Month: October 2007

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Sheep can be really stupid I have probably said that…

Sheep can be really stupid, I have probably said that a few time before. We have six Sheep in a stable, four we are going to take to Market and two Portland Ewe Lambs we intended to keep. I would like to see them out, but they have broken out before and I don’t want the job of trying to have to catch them again. When I went to feed them this morning one of the Portland Ewe Lambs had managed to drown its self in their water trough. Some how it had got stuck under the partition that the water trough has in the middle. I cant imagine why it should want to get int the trough in the first place. The trough is very low to the ground, making it very easy for the Sheep to drink from. That’s Sheep for you. I will be taking them to Market next week.

We still have a Ewe running free around the Farm from when we caught them early in the Summer. We managed to catch her two lambs about a month back, but she is really doesn’t want to get caught. She tends to hang about near the Horses, the way she is starting to act i think that she may believe that she is a Horse. When we get the Horses in for their morning and evening feeds she follows them in up to the field gate. When she see me she runs away, just now and then she might make a dash past me, only to find that she my get caught again. The Ewe is so fast you would think that she is a Greyhound in disguise.

Tonight it was my intention to go up to the observatory, to try once again to setup the Telescope. Late this afternoon the sky was reasonably clear, a little cloud that would mask a lot of the stars. making it easier for me to identify those that I needed to align the Telescope. When I went to feed the Badgers there were no stars to be seen at all. The Moon was only visible through a haze. For the past two nights it has been very clear, maybe a little to clear for me to accurately identify, as on clear nights at Denbury we are able to see every thing possible that the naked eye is able to see, and I wasn’t going to miss the Rugby either. That is why the Telescope webcams would be good. When I had the Telescope on last year and earlier this, we showed the Moon. With the powerful main Telescope, we were able to see all of the craters etc, but as it was not aligned correctly I was constantly having to go to the computer in another room to adjust it remotely, that was a pain after working all day, to be up and down all night. I am now able to watch the Telescope webcams in our lounge, on our 40 inch monitor TV that has picture in picture, with a Laptop I am then able to adjust the Telescope if it wanders a little. That wont be so bad. Then the only trouble with the setup that we have made, will be to open the Observatory hatch when we put the Telescope on, and close it when we shut it down. I will be prepared to pay for a new observatory once I get every thing working properly, so that the opening and closing the Observatory can also be done remotely. As soon as we get a clear night I will try to set it up again.

Elaine it is nothing personnel, but I do not publicise other webcams. Other that those that I choose or are very exceptional. The reason is that when ever I have requested others to publicise ours, the response has always been negative.
We try to keep the Horses out for as long as we can. We always rug all of our Horses at night. Most Thoroughbred Horse are fine coated and need to be kept warm. Breeze the Arab feels the cold badly, when it gets very cold she also has a hood. We wont have them out in the wet and cold, then they are stabled.

Sue, I haven’t seen the injured Badger for a few days now and I only counted thirteen last night. There is a good chance that it has not survived.

Alex the Fox are about, you can sometimes see one on the valley camera.

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Sorry as I am going to watch the Rugby there…

Sorry, as I am going to watch the Rugby there will not be a Diary tonight.

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As I said in last night Diary there is no…

As I said in last night Diary, there is no way that Bliss and Misty are going to be ready for the Auction on the 27th of this month, at Doncaster. I must admit, that I really did not want the Fillies to have the trauma of the long journey from Taunton to Doncaster, to then being put in a strange environment, prodded and handled by potential buyers, to be then paraded in front of a large audience. They would like that one bit, let alone being parted from their lifetime friend.

I have been making enquiries into the options of racing the Fillies myself. It has been a waste of time phoning UK trainers, out the six I have phoned, only one has had the decency to get one of his secretaries to phone back, and she needn’t have bothered. Their daily rate was

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Bliss had front shoes put on today She was brilliant…

Bliss had front shoes put on today. She was brilliant having the shoes put on. It was as if she had been having them fitted since she was born. It is good when Horses can be shod without any trouble, most are, but some Horses can be a pain in the neck, the odd ones even need to be sedated. A good Farrier helps. Our Farrier has worked for some of the top racing yards in the Country, and is by far the best that we have had. I remember that once when we mentioned the name of a Horse that I had purchased, the Farriers ears pricked up, he knew the Horse very well, and told us of things that we wanted to know about her, that we could not get any information about. Bliss after being shod is no longer lame and we will be getting her working as much as Misty. Misty didn’t need doing, her feet must be a little harder.

Some of the Farrier’s that we have had, have been nightmares. Shoes falling off within days of new shoes being fitted, putting the nails through the soles making the Horses lame. One Farrier who came to shoe, started to hit the Arnie when he moved. Arnie is very good being shod. He was sent on his way very quickly, so quick that he didn’t get the chance to even finish shoeing Arnie. Another Farrier that we had use to employ three apprentices, who would do most of the work, that caused a few problems. When we lived in London, the Queens Farrier shod our Horses. He was in full employment as a Farrier at Buckingham Palace. I should think he was moonlighting shoeing our Horses. It didn’t sound a bad job, he had a Flat in the Royal Mews. Twice he gave me a tour of the Royal Carriages, my passion and the Royal Horses. He was a nice man, but not a very good Farrier, probably was when he was younger. Living in the middle of London, you don’t get much of a choice of Farriers.

Its looking less likely the Bliss and Misty will be going to be sold at Auction. Neither look as if their coats and condition will be up to the standard required for them to realise their true value. Misty is not too bad, but Bliss looks like a walking disaster. Her coat is very much like Ladies, her Mother, very fine and marks very easy. The other day we put her in a Stable on her own, whilst we worked with Misty, when we let her out she had taken a very large area of hair off of the front of her face. Every time she gets a mark on her, which is most days, it looks bad, but it is only superficial. For Bliss to turn up at the Auction with these marks would be a turn off for a lot of potential buyers.

We need to make a decision very quickly on what we are going to do with Bliss and Misty. I will go into it further in tomorrows Diary.

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After seeing Jan s entry on the forum yesterday I…

After seeing Jan’s entry on the forum yesterday, I spoke to Peter, the Manager of the Lock of the Lowe’s about the Grey Squirrel that she saw. He told me that they do get the odd Grey Squirrel from time to time. They are not there for very long. The theory being is that the Pine Martin may kill them. The Grey Squirrel is not as fast or maybe agile as the Red Squirrel and are easier prey for the Pine Martin. I also mentioned that the webcams or the IR lamps were not working at night. Peter has been on Holiday for over a week and had not known. As long as there are no major problems they will on on of a night soon.

Continuing on from Sheep castration on last night Diary. It is common practice for Dairy and Beef Farmers that do not have Sheep, to let their grass in the Winter months for Sheep keep. Cattle are normally housed in the Winter months as they will poach soft Winter ground, It is also easier to manage them in the Winter when housed. Sheep being a lot lighter will do very little damage to the land, and will eat the grass that the cattle don’t eat, and of course their droppings fertilize the land. Sheep are very good for land management. They wont be allowed on the land any later than the end of March, very soon after that the grass start growing, the new grass being wanted for the cattle.

Three years ago we advertised our land for Sheep keep, as we do not have very good fencing for Sheep we offered it free of charge, it would then allow for any electric fencing that needed doing. The going rate would be about 30p per Sheep per week. After speaking to a number of Farmers, we decided to let the grass to a Farmer with a hundred Ewes, not in Lamb from about ten miles away. Our conditions were that I wanted him to visit to check on the Sheep daily, that would be normal anyway. The experience started wrong from the first day. The first lot of nine Sheep arrived tightly packed into the back of a pickup truck, without the Farmer having put any electric fencing up. They have never broken out and wont stray he tried to assure me. Of course I didn’t believe him, The Sheep were a mixture of cross breeds that looked in poor condition and had obviously not been on decent grass for a fair while. I shouldn’t have thought that his Sheep would have wanted to stray far from the decent grass that we had at Denbury for a day or so, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt as long as he did it.

Over the following week the rest of the Sheep arrived tightly packed in the pickup truck. Up to then none had disappeared even with out the fencing. These Sheep must have been waiting for all of their mates to arrive, for as soon as they had, the very next morning they were all gone. I tried his land line and mobile phones, both were not answered, so I left a message. As the Farmer had not contacted me or come to find his Sheep I had no alternative but to look my self. It didn’t take long to find them, they were in the wood, after a lot of running about I got them back into the field. Next morning they were gone again. The Farmer had not been to Denbury or had he phoned me. I wasn’t going to be running after Sheep again. That afternoon the Farmer arrived at the farm house door. I have got electric fencing he assured me and help to find the Sheep. The help was his aged fragile Mother, who was hardly able to walk, let alone chase after Sheep, the fencing was hardly enough to fence to fence in twelve Sheep let alone a hundred.

Next morning even after fencing, I had a call from a neighbour, the Sheep were on his farm. I made sure that afternoon that he got the fencing up and working. As the fencing posts had not been secured, Deer had knocked the fencing down the next day. I cant imagine where he learnt Sheep keeping from. Eventually the fencing was sorted out, but the agreement that he would come and check his Sheep every day, never happened.

One day when on looking in the Sheep field I saw a black object. On closer inspection it turned out to be a dead Lamb. The Ewes were not meant to be in Lamb. The Farmer assured me that the Ewes had not been running with any Rams. Over the coming days more of the Ewes Lambed. The Farmer had left his Ram Lambs that had not been castrated with their Mothers for to long. What possessed me to have my own Sheep again after that experience, I will never know.

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Breaking Bliss and Misty the Fillies is going very well…

Breaking Bliss and Misty the Fillies is going very well. We think that they are enjoying it as there is not a lot of protesting. Bliss is a little sore on the foot that had an infection, a little while back. To get to the infection the Farrier had to cut back the hoof on one side, that is causing the sole of her foot to touch the ground. Normally the outside wall of the hoof is longer than the sole, so it does not come into contact with the ground. We are going to have to get the farrier to put shoes on her front feet on Wednesday. This will be the first time that either of the Fillies will have had shoes fitted, so we could well have a bit of a performance with Bliss. When the farrier cut into the infection, she was very good. Hot shoeing is what most people have, the shoes are made to fit exactly but putting a very hot shoe onto the hoof, this helps the shoe to bed in and also shows any high points, that need to be cut away before the shoes are nailed on. The burning causes a lot of smoke, that may cause a problem, then of course the shoes are nailed on. We will get the farrier to see if Misty also needs shoeing, as both are working on hard surfaces that could soon wear the hoofs back to the soles.

The Fillies are now being taught to walk in a circle on long lead, this will progress to the long leads being attached to the bit, you then are able to walk behind the Fillies steering them by pulling the leads either left or right, the idea is that the Fillies will turn in that direction, pulling back evenly on the leads with a voice command, that should have been taught when they were first walked out with head collars, will get them to stop and stand. A saddle is also put on whilst they are working. Another part of the breaking, that is also done at the time, is to put your weight across the Fillies back by laying over them sideways on the saddle, this gets them use to having weight on them and to teach them for when they are sat on. When you are happy that the Fillies have learnt all this, you can try to mount them. That is just the beginning, there is a lot more for them to learn.

Val asked about the tails on the Sheep. Docking is still practiced, as is castration. Both are done using very small tight rubber bands. We have never docked or castrated. The Sheep we now have, came as you see them. Docking is done to help keep the backsides of the Sheep clean. Castration is a declining practice. Lots of Ram Lambs in a field with Ewe Lambs can be a problem. Castration was also practiced in the belief that the Ram Lambs would put on more weight more quickly. About fifteen years ago it was proved to be the opposite. I should think that it is now practiced more by the older farmers.

Elaine, I am not happy about the blue screen. We had a power cut this afternoon. When the electricity went back on the camera had stopped working. I got it back on, but it must have gone off without me realising. I will try to turn it back on in the morning. Unfortunately it is the Lake, Sheep and Kingfisher Camera. If I have to replace the camera, it may take me a couple of days for me to get the time. Our electricity supplier will be hearing from me in the morning.

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There are parts of the farm that we rarely visit…

There are parts of the farm that we rarely visit, partly because we can see the places from a distance. This afternoon we went to the field that the hay that we sold earlier in the year is stacked. We gave the purchaser of the hay, two months to collect it. Two months because after that we would expect a fair amount of rain, making the ground soft. Any tractors would soon cut the ground up. I don’t want my fields cut up by tractor tyres. The two months have well gone and the hay has not been taken. To make matters worse I had lost the purchasers phone number. I found the phone number in the middle of last week and told them that I wanted gone. I would have expected to have been started to be gone by today. It hasn’t. If the rain does come and the hay has not been moved, I will stop any tractors from entering the field. They will have to roll the bales to the gate, if they want the hay.

On the way to the field, that is at the end of our lane, we pass the lake and a pond, surrounded by a rough area that we have left to encourage wildlife. The area is out of sight from the lake webcam, in the opposite direction to the Sheep. The rough area is mostly over grown, boggy with a couple of small streams. The far corner of the area although not very far away cannot be seen from the drive, when it is over grown. As we passed the gateway that leads into the area, Kye ran into the area to investigate. We followed her in as we knew that she would jump in to the pond for a swim. It is deeper than the lake, with very few place for Kye to be able to get back on the bank from. She does tend to panic, if she cannot feel the bottom. After Kyes swim, we decided to look around the area, it is where in the past we have found regular signs of Otters. And did we get a shock, and it wasn’t wildlife that we came across, just a four foot high wall of river bedding, mud and stones that had been dumped by the flood earlier in the year. So much had come down the stream in the flood, it was diverting the main stream that passes through the farm, making the boggy area, a small pond. Some thing will need to be done with it, as when the rain comes it will be a mess.

Seeing that area made me look at a place in the main Horse field where the stream dog legs. There the flood has washed away a very large area. A fence that is there to stop the Horses from getting into the stream is still there, but hanging in the air, where the ground underneath has been washed away. Again the flood has deposited a lot of river bedding that is partially blocking the stream at that point.

I haven’t seen the injured Badger Cub tonight. I didn’t look at the webcams for very long last night, so I may well have missed it yesterday.

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The land that we rented when we first move to…

The land that we rented when we first move to Somerset, before we had purchased Denbury was to small for the amount of Sheep that I had purchased. If I remember correctly it was 117 Ewes that I had purchased all together. There would be ample grass through the Summer, but as soon as the ground got wet through the Autumn and Winter, 468 feet would soon cut the ground up, making the fields muddy. To make matters worse, that year was pretty wet, and there was no grass on the fields for the Ewes to eat. Most of them would have been in Lamb, so it was important for them to be eating well. Fortunately I had made a deal with a farmer who I allowed to use part of my twenty acres, for fifteen of his young Heifers to graze early in the Spring, in return for a large amount of hay. The hay allowed me to feed the Sheep in my field until the Ewes were due to Lamb and through to the following Spring, until the grass started to grow.

The building on the land I was renting was also to small to Lamb in. My farmer friend allowed me to use one of his buildings. It was a bit to far from the house that we were renting, to keep on going back and forward to check on how the Lambing was going, especially as I would have needed to go at least three times a night. My Horse box had a small living area, with a very large bed above the cab, that became my home at night for many weeks. Through the Winter, every night for weeks I was up checking to make sure that the Ewes were not having difficulty lambing. I was cold, miserable and believe me fed up to the teeth with Sheep, and worse still the building was alive with rats, that could climb walls like mountaineers. Every morning I would return any of the Ewes that had Lambed, in our Estate Car, to the field that we were renting. You wouldn’t have wanted to buy that car, when we were finished with it.

It soon became clear that the field was to small and muddy for the Ewes and Lamb to be in, and they had to be taken back to my friends farm. He had a very large farm, my Sheep would graze his fields through the Winter, to eat off the grass to allow the Spring grass to grow better. The Ewes and Lambs were in a fields, that part of the River Tone passes through. Not the large River that it eventually turns into, I suppose up to twelve feet across, but quite fast flowing, especially after long spells of rain, when it would sometimes flood part of the field that my Ewes and Lambs were in.

Twice every day I would go to check that the Ewe’s and Lambs were well. One day after a long spell of rain the fields that the Ewes and Lambs were in had were partly flooded, close to the very fast flowing river. All the Ewes and Lambs except one Ewe were close together, well away from the river. I made my way over towards the Ewe, she would not have been on her own without a reason. As I got close I could see that the Ewe was one that had twins, and they were not with her. They could well have been swept away in the River. I put myself into a position that should have made the Ewe run back to the flock. Instead she ran straight into the raging river. I was down stream to the Ewe and managed to grab hold of her fleece as she passed me, I up to my knees in the flood. The Ewe was struggling in fear and making it difficult for me to hold onto her. By this time her fleece had absorbed so much water, that her weight was making it more difficult for me to hang on to her. By this time I was up to my waist in the flood. I didn’t want to let go of the Ewe, as she would have been swept down the river to her death, but I was finding it more difficult to hang on to her and I was in danger of being swept away myself. I can swim, but I would never have been able to save myself in that raging river. We must have been washed to a more shallow position, and I was able to lie partly on my back that made it possible with one last gasp to pull the Ewe out of fast flow of the river. I don’t know where I got the strength from. It was a very cold day, my body was numb all over with the added cold of being wet. When I returned the next day, I found that none of the Lambs were missing. Shortly after I sent the lot back to a friend in Kent to look after for me.

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PM I went and checked the Sheep and they were…

PM, I went and checked the Sheep and they were all there. One had managed to get to the other side of the fence. I should think that was the one you may have seen. The bank is the side of the stream that runs through the farm, and is about six feet down. If one of the sheep had fallen it would have been wet.

The Sheep have made themselves a nuisance all day. Three times they have got out of the fenced area. The last time, the three Sheep that have been out for the past few weeks got together with the rest of the flock. Two of them are Ram Lambs that we could not keep in. Within an hour of putting them back with the rest of the Sheep they would be out again. We tried to catch them to put in with the youngsters, that we put into one of the stables. After a lot of chasing about we caught one of the two. With that one now in the stable the other one may stay in the fenced area. It will have to be caught in the next week, as the Livestock Markets are now open and the youngsters will be going off next week.

When I first came to live in Somerset, we rented a property whilst we were looking for a farm to purchase. We also rented twenty acres or so, to be able to purchase a few sheep to start getting my Lads interested in farming. They were only seven at the time. Every thing was new to them, just one big adventure. Breeding Ewes were very expensive at the time, around a

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The rat traps and Zapper were a waste of time…

The rat traps and Zapper were a waste of time and will be going back to the supplier for a refund. The Badgers set the traps off and the rats would only go half way into the Zapper box. We were watching it on and off for a few hours last night, to see how good the Zapper was going to be. If it worked I would have purchased another two, even at