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Over the past two days we have had lots of…

Over the past two days we have had lots of new photographs emailed to us. It may take a while for them to be put on the Photo page, but all will be. Today’s start from number one.

Sorry Lynne, I somehow forgot to put your name to your photographs.

Picture 1 is of Marley in our suitcase. We were packing getting ready to leave for Jamaica on our vacation and Marley thought if he would sneak in our suitcase he would be able to go with us. Needless to say, he didn’t get to go. Karen, Florida (USA)

Cobwebs in the garden in the autumn.
A taste of spring !! Cherry blossom on a nearby road to. The picture of the heron was taken through my back window in the rain he was eyeing up my fish in the pond for breakfast !! Lynne, Sheffield.

Here is another one that my grandson sent to me of a baby mouse, taken with his phone. Pat(H)

We have had our fair share of rain today. The roads around the Farm are flooded, as are some of our fields. I don’t mind the rain. If we didn’t have it we would complain a lot more. I cant say that I liked the flood that we had last year. It was the first time in the fourteen years that we have been flooded at Denbury. It was the clearing up that we had to do that was a bit of a nuisance, but it had to be done and was just another days work.

We don’t really get an awful lot of rain at Denbury. A lot of the times that you may see it raining on the Valley camera, it is very fine, the camera in the valley seems to accentuate the rain. On the other cameras you have probably seen that it looks dry.

We stable the Horses in the Winter, not so much for the rain and cold but because Horses poach the fields when the ground is wet. We are letting them out more this year than we want to. That is because of Willow. If Arnie and Breeze were in the own stables, they can get exercise in the corral in front. Being that they are on Lady’s block, until we finish the corral over that side, they cant come out of the stables. Branston is free range n that side and is a Colt, so we need to turn them out in the Horse field. The corral is nearly finished. We were to do a bit of concreting today, that would have let us finish it early next week, but it was a bit to wet.

Horse dung is not good for grass, and takes a long time to break down. That is part of the reason we harrow the fields. It breaks down the Horse dung as well as getting the dead grass out. Rain like we have had today makes the dung soft and easier to breakdown. Don’t use Horse manure on your gardens, unless it is well rotted. The dung breaking down will take much more out of your soil than it will put back. Well rotted Horse manure is probably the best manure you can get. Any one holidaying at Denbury are welcome to take some of ours home. People fishing here can get a ready supply of worms once the manure is rotting. We have literally hundred of tons of manure, we will have to get it spread on the fields.

There is only one time when I do mind the rain. That is when I feed the Badgers. Both of the places that I put food down are not easy to get to as they are quite steep to get to. That an understatement, the lower feeding site is a nightmare to get to at any time. If it is or has been raining, it is outright dangerous. To access it I have to climb a very steep bank of at between thirty to forty feet. Getting up it is not that bad, a bit slippery. Coming down can be horrendous. How I haven’t broken something I don’t know. Many times I have slid down that bank so fast, if it had been a ski slope I would have won a medal. Many times I have had to have a complete change of clothing when I got back to the Farm House.

As I said at the beginning of this Diary, I really don’t mind the rain. Even in the rain Denbury is a lovely place to be. I often walk down the valley, in or after the rain, looking for animal foot prints, the Birds seem to be singing more and the fast flowing stream is always interesting.

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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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Although the Sheep are penned up the Lambs are able…

Although the Sheep are penned up, the Lambs are able to get through the bars of the pen, to be able to wander where ever they want. They don’t go to far from the Ewes, but far enough to be out of site from the Ewes, who call out endlessly until the Lambs return. Now that more are in the pen, Kye is not so keen to go in with them. Over the last few days she has decided that it is more fun to chase the Lambs. Kye chases the Lambs as she would Tass, when they are playing together. Unfortunately for Kye we cannot allow her to chase the Sheep even in play. If we did, for certain one day it would turn in to Kye hunting and ultimately seriously injuring or killing one of the Lambs. If she ever did chase sheep in hunting them, we would have little alternative but to have her put to sleep by the Veterinary. Not what we would want to do.

Every year a lot of Sheep are killed by Dogs. Last year two of our Sheep were killed by a single Dog, that we first noticed on camera that we have set up around the farm. If I had not seen the Dog It would have killed a lot more than the two. When Dogs attack the Sheep in packs, they get into a frenzy, and seem to get worse the more that they kill or injure. If not stopped the will kill and injure many in a flock.

We have a footpath that goes through the farm. At both end of the footpath there are gate, where I have put up signs, telling people to keep their dogs on leads. The signs are so prominent that they cannot be missed. You would be surprised how many people choose to ignore and disregard them. I regret that I have no patience with the type f people who do choose to ignore my signs, they get severely verbally abused. They would soon want me arrested, if I had a Bull in one of my fields, who chased them.

One of my Sons was chased by a Bull six years ago. I promise you it was a classic. He had decided to take a short cut across some fields, from the farm, to meet friends in a nearby village. One of the fields had Cows in it, The best part of it was that he saw the Bull, but decided that it was not a threat. You guessed it, half way across the Bull charged at him. Fortunately both of my Sons have represented the County in athletics, and did he need it. He could not get to the fence to get out of the field, his nearest refuge being a tree, that after initially going round and round it, trying to avoid the Bull had to climb up it. I cant remember how long he said that he was up the tree, but it was a good while. In running away from the Bull he had lost one of his trainers and his mobile phone. Eventually the Farmer came to his rescue. He never got his trainer or phone back. When I asked him why he had not gone back to find them, he told me that he had forgot what field it was. Of course I believed him. I must admit whilst writing about it I have been having a little laugh. Some Breed of Bulls are not allowed to be put in fields that have footpaths running through them, they should tell you something. The most obvious is the black and white Friesian, the main milking cattle.

The majority of you went for Willow for the Foals name. That is what we will name her as her stable name.

If your entries on the forum a not shown, please email me, we very rarely do not allow any.

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Of course I did take the Sheep comment as a…

Of course I did take the Sheep comment as a joke, unfortunately you wouldn’t have realised how appropriate it was. Or you may well have jinxed me.

Just as we were finishing feeding the sheep this morning, down the farm lane came the next door neighbours Land Rover. I knew exactly what he was going to tell me, and he wasn’t best pleased. The Sheep were in his fields again. It has been happening for the past few weeks. Most of his fields border onto my land, the one down the end of the valley, where the sheep are, is surrounded on three sides. Trouble is that it is very quite up there. It is a very steep sided field on both sides, with a lot old gorse, and ideal spot for Deer, who regularly knock down the electric fencing, that gives the Sheep the opportunity to wonder into my neighbours fields.

Sheep soon get use to it when they learn to break out, and it is very difficult to stop them. It doesn’t matter how much grass there is in the place they are meant to be. Remember the old saying, the grass is always greener on the other side, how true. They would have to be moved. Knowing that my neighbour has a Sheep Dog it was the ideal opportunity to get them back to the farm yard, to be able to get them ready for Market. He agreed to help get them back for me. Bliss and Misty being turned out gave us the opportunity to use their pen to put the Sheep in. It would comfortably hold the twelve Sheep and lambs that we were going to bring back and the free range ones that I would try to catch later.

My neighbour returned to his farm to get his Dog. He would go round the back way to bring the Sheep back, I was to walk up to meet him. Three quarters of the way up I met my neighbour walking towards me. Had the sheep passed me he asked. For although he had got them out of his field earlier, they were not where he had last seen them. We walked back to where they were meant to be and heard a bleat from another of his field.

We eventually got the twelve Sheep with lambs back to the pen, were I wanted them. It took us getting on for an hour and a half, the Sheep were going all over the place, in and out of the woods, with my neighbour and his dog doing most of the getting them out. How he did not loose his patience and walk away, I don’t know. I was doing to much running around, I reckon that I must have lost a good stone in weight. I gave them water and hay and left them in the pen.

Because I had to go out and get on with other work on the farm I did not see the Sheep until this evening. How many Sheep did you bring back, I was asked, twelve and there lambs? because there not all there now. I thought that it was a joke and went to look. There were not twelve and lambs, there were just ten including lambs. I could not believe it. I was fuming. They had got out of a gap in the corner of the pen, the gap was caused because we deep litter the pen because of its size, meaning that we clear out the dung and add new straw on the top of the old, it give a very warm bed with the fermentation. The build up of the bed had pushed a gate away leaving a gap. A couple of the Sheep with their lambs were bleating to get back with the ones in the pen. Every time we tried to get near them to push them on, they had it away. The remainder of them I saw when I moved the Badger camera onto the feeding area. You probably saw them as I.

I had to go around the back way to feed the Badgers, to get the Sheep out of that field. On the way I had to pass near to the pen where the Sheep are. I could hear two lambs calling out. I had to see if there was a problem, there was, they were in the stream close to the pen. I jumped down into the stream to grab them, getting my feet and legs soaked through in the bargain. To stop me getting hold of them the blighters legged it up the other bank, over a small bridge and back into the pen.

Hows that television add go ” I hate fish ” I hate Sheep.

Some of you probably saw the two pair Geese on the lake this morning. Arguing as usual, I wonder, just maybe.

I believe that the Osprey eggs are due to hatch on the 20th. Remember the foaling. I have been wrong before.

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I would not profess to being a Sheep farmer I…

I would not profess to being a Sheep farmer, I can trim their feet and do general sheep husbandry, all the other jobs like sheering etc, I leave to the professionals, who we pay. I only keep sheep to improve the pasture after the Horses have grazed the fields and paddocks. Horses are fussy eaters, the Sheep mop up what they have left. Over the winter months the Sheep are left out to eat all the rough grass, giving a new start to the spring growth. Their droppings also fertilise the fields.

By now the Sheep should be off of the hay and grazing fields, so that it can grow without the sheep grazing it. We have fenced off a fields up the valley, that has a lot of rough grazing, it is ideal for the sheep. If they eat a lot of the new spring growth grass, it tends to give them the runs.

Today we tried to move the Sheep to the new field. The easiest way would be with a sheep Dog, that we have not got. A good Dog would have got them to where we wanted, in a very short time. Most Sheep at one time or the other would have been fed with a Sheep feed, it is normally put out into troughs or even on the ground straight from the bag, if this is the case, then the Sheep will come to, or follow a bag, in the hope that the bag contains feed. Seeing all the Sheep with their lambs in the field, we decided that it would be a good time to try to move them onto the new field. It all went great first of all, ten or so started to come to the bag straight away, most the Texels with their lambs joined the group, only one stayed where it was with a couple of lambs, with one of us pushing on from behind, we were gathering a lot of the Sheep into a moving flock, then one of the Texel started to run back to the one we had left behind, she had left one of her lambs behind, the other Texels joined her. Not a disaster we could move them tomorrow, if need be by fencing them in, and taking them to the field with the quad and trailer.

We had got to a narrow part of the field, that led into a small paddock, with all but six of the Sheep, just before our destination, when two of last years Portland Ram Lambs decided to join us, unexspectantly coming out from the wood. No sooner than they got into the flock, they decided to fight, charging at each other. They hit themselves so hard, that one was dazed and really groggy on its feet, it must have been near to being knocked out. Of course the fight spooked the flock, on of the Ewes made a dash for it, then another, and that was the end of moving them, for they all ran back in the direction that we started from. Once they break it is not worth trying to gather them, you have got to start again. That we will leave until tomorrow. We will give it one more try, if that fails we will have to fence them in, and move them with the quad and trailer.

Before we moved to Denbury, when I last had Sheep, about twelve years back, a friend let us borrow his Sheep dog, named Ben. Ben’s owner never allowed him in the house, he was left out in all weather, either in one of their barns or a kennel. He was never fed a proper meal, given only the left overs after they had eaten, if there was any left overs. Many days he had nothing to eat. When he was loaned to us he was allowed in the home and fed every day. even then three times he ran back to his home, some four miles away, with a motorway in between. I dont know how they find their way.

Ben knew his job, you would tell him to go around. That is all that was really needed, he would know exactly what to do. When ever I gave him any instructions he would mostly ignore me, when he did take notice, it all went wrong, I would get annoyed blaming Ben, when of course it was my fault. Its a pity that we did not have a Ben with us today.

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We have twelve lambs now there are more due looking…

We have twelve lambs now, there are more due looking at the udders of the Ewes. I should think most of them will have their lambs within a couple of weeks. Three of the Texel Ewes have five lambs between them, they seem to be staying very close to each other. Today is the first time for three days, that they have been out in the fields. For some reason that have been living in the wood, very close to where the Fox lair must be. It was a bit of a worry with the noise that the Foxes are making. It sounds that they are fighting over food, with the sheep so close we think that the Foxes have had one of the lambs, but none of them are missing.

I have shown the sheep on camera, late this afternoon. The lambs have not stopped running around playing, it seemed for ever. They made me feel exhausted just watching them. The Ewe who’s twins died has been on her own for the last couple of days. When any other sheep come nearby, she wonders a little bit away from them. A Portland Ewe lost her lamb this afternoon. The Ewe was up and down the valley calling for the lamb, so many times, that she must have run a marathon. She disappeared and her calling stopped, she either fell over exhausted, or more likely found the lamb, who I should think had been fast asleep in a hedge.

I need to move all of the sheep off of the fields that they are on at the moment. These fields are the hay and horse grazing fields, we need to let the grass grow. With the sheep eating the grass, we will need to keep the horses in of a night time, when they should be out. It also save us a lot of work when they are out. We have fenced an area for them to be moved, down at the far end of the valley, we must get them down there very soon.

The geese must be alternating between different lakes. We heard the two pairs fly onto our lake this morning. They have been squabbling all day long. It looks like one pair has started to nest. That could well be the problem, after all the work they have put into it, they don’t want to be chased off. They need to sort themselves out before another pair like the look of the lake, at the times they are away.

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The honking Geese leaving the lake woke us early this…

The honking Geese leaving the lake woke us early this morning, and what a morning they woke us too. The sun was shining and the birds singing, what a change from the past two days, the worst this year. The fields are sodden and the wind was so fierce last night, that the main badger camera post was swaying so bad I thought that it may have snapped, it is over thirty foot high and in an exposed position. When we took Tass And Ky for a walk up the valley I went to put the camera on, it would not work as the wind had broken the electric wire. It is a very long wire and It may take a couple of days to find the break, but we will be showing them as soon as soon as it is repaired.

The lambs look good this morning prancing around and enjoying themselves, if the weather looks like it is going to stay fine I will let them into the fields. I forgot that the horse camera would pan onto them. I have had them on camera this morning. I did not let them out as it became overcast and this evening we are having heavy showers.

Over the past weeks the Badgers have been getting too brave when I go to feed them, they are out when I go up to the sett and are getting to close to me. They must not get humanised and believe that they are safe with humans. Shooing them did make them go back to the sett, until I had put the food down, but not so much now. I will have to take some thing to rattle when I next go up.

Last year two females had cubs, normally only one in the sett gives birth, between them they had five cubs and I am sure that so many cubs have given them more confidence between themselves and don’t see me as a threat at all.

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We have 24 sheep on the farm we only keep…

We have 24 sheep on the farm, we only keep them to eat of the grass that the horses leave, and of course their droppings fertilise the fields and our holiday visitors and their children love to see them and their lambs.

They are free range, touch wood they don’t stray to far, although they do go missing a times, so you need to count them at least once a day, although you tend to do a count every time you see them. When they are all go missing you know that they are normally not in any trouble, When one disappears you have to start worrying, they may be caught up in the bramble, the sheep with horns(our ones with horns are Portlands) may even have their horns caught up in wire, being sheep anything that can go wrong, will.

Doing a count early this afternoon we were one ewe down to 23 sheep, they were in a field close to the Farmhouse. It was one of the Portlansds that was missing, anything that you are doing has to stop so that you can look for it. You start to look in the hedges and all around the fields.

I had been looking for a good hour and a half and was starting to think the worse, but decided to go up to the far end of the farm, a good way from where the other sheep were grazing, further than I really thought she would have been, but it was worth a chance, then I heard a faint bleat, so faint that it may have come from a field on another farm, that is on the other side of the wood. I went through a gap in the hedge that leads into the wood to look into the field, and then to make my way back home through the wood still searching, when I caught a glimpse of white, there she was. I made my way up the bank, she was laying down and would normally have run off when she saw me, on reaching her I realised why she had not, she was licking a new born lamb, behind her was a born lamb still in the birth sack looking very dead. After removing the sack it was still lifeless, but you should never give up with lambs, after clearing its mouth I shook it, swung it, and slapped it and after a few minutes it stirred, shook itself and open its eyes, I laid it in front of the ewe so that they could bond. That lamb was lucky, they cant get oxygen whilst in the sack and would have only a minute or so left before dying

On returning home we took the dogs for a walk, giving the ewe the time she needed with the lambs and returned later to take the ewe and lambs back home on the quad and trailer, you may have seen it on the webcams. They are in one of the stables now, if the weather is OK tomorrow they will be let into the fields with the other sheep. The ewe tends to hide them for a day or two. As soon as they are about, we will put them on the webcams.