March 2024

31st

This morning, Charlie woke me with a gift of an Easter egg. Today we sussed that the powered lamb milk power was tainted, we have already seen a vast improvement in their health from opening and feeding them from a fresh bag.

We drove swifty through the Manse.

Visited Eyemouth.

We passed through Earlsdon, Gordon, Greenback, Duns, the journey from Roberton to Eyemouth took about an hour and a half; briefly stopping to pick up a sandwich lunch.

At Eyemouth I saw people in the street who I did not want to see, why I originally went to Eyemouth to get away from; it's such an insult they dwell in places I've been, as though I am being erased.

30th

Cooked Charlie a fruit cake yesterday, sharing should always be consensual.

Today I am returning to the farmhouse, somebody or something is killing our cade lambs, three have died from swollen stomachs, a forth cade lamb almost died but has been nursed into recovery. Charlie is suspicious these lambs are being murdered by ignorance; bottle fed microwaved cows milk by a trespasser; I write "trespasser" because these cade lambs are situated on private residential property, public right of access does not apply. The first thing to do is check the CCTV, we also plan to relocate cade lambs from their current shelter.

I run through the CCTV timeline and found no "vistors" between dates 30th - 27th of March, however there is another fivve days to check. I've seen the dead cade lamb, shes grotequely swollen, so we suspect this to be poison. The cade lamb that survice is swollen on her rear left rear side and front right side; she also has very loose stools.

Our other lambs are OK.

Only the Herdwick ewe left to lamb, were expecting her to lamb this / next week.

Crows at Woodburn.

Frogs procreating in the farmhouse pond.

We look after their welfare, the flock is being transported to grass keep soon.

This murderous ewe crushed her lamb; she will be sold soon, her brother was the unruly tup we sold at St Boswells.

Moi with our new wheelbarrow, Charlie took the picture.

Smaller birds are frequenting the farmhouse more often.

Charlie purchased a new wheelbarrow, only baby pink colour was available, ho-hum. The farmhouse pond has been very busy with frogs and toads mating, spawn has filled the pond and if you look closely you can see the tadpoles developing At around 5:20pm something spooked a mother ewe from the polytunnel, she was bleating at the cade lamb shed. I dashed outside to see if I could find our visitor, but found nothing; this is similar to the film "Signs"; must check over head for an alien spaceship, the threat is so spooky it's a wee bit whacky.

This is the other tup, these are two tups we will be using late this year.

Other cade lambs (segregated from mother ewes and their lambs) are bloating up, losing their appetite, Charlie has administered shots of antibiotic to five remaining cade lambs; we are observing them every couple of hours. The cade lamb that survived began to bloat out again, but a small amount of black tea delivered from a syringe seems to have taken her stomach swelling down. Today she left her cage, I carried her to the paddock, and she played with two tups and one ewe lamb before returning her to the warmth of her heat lamp.

25th

Arrived at my flat, washing machine is knackered in that my clothes are more dirty [from flow back] after washing cycle than they went in; I am assuming neighbour's ABDL nappies are to blame for a flat block drain blockage.

The murky water rising from the sink is rancid and has been making me unwell. Today my partisan tolerant neighbour was taken away to hospital, two ambulances and six paramedics rushed up the stairwell into her flat.

During the afternoon I've stuffed my face with cake whilst editing my website. This ABDL (Adult Baby Diaper Lover) neighbour in the flat underneath me, initially I thought she was dying, but she is pale white because she never goes out in direct sunlight, and is stick thin because she survives a baby food diet.

The scabs on her head are from ritualised cleaning, she once scrubbed my door so hard I found water inside the glass lens of my door peep hole; in contrast to her blanket window flat being a nappy soiled poo hole. It's easy to judge, but only her knows the story behind this grotesque degeneracy, believing lifelessness to be a "good thing"; for whom I ask?

I am not sure what relation this is to the adult baby neighbour, her brother maybe, he's apologised for her behaviour, additionally I saw he helped her move hundreds of soiled ABDL nappies from her smelly flat. His carer relationship with her is evidentially stressful; I've witnessed him banging and banging on her door, before they both disappear, driving into the darkness of night inside air tight, cushioned confines of his black jaguar.

After shopping I returned to the farmhouse with Charlie and fed the cade lambs their nine bottles of milk. To my surprised Charlie returned from the paddock requesting me to look on the driveway, there I found our cade lamb, with a newborn lamb. She had lambed on the paddock in the pouring rain, but had dropped the lamb into the shelter of the upturned haylage bale. Our other cade lamb, picture with the new mother ewe lamb is also in lamb, we were not expecting either of these cade lambs to get in lamb. It's been a strange evening.

23rd

We visited the Reviver's festival in Hawick, catching the tale end of the procession we walked to the castle mound to observe this re-enactment festival of the Scottish Borders.

The festival was mindful so felt safe, although one child seemed unhappy with her ancestral heritage being ethnically challenged by an inclusion privileged person.

A canny Scotsman here, probably a previous cornet.

I blanked the commercial market stalls, not for lack of interest; I have 27p in my bank account. Access to the festival was free, on entrance visited historical medical, armoury and spinning stalls. Flag bearers, both English and Scottish soldiers appeared gallant, stood in defiant stance on top of the castle mound; their silhouette backdropped by moody grey sky.

Charlie received a phone call from an employer requesting assistance with a dead calf; so we departed from the festival earlier than planned. Work ethnic, as in commitment, is important, and no more so than in farming as this is an often a potentially dangerous profession.

Skin job.

Skin suit.

Deception.

Tomorrow we'll learn about the imposter calf, wondering if this practice is where the term "wolf in sheep's clothing" derives from. In the evening, we rejoined the Revivers Festival in Wilton Lodge Park, awaiting the torch lit procession arriving from Common Haugh.

I have the full procession on film, maybe I'll upload and stream the footage from this website, but possibly speeded up a bit. I also recorded the fireworks and the bonfire, and turned my camera on the Scout Band as they finished piping. At the end I was eager to get to the car and return to the farmhouse, seven very hungry lambs were waiting for a bottle-fed. Charlie found twin lambs born in a dark wet corner of the calf creep; claims mother ewe likes them, but they are cold, barely alive; we're warming them underneath a heat lamp.

Charlie can't leave them, one lamb is whining the other lamb is barely breathing, ever so slightly that I am wondering if I am imagining, from wishful thinking, the lamb breathing. Both lambs have not had their colostrum yet, Charlie reckons they have five hours to suckle from their mother ewe; thinks both lambs are premature, they also are having a late start.

The ageing Zwartble ewe, who had triplet lambs last year, has suffered another prolapse and then broke her waters prematurely; Charlie is struggling trying to rescue her lamb. Now there is only one mother ewe, the Herdwick, left to lamb; how chaotic is this end of the season lambing for us at Woodburn Farm. I've had enough of the day, wanting to go to bed.

22nd

Today I accompanied Charlie to his appointment at Borders General Hospital (BGH); he wanted me there and I get that, as I've only ever attended hospital on my own. At my operation in 21, I deliberately did not tell anybody I knew as they'd be praying me dead during my four and a half hour long operation.

Leaving BGH we drove into Melrose for coffee and a sandwich, we chose Jacks cafe at the bottom of the high street. Charlie enjoyed a bacon sandwich whilst I had a loin sausage sandwich; the coffee, a latte was delicious. We talked about the evil transvestite butcher / kidnapper that lived / worked across the road, said he needed a bullet. I'd planned to take pictures of Melrose abbey but left behind my SDcard.

Returning from Melrose I photographed the Eildon hills, the last time I was here taking photographs was May 31. Jock's sheep have lambed by the side of the road.

And returned to the farmhouse I photographed our cute lambs:

Look what we found on our CCTV camera today.

We are contemplating taking both mother ewes and their lambs to grass keep, worming them after a week, the other option is keeping both mother ewes and their lambs at the farmhouse and weaning the lambs here, by taking the mother ewes to grass keep. Problem is the grass keep having a history of fluke worm; killing three lambs last year. We cannot pre-vaccinate the lambs against fluke, they have to be exposed then treated; the grass keep owner is very old and not treating the grass keep against fluke worm that is present there.

20th

Another morning at the farmhouse, it's been weeks since I stayed more than a few days at my flat, but lambing is almost over.

Our 4x4 truck failed the first MOT, but the garage fixed the problems, then run through a second MOT with success. The truck failed due to disk brake problems, dirty light lenses and a front (near and far side) shock absorber advisory, I suspect has been sustained from the steep incline of the farmhouse driveway.

We were questioning if the truck would pass, and were unprepared to purchase another, so were relieved to only be paying £400 to have a roadworthy vehicle for another year. The truck is essential to keeping sheep, this is the first year we've put this twenty-year-old truck through an MOT.

Pheasants that have escaped the shoot at Hoscote roam the valley and occasionally visit the farmhouse for chaff, barley and oats, left overs from feeding the sheep. The front garden pond is active with several frogs frolicking, and now full of spawn. The farmyard is covered in half a foot of mud, the driveway would have been the same had Charlie not got a digger in.

19th

We're in transit most today, transporting ewes and lambs; our grass keep is ready 1st of April, it will be a relief to have some peace from the endless jeering of sheep. Cade lambs are well, seven cades are consuming eight bottles three times a day, today reduced to eight bottles two times daily; supplemented by nibbles of lamb pellet and haylage. Although I am clear of periodontitis, toothache is attempting to return.

Charlie took four sheep to Longtown, two were ewe lambs, the other two failed mother ewes. After enjoying a cooked breakfast we observed auctions and waited in the truck for our lot to be called. Sheep sold for £380, but £350 of money made from auction went to repayment of debt / arrears, leaving £30; the belt is tight. We also made £30 auctioning a stoneware sink, but collected an enamel sink that failed sale; we have another seven of these sinks, thinking about marketing these sinks as horse troughs, during Hawick's Common Riding event.

Gimmer and a tup lamb enjoy panoramic views of Borthwick Valley from Woodburn farmhouse paddack.

No place to go but on the drive.

And now into the trailer.

Off we go to Longtown.

Penned and awaiting auction.

Evening lambing life behind Woodburn farmhouse.

In the cade lamb shed, rejected by their mother ewes, the cade lambs are warm underneath a heat lamb. If it was not for intervention, they'd be dead.

Cooling bottled milk on the ole tractor, half an evening meal for seven cade lambs.

We don't usually eat much throughout the day, so look forward to a cooked evening meal; it is a treat to have a fully cooked breakfast at Longtown, usually we don't eat breakfast. We drink far too much coffee, partly due to Charlie being an avid drinker, as before I met him I would mostly drink tea. I am concerned that coffee drinking is exacerbating underlining stomach problems. Years ago I read somewhere that pancreas problems declined during the shortage of coffee during WW2. Every night slipping into sleep feels as if I'm going to die.