS OFF!

Well I’m hardly a technophobe but I don’t like change!  As you may have noticed the blogging has been a bit sparse recently and the ones I have done have been a bit of a mess.  That is because I haven’t quite got the hang of the new editing site and I am still struggling so just bear with me!