nogsland

Well it has all been happening here, with snowstorns and rain storms and wind storms coming at us from all directions. The sheep decided that this meant it was a perfect time to start lambing. Worrying in itself given we are now in the grips of winter but also strange as it is 2 months earlier than when they normally give birth. I am not going to even start on a climate change argument. Suffice to say, it would be much better if they were being born when it was warm, as now we have to fret about them being out in sub zero temperatures when they are only a day old. So far Won-Ky has given birth to a single lamb, Gemima has had twins and Lambie is thinking about it.  We are keeping everying crossed. 

We have already traded the boy lamb to some friends who want a Ram which is great. I have also arranged to get a couple of goats (dead ones) from the same people who have been raising goats and are about to do a kill on property. Very exciting, we love goat curry.

Some very sad news yesterday, Georgina (yes, she of the pig bite fame), aborted her litter and went into shock. Chris was sufficiently worried that she might die that he called the vet. When they turned up (5 hours later, just a well it wasn't life or death.....), he said these things happen and it could have been for a number of reasons. He gave Chris an injection to give her to ensure that all of the afterbirth and other nasty bits have come out so she doesn't get some sort of secondary infection. Unfortunately Chris didn't take the opportunity to give it to her whilst she was still feeling very poorly and when he did try, she had got a second lease on life and ran up the hill. I have yet to hear whether he has caught her.

This is worrying for a number of reasons. With Renae not having piglets since her first litter and Anita having been too fat to have any for the last year or so (the vet says this shouldn't stop her but I disagree having seen how she deals with Diggary who she is almost as big as), if Georgina now has a problem we have no breeding sows left. Pigs are not cheap to keep, so we have a dilemma if it turns out we are now carrying 3 sows who can't do what they are here for. Obviously it is too early to tell with Georgina yet and Chris insists he saw Diggary having his way with Anita a week or so ago, so we will wait and see. Needless to say no one is going to be shot for not being able to deliver, I am more worried about having no bacon.

Talking of arrivals, windows arrived safe and well and have nearly all been installed which is very exciting. I have posted some pictures. Only slight issue is that the birds who have been flying through all of the holes for months now have something solid to fly into. A parrot flew right into the door window at the weekend and broke its neck poor thing. We are going to put some masking tape up on the windows until they get used to them being there. Meanwhile we appear to have now adopted the imaginatively named Birdie, who every day comes and eats George's dinner which Chris puts on the table whilst he goes to feed the pigs (see photo on Other Animals album). I swear we are soon going to become an animal charity.