May started off with a very tiny wee last lamb, quickly and aptly named ‘Toots’.. she was born on Star wars day or  May 4th (May the force be with you ) and we were worried that mum being very young herself ( cheeky last years lamb getting in with the ram when she should know better ) didn’t have enough milk.

The Ewe was being a great mum looking after Toots but there didn’t seem to be much milk so we brought them into Lambing shed to be watched over . We flipped Mum and put the tiny lamb onto her teat , encouraging her to suck the colostrum .

 

 

 

We topped her up with a little powdered milk , just enough to get her moving and taking milk from mum,

After a couple of days, it seems a little goes a long way …

Mum became known as ‘Maisie’ so as a pair they are..

Toots Amazieballs 

Lambs everywhere it seems we were at 28 now , I think , I am notoriously terrible at counting sheep .. We will have to wait for the gather in 4 weeks to count them properly .

The build was put on hold in March when Nicola Sturgeon and Boris announced lockdown. But Andy  managed to get a couple of things done whilst we were builder free ,

 

 

 

one of which was to make an oak frame entrance porch for The Croft , he is so clever

 and strong the thing weighs a ton !

 

 

On a much smaller scale as far as building goes my Beekeeping idea went up a notch when our good friend Gary Cook (remember the fabulous photos last month)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

gave me my shopping list to get all the equipment we needed to take delivery of some bees to make us some

Grobdale honey..

Bees due in June we hope , so that’s going to increase our livestock a fair bit 🙂

 

 

Back to animals you can cuddle or chase however you look at it .. The piglets were getting a bit too much for Nora and it

 

 

was time to set them up in their own independent pad.

 

 

So ear tags ready, and off we went to re home them up the track in the summer residence. They loved it !!

Top Tip- Ear tagging pigs is much easier when they’re scoffing ! they don’t care what you do .. piercings , tattoos , you name it they have no interest in anything other than food .

Last job to do in May was the sheep gather . We get them all down to check them over, and give them the meds’ they need to keep fit and well.

I have a book as thick as your arm that is all about how many things a sheep can die from !

Its a known fact that a sheep’s main aim is to die so we work hard on keeping our sheep happy and well, with as little medication as possible but as many preventative things as we can do.

Its turning out to be working, what ever it is, as we have had a great lambing this year , with lots of very big healthy lambs and no assisted births .Everyone has behaved beautifully .

They clearly haven’t read the book in my library!

 

 

 

Update on Toots and Maisie ,they were both outside within the week with the rest of the flock doing just great  .. look at the size difference though 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lauren feeding the pets Dilly,Dally, Miracle and Harriet with Toots in the background.