198%!

What a couple of weeks - wow! As I write our beautiful daughter is fast asleep so I am grabbing this opportunity to capture what has been going on at the farm these last couple of weeks.

We did miscalculate our lambing dates...so the day I went into labour the 30 ewes all started producing as well. We have had some wonderful lambs but some sadness too with losing a ewe who produced a wonderful set of quadruplets but had suffered a prolapse so we were unable to save her. Our vet Adelle was wonderful and after safely delivering her lambs helped put her to sleep. We managed to adopt one of them onto another ewe and we are bottle feeding the other three. We have put a lot of them outside already, we have been lucky with the weather that it has been a bit milder and not wet. They are doing really well and we are giving the ewes sheep nuts and some hay to supplement what grass there is at this time of year.

The main flock of 253 are all inside now as of 2 days ago and we have had them scanned and our percentage is up on last year! We are at 198% which we are really pleased with. So the grand total is - 5 empty, 36 singles, 171 twins and 41 triplets! I think that is going to keep us busy! We have two veterinary students Nick and Rebecca coming to help us as well as the wonderful Melanie who has already been helping us with this batch of lambs and in fact is coming this afternoon to help us sort the ewes into the relevant pens according to how many lambs they are having so we can feed them accordingly.

We have been busy with our bookings for our 'shepherd for the day' experience and had Pauline and Matt (pictured above bottle feeding 2 of the quads) joined us a couple of weeks ago. We really enjoyed having them and we are looking forward to welcoming our other visitors in a few weeks time when the main flock start lambing. The lambing weekends are fast approaching too which we are hosting jointly with our landlords the Northmoor Trust, so we look forward to seeing many of you then. The dates are the 26th/27th March and the 2nd/3rd April.

The snowdrops and aconites are just making an appearance and it is now light still at 5 o'clock which is great and helps us look forward to spring even more.

I think I can hear someone stirring...more soon and thank you to all of you for your messages and support.

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Molly Elizabeth Sarah Puzey - 7lb and 5oz

Our beautiful baby was born on Monday 10th January 2011, at 4.25pm at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

. . . meanwhile, back in the lambing sheds the small group of sheep that were NOT due to start lambing for another few days decided to produce 1 single, 4 sets of twins, 1 set of triplets and one set of quadruplets! Unfortunately, the ewe that had the quads suffered from a very bad prolapse and Adelle our vet, had to put her to sleep. Thank you so much to Melanie Farmer, John Sargent, Chris Parker, Ian Jones, Pippa Lamb and Hilary Warburton for watching the fort whilst Camilla and I were in hospital.

More to follow soon

Roly, Camilla, Molly, Boris and Belle

New arrival....but not quite what we were expecting!

So we have had a new arrival...but with four legs and not two! With only one week to go until the ewes start lambing we need to be on the alert for any early appearances...and we had one yesterday. Very sweet indeed but sadly we lost her brother or sister who was very small indeed. When lambs are born this early they are very premature and their chances of survival are very slim. However, 'Titch' is doing really well and is happily feeding off her Mum who thinks Titch is wonderful! We discovered last night that Titch's Mum has got mastitis, which is an infection ewes can get in their udders. The udder is very hard and hot and very painful for the ewe. So we have given her some antibiotics and anti-inflammatory treatment and hope that will do the trick. We spoke to Adelle our vet who advised on some further treatment which Roly is picking up from the vets this morning. We will keep you posted on her progress.

In the meantime, no other baby news yet!

Camilla, Roly, Boris, Belle...and...Bump!

Happy New Year!

A very Happy New Year. 2011 is going to be an exciting year! As I write we are still waiting for the new addition to our family, a few days overdue now so taking each day as it comes....thank you to everyone who has been in touch to find out how we are, we will keep you posted!

We have increased the nutrition for our 30 ewes who are now due to lamb in just under 2 weeks, they are catching me up! Some of them look enormous, particularly those who are having triplets. I am only having one so am starting to feel sorry for them and how huge they are looking!

The snow has finally disappeared, it is always rather special when it first arrives and it looks so beautiful and untouched. By the time it has been around for over a week that initial excitement has completely worn off! The sheep rounds take a lot longer as feeding is built into the routine which doubles the time. The ewes would hear us coming and meet us at the gate. I would drive the truck slowly while Roly would be in the trailer in the back throwing out the hay onto the ground, we have put some photos up here to show you. Now the snow has gone there is still some grass for them to eat to tide them over until we bring them indoors in the run up to lambing at the end of March. The sheds are almost ready for them and we can't wait to have them all inside, it is a really special time.

We are looking forward to welcoming our visitors to be 'shepherds for the day' in a couple of weeks to coincide with lambing. There will be plenty to do! We will see if they might be happy to share some of their experiences on the blog so other people will be interested to come along and treat a family member or friend to an alternative present!

Do let us know if you would like to stock up your freezer post Christmas with some delicious local Oxfordshire lamb or mutton and a new year treat of a sheepskin rug....our friend Charlie has a gorgeous deep pink rug which she loves, take a look!

More news soon and thank you for reading....

Camilla, Roly, Belle and Boris...and..Bump!

Frosty days and cold hands!

We've just come in from Abingdon farmers market and its taken a while to take all the layers off! We had a lovely market and everyone was in good Christmas cheer despite not being able to feel their toes! Thank you to all our customers who have bought our lamb and told us how delicious it is, it makes all the difference when we are out there in the cold!

Our 30 girls who are due to lamb in January are doing well in the lambing sheds, they are tucking in to haylage (a mix between hay and silage) which we made here on the farm back in the summer and some special sheep nuts, which they think are really yummy. They are always very pleased to see us! The rest of the flock all remain outside and seem unfazed by the weather. We need to make sure they still have access to water, so breaking the ice in the water troughs becomes part of the daily sheep checks. If it is wet as well as cold that is when they suffer.

Yesterday we separated the rams off from the main flock of ewes and they are now back on their own having a well deserved rest! We hope they have performed well and we look forward to the results of having the ewes scanned to see how many lambs they will be having.

We have been busy with orders from our online shop and our regular customers stocking up for Christmas. Our sheepskin rugs have also been really popular, including some interesting colours like pink and teak, which all make cosy Christmas presents. Bookings for being a shepherd for the day are also proving to be good presents and we are looking forward to welcoming them onto the farm in the New Year.

With Christmas just over a week away can sometimes be a time to reflect before embarking on another year. This year has certainly had its ups and downs weather wise but we have learnt so much and feel so lucky to be working in this beautiful countryside which we see change throughout the year. The sheep are looking well and we love our amazing little sheepdog Belle who is still learning and needs lots of encouragement. She will certainly be getting a Christmas treat on Christmas Day!

With best wishes for a very Happy Christmas and we look forward to sharing more adventures with you in 2011! One of the main ones being parenthood!

Camilla, Roly, Boris and Belle

200%!

On Friday we had our 50 ewes scanned who are due to lamb in mid January. David Greasby one of our farming neighbours had booked Kelly to come and scan his sheep and he kindly agreed to come and do our small group afterwards. This is going to be such a help as last year we had no idea how many the girls were having. So, 200%, pretty good! 7 are having triplets, 7 are having singles and 17 are having twins! The rest (18) should all be in lamb too but not due until March, so they have gone to join our main flock in Shillingford. A couple of months ago in the blog, we talked about how we had 'synchronised' this smaller January lambing flock to make sure they would all lamb over one or two days in January, to have got 31 out of the 50 in lamb is really good, so we are pleased! If we are going to do this again and wanted more in lamb, we would need to make sure we had more ewes to make sure we reached closer to 50.

Other exciting news is that we have made a few deliveries and taken a few orders through the online shop this week, see the photo above! People are excited to have local Oxfordshire lamb delivered straight to their door! We thought our boxes looked really smart being left for one customer.... People are booking up to be a shepherd for a day, particularly during lambing and the sheepskin rugs are proving to be popular Christmas presents! The Gary Smith Butchers in Wallingford are now also selling our lamb - photo of Terry above!.

It has turned particularly cold here this week, we are due for snow and it really feels like it. Being at the farmers markets this week has been quite chilly! The frosty mornings are so beautiful and we have a group of lambs on the Wittenham Clumps at the moment and it is a real treat checking them on such bright, crisp days. What the frosts do mean is that is that the grass now loses all its nutrition, so it will fill the sheeps tummies but there is no goodness in it. This is just at a time when the ewes need to start building up their nutrition to nourish the lambs inside them. So we will be bringing in the 31 ewes who are pregnant next week which is a special time. Making the sheds cosy again and hearing the ewes happily munching on the hay which we made back in the summer is so lovely.

Roly was on BBC Radio Oxford this week, speaking about some sheep worrying we have had and how particularly worrying this is at this time of year when the ewes are only just pregnant. We hope we haven't suffered any losses as a result. Thank you to everyone who does take notice of our signs and lets us know if they do see a dog worrying our girls.

December soon, we can hardly believe it! Not long now until we are going to be parents too!

Camilla, Roly, Boris and Belle

Camilla and Roly's online Farm Shop is now live!

As of Wednesday last week our shop officially opened for business! You can now order all your favourite individual cuts of lamb or one of our special meat boxes. We have already had some orders which has been really exciting and we are also selling sheepskin rugs and being a 'shepherd for the day' which have also generated lots of interest, so thank you for your support and please spread the word! The sheepskin rugs and 'shepherd for the day' make great Christmas presents!

Other news from the farm is we have changed the colour of the crayons from yellow to red. The rams wear the crayons on raddles (harnesses) which mark the ewes as they mount them. We have completed the first cycle of the ewe which lasts for 17 days where we used the yellow crayon and we are now in the second cycle where we are using red. This helps us plan who is going to lamb when. So far we have about 8 red bottoms, see the photo!

The 50 ewes who are due to lamb in January will be scanned this week so we will know exactly how many are pregnant and how many lambs each are having. We can then feed them accordinging to how many lambs they are having (singles less than those Mums having twins or triplets). There maybe some ewes who didn't get pregnant back in August so they will go in with the main flock over at Shillingford and should fingers crossed lamb in March. If they have only just got pregnant their lambs will be too small to see on the scanner. We will let you know how many will be lambing in January. Last year we had no idea as we didn't have them scanned. Thanks to our farming neighbour David Greasby who had booked the scanner we can add our small number to his!

Finally, we have made a very important purchase this last week, a new, well second hand quad bike from Hilary Warburton, who lives at North Farm, where our breeding ewes (and rams) are currenlty grazing. Our old quad bike was really on its last legs so we are very excited to have this essential piece of kit for the winter sheep checks which enables us to get everywhere hopefully without getting stuck and for when we start to put the lambs out in the spring.

Our baby is due in about 6 weeks time, so if it is late there is a chance I will be put in a pen up in the lambing sheds too!

Please take a look at our online shop and more soon in December....

Camilla, Roly, Belle and Boris