March 2024

18th

After feeding the cade lambs I took my mountain bike for a ride through the Borthwick valley. I purchased this mountain bike from a seller on Facebook Marketplace, she let the bike go for £100.

I'd aimed to take some photographs with my bridge camera, and was left a little disappointed.

Until I returned to the farmhouse.

And found this Chaffinch on a fence post.

Sleepy lambs in the poly tunnel.

There are only three ewes left to lamb, this year there has been half the ewes of last year, yet almost twice as many lambs; we have seven cades to look after.

In the evening Charlie drove us to Forman hall to played Carpet Bowls, the last game of this year, at least until darker, colder evenings become apparent. Majority of people who live and work in the Borthwick valley are farmers. Sidney and his son Ross Anderson won carpet bowls; how can this be?

15th

This morning I woke to the sound of Sam the Sheep dog barking, peering out of three windows I saw nothing unusual, but through the forth window I discovered a mother ewe licking her newborn lamb, now there is only three ewes left to lamb.

We have eight, each cade lamb will consume one bag of powered milk until weaned, costing around £70 per cade lamb (not including injections, vets fees etc). This is the main reason behind Charlie endeavouring to keep these wee lambs with their mother ewes! A lambs' life is always better placed with the mother ewe, they miss out on so much with intervention.

It is untrue to claim creates never miss if they are removed from what is taken from them, they know and feel, there inherent worth. Disparity is disparity, there are no excuses inflicting deprivation onto sentient beings; these cade lambs would have otherwise died, not existed if they had not been subjected to intervention; but even then I have reservations about long term / multigeneration consequences.

The eight cade lambs are now drinking six bottles of powdered milk per sitting; I filled and presented five, then returned to the farmhouse to make another bottle, as we only have five bottles to go round. I staggered up the paddock verge to the ewe lambs on the hillside, they were treated to a bucket of ewe nuts, weather is wild on the hillside, with no run off this slippery ground is sopping wet with inches rain water. Fortifying these farm animals is the purpose of this, Charlies breeding programme, although a little extra cash wouldn't go amiss.

14th

The rain relentlessly poured down this morning as though the sopping drench would never dissipate. Charlie bought three mother ewes and their lambs from the paddock, they have returned to the shelter of the polytunnel, for the now. The Herdwick has also down from the paddock, and has been placed into the calf creep pen with a few remaining ewes, still to lamb. Today is the first day in weeks that I have no suffered appalling toothache, the periodontitis infection in my gums appears to have shifted.

Mother ewes and their lambs await to take shelter from the polytunnel. We kept them out to toughen them up, they are single lamb mother ewes.

A cade lamb has come to us with her legs frozen stiff, she could not stand to suckle her mother ewe. Charlie took her into cade with optimism that she will walk eventually, given time; Charlie administered her a 0.4 ml injection of selenium, since then we have seen improvement. The lamb pushed herself up with her front legs, backing onto the wall, then attempts to move forward; this is an improvement from her wiggling around on the floor. Life has been a hard start for her, and I felt for her struggle.

13th

All lambs are well, we've had a shortfall of chaff, so are purchasing lamb and ewe nuts for the flock as an addition to bales of haylage. We have just under three weeks until the flock goes to grass keep; I will be relieved to see them go, the farmhouse is noisy as hell. Yesterday we (me and Charlie) put all our money together to get an electric bike so that I would have transport. We found a Perry E-Hopper advertised on Facebook for £400, direct messaged the seller arranging a view at 6:30pm that evening. We arranged to view two bikes, one blue, the other black in colour, but on arrival at the seller's house, we found one bike had been put back as first dibs for another person, who had obviously placed before us. I rode the other bike with difficulty, the frame wobbled as the electric engine did grind. I made an offer of £360, they refused, we abruptly parted. The seller, a man named Kevin (with girlfriend) acted sketchy untoward our arrival, I felt relieved not to have made this purchase.

I had hoped to be able to ride around the valley taking pictures of scenery and wild life, and explored yonder places in the Scottish Borders where our truck was legally prohibited to go, or simply travelled to fast surpassing meaningful observances. But the reviews on the Perry E-Hooper claimed the bike performed badly up hills; which would be near useless for climbing the contours of the hilly Scottish Borders. Riding the Perry E-Hooper was saddled uncomfortable and stiff tense, as if clinging onto a pogo stick for balance; this would have not made countryside exploration upon this E-bike enjoyable. I've looked at other E-bikes over the internet, and would be required to spend another £1200 to complete such purchase. I am unable to travel as well as a few years ago; suffering painful broken bones in my left foot, together with significant nerve damage. Anaemia is also a lot worse and now restful, I have put on several stones in weight due to a messed up metabolism from extremity of activity (anxiety triggers) coupled with starvation (dissociate from hunger and thirst). This disparity was bought forth, exabated by ailing mental health caused by years of psychological trauma.

Lambs in the farmhouse poly tunnel, mother ewes have just been fed ewe nuts, such is the excitement.

Lambs in the polytunnel hang out inside the ringfeeder.

This afternoon I bottle-fed all six cade lambs, one large lamb is not taking much milk, and there are ground lamb nuts in the creep trough. I also fed the mother ewes lamb nuts in the polytunnel, and forked what is left of their bale of haylage within reach through the ring feeder. The lambs in the polytunnel are very playful; there is a real sheep family atmosphere in there; which raised a grin from a weighted frown. Today I've enjoyed two sausage sandwiches, cup of coffee, and have a warm peat and log fire beside me; considering situations have been a lot worse for me, I'm not doing all that bad at the moment. One cade lamb is not eating as she should, although a tiny wee lamb, we named "button" has regained her appetite.

12th

Bird settled on power lines beside the farmhouse study, few feet away from me.

Very tired this afternoon, glad most of the lambing is finished.

11th

We have half a dozen cade lambs, more than last year, this is significant considering there has been a reduction in the flock this year. We've had three lamb mortalities, which we attibuted to lamb abnormalities within the ewes womb. Birth ratio is 1.9 lambs to each mother ewe.

Took some photographs of life on the paddock.

Charlie had a big move around of sheep and lambs, two ewes who lost there lambs returned to the paddock, the remaining ewes in lamb were moved from the polytunnel to the calf creep penned area. The rest of the lambing pens in the poly tunnel were taken down so all mother ewes and their lambs are together. We ran out of hurdles and had to use pallets!