31 May 2010

A Year of Green Hills

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It’s been a year to the day since I came online and made a website. It was a Sunday - and I remember it well.

Me, my Granny and my Dad had made a new pen out round the back of the sheep sheds, on a little patch of land that wasn’t being used. The idea was to make a sort of sick bay, for sick sheep, or for pet lambs to get used to living outside. On the 31st of May 2009, eight pet lambs were put out into the pen. In the pen, were these guys:

Liz





Jim





Gemma



Sprinkes


PigJaw


Snowy


Brendan


And Hefalump


Out in the fields, there were…

Darkie


Panda


Bubbles


Suckie


And Eddie


Inside the sheep shed, there were…

Fidget


And Roy


Thanks to everyone for their support over the past year.

30 May 2010

Up Close and Personal With Freddie

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Freddie is Suckie’s lamb, and he was born in February this year.

Trapped on the Concrete Platform - Again

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Ben got trapped again on the stone platform, after getting stuck there just over a week ago in A Wild and Wet Wednesday. He was there for nearly ten minutes because we thought he would work it out like he did last time. He didn’t.

Instead, he looked at me as if I should help him, all sad and sorrowful. I had to give in - he’s just so cute!

Surly Sasha

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This is a picture of my Uncle’s dog, Cocker Spaniel Sasha, taken in early April.


She is a shy soul, but she came to like me when I took pictures of her at Christmas - probably because of the treats!

Halfway to Old Age

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Here’s Ben’s video of how he got on last month.

Ben - 6 Months

29 May 2010

Ben’s Visit to the Pet Shop

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Ben went to visit a pet shop today. It was called ‘Fish, Fur and Feathers’ or was it ‘Fur, Feathers and Fish’? Anyway, Ben was there to get himself a new collar, because he’s outgrown all of his other ones. We went in the Land Rover with Dad driving - not Ben.


I had never been to it before, but it was nice. There were birds, what looked like chipmunks and some fish. Ben, at first, didn’t like it. He stood at the door and her refused to budge. I called him, just falling short of my silly dance. I had to pick him up and carry him over to the doggy collars section. I set him down and still he refused to move. I needed an ice breaker, so I dropped his lead - then he moved, and went for a little wander. There was a family, man, woman and child, getting themselves a six-week-old black and white bunny. It was in a red, plastic, straw-filled box and they were being told how to look after it.

Ben, being the curious half-Gundog that he is, wanted to see what was in this box. I called him back and he came. I tried on a collar, and it fitted - to the checkout!

Ben followed me to the checkout, and the family were just in front of us purchasing their new bunny. Ben still wanted to know what was in this box - so he stuck his head through the man’s legs and had a sniff! As soon as I noticed what Ben was doing, I pulled him out. Thankfully, the man didn’t say a word, and the bunny was still in its box. I grabbed Ben’s lead, paid for the collar and got out - but not before I had to let go of Ben’s lead again so we could make a hasty retreat to the Land Rover!

“What’d I do?”

Harnessing the Power of the Ben

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Ben’s six months old since yesterday!

Ben had his first outing with a harness on yesterday. He didn’t like it.


As soon as he put the slightest pressure on it with his pulling, he got scared, sat down and refused to move. I have to jump up and down like a lunatic to get him to move again, praising him and stoking him only while he’s moving. Ben’s first outing at his new home was on a collar and lead. Here his is at nine weeks on his first trip out:


He hasn’t been on a collar and lead very much since, so for the last few weeks, I’ve taken him out one a week to teach him how to lead and not be scared. It’s a slow process, but thankfully I have patience. He seems to like this harness more than his collar.

Keeping his cool.


Getting too warm, and trying to keep cool.


Ben can do many things - jumping isn’t one of them. He still can’t jump onto the quad.


Maybe when he’s older.

Resultant Force

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I’m calling this post ‘Resultant Force’ because I had a physics Additional Science exam yesterday, and because the shaved sheep are a result of the clipping (see what I did there?).

The clipping (or shearing, as you may call it) is almost halfway through, and already the adult ewes are looking smaller. Some lambs that looked quite small before now dwarf their mothers! Bubbles was the first ‘pet’ to be clipped, and she didn’t really like it, but she stayed still for most of the time so Paddy could do his job, and get her shaved for the Summer.


Ha!

Bubbles was gathering reinforcements to stop Paddy and his clippers of doom.


Unfortunately, an army of black and white sheep would never be enough to stop Paddy, and so they are all being clipped next week. Shame.

Darkie and Rita were keeping wise and didn’t get involved.


Remember in my post called Lambing Round-Up, I mentioned how hard it was to find a lamb that looks like them, and to tell which crosses were which? Well, I have now found that lamb - here’s Bernie Junior:



Note the barnet, the pink skin… the eyes! Here’s a picture of Bernie to compare:


Look! Look!

Still, I prefer Suffolks. Always have, always will.


Which lamb is your favourite?

Feeling Quackers

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My friend Charlotte has a thing for fluffy ducklings. Hard to notice, really.



Visit Charlotte at: Drumlee Farm.

27 May 2010

Notice Anything… Odd?

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About these sheep compared to the sheep in my other sheep posts?

No?


Well, in case this picture doesn’t help, we have started shearing our sheep. It sort of came out of the blue, as our main clipping man, Paddy, came up the lane and said he was ready to clip. Dad said he wasn’t, and then Paddy said that we should all get ready then. We gathered the sheep with Sheila and Fly and got to work. There was no time to shed the ewes from their lambs, so all of them were put together, making the ewes even more dangerous, because they will head-butt the dogs to protect their lambs. This does absolutely nothing for Sheila’s confidence.


Sheila was annoying…


She kept going underneath the trailer because she wanted to go into the section where Paddy and Barry were clipping. She wouldn’t stop doing it - not for anything, so she had to be put on a lead.

In the end, the lead was awkward, so I brought Ben out to help and put Sheila in her kennel. In short…

Ben. Was. Brilliant.

He did what he was told, wasn’t scared of the ewes even though they were trying to hit him, and best of all, he didn’t go under the trailer!

I was so pleased. He hadn’t done a real job before and he had never really been introduced to the sheep.

Poor Ben, though, because a ewe hit him. It (amazingly) didn’t scare him and he just looked at her like he does at everything else. At this, I was even more pleased!

Did I mention that Fly loves the tractor?

23 May 2010

Family Portraits

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These portraits of the dogs have been taken over the past week. Fly and Ben last Sunday.



Ben yesterday.


Fly today.


Sheila and Fly today.


The whole gang today.


I love them all!