thefarmersblog - Tumblr blog

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Lambs in the big shed are running around and playing! We had two more lambs born yesterday, and we’ve got six ewes left to lamb of this particular batch.

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The two bottle fed lambs - Splodge (lying down) and Boysie. Boysie is a total sweetheart and is so smiley! They’re not getting enough milk from their mums, so every evening we take them from the barn with their mums and the other lambs and ewes and take them back into the house where they’re fed properly.

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I have been a sheep caretaker for like two days and already I'm like. Wow. I get it.

I get why these were some of the earliest mammals to ever be domesticated. They look up to humans with this sort of dumb but all at once innocent and pure and trusting expression. They're happy to see you. They follow you around. They like to be rubbed under their chins. Maybe its just some latent Scottish highland shepherd DNA I still have in me but I look at my sheep charges and suddenly I see why the love of God for humanity is so often described as a shepherd and his sheep. I'd fight a wolf for these guys. I'd go way the Hell out of my way for them. I'd carry their young for miles on my own back.

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The rams look on as we fix the fence! One of them managed to get themselves stuck between the hedge and the wire fence as the wood of our access point had rotted down so they could bust through! Awkward job of getting him out and some very numb fingers after the fence was fixed. I believe it was -2 C this morning!

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No walks around here today…

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Rainy forests! Thankfully these woods aren’t swamped with water - everywhere else is though!!

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Winter in the pine forests

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The Christmas Fireplace

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I made this image for my geology loving friend

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Hiking in the Brecon Beacons - we walked from Merthyr Tydfil and found a footpath that led us up to the mountains. I’d love to go again given a chance, it was fantastic and I’d recommend it to anyone.

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I love leather and I love fur and I don’t mind arguing about it.

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Looks like ragwort! In the UK, you’re obligated to weed it if it’s on your land as it’s one of the few plants under the Weed Act. It’s poisonous to horses and can cause sickness in other grazing animals like cattle. It spreads fast, so if it’s still only flowering it’s best to get a handle on it before it starts to go to seed!

unsure of what this plant is exactly, but it’s very pretty (and possibly poisonous)

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Ploughing away!

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The local ploughing match. I wasn’t able to speak to the drivers directly, but this horse team was fantastic! There were quite a few horse teams this year, although apparently this particular horse team does up to 20 ploughing matches a year! Given that ploughing season is a period of around six weeks, that’s a serious achievement. Later on during the match, a two-horse team may turn into a one-horse team as the ploughing furrows are required to be ‘slivers’, which is measured as the width a pheasant can run down! Using a single horse means you keep the definition of the furrow.

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A week spent at Burghley Horse Trials! I was working on a trade stand for the whole thing so I didn’t manage to see much of it, but it’s definitely something I’d want to do in a non-working capacity! (If only it weren’t so far away!)

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September harvest; wine grapes, blackberries, cider apples and damsons.

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An old threshing machine! This would’ve separated wheat grain from the rest of the straw. You can see it’s powered here by this old fordson tractor, and you can also see in the background the huge rain cloud that completely drenched everyone five minutes after I took the photo!