Dinner
In hindsight I rather unwisely agreed to take 3 ewes and 3 lambs in exchange for having let a farmer graze some cattle on my field last summer. I thought it would be a good way to learn a bit more about them plus have some lamb grazed on our own land. All seemed fine for the first two weeks until this weekend just gone. I was in Germany on a horseback archery training weekend. Once we arrived back at Heathrow my friend called his wife who told him to tell me one of the sheep was dying! A God....here we go I thought.
After finally getting through to my wife on the drive back to Somerset I found out it had been put down by the vet as it was infested with maggots. I did not know how to spot them and the warm weather meant they struck quick. So next morning I had to call DEFRA to get the body collected and then attempt to catch the orphan to start bottle feeding it as the other ewes were rejecting it, even pushing it around a bit.
This is where the fun started. When we were trying to catch the orphan the rest of them bolted and jumped my fence, ran across the veg patch next door and dissapeared into deep, dark Somerset! We managed to find them on a neighbouring farm but by the time my farmer mate cam with his collie and trailer they had scarpered. We searched for an hour and no sign of them! 6 hours later someone from the village knocks to ask if we have losy any sheep! There they were hiding in a field just next door. After rounding them up I asked the farmer to take them back. I really did not want the hassle of shearing them, worming them, looking for maggots and all that stuff. Forget it I thought. Goats and chickens are enough!
However, he would not take the orphan. So, we decided to keep it (well we had no choice really). My wife wanted it as a pet and started calling it Katie - I was adamant that if we kept it, it would eventually have to be slaughtered - thus the name I have given it of "Dinner". At the moment it is still scared of me so it is tied to a tree to make sure it doesn't escape and hurt itself. I have to bottle feed it which is quite nice - a lot easier than feeding my 6 month old! So we shall see how it goes - I hope it will start to put on weight, get used to us and have a happy little life. Eventualy though it must be eaten!
Other news from West End Farm include the veg patches doing OK. We need rain though and need it bad! I also have some horses coming soon - renting the field to a girl a few villages away with a couple of horses. In exchange for the land I get to ride which suits me fine. After my weekend of training I have decided I want to dedicate a lot of the land to archery so in the next couple of days I will be doing a lot of work to the ground to get it down to lawn level and then erect a massive target made out of hay.
Here is a pic of me in Germany on the training weekend. About 4 minutes after this shot was taken the horse went beserk and I had probably the scariest episode in my life. When people say your life flashes before you they are not wrong. Luckily I managed to throw myself off the horse before I was thrown into a barn wall!
After finally getting through to my wife on the drive back to Somerset I found out it had been put down by the vet as it was infested with maggots. I did not know how to spot them and the warm weather meant they struck quick. So next morning I had to call DEFRA to get the body collected and then attempt to catch the orphan to start bottle feeding it as the other ewes were rejecting it, even pushing it around a bit.
This is where the fun started. When we were trying to catch the orphan the rest of them bolted and jumped my fence, ran across the veg patch next door and dissapeared into deep, dark Somerset! We managed to find them on a neighbouring farm but by the time my farmer mate cam with his collie and trailer they had scarpered. We searched for an hour and no sign of them! 6 hours later someone from the village knocks to ask if we have losy any sheep! There they were hiding in a field just next door. After rounding them up I asked the farmer to take them back. I really did not want the hassle of shearing them, worming them, looking for maggots and all that stuff. Forget it I thought. Goats and chickens are enough!
However, he would not take the orphan. So, we decided to keep it (well we had no choice really). My wife wanted it as a pet and started calling it Katie - I was adamant that if we kept it, it would eventually have to be slaughtered - thus the name I have given it of "Dinner". At the moment it is still scared of me so it is tied to a tree to make sure it doesn't escape and hurt itself. I have to bottle feed it which is quite nice - a lot easier than feeding my 6 month old! So we shall see how it goes - I hope it will start to put on weight, get used to us and have a happy little life. Eventualy though it must be eaten!
Other news from West End Farm include the veg patches doing OK. We need rain though and need it bad! I also have some horses coming soon - renting the field to a girl a few villages away with a couple of horses. In exchange for the land I get to ride which suits me fine. After my weekend of training I have decided I want to dedicate a lot of the land to archery so in the next couple of days I will be doing a lot of work to the ground to get it down to lawn level and then erect a massive target made out of hay.
Here is a pic of me in Germany on the training weekend. About 4 minutes after this shot was taken the horse went beserk and I had probably the scariest episode in my life. When people say your life flashes before you they are not wrong. Luckily I managed to throw myself off the horse before I was thrown into a barn wall!
posted by tomitv @ 9:39 AM
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