Thursday 22 March 2007

The Thugs



This is my Thugs, they are pure breed Hill Cheviot's from Skye.
They are in lamb and we are expecting them mid April.
They were put to a 1000 guinea Tup in November last year.
They are beautiful soft natured animals.
I named them Miran, Sharon & Claire.
Miran appears to be the leader the other two I believe are twins as they are inseparable, but all three hate to be apart from one another for any length of time.
We took them to our local Road to the Isles show in Camasdarach nr Arisaig, Miran won her class and Claire came second.
We also took them to the Black Isle Show last year Miran came second in her class to a park Cheviot, and Claire came third, we knew we would not beat the park Cheviot they are a different class altogether.
But I think for a first time out they all did really well.
They were nicknamed the thugs because they walk around in a pack and anything that gets in their way will get chased or butted, including the young calves, they have no fear what so ever.
They have been known to stamp their feet at me when they cannot get their own way.
They also appear to know when the garden gate is left open, they will appear from no-where and have a feast in my flower beds, nothing is left standing in their wake.

But they are so comical I do not think I would like to part with "My Thugs".

Sunday 18 March 2007

"Lambs a Leaping"

"Katie"


















This is Katie the Black face lamb, she was one of our pet lambs, her mother was taken by a fox just after she was born.
She had to be hand reared, lambs are very difficult to raise if they do not get their mothers milk for the colostrum when first born. She had a lot of problems like joint ill, ticks, bloat and so on.
Katie was a mischievous little lamb, if you did not watch her she would come running into the house and make herself comfortable on the furniture.
I had even caught her in front of the open fire warming herself before now.
She would wait for me to come home on an evening from work, she knew she would get extra nuts from her
adopted mum "me". She would follow me around all day with the dogs, she thought she was a dog.
Katie was very playful and energetic she loved our collie "Cullan" and would often snuggle up to him in the garden.
Unfortunately she become ill just as she got to the year old age and we could not do anything for her, she passed away quietly, I was heart broken and still miss her terribly, we buried her in her favorite spot.




It has taken a long time to get over Katie as I became so attached to her, my husband bought some Cheviot lambs from a good bloodline in Skye.
They were tupped at the back end of the year to a £1000 guinea ram, we are expecting the pitter patter of hoofs mid April.
I just hope they all do well have no problems and the mum's look after their babies, I could not go through rearing another lamb only to have it die of one thing or another.
Someone once told me that "sheep were born just to die"
I thought this was foolish at the time but not anymore.


Friday 16 March 2007

"Oh what a beautiful morning" NOT

As the song says "Oh what a beautiful morning".
Well I can tell you it has been the most miserable year I have ever had the pleasure to live through so far in my life.
We have had nothing but rain, rain and more rain, when will it end.

We have had people staying in the Caravan this week they must be fed up too, what can you do you cannot change the weather for them I am sorry to say.

We had a cow abort a calf at 7 months last week, the Vet does not know why, I would like some answers but no-one can help it's just one of those things I keep getting told.
She has not been very well since, we keep dosing her with Penicillin but she is still not responding as quick as I would like.

God only knows if we will ever get another calf out of her as she is only a 6 years old Limousin cross out of Heartside Jacko.
I would not like to think that we will have to put her away to the burner because she cannot produce.
Maybe I will hunt out some of my old herbal remedies my dad used to use way back before some of the modern stuff came onto the market.

We live in hope.
We have a couple of others due anytime now, they are in the Byre pacing at the moment, I am taking no chances with these as one of the mothers is a first calfer and the other is a second calfer.
Once the calves are born we will leave them with mother in the Byre to bond for a week just to make sure everything is okay, we don't want a repeat of Effie do we?
Speaking of Effie we called her calf Buster and what a little scamp he is, he gets into everything, and chases the dogs around wanting to play, nothing like his mother at all in temperament anyway, but colours he is very like her.
So he will have some new playmates. let's hope they are boys, as we had 80% heifers last year and we cannot keep them all.
But I hate to see the heifers going to market as you know they could end up in the abattoir, it is different for the boys because you know that is expected of them.
As long as they have a good healthy start in life and are treated with great respect, love and compassion, I know we have done our best with them and they have not suffered in any way I think everything in life deserves at least that, especially when they are going to do man a great service at the end of their short lives.