A spell of hard weather but NO snow! ( 4 - 8/12/10)

There has been no more snow fall in Tarset. In fact on Saturday 4th December we had a fresher (milder) day, icicles dripped and snow flattened. The snow really did soften and the depth of it almost shrunk before your eyes. Frost kicked in again for the following four days, two nights registered -9 and the other two were -14 and -15.

Yes the house pipes froze on the nights which hit double figures but they were defrosted successfully after a few hours. Farm buildings are suffering similar problems, with water troughs having to be defrosted daily to ensure any housed animals have access to water, it is a time consuming occupation often best left until mid morning when it is hoped the air temperature is rising, some will wait until afternoon in the hope it will naturally come away with the body heat of the animals and the warmer air, however on days when the temperature doesn't rise above freezing it is a waste of time waiting until afternoon as the temperature soon starts to plummet again.

The hoar frosts have been amazing, these ice crystals which appeared to look like leaves were encrusted over the top of a wooden gate, quite exquisite and very fragile. You can be forgiven for imagining snow is flightering on as the icy crystals find themselves losing their fragile hold on tree branches, slowly and gracefully falling to the ground to be lost in the whiteness which covers everything.

Even the snow covered ground glistens with frozen ice crystals.

Farmers and shepherds are getting no where fast, other than getting their stock fed and defrosting frozen pipes they seem to achieve very little before darkness falls, the days are short and we have yet to reach the shortest day of the year.

The snow lies all around, at least everyone is in the same boat. Some ground has more snow cover than others, the higher ground in Tarset has the deepest snow. Where Shep lives the road is now black, thanks in main to being near to the local school and also lower lying ground. Council workers have been flat out with ploughs and gritters trying to keep routes open.

A few days milder weather has been forecast and those farmers contracted out by the local council are flat out trying to clear some of the out bye roads. These roads were eventually ploughed but with the increasing frosty weather they were becoming increasingly dangerous and many haven't been passable with a normal car anyhow. There are farmers spreading grit and salt on behalf of the council on the roads deemed unsafe for a council gritting wagon, others are out with diggers trying to cut through the hardened, compacted snow and reach the tarmac below. The mild weather will be a huge asset to them in their quest and no time is being lost to try and get our roads opened out again, to allow normal traffic and get wagons with feed stuffs, heating oils etc out to residents.

Will this be the last photo of hoar frost this winter? Highly unlikely. A mild spell over the weekend will see snow soften further, hopefully some ground may even show it's face but those awful weather forecasters seem to think the frost will return. A respite from it will be gratefully received by many, water pipes will be running, machinery might not be breaking and should the frost return it will save any flooding which would probably happen with a quick thaw.

In the mean time I will leave you with a view from out bye, the snow is softening slower away out there but it is going down, the depth is decreasing. The tracked argo cat eventually arrived, days later than promised but gratefully received all the same, life might be easier and safer for the shepherd out there now that he has a machine which ought to travel in the snow.

Injuries to tups

The saying goes that your tup (male entire sheep) is half the flock. How can one sheep be half your flock? Well, that one sheep is the sire of the next generation. He is as important if not more so than the females, especially when pure breeding.

That explains why shepherds and farmers alike go to such pains when choosing a tup, picking a beast which they deem will pass on the attributes they require for their flock. A good tup can set you back a fair bit of money, especially if others have their eyes on the same beast. Having said that you can also pick up a good tup for little money, it all depends on the luck of the draw.

Once you've acquired your tup your intention is to look after him and all the other tups too. They can fight, just like the wildlife programmes on the television there is always a male who wants to be dominant. When acquiring new tups it always pays to fetch your older tups in and pen all the tups up tight together so that they cannot move too much and damage one another. They are usually barred up tight like this for a good few hours, until the scent has passed over all of them and the new tups hopefully end up smelling similar to those which are already used to one another.

Unfortunately even tups which have lived together since last tup time can begin to push their weight around prior to tup time, they know it's the season and there is usually a bolshy chap who thinks he's the dominant one, if the others are wise they will be submissive. If not a humdinger of a fight can commence. Hill tups have horns, all tups have very hard heads and strong necks.

The tups use their heads to attack, commencing with pushing the others around a bit but should one of them decide to stand their ground against the domineering fella they will end up head butting one another, running backwards whilst facing their opposition they will then charge, resulting in a head on collision. It is not wise to stand between them, they are set on their purpose and won't stop because you're in the way, your best option is to attempt to distract them whilst keeping safely out of the contact zone..

 

One tup will eventually back down but he may well be hurt in the process. It is not unheard of to have a tup 'set his neck' (break his neck), or end up appearing to have some sort of brain damage. The dominant tup may also ram the opposition up the backside or in the side of his body which can result in stifles or broken backs. Not an everyday scenario but it does happen. Tups can appear to be content in one an others company and the next time you see them they can either be fighting or one may appear injured. More often than not there is a little bit or argy bargy which comes to nothing. The above texel tup was dazed but fortunately there was no long term damage.

Once out to the ewes there is a less likely chance of fighting. Even two tups put out together will work their way through the ewes rather than fight, however, there is still a chance of a fight if there aren't plenty of ewes or if one tup is determined to steal off the other, but generally the dominant tup will get his way whilst the other heads off to find another ewe.

So if one tup is put to ewes nothing can really go wrong? If only.

Lameness is an issue, especially on a back foot/leg. Tups mount the ewes and so need to be sound on their back legs. They may go lame due to injury such as twisting a hip or leg or they may go lame with foot rot or scald. The latter can be dealt with quickly as soon as it is seen and hopefully prevent it getting worse or maybe even cure it but an injury to the leg is a bad look out and the tup will have to be changed for one which is sound.

The tups manhood may also get damaged. One reason why ewes get tailed (the wool taken off their tails)is to prevent injury to the tups penis, known generally as his peezel or pizel. The peezel is tucked away inside the tups body and only shows face when he is aroused. A sensitive and tender part of his anatomy.

Should his peezel be unfortunate enough to have to fight through hard bits of dried muck or frosty wool it may well get damaged. The first sign for the shepherd is traces of blood on the ewes tail/back end, these can be quite faint and not always obviously apparent. A fair bit of blood on the tail is not a good sign.

This is the problem that arose out bye the other day, a tup had bled himself and he won't be the only one this winter. The driving, blowing snow has been lying on the sheep's backs, they are well insulated and it doesn't melt that quickly, should a frosty night follow the wool finds it has frozen snow encrusted on it. To the tup and his privates this must be like pushing through razor blades and so causes damage.

 

Although difficult to tell on the above photo if you look closely you'll notice that the sheep have a covering of frozen snow on their backs and tails. Even though they have been tailed there is still wool for the snow to adhere to and this is where the problem arises.

Should a tup bleed himself he has to be replaced and removed from the ewes, an investigation of his peezel will show how much damage has been done and generally given rest from sexual activity he will heel up and be ready to resume his duties. I have in the past rested a tup for a few days and he has gone back to the ewes and been no further trouble. However on a year such as this it would be unwise to return him to his duties as the cause of the problem is still there and you wouldn't want to risk damaging him beyond repair.

Another issue, which I have to admit I have never come across but have heard of it in both tups and bulls is to snap their peezel. There is only one route for the tup should this happen as he will never breed again.

So, the poor old sheep are battling with the weather and it has more hidden dangers than the obvious. Pretty lousy weather for tup time with dangerous consequences for the poor old tups. Nowts ever as simple as it seems! Observation is of paramount importance, even whilst battling with the weather.

A Cheviot fix. South Country Cheviots

I have had this posting saved as a draft for ages and never got around to publishing it, there is nothing quite like a cheviot to cheer one up and so a change from snow I'll share with you all my Cheviot fix which I had in early November when the world was green, not white.

Shep was honoured to receive an invite to view a 'special' flock of ewes just over the border into Scotland. Cheviots of course (what else?)not only Cheviots but ewes which are kept out of view of the general public, they don't run down to the roadside so a sneaky preview as you're driving past is not possible, no an invitation is the only way to manage to survey this flock. A private viewing is what I was honoured enough to be given and much was learnt on the day about the Cheviot and her attributes.

The shepherd who gave me his time was probably pleased to see the back of me by the time I left as I was like a knowledge thirsty youngster, question after question as to the how fors and what fors of the breed. His drawing of ewes to the tup would probably have taken just an hour or two had he not had me holding him back, querying this and asking that, meant it turned into a full days job. With head spinning the shepherd probably crashed out exhausted in the evening, whereas my head was still spinning as I had so much to digest. I'd had a great day! Time will tell whether or not I'll get an invite back to view the lambs!!

I was desperate to get my head around the difference between the east and west borders type of cheviot. It seems hard to believe there can be so much variation within a breed, however, it is the case with most breeds with the blackfaced breed being a prime example. There is the Northumberland type and the Scotch type blackfaced sheep, two profoundly different types of sheep within a breed. Then once within the Scotch type there are more variations, the Perth type, Stirling type, Lanark type etc., why ought the cheviot be any different?

I think, slowly but surely, I am learning the variation in the cheviots, although there is now a mix of the two blood types to add further confusion.

I have been told that originally there were two sale venues. Lockerbie was the home of the West Borders Cheviot with Hawick the venue for the East Borders Cheviot. Unfortunately the two types finally amalgamated and found themselves all heading to the Lockerbie sales.

By all accounts the East Borders were generally a polled breed. By polled I am referring to the tups (rams, entire males) as the females do not carry horns anyhow, regardless of which type they originate from. So if the East Borders were polled we can safely surmise the West Borders carried horns - correct.

The Cheviot which I would have drawn to mind years back was a shorter coupled creature almost of a dumpy disposition, this would have been the traditional East Borders type seemingly, the West Borders carrying more scope (size). Also the East Borders was renowned for a tighter skin compared to the West with a shaggier, more open coat. Phew! So much to take in!!!

Years ago, a problem arose within the East Borders type, it was known as footless. Seemingly the gene pool was not that big for the East Borders breeders and somewhere along the line a gene appeared which had lambs being born without feet. The tup which originally produced this faulty gene had rather unfortunately been given the name of 'tiptoe' when he was registered with the breed society. Rather ironical to say the least.

It would appear from what I have been told that due to the footless problem there were a number of bloodlines no longer suitable to be used and some inferior blood was used to prevent the spread of the footless problem. Eventually the East Borders men had to look elsewhere in an effort to dilute some of this inferior blood which saw them looking towards the West Borders type.

Sales of tups were beginning to dwindle at Hawick with the result the East Borders men began to head over west to Lockerbie to sell their tups, through the natural course of things the bloodlines amalgamated.

The above photo is of some tups which came into the valley last year from Lockerbie tup sale, the far right are probably showing more to the west type than those on the left, however all seem to possess a good tight skin. Oh! the funny thing in the middle is a blackie, not yet another variation to the cheviot!!


The South Country Cheviot today is most likely to be an amalgamation of both types.

One noted Cheviot breeder told me quite recently that the East Borders type was extinct, I don't wish to get into an argument over a breed I am still learning about but I do know there are still those who are trying to retain the East Borders type. Regardless of type, I can't help but feel the South Country Cheviot sheep is a greatly improved beast from those which I recollect from my early shepherding days. Indeed when speaking to those who breed the creatures they have definitely taken a turn for the better, there has been an intentional improvement in the breed making her slightly bigger and less likely to hang her lambs

I found myself being drawn in by the Cheviot from first lambing her a few years back (by default I may add as horror stories I had been brought up with of tails whizzing round like propellers as she disappeared ovcr the far horizon with a hung lamb sticking out of her backside had convinced me I never wanted to have anything to do with the beasts). They are no where near as small as I had expected, in fact they are of a decent size and solid with it. They have short erect ears and a very bright eye which seems more pronounced than that of eyes in other breeds. She has an ability to catch your eye without a doubt, but be warned, once she has caught your eye she then creeps into your heart!!

A tough, feisty individual with a determination second to none accompanied by a fierce independence. She doesn't suffer fools gladly and has a strong dislike of human intervention but for all those attributes I have to say they are totally genuine, what you see is what you get, coupled with a outstanding kindness at lambing time. I just can't help but admire the South Country Cheviot.

My Cheviot fix left me on a high for a while, digesting all I had learnt. Imagine my pleasure when I found myself invited to travel with a neighbour into Scotland to have yet another Cheviot fix. Twice in a fortnight was almost too much!!! A neighbouring farm to the one which I lamb at was the destination and an enjoyable few hours were spent viewing and discussing the white woolly blighters with the result that some came home with us into the North Tyne - SO EXCITING!! The better half tells me I need to get a life! humph, he gets enthused about tractors and diggers so why can't I get excited about Cheviots?

So? What type of Cheviot where they? quite simply a South Country Cheviot, an amalgamation of the types which used to divide the borders. They are white, woolly and cute! What more could you ask for?

Friday......... it tried to snow! An improvement!! (3/12/10)

Friday morning was not a good one. My ears felt like they were dropping off with the cold and I was still in bed! A fingernail through the ice on the inside of the bedroom window spoke volumes. Brrr.....

The morning got worse, cold tap in the bathroom didn't seem to want any water to come out of it, same with the kitchen tap - frozen pipes. Great!!

The back door did not want to open, it was frozen shut. By now my sleepy haze was rapidly turning into a blue haze.........

I'm sure it must have been a pretty morning, I just couldn't see it through the haze which was piling upon me. My fingers fleetingly stuck to the metal bolt on Mosses kennel door, I really should know better, especially as seconds later the same thing happened on the metal catch of the garden wicket (gate).

The padlocks were frozen solid when I reached the shed the bike is housed in, a flask of hot water was required. On returning to the back door I checked the outside thermometor, -16, guess that might explain things.

I was cursing the freezing fog which was just beginning to lift, the hoar frost was unbelievale, inch long shards of ice adhering to everything in sight. As already said I'm sure if I'd just stood still and taken five I may have revelled in the magic and beauty of it all, however, I didn't, I just muttered and felt the discomfort of the frozen moisture in my nostrils.

By the time all the defrosting had been dealt with (the other half was left in charge of the water in the house) I felt I was running late and skipped feeding the sheep down the valley. Wrapped a scarf I didn't know I had round my face and sped off to head away out bye.

I didn't actually speed at all, it was too cold and I really didn't want to make it feel any colder by travelling at a rate of knots on the quad, also, for all they are four wheel drive they will still skid, slip and career out of control, it was far too cold to slide off the road and end up in a heap somewhere.

So where are the pretty photos? Couldn't be bothered with the camera, chances are the batteries wouldn't have worked in the cold anyhow, but I had plenty on my hands without trundling off with the camera too.

Half way to my destination I stopped, hopped off the bike and did some warm up excercises, jumping up and down, flapping my arms around, running on the spot, then running up the road, back down past the bike and back to the bike again. My feet and hands were so cold and I think all I really managed to do was end up out of breath but still cold. It was as I was driving away I noticed a neighbour across his field haying sheep. There'll probably be some crack (conversation) down the pub that I'd lost my marbles and was spotted careering around like a lunatic. Probably won't be the first time such things have been said about me and won't be the last either!!

I was thankful of the cuppa when I arrived at my destination. My feet and hands still felt like lumps of ice, my scarf was iced up too. I was told upon my arrival that I wouldn't win a prize in a glamour competition - what a surprise!

The day didn't pan out as we would have wished, an injured tup needed rescuing and something else put out to replace him. The sort of problem you can get in a normal tup time, catch the tup, stick him in the bike trailer and come back with another one. Sounds simple but not when the snow lies all around and too deep for a bike. It took 'til lunch time to resolve the problem.

The tractor and plough had to be used to plough a route across country for the bike and trailer to travel on, then........ the sheep had to be tracked out to reach the spot the bike was at, then..... the tup had to be caught and manhandled to the bike and the others released. Then........ the bike and trailer were stuck and had to be towed through the already ploughed snow to get onto the road. Such fun!!

There is no doubt about it that the simplest of tasks take so much more doing when you can't travel anywhere, when you have to drag your feet and legs through deep snow, when things freeze. The days are short enough as it is without everything taking many times longer to do.

The good news of the day was that it flightered on with snow, nothing else, just enough to give a dusting of the white stuff - wonderful! Worth all the other hardships just to have a quieter day weather wise.

Shep returned down the valley sooner than other days, in daylight this time, with the intention of feeding the sheep down the valley. Calling in at home first to warm up only to find a message on the 'phone from the elderly sheep keeper, sounding quite irrate and informing me that I hadn't been to hay her sheep and the snow was too deep for her to do it......... The other half must have noticed the steam which was starting to escape out of my ears as I donned my hat and he beat me to it onto the quad and away to hay the sheep. Probably the safest solution at the time!

The other good news of the day? Our water came away just prior to my return, 4pm I am told was the magical hour when water started to run through the taps. A huge relief as the only heating we have in the house is an open fire with the back boiler, which would not have been wise to light if the water was still frozen.

We do however have a very small open fire in the bedroom and could have sat over that roasting chestnuts I guess. Fortunately it didn't come to that - just as well coz we don't have any chestnuts!

Thursday and.......... it snowed! (2/12/10)

After heading down the valley this morning to feed two lots of sheep Shep turned around, collected Moss and Kale and headed up the valley, following a gritter for a short while then meeting a tractor and plough further on before meeting the out bye shepherd who once again was cutting his road out to give me and the quad access to help him.

During the journey I passed these cattle enjoying the silage at a ring feeder, they seemed to be taking less hurt than I felt I was but then they are bred for hard weather.

The snow is now deeper than it was last year, there is a fence somewhere in this photo. As for the snow being 22 inches deep (the length of the shepherds leg to the knee) I don't know how deep it is now, he seemed shy to let me take his inside leg measurement! Definitely too much of it is bum height to me!!

I hayed some sheep at the home farm before heading further out, the shepherd had set away in front with the tractor and plough to cut the road out, a daily task and very time consuming

Moss ran away ahead of the bike, Kale had been left secure at the farm, he actually just went with me for excersice on the way there. A young, keen untrained dog is not the thing you want to be bothered by on days like this. Glen had been left at home, these days can be hard on a dog and are not the sort of days to put a ten year old fella through.

I eventually caught up with the plough which was heading back towards me, the shepherd thought I was getting stuck with the bike on the roughly ploughed road because I kept stopping, I didn't dare admit I'd been taking pretty pictures!! The plough is fitted on the back of the tractor which means the tractor has to go backwards when ploughing, which means the shepherd gets a crick in his neck. Not the easiest of jobs.

First port of call was to access the sheep we had walked away in a couple of days ago. The tractor had knocked the fence down into a planting that day. On purpose I may add. We had taken them to a spot where there was little shelter from the north or east but it was accessible with the tractor. For that reason the fence had been knocked down so the sheep could access shelter in the trees if nothing else. There was quite a mob of them in there, wild creatures, they weren't keen on showing their faces and who could blame them after the hassle they were put through the other day. They did start coming out to the bent hay as we were leaving.

A hair raising journey out to some others with the tractor sliding and almost sticking on a number of occasions had us find sheep which once again needed walking out and bunching together. Shep had got sick of carrying a bulky camera and cursed all the time as the weather was bright, the view outstanding and the photos would have been great - but there you go, it's hard enough walking through this snowy stuff without being hampered with a camera!

Our final port of call was to seek out the Monkside ewes, not seen since Monday but all held together in an inaccessible place for a bale, we would just roll the bale to them. Not the easiest as this again was a bale of bent hay (hill grasses baled up) and not a good one at that so it was quite well stuck together.

As you can see I left all the hard work to the shepherd!

Eventually they too had their fodder, hopefully they might pull themselves out of the hole they are in, even more fortunately we had a 'carpet' to walk back on as the depth of snow was ridiculous and I really didn't want to look like a floundering girlie trying to drag my carcase up hill out of deep snow. The sheep will flatten it down as they eat the fodder laid out for them, or that is what we hope!

Heading for home just on darkening it decided to snow again, I was lucky and got in behind a tractor further down the valley, I tucked in tight in the hope of getting some shelter off it as we travelled along and arrived home rather chilled but with cheeks glowing.

Tomorrow is another day, back out bye to get to yet more sheep, it is never ending as feeding them all on one day is not possible at the moment, there are still some we have not accessed but have seen from a distance and they are in no immeadiate danger.

Hopefully an argo cat fitted with tracks may be arriving in a day or two, the snow is getting too deep for a tractor and it is also getting dangerous for the tractor to travel, the shepherd out bye is a lone shepherd and needs something to make life not only easier but also safer.

On that note I had a phone call this evening from the farmer in the Rede. He is the farmer who got tracks for his quad bike last year and says it is the best £3,500 he has ever spent, to date there is absolutely nothing has stopped this bike fitted with tracks. The snow out there will be as deep as it is out bye and some of the ground as steep and apparently this contraption will travel anywhere.

 

The photo which was taken at the end of January of the tracked bike. A god send in deep snow. I will try and encourage the shepherd out bye to look into getting these, unfortunately it will be up to his employers at the end of the day but it would surely make his job easier and safer.

Guess what? Snow on a Wednesday too!! (1/12/10)

We've finally reached December, seemingly the 1st December is officially the start of winter, well it didn't disappoint. Yet more snow fall over night, inches of the stuff and it was nowt like letting up. Blizzards were pretty much the order of the day.

Shep set off to feed and find sheep. The sheep I've been feeding for the elderly local sheep keeper were in trouble this morning. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera (it is a bulky blighter). There are two fields of sheep belonging to the elderly person. One field has ewes with a tup amongst them the other has the hoggs in it. It was the hoggs which caused concern.

The wind had blown and more blown during the night, not only blizzards but drifting too. These hoggs had found themselves blown against the wall and although not happed up (covered with a drift) they were very close to it (would have made a good record shot - never mind!) The field they were in had very little shelter from the art of the wind and the only option left to Shep was to get them into the field where the ewes were. There are now hoggs running with the tup as well, not good but that's life, their safety is more important.

Why is it not good to have hoggs with the tup? Well, these are this years female lambs, once spaened (weaned) we call them hoggs. They will not be a year old until next lambing time. Basically they are teenagers, young teenagers at that. If hoggs are fit it is quite possible they will come a tupping therefore it is wise to keep them away from the tups. Unfortunately for this small flock this is no longer an option, the hoggs could not be left in the other field, eventually they may well have got happed up and even died. Lets hope they keep their tails pinned down. http://blog.tarset.co.uk/2009/12/under-age-sex.html

After that slight excitement I headed off to find the sheep which the farmer in the next valley wasn't able to get to. I found them hale and hearty which was a huge relief, a big bale of hay is to be dropped off this afternoon (by a Tarset farmer) apparently and then I can feed them. They are taking no hurt at the moment so that is good. It was then a matter of flying home and getting in the car and off to town.

The roads were atrocious and to be honest I would never have considered travelling the 25 miles to town on a day like this unless I had to. We had to. The blizzards were unrelenting for the majority of the journey, the car reached 30 miles an hour on a rare occasion but even though we were heading away in bye the roads were lying white with falling snow as we went, fortunately the other half does have a 4wd car which was a great help.

We got there in one piece

It appeared that there were only others such as ourselves, who had to get into town, who had turned up, the choice of parking places was almost overwhelming so we didn't even bother to straighten the car up!

In many ways it was a long few hours, I found myself chewing my finger nails whilst speed shopping at the supermarket, groceries needed out bye and their neighbours further out were quite a priority. The main priority though was to get the visa applications into the post. The lady behind the counter at the post office couldn't have been more helpful, she made the job so easy and gave us sound advice. All the time in town it was snowing heavily, a need to get done and head home was overwhelming.

The dentist was closed due to the weather which meant stopping off at the doctors surgery on our return for the other half to get a prescription for a possible tooth abscess, then the chemist to get the prescription and finally home. A huge relief to pull up at our house in one piece with groceries on board for those living further out than ourselves and sound in the knowledge that we will hopefully get our visas back in the post before we depart on our holiday at the end of the month. The other half was also relieved that he may now get some relief from his tooth!

Once again there had been a fair covering of snow in the few hours we had been missing, at least four inches of the fluffy stuff.