A pleasant find

Bouncing around in what only could be described as being in the middle of no where Shep stumbled upon something. By bouncing around I would like to add I was riding a quad bike on overgrown, rough, un grazed moorland, I wasn't actually physically bouncing around like a chimpanzee, although it is fair to say I have been known to do such things, just not on this particular occasion.

There I was, out in the middle of no where on a quest - trying to track down some wayward sheep, when I spotted a deer. Nowt unusual with that, there are roe deer a plenty in the Tarset valley and many to be seen on this particular hill ground which is surrounded by forestry.

This deer acted in a different fashion to many which you stumble upon. Usually a deer takes flight, all you see is the white rump disappearing into the distance. This one behaved in a totally different manner.

I would easily be 100 yards off it when it just seemed to spring up from nowhere, initially I thought little of the fact, just another deer. Until......... it only ran a few yards before stopping and heading back to the spot it had sprung from. As I was still bouncing along on the quad it then ran away further, but hesitated, stopped, looked back before disappearing over the edge of the hillside. Strange behaviour.

Now if that deer had been a sheep I would have guessed it had a lamb lying back there somewhere, why else would it hesitate and head back before running further away?

I looked across to the spot where I had first been aware of the deer and thought I could see something moving. Time to stop the bike and go and investigate I thought.

All movement had ceased as I slowly and quietly walked towards the spot, just over the edge of the hill I could hear a deer barking, she had definitely left something behind.

 

And sure enough, I wasn't disappointed, as tucked away in the long, overgrown heather was her fawn. A roe deer fawn. Acting dead. Squatting down, lying flat, pretending it wasn't there. Take flight and the hunter might hunt, lie and act dead and all may be well. It had been well taught for it's tender youth.

 

 

Moss lay away back next to the bike, curious as to what I was up to but wiser than to disobey his orders, he remained alert, waiting to be called, although that wasn't going to happen.

 

I took these photographs as quickly as I could, the photographer in me wanting to remove annoying foliage to enable a better shot, the shepherd in me telling me not to loiter, leave well alone and move on as quickly as possible. The doe was still calling, although out of sight she wasn't far away and so I retraced my steps, mounted the trusty stead and bounced off leaving mother and offspring to be reunited.

It is hard to believe, that this is Sheps first ever encounter with a roe deer fawn, I have seen many youngsters trotting alongside their mothers but never come across a little chap of just a few days old. It doesn't take much to cheer one up and this was one of those little things which puts a day on a high, all that bouncing about on the 18th June was well worth it!

Sink or Swim

It's been one of them days.........

The nephew is stopping for the week and as is the norm when having a vacation at Shep's house he is treat along similar lines to the dogs, in that he is bundled into the car in the morning and finds out his destination upon arrival. Also like the dogs he has to scavenge throughout the day whilst remaining forever hopeful his dish will be filled with gruel at night. Unlike the dogs he isn't barred in the kennel (although it could be tempting!).

The thought of getting up at 6am seemed a painful one, but obviously the thought of being left behind was even worse and so it was he stumbled out of his room this morning, started scavenging then jumped into the car and off we went.

A day of gathering and lamb marking was on the cards, Shep had the quad, nephew had his legs, a grand way to waken up a teenage lad I thought. By afternoon I took pity on the poor soul and decided some fun was well deserved and so directed him on the quad whilst I went off in a different direction on foot, our paths were destined to cross eventually if the directions I had given had been understood.

Our paths didn't cross. Twice he came into view, searching the ground frantically trying to make visual contact with his 'dearly beloved' Aunty, only to fail and disappear out of view on the hill ground once again.

This behaviour had me somewhat perplexed, after all, I could see him as clear as day and yet it seemed he was unable to see me.

I stood on a raised bit of ground, rolled a fag, grinned to myself and watched the lad buzzing in and out of view like a panicky dog who had lost it's owner. Fag finished and still he seemed unable to see me by which time my humour was beginning to waver, arm waving and whistling had little effect. Was I invisible? Was I actually just living through some peculiar sort of dream? What is it with youngsters these days? Do they teach them anything at school?

Eventually for all I could still hear the bike I was aware it didn't sound as though it was moving, then there was the sound of much engine revving............

Humour was getting heavier as I retraced my steps, muttering under my breath, repeating the directions I had given him to myself, how could he possibly get it wrong? Okay! He'd never been on this ground before, never been on a quad on this ground before but really! I'm sure my directions were fairly straight forward and anyhow, if I could see him, surely to god he could have seen me. Should I suggest an appointment at the opticians, could there be something wrong with this lads sight?

I followed the sound of the bike, had he turned the engine off I would still have known the direction to head. What on earth had he been thinking of?

On coming into view I just couldn't help but laugh, I was gonna give the lad a bulling but hey! it was the best thing that had happened that day, how could I possibly be annoyed, especially when, just as the dogs would, he seemed to drop his lugs upon seeing me and that look came over his face of "Oh god! I'm in trouble now"

It's amazing what we learn in life, for instance, nephew now knows that quads don't float - they have a tendency to sink!

That's a pretty impressive bogging it has to be said, even Kale found it funny! I patted the lad on the back and told him there was nowt like keeping it in the family, after all, Shep herself has a pretty impressive track record of bogging bikes, it must be in the genes I suggested!

 

It also ended up in the wellies! Give the lad his dues, he could give me a run for my money any day, but how is it his wellies didn't get filled?

F******* gather

Foggy gather. Final gather. If you were thinking it was any other eff ing gather you need to wash your minds out with mustard. Take it from me, it is an ideal way to ensure you'd never touch mustard again!

The view - if you could call it that. Every morning, without fail the view hardly varied.

I guess a different spot made the view seem slightly different, but initially it was all the same, visibility extremely poor, in fact visibility was crap, there wasn't a polite way of putting it really.

A week had been allowed to gather the sheep away out bye. 7,000 + acres to cover to find 1,500 sheep. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, an inconvenience maybe but not a problem, there is always tomorrow. However, the scan man was due in a weeks time and so a problem it was.

Every morning saw us climb out into the thickening gloom, like two intrepid explorers on quads, setting out to find what no man could see. Headlights on the bikes were of little use as neither of us could see each other until we almost collided. We went forth and made noise, whistled, sang, hollered (shouted)....... whatever the moment necessitated, it would be fair to say we persevered.

As we dropped further in apparitions began to appear before our very eyes. A marvelous sight!! Sheep know where they belong and they know the spot to gather up to, they also know when we can't see them..........

Fortunately, blocks had been put in place to encourage the sheep to run to a designated area, an area where years back the sheep were gathered together for tup time and have since always been gathered to the same spot. Which means that generations of sheep know where they're meant to gather up to, they know feed blocks will be available to them on the run up to lambing time at these particular spots on the hill. These blocks were put out to help hold them to the spot, specifically for this particular gather.

It was a great help with the conditions we were experiencing, giving us a sporting chance of tracking down the sheep when visibility was so poor.

Ironical that you couldn't see a bloody thing out on the tops then drop away in with sheep in front of you and it is as clear as a bell. A quick count to see if all are present. Then the inevitable - all aren't present! There were a variety of discrepancies, ranging from a couple short, to 30 odd short and one day apparently over a hundred short (the day Shep had to go elsewhere, can't be blamed for that one!)

Those present were taken further in and held in fields whilst bikes and riders turned around and headed out to look for more.

It seemed like a long week, much bouncing around on the hill, I'm sure my arse (backside) was tenderised like the finest steaks by the end of the gathering, it felt like every muscle, joint and bone in my body had been pulverised, far cheaper than paying for a deep muscle massage that's for sure, probably not quite such a pleasant result tho'! Ground was covered and re covered in an attempt to have all sheep present for the scan man.

Did we succeed? Well almost........ The final tally saw a handful missing, a handful unaccounted for, we ran out of time and luck but under the circumstances were also highly successful. Let's hope those missing few are fit and healthy and come in on the next gather.

I started the posting with Foggy gather.Final gather?

http://blog.tarset.co.uk/2011/11/springing-into-winter.html

This link takes us back to the gathering for tup time where I wrote the following:

I mentioned to the shepherd that this ought to be our last day out here, a day to hold strong in our memories, a perfect day. There are changes afoot on this particular farm, a parting of the ways. Neither of us knows if we'll ever be out here again to gather, let alone be in each others company doing so. This was the first day of many to gather sheep forward for tup time, wouldn't it have been perfect if it had been the last day of many.

At long last we had the final gather. 'Twas a shame we didn't quite go out on a high! Although there were high moments, and much leg pulling. There was probably also a sense of relief.

A relief that at last there was a shepherd on the farm, a farm which has been unoccupied for four months, four winter months at that. I think there ought to be a party!!! A leaving do?? A pre lambing bash - now there's an idea!

A week in February

We're into the middle of February already................ Eek! Where is the time going? Shep hasn't been idling, at least not this past week. Here follows a photographic diary of the past week.

It started by gathering some sheep ready for scanning the following day. They were gathered a day early and held close to the sheep pens as the weather forecast was threatening snow, as indeed it was doing as Moss turned these sheep and headed them closer to home. That was last Saturday.

Sunday saw Shep assisting at a couple of scannings.

The first scanning of the day was helping a friend out,someone who has just taken the step up from shepherd to farmer. The first time for them to scan their own sheep and good results were the order of the day. The scan man hid in his tent, couldn't blame him, a covering of snow and -8 recorded first thing had us all wishing we could climb in there with him.

The weather conditions found Moss and I jumping in with the scan man, hitching a lift to the second job, the sheep I'd brought closer to home the day previous. The farmer later reunited me with my motor when scanning and dosing had been completed, by which time the treacherous road conditions had given and car and I had an uneventful journey home.

There was little snow of mention but frost held out all week. Night temperatures varied from -10 to as warm as -2 over the duration of the week, far more fortunate than those further south whom experienced -16, Brrr... bet that was cold!

I had a few days in the company of these Galloway cows earlier in the week, I see quite a bit of them at the moment, they have been receiving a bite of cake (hard feed) and are keen to follow the bike around, as I was patching some fences in the vicinity where they live they seemed forever hopeful that they would receive more than one feed in the day. Intrigued every time the bike was moved to a different stretch of fence, was this a sign of more food??

Going by the circumference of this one it doesn't look like they need any more food, in all fairness to her these cattle are only a few weeks off calving so they probably have an excuse to look portly.

Then there was the moon, blimey! It wasn't half bright, t'was like driving into the sun in the dark. I was away out bye when I took this, a late finish with the fencing then a desire to find out what a police car had been up to saw me arriving home very late, and I may add none the wiser.

A dead end farm road in the middle of nowhere sees a police car on it, now my attempt to leave my job of fencing and hit the road before the police car returned failed and said car sailed past. Which I thought was a tad ill mannered. After all, out in the middle of no where on private property isn't the usual place to see the police, they are meant to be observant so surely ought to have seen me and quad, 2 dogs with 20 cattle following us heading towards the road. Well I thought they would have noticed but obviously they saw no reason to stop and have a crack and let me know what they were playing at.

Not to worry, thanks to the police car I had time to appreciate the beauty of the moon that night.

As the week went on this was a common sight.

There was ice everywhere.

Even the wettest of bike tracks appeared to be well frozen, this may look like puddles of water but in fact it is frozen solid, which made me decide to do a job I never relish. I had a list of possible jobs, the fencing was done for the time being, another on the list was to head out to the neighbours hill, that unfenced march between one farm and another meant sheep will have wandered over onto ground which they do not belong, as it was hard and frosty I decided to be a good bairn (child) and head out to send them back onto their own ground. I've often mentioned on these postings that I do not enjoy this particular task but it needs to be done. The neighbours ground is ungrazed heather, very rough, steep, undulating and just scary at times. However, I concluded that due to the hardness of the frost at least I wouldn't be able to bog the quad bike, I might get stuck by some other means but I couldn't possibly bog it. Could I?

How many swear words do you possess in your vocabulary?? Chances are I tried them all and added a few new ones to the list. How could I possibly bog the b****y bike??? What a prat!!

Bikes work by means of a thumb throttle, which means one hand has to be able to reach and use the throttle leaving only one arm to do the lifting and pushing. Well I lifted and pushed 'til I had no energy left to swear and still the b****y bike was stuck. I wasn't carrying the gizmo, that satellite tracking thingy, not that it would have helped as the batteries are done in it, and anyhow, it is for an emergency, not for a prattish act like this. Fortunately I had had sense to carry my mobile 'phone and eventually walked into an area which had reception.

Mobile 'phone reception is not a strong point in Tarset, you're more likely not to have reception than have it but there are odd pockets, one of which I walked upon. A weak signal tho' which cut me off twice. My first call went like this "Hi! just me here, are you busy? just wondered coz need help..."
Oh! that didn't go to well!
Second call went along the lines of " Will cut to the chase, am away out bye am stuck and need......"
Oh dear! I was starting to worry that the recipient of the calls might be beginning to worry.
Finally all was sorted and a quad was heading my way from away down the valley to pull me out of my predicament and as to "where will we find you" I replied that I would be walked away in by the time they arrived - but only just I may add, they either drove like a madman or else I dawdled.

My 'phone a friend did the job and bike was extricated, although not as easily as I had imagined, there was still a fair bit of lifting and grunting necessitated - now you would think I would learn wouldn't you?? We had a crack and I found out what the police had been up to, a new bobby on the beat had looked at a map and decided to acquaint himself with ground he didn't know, 'tis good to know but I still think he could have stopped and let me know that he was just being nosey, but there you go, who am I to question the manners of the police?

I never did succeed in heading out to that ground I never relish visiting, the day had flown by after all the excitement of rendering the bike immobile for a duration. The following day saw freezing rain, an unpleasant phenomena which saw Shep decide to baton the hatches down and knuckle down to some book work, the years accounts are at least now up to date, thanks to freezing rain.

The week was rounded off with a warm job, a job which will hopefully see us warm next winter too. The tail end of some hurricane in the summer kindly toppled this tree over, it won't be enough to keep the home fires burning all next winter, especially as it has two households to feed but it will be a help.

My job is that of mad axe woman, unfortunately the chainsaw had had a couple of days head start on me so for all my best endeavours I felt like I wasn't really getting anywhere fast. I ought to have been out gathering but due to the temperature lifting the weather was giving us hill fog making visibility too poor for gathering the hill sheep in, so mad axe woman it was.

A week in February, another week gone by. A week in which I saw many foxes, an ermine stoat, a very cold looking kestrel, many buzzards, ravens, and other birdy things including a pair of crossbills, a cropped and long distance shot of one which I will end this posting with.