Lambing was absolutely fantastic, and Yorkshire is absolutely beautiful! The family we were staying with is amazing, and there are 2 sons and a daughter who are our age, which has been great. Even though it was extremely hard work, I actually miss getting up at 7am to chase sheep around all day long.
First, A typical day of lambing:
7:15 - wake up (if you're Anik, then this was more like 6:30, cause she's insane!) have some toast and tea or coffee
7:30-7:45 - head up to the polytunnels to feed, help with lambing, change straw bedding, and castrate new babies.
10:30 - head back to house for delicious breakfast of toast, bacon, cornflakes, and eggs, and more tea.
11:30 - head back up to polytunnels to move older lambs out to pastures and make pens ready for new lambs
15:30-16:00 - head back to house for dinner (which is lunch in England), which was usually sandwiches, or soup, or burgers or whatever else Mrs. A had prepared for us.
18:00 - head back up to polytunnels to feed sheep and make sure no other lambs were lambing
21:30 - return to house for tea (which is dinner in England), which was deliciously prepared for us by Mrs. A
22:30 - collapse from exhaustion.
First, A typical day of lambing:
7:15 - wake up (if you're Anik, then this was more like 6:30, cause she's insane!) have some toast and tea or coffee
7:30-7:45 - head up to the polytunnels to feed, help with lambing, change straw bedding, and castrate new babies.
10:30 - head back to house for delicious breakfast of toast, bacon, cornflakes, and eggs, and more tea.
11:30 - head back up to polytunnels to move older lambs out to pastures and make pens ready for new lambs
15:30-16:00 - head back to house for dinner (which is lunch in England), which was usually sandwiches, or soup, or burgers or whatever else Mrs. A had prepared for us.
18:00 - head back up to polytunnels to feed sheep and make sure no other lambs were lambing
21:30 - return to house for tea (which is dinner in England), which was deliciously prepared for us by Mrs. A
22:30 - collapse from exhaustion.
*
Anik and Pookish pose by the polytunnels, where the sheep were lambing.*
My first castration! We did this by using "Elastrators," which basically put a reeeally really tight rubber band around the lamb's boy-parts, which cuts off circulation, causing them to eventually fall off. Seriously.*
One of the resident roosters.*
The straw we bed the pens with made a good seat, also a good hiding place.*
Anik reappears!*
I delivered these triplets, who were all coming out the wrong way, so I had to rearrange all of them and pull them out. They all lived! :)*
Anik and Me holding "Tinkerbell," who was a tiny little lamb that was just adorable.*
Tinkerbell was very cute.*
This little orphan lamb is wearing the skin of another lamb that died, so that it will be accepted by the mother. (Kinda gross, I know, but it works usually!)*
The Swaledale sheep, which were out in the hills of Skipton.*
Where the hill sheep (Swaledales & Leicesters) frolick. We got to ride around on these hills in the ATV, which was AWESOME.*
Another pic of the sheeps on the hills.*
Anyway, that's all for now, I may update with more later on in the week, but I will leave you with this:
This episode has been brought to you by the letter S (for sheep) and the number 2 (2 testicles, ah, ah, ah!).. Sorry, that's an inside joke with Anik. We had to make sure both of the testes were there when we castrated the little lambs, and for whatever reason, Anik became Count Count (from Sesame Street) when she was doing it. :)
This episode has been brought to you by the letter S (for sheep) and the number 2 (2 testicles, ah, ah, ah!).. Sorry, that's an inside joke with Anik. We had to make sure both of the testes were there when we castrated the little lambs, and for whatever reason, Anik became Count Count (from Sesame Street) when she was doing it. :)
