Horner Farm
  • Home
  • Bed and Breakfast
  • Events
  • The Livestock
  • Meat Boxes
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Things to Do

Lambing time

3/29/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Lambing time is always hard work but this year we feel it has excelled itself with what it has thrown at us. When we moved down from 1000ft to the Porlock vale we thought we had escaped the bad weather, so we are a little surprised to have had snow twice this year during lambing, causing us to have fun extra jobs such as battling frozen waterpipes, carrying buckets of water from the house, sheltering the ewes and lambs indoors in every place possible and quads deciding to be born at 3 am as we hit minus temperatures, were just a few of the fun times so far this year.
The sheep despite the bad weather and the cramped conditions lambed well, we did not have to assist much, and they are mainly lambing during the day which makes life significantly easier. Unfortunately, we have had the case of a few ewes not producing milk on one side so this has meant we had to take a few lambs off and bring them into the pet lamb group which is now feels like a very demanding and noisy flock in their own right, I am not a fan of pet lambs but luckily my mum is here to take them into her care.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Pet Lambs causing mayhem
​Lambing most definitely stretches you out physically and mentally, and although it has generally gone smoothly this year, one particular early morning pushed me hard, I went out to do my usual 3am check and found my mums ewe Ma had given birth to a lamb, all good but Ma has had triplets for 4 years in a row now so I penned her up and took a seat expecting further lambs to arrive. But 20 minutes later still no water bag or contractions had arrived which struck me as odd, by now I am freezing cold from the snow blowing into the lambing shed and I had done my classic of putting my waterproofs over my pyjamas, which turns out is not the best thermal gear.  I decided to an internal check of Ma because something just didn’t feel right about her, and sure enough as I slid my hand in I was met with an upside down head and feet, so back in it goes, turned around and then delivered the correct way up and the third lamb followed shortly, I rubbed them all down, thinking great I will run in have quick cup of tea to warm up while she dries them off being an experienced triplet mother and I will pop back out in 10 minutes to see how they are all doing.
10 minutes later I return to see three lambs at her head and Ma lying down, but as I wandered across the pen I realised I couldnt see the one who resembled the first born, as I climbed into the pen I just saw the tip of its nose underneath Ma, I have never lifted a sheep up so fast, I grabbed the lamb and could immediately see it was lifeless and floppy, I cried out not able to believe it and feeling immensely guilty for that warming cup of tea, as it lay in my hands I felt the flicker of a heart beat and without thinking I gave it mouth to mouth and for what felt like the longest thirty seconds it suddenly gave a gasping breath, my heart lurched inside, slowly the lamb took a second breath gasping horribly as it fought for air to get to its lungs, slowly its breaths calmed and it gave a little bleat, I have never felt so happy to hear a lamb bleat.
While this was occurring, I could hear a lamb in one of the pens making a bleat that has a particular tone that I have called the death bleat, it is not what you want to hear from a lamb they only do it when something is badly wrong. I sought out the noise from the pens and there in one of the pens I found a lamb flat out, gasping and stiff from the cold. I knew it was very close to dying and I hesitated about what to do,  do I cause further distress trying to revive it or leave it in peace, because to me it looked to far gone to save but luckily instinct and good sheparding kicked in and I grabbed the lamb and ran into the house to be met at the kitchen door with Mark holding a screaming Fergus at 4am. So between us we juggled Fergus and the stiff lamb as we ran a bowl of warm water dunking it in trying to bring its core temperature up quickly. I then went back outside to check on the quads, and realised in the freezing temperatures two had deteriorated fast in the short time I had been away so two more lambs were run into the house. With the hair dryer in action, wood burner blazing and all the lambs were tubed with colostrum, Ferg fed and now asleep, we finally had a moment of peace an hour later. Amazingly all the lambs were ok, they needed significant care over the next 24 hours  but I have never managed to save two lambs in one night when both I believed were dying. It felt like a miracle had taken place that morning or maybe the lambs just responded well to fergus’ treatment of poking them in the head saying “sheep” and looking very happy to have them in his house. 
Picture
Lambs and Ferg at 5 am
Picture
Lambs six hours later - all were then holding their heads up and feeding.
​​​Lambing has its ups and downs and it is hard sometimes to make spur of the moment decisions and to keep an eye on everything at once, and I make mistakes but what I do know is I am constantly learning and hopefully improving all the time.
So our first year lambing at Horner in all honestly has been pretty hard with my mum out of action the first week with the flu, an ear infection for Ferg, mastitis for me, and Mark out at work, coming home to a grumpy wife and child having to try and keep it all going. But with the help of antibiotics for Ferg and I and my mum went back onto nights, we are all started to feel human again as we reached the final weeks and it already is starting to feel like a distant memory.  So now that the spring sunshine is hear and all the lambs and ewes are doing well out on our grass it makes all those days when you felt like you couldn't take any more worth it. 
Picture
One of our North Country Cheviot x Lambs
0 Comments

A Mother in the Agricultural World

3/12/2018

4 Comments

 
Picture
Picture

The latest post has been influenced by a few different events recently but Mothers Day and some late nights hanging out in the lambing shed gave me the time to reflect and decide to share one part of our Journey as a family to give you an insight into the difficulties that can be faced as farming family.
Although the face of Agriculture is changing, no longer is it just the flat capped older gentleman stereotype but a huge array of people of all backgrounds choose to enter agriculture. However I still personally believe those stereotypes of who can farm most definitely exist in our sector, one event recently when I was purchasing some plumbing items and troughs, as I was being served the cashier said “ You’ve been sent out with a shopping list I see” to which I replied “well I am plumbing some troughs in so Ive got a few items I need” and the cashier replied with a look of slight surprise “ oh ok, well done you, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised in this day and age”. Although this is small harmless comment I have often been faced with inappropriate comments or a judgement passed based on my gender and I would say since becoming a mother this has further changed other people’s perceptions of me and my abilities.
There has been substantial media coverage of late of equality for women within employment, I have always been keen to promote Agriculture as a career for women and I hope through the process at Horner farm I can inspire others around me to follow the same career path. But when girls and women are constantly faced with negative phrases this can start to affect even the most strong minded individuals. When we found out about the farm tenancy we proudly told our friends and acquaintances of our achievement, yet often it was followed up with “so Mark will be farming full time then” we would correct them and explain no Holly is managing the livestock, to which a lot of people would reply “Well that’s going to be hard work for you and with Fergus” some of these comments are well meaning but some would be said with surprise and followed up with “how will you do that?”. What they didnt taken into account was the fact I already was doing it, Mum and I already farmed with Fergus in tow and it was working and yes, it is hard work but that’s farming for you.
The reason I want to draw this to attention is the fact that one comment has little effect, but each comment builds on another until you start to question your own sanity and think can I really do it?
Before I became a mother I never questioned the fact that if I put my mind to something I could achieve it, but having Fergus changed my whole world, I had to think about someone else constantly and you never get a second off. 14 months ago, when Fergus arrived something went slightly haywire in my brain, I didn't feel intense love for my child straight away at birth as other mothers describe, I felt trapped, I was constantly terrified something awful would happen to him or Mark. At 6 weeks I met with our health visitor, she asked how I was doing, I broke down in tears for an hour in their office, uncontrollable hideous gulping tears. This is not how I had expected motherhood to pan out.
I was so happy when I could convince my sister or mum to babysit for 3 hours so that I could vaccinate ewes or feed my goats, this is where I felt like me, Holly the farmer, not Fergus’s mum.
Over the last few days as I watch the ewes giving birth I often find myself comparing humans and sheep, each ewe acts slightly differently with their lamb, some immediately shower their lamb with licks and nibbles bleating softly to them, some lie there slightly dazed and some run terrified at what has just arrived.
I have only ever spoken to one friend about my post-natal depression diagnosis, because as mothers and women you don’t want to feel like a failure or for others to worry. Jenny has become a good friend since having Fergus and I am so glad I have had someone I felt I could talk to over the past year, she was able to offer support where at that time no one else could even if it was just a short five minutes after swimming.
The past year has had it ups and downs, yet the farming has been a constant and always has kept me sane. The opportunity for us to be here at Horner has meant I no longer have to bundle Ferg into a car to feed the goats every morning, I can design a work space and business to suit us all as a family. It has been like a cloud has lifted from my brain, so yes, it is hard work with Fergus and being a mother is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life but running a farm that’s the easy job in comparison.
There are days as a family when you desperately want to achieve something quickly on the farm, yet due to the fact Fergus’ new found love which is to lie face down in puddles happily swiping his arms around, it is not always possible. Some days I leave him lying down in a puddle giggling to himself and other days when he tries to climb into the disinfectant bucket I race across the yard to haul it out of his reach, leaving another unfinished job, causing frustration for myself. I let him play with screws just so we can have meeting with our National trust land agent. But amongst all of this I know we are both happy in the roles we are carving out, he gets to run riot and have the childhood that my siblings and I were lucky enough to have and there are moments like today when I sat feeding him in the lambing shed watching the ewes and it all felt perfect.
Sometimes what people see can differ to the reality and what they say has a significant effect to the person they are saying it to, so every comment a woman may hear about their skills, abilities, or strength can chip away but it in turn make us that much more determined to achieve our goals. Because what they don’t realise is that we are all grafted from our Mothers roots and as we like to joke in our family our mother is probably the hardest working person we all know and she definitely passed this down to me. 

Picture
Picture
Picture
4 Comments

    Author

    An open and honest blog following our new venture as tenants to the National Trust. Talking through our plans and the ups and downs of life and the farm.

    Archives

    January 2019
    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

      Follow our blog

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Bed and Breakfast
  • Events
  • The Livestock
  • Meat Boxes
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Things to Do