We gained access to the Craik to do a welfare check on our sheep, there are seven of our flock grazing within the Craik Forest.
Our Craik friends kindly unlocked the forest gate and accompanied us in our truck. On arrival to the field none of our sheep were to be found. As Charlie searched thirty acres of rough grass land I drove the truck along the forest track to the length of the field, but the sheep were not found. I figured six eyes were better than two so returned to pick up Charlie and our friends. We drove uphill to attain a vantage point but gullies, trees, obscured our view.
A woman lived in a house were the fencing is in this picture, the forestry commission erased the house from existence; they don't tolerate dwellings within their forest.
The size of the Craik forest is one-hundred square miles, finding missing sheep here is a daunting task; our sheep were last seen twenty-four hours ago. Charlie scanned the dusty forest track for evidence of sheep poo whilst I scanned a steep incline below. He saw sheep poo everywhere, I was sure he was also tracking badger, deer, fox poo also but he swore this poop we were tracking was from sheep.
Along some forest tracks the views are incredible.
We searched a two mile radius, driving for just over an hour. We had planned to move furniture from my old flat in Hawick to my new bungalow in Ancrum, and also make a steak and onion pie, none of this happened. After seeing the Forest Ranger, we searched some more before deciding to head back to Woodburn farm. As we were leaving the forest Charlie found the sheep. Lucky for us they were returning in direction of the their grazing.
Found and returning to their grazing.
The old Zwartble ewe was experiencing tiredness, clearly unable to keep up with the much younger mother ewes and lambs of this flock. This year this Zwartble ewe is going to cast, she is ten years old, and no longer able to lamb without potentially serious complications. We spent another hour securely penning the sheep into a paddock, the sheep are vigilant of goats who also graze the field. Usually one or two sheep go missing, not seven!
Leaving Woodburn Farmhouse my cade lamb came to see me for a pet on the nose; I feel for them, being motherless, and it's utterly vile seeing their mother ewes turn against them.
Our Craik friends kindly unlocked the forest gate and accompanied us in our truck. On arrival to the field none of our sheep were to be found. As Charlie searched thirty acres of rough grass land I drove the truck along the forest track to the length of the field, but the sheep were not found. I figured six eyes were better than two so returned to pick up Charlie and our friends. We drove uphill to attain a vantage point but gullies, trees, obscured our view.
The size of the Craik forest is one-hundred square miles, finding missing sheep here is a daunting task; our sheep were last seen twenty-four hours ago. Charlie scanned the dusty forest track for evidence of sheep poo whilst I scanned a steep incline below. He saw sheep poo everywhere, I was sure he was also tracking badger, deer, fox poo also but he swore this poop we were tracking was from sheep.
We searched a two mile radius, driving for just over an hour. We had planned to move furniture from my old flat in Hawick to my new bungalow in Ancrum, and also make a steak and onion pie, none of this happened. After seeing the Forest Ranger, we searched some more before deciding to head back to Woodburn farm. As we were leaving the forest Charlie found the sheep. Lucky for us they were returning in direction of the their grazing.
The old Zwartble ewe was experiencing tiredness, clearly unable to keep up with the much younger mother ewes and lambs of this flock. This year this Zwartble ewe is going to cast, she is ten years old, and no longer able to lamb without potentially serious complications. We spent another hour securely penning the sheep into a paddock, the sheep are vigilant of goats who also graze the field. Usually one or two sheep go missing, not seven!
Leaving Woodburn Farmhouse my cade lamb came to see me for a pet on the nose; I feel for them, being motherless, and it's utterly vile seeing their mother ewes turn against them.
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