Thursday 17 November 2016

Meet Fly!



We have a new member of the team to introduce...Fly our lovely new sheepdog!  She is wonderful and settling in well.  Roly did a big trip up to Skipton in North Yorkshire to get her.  They hold sheepdog auctions up there and trainers and buyers travel for miles to be there.  We had spent a lot of time looking through the catalogue (yes a catalogue of entries for every dog to be sold), and on youtube as well where trainers upload clips to show the dogs working of course and also getting on and off quad bikes, in and out of tractors and into and out of pick ups.  Sometimes they even show them with young children to demonstrate their nature.  Fly we had seen and really liked the look of her amongst a few others.  We had help from Rob, a sheepdog expert from near here who has a number of dogs himself and regularly trials with them.  Rob knows many of the good breeders and trainers so we have been very fortunate to have such good advice.  Once up in Skipton, Roly didn't take long to decide that Fly was the right dog for us as her nature is just so lovely.  As well as being good with the sheep we need a dog who is good with people and children!  Just like dear Belle is.  Belle has been very good and quickly let Fly know who is boss, but Fly is so sweet and submissive that all pecking orders have been easily established and respected.  Apart from Finch of course, who thinks she is in charge despite her tiny size!

Autumn is one of Roly's favourite times of year and I am coming round to agreeing.  The children are getting bored of me talking about the colours in the hedgerows and on the trees on the way to school, but I can't help it!  This year has been particularly stunning given the warm sunny days we had in October and the abundance of berries available for the birds.  Talking of birds, our wildbird seed mix continues to keep us captivated as we watch the flowers turning into seeds and now supporting the birds more than the butterflies and bees during the summer months.  We invited our local RSPB adviser Bruce out to take a look and he was really encouraged by how well the different plants like the fodder radish, quinoa, millet had all established.  We are regularly seeing flocks of linnets and goldfinch too.

Last Wednesday was a big day in the sheep calendar.  The boys finally went in to meet the girls.  Their behaviour never ceases to make me giggle.  One group of ewes were completely disinterested as we had just moved them into a field with a fresh flush of grass, this was far more important than thinking about being wooed by one of the boys.  The boys on the other hand are totally desperate, having waited and watched through gates and fences and wondering when the big day would be.  Once in, they seem incapable of realising there are plenty of girls to go round but will insist on chasing one and then preceding to fight with each other over her.  Emma who regularly helps us on the farm, intervened in an effort to separate them, they didn't seem to take much notice.  In the end we sent Belle around the rest of the ewes to show them there were plenty to go around. Honestly.

More soon

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Freddie, Finch, Belle and Fly