Spring into Autumn

I've found myself looking back through past postings with regard to the weather. I had looked back in last years diary to see what I had written for the month of November, most of my inserts in the diary concern where I have been working, the hours put in etc but occasionally when the weather upsets me it gets noted. For November 2010 I have found entries which read "piss wet", "wild showers, very cold.", "atrocious day & and full of cold" (obviously feeling under the weather!), "crap day" and three entries which say "shit day".......Oh dear, November 2010 must have been a bit rough http://blog.tarset.co.uk/2010/11/optimism-waning-or-should-that-be.html This past posting probably says as much.

This year has been the absolute opposite, unbelievably so infact. Mild to the point of almost spring like, almost surreal but a pleasure none the less. I cannot recall when I last got wet, my diary tells me it was on the 18th October "piss wet" was the 17th "very windy, very cold, heavy showers" was the 18th - I recall now, that was the day I met my 'new' car and yup! it got quite wet in the afternoon. Was that really the last time I got a soaking? We have had some rain during the evening/nights but my memory fails me when I try to recall a wet day recently.

The following is a photographic journal of the past few days

 

Gathering on Wednesday morning, probably the last ewes to be tailed ('bikini' lines trimmed to keep the tups happy) this year.

 

Hard to believe we've had little rain when you see the clart (mud) in the sheep pens, for all the drier mild spell we've been experiencing the ground is saturated, well and truly squidgy everywhere and sheep pens which aren't concreted are a right slutter.

 

Thursday saw dogs and I trying to hunt down some stray sheep, from right to left we have Glen, Moss and Kale looking like they feel a tad hot, all dogs are casting (moulting) their coats at the moment, the two which live outdoors in kennels are loosing their dense undercoats which I hope will grow in in time for winter.

 

Gorse in flower on Friday

 

and another flower in flower (I need to get a copy of the Tarset Flower book then I might be able to work out what flower this is) Added on 22/11 Thanks to Dafad I have received the following reply regarding the above flower "Shep's mystery plant is Stellaria palustris, The Marsh Stitchwort. It does not always have red anthers as there are many mutations. It should not normally flower now. It is on the rare side. It could be sub.species fennica but without the plant could not tell. It is a lovely perrenial and Shep should find it in the same place next year". Great help - thank you Dafads Dad.

 

A heron, waiting patiently for fish to swim up or return back down to the sea.

 

A dead sheep - not what you were expecting at all! Where there's live ones there's dead ones, just the same as people y'know. I was away assisting the shepherd from out bye to innoculate his hoggs which were away on winter keep. 406 went over there, there'll be at least one less coming back in the spring. Do you see what I see? Do you need a closer look?

 

MAGGOTS! Could you believe it?

 

And more being lain - good grief!

 

More creepy crawly company in the sheep pens - a ladybird. What ever next?

 

Gathering on Saturday, ready for putting tups out.

 

The view on the way home on Saturday afternoon.

 

Sunrise on Sunday (today), taken at 8.15am whilst gathering. How is it the saying goes? "Red sky in the morning - shepherds warning" Will the weather break? Of course it will, don't know when although rain is forecast for the coming week but hey! enjoy it whilst it lasts, the winter is shortening so to speak. Lets hope it doesn't do what it did last year. 24th November 2010 the diary read "snowy", the 25th said "snowed all day" by the 27th November my car couldn't travel in the snow and the diary entries became almost unrepeatable as time went on...

Glen's adventure

Tailing ewes was the job in hand, 'tis that time of year y'know. Kale was as usual tethered and watching the proceedings with fascination alongside a burning desire to join in. The other two, Glen and Moss, were in the big holding pen lying patiently with bated breath waiting until the pen I was working in required filling, whence upon they would spring to life and get the sheep moving, to the point it was whiles difficult to get the pen gate shut thanks to their enthusiasm and shouts of frustration to 'get back' often passed my lips.

I was concentrating on the job in hand, fighting with ewes tails. They don't take too kindly to having a brazilian with out permission being granted and the final pen the dogs had filled was barely full enough but with no sheep left I had to battle on and chase the blighters around to the best of my abilities.

On finishing this last, immensely awkward, pen of sheep I lifted my head and straightened my back to see the farmers wife walking up the lonnen (track) towards me with Glen at her heels. A quick head count made me realise the only dog still remaining was infact Kale, due to the fact he was tethered he had been unable to go walk abouts. A whistle soon had Moss trotting up the lonnen from the direction the farmers wife had come from. Relief.

Both dogs do like to nosey around, cock their legs and generally let their presence be known. Glen has a penchant for anything edible (should I drop down dead I doubt there'll be any need to dispose of my remains). He has a knack of finding a dead something, or mebbes the food left out for farm cats, or some sheep cake left over in a trough - you name it, he'll find it!

I should have known better, concentrating on getting the job in hand finished I had overlooked the fact that the dogs would realise that, for the moment at least, their task was over and they could sidle off. No great hardship in many respects but when working fairly close to a busy main road it was a serious oversight on my behalf.

Glen had in fact caused a bit of a stir by all accounts. The farmers wife had been working in the holiday cottage and happened to notice the traffic on the road outside had stopped and there was a police car in 'attendance'.

Apparently the kindly policeman had asked Glen where he belonged but didn't receive a reply! When the farmers wife got there Glen was quite happily sitting at the policemans feet, having weaved his way through the traffic prior to that.....

Now Glen will befriend anyone, although it does show how wise he is that at least on this occasion it was a policeman. A kindly word and a pat on the head and the daft soul is won over, there really is no loyalty with this dog, anyone will do! I could imagine him as the traffic slowed he would probably mosey along to the car to see if they were going to talk kindly to him and give him some attention, he may well have caused a great deal of mayhem. Thankfully for me the motorists had had the presence of mind not to run him over and fortunately a police vehicle just happened to be passing to take control of the proceedings.

As for Glen? He thought nothing untoward had happened, time I'd battled with that last penful of sheep he'd had a great time and didn't take too kindly to being barred up for his own safety, I'm sure he was thinking that nice policeman was far kinder than myself!

Tailing ewes

Shep has been busy tailing ewes. Tup time is fast approaching and many like their ewes to have been tailed - their bikini lines trimmed - ready for the boys being let loose.

The whole idea of tailing is to give the lads an easier access and also to ensure they have less chance of hurting themselves. Since the ewes were clipped in the summer one or two may well have scoured out a bit, causing muck to gather on the wool on their tails, not nice for the boys to have to circumnavigate lumps of muck in their quest to tup the girls. The gimmers will also have bushier tails than the ewes due to the fact they were clipped earlier. Should we get frost or snow at tup time that can also cling to the long wool on the tail and cause discomfort to the tup.

Hill sheep have long tails but the wool is usually only removed around the area of the back end, although some do like to give a brazilian and bare the tail off completely and crutch at the same time, being old fashioned I don't like the look of this but it is thought to make life easier in the spring when the fresh grass can literally run through the ewes and again cause scouring.

Traditionally hand shears are used, more and more farmers are beginning to use the electric machine which makes the tails bristly and so has to be done well in advance to allow the wool to grow and soften before the tups are let out, no point in trying to make their job easier then making them work through the equivalent of wire wool is there?

Anyhow, that's what I've been busy doing for days, 100's of ewes have been tailed, in fact 1,000's. Day in day out bending over at the back end of a sheep removing wool off tails. Now there are fat tails and thin tails, clean tails and shitty tails, tails that wiggle and tails that don't, tails attached to sheep that jump and cause mayhem and then the ones that stand quiet and co-operate, but at the end of the day tailing ewes must be paramount to working in a factory. One of those mind blowingly monotonous jobs which can either leave you blaspheming or daydreaming.................which leads us on to conkers.

CONKERS? yep, I didn't say bonkers, although that is highly probable. There I was tailing swale ewes (bushy tailed characters who weren't enjoying the attention I was giving them) and I began to marvel at the career I had chosen for myself all those centuries ago, one which seemingly meant I spend an awful lot of my time bent over looking at my feet. I was obviously having one of those off days, a lets feel sorry for Shep day - when something hit me on the head - did it knock any sense in? Well no, of course not! It did however get me onto a different train of thought - Conkers!

 

I was working below horse chestnuts and on closer inspection of the ground around me, as that being basically all I could see due to my stance, there were conkers all around. Ah! my childhood..... many a happy hour spent along side my cousins hunting conkers and then duly competing with them (somehow mine never survived very long compared to those of the lads), what fun we had.

My musings continued, kids don't seem to be as conker daft as we were, is this due to computer games and DVD's I wondered? Possibly, but also we now wrap kids in cotton wool, I recall hearing or reading somewhere that there are health and safety issues surrounding conkering, it will be deemed un safe for the kids of this generation to partake in such a sport. If that's the case who on earth is going to tail ewes in the future? Hand shears that could stab or cut yourself and electric shears with which you could electrocute yourself? If we worried about all the probabilities we'd never have any fun. It was at this stage that I concluded the conkers had sent me bonkers as obviously I was considering tailing ewes as fun. Thankfully the task for the day was almost over and there was hope my sanity might return.