January 2018 was a glorious  month , we had been here 6 months and it was feeling more like home. We were spending so much more time together as a family , even with Andy away working most of the week.. Doing our kind of stuff, building things , fixing things , learning new skills. Making friends and having friends stay with us has been an added bonus that we didn’t know would definitely happen.

Lauren was getting more and more involved , flower and Daffodil the bunnies had decided they were actually chickens and moved out of their hutch and  in with the hens much to Lauren’s initial worry, then joy as they decided they weren’t shy anymore either !!

Henry the ram had been moved out of the field with the Girls , so that as their pregnancies progressed he didn’t jeopardise the lambs with him butting them away from the food. He wasn’t happy with me one bit, in fact he was proper pissed but .. he improved when we put him a closer to the house and he could get some human attention as we passed his gate, it was nice seeing him back to his old self , however it was short lived .. literally !

My first deadstock and I was gutted ….

He had been such a lovely nature , clearly proven looking at my lambs growing in the girls tums and a bloody good handsome Ram , ah well another lesson , deal with it and move on. After a bit of research ,some detective work and questions to the vet ,my sheep owning neighbours and sheep buddy Tom, we think Henry had something neurological occur not uncommon in Rams so hopefully it was quick.

RIP Henry 2014-2018

My livestock numbers were about to plummet again as we planned the pigs trip to the abattoir , it would be my first outing with the trailer. Driving a pickup is no biggy (it’s my third so )I’m quite used to them but add a 12 foot trailer and all of a sudden your diving

a wriggly mahoosive bus !

I managed it anyway , more luck than judgement , I am getting better tho.. I think . Within a couple of days Griersons had the pigs back and had set to work turning them into chops, joints, sausages and most important the first Grobdale bacon ..oh yeah its proper good , we had very good feedback from our 4 half piggy customers so not just a biased opinion .. phew . This is what about 25 kg of pig looks like ( the bacon came a few days later ) . So I think it’s fair to say our first go at livestock came off pretty well and without a hitch ! Shocking actually , but YAY  ..

And back to sheep !

Just after the pig adventure it was time to scan ‘me girls’ and find out if Henry had done the deed . I had an inkling that Dolly was possibly without a lamb , she was always last to the feed bucket and was decidedly more of a size zero than her sisters who were looking proper sturdy . If they don’t feed well then their bodies reabsorb the pregnancy as a kind of safety mechanism , clever really . Since I only have 4 sheep it wasn’t worth getting the scanner out to us so I had to get the girls out to another farm and be scanned with 300 easycares , I got the job of pushing this lot along to the little scanner trailer .. and yes it was a filthy job but worth it .. we scanned at 120% ( 5 lambs in 4 sheep) and yes Dolly was empty .

 

A triplets and two singles !  

woohoo lambs a coming ..

Another job that got done early was something that had been bugging me for ages.. a new road sign was needed . The one we inherited was tiny and facing the moor instead of the road oh and did I mention it was sooo the wrong colour,

( insert huge husband groan here) ..

my new offering had space underneath for products we may sell or offer so maybe a bit presumptuous but I see at as future proofing 🙂  . See the original sign , is actually smaller than the flippin estate agent sign !!

Anyway justification over it’s done now and very happy I am with it  . 

One of the loveliest things this month was very Scottish , and very traditional. We felt very honoured to be invited to a Burns supper at our friends and neighbour up at Lochenbrech . Jenny did a brilliant “Address the Haggis” which was very flippin amazing. All very new , fabulous and Scottish to us , great to be included .

Thank you Wilson family .

Anyway January finished in a flurry of weather , our third of fourth lot of snow , this being the best so far though.

A beautiful place in all weathers we are so lucky ..

 

but roll on summer eh ..