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.

S.O.S Tuesday and f**king snow! (30/11/10)

A phone call from the shepherd out bye last night saw me mount the quad this morning and head away out there. For all his sheep are in fields there are some which are inaccesible. The quad will no longer travel with only the tractor to use on some ground which is totally unsuitable for a tractor it was deemed necessary to get sheep closer to home, or at least closer to access.

How many shepherds do you know who know the length of their leg up to the knee?? Well this one does! He measured his leg yesterday in an attempt to ascertain how deep the snow was. Level snow is 22 inches away out bye apparently (although I doubt after the snowfall today and tonight that is history and he will have to measure to a different part of his anatomy now!)

The farmer in the Rede was still optomistic that I may get over there, I wasn't and to be fair this was a far more important task. The man in the Rede had all his sheep accesible, this man didn't. So onto the quad and off I went, the shepherd ploughed hs farm road out for me to gain access as the snow is too deep for the bike now.

It seems like no time at all since I took a similar photograph, same man, same place, same year, different month. http://blog.tarset.co.uk/2010/01/snow-bound-sheep.html We walked out cutting a track with our feet as we went, a track we hoped the sheep would follow back.

I would be lying if I said we had the sheep gathered up in no time. It took a good while to get walked out there, barely a single footstep sank in below knee level and one or two sank in to the nether regions. We did get out there though, these are the self same sheep we rescued in January, this time though they couldn't get into the planting, the fence had been patched and they could not escape, we had them, all we had to do was turn them for home and they'd follow the track we'd made as we walked out to them

Grand weather? Don't be fooled, we'd battled through blizzards on the way out, we'd soon be battling again.

This felt like the daddy of them all. The direction we wanted the sheep to head into meant they were going to have to face the blizzard - there is no way sheep will head into weather like that. We all stopped, turned our backs to the weather and waited patiently.

Even Moss waited patiently, I eventually called him into me and let him snuggle infront of me in the hope he'd gain some shelter from my body. Fortunately he was the only dog I had out. The day was going to be too heavy for Glen and Kale would have been an absolute hinderance.

Finally the weather blew over for the time being and the journey resumed. Unfortunately the track we had so laboriously cut out with our feet on the way to the sheep had completely blown in. The shepherd headed out in front to cut yet another track whilst I waffled about with the camera! I did actually head out and help him, leaving Moss back with the sheep although they weren't likely to be going anywhere.

The weather picked up once again and we were back in business, sheep on track and heading away in, shepherd still away out in front cutting a track through but we were getting there, albeit slowly.

Finally and on darkening we reached our destination. It had been a hard slog and I was grateful of the chocolate bar (x2) which I had had sense to drop into my pocket. Both the shepherd and I 'took five' and tried to break our teeth on rock hard chocolate but it hit the spot and fired us up again. The journey down the road back to the farm was in total darkness, other than the headlights cutting through yet another blizzard!

What about tomorrow? D'y know, I really don't know! A phone call tonight to ask for assistance to find, count and feed some sheep which a farmer can't access from where he lives but which I ought to be able to. The forecast is absolutely atrocious and I feel like I'll hardly dare open my eyes in the morning and look out of the window. The two of us desperately need to get into town. This visa does need applying for or else a great deal of money may well have been wasted. Will we get there? Dunno. Mebbes I'll be able to tell you in the next posting.

Snow - again! This time on a Monday!! (29/11/10)

Monday morning dawned to even more bloody snow! Will it ever stop??

Not a cat in hells chance of getting back into the Rede today, doubt the farmer will just have to muddle along on his own, after all his sheep are all gathered in, held into fields around the steading, fairly easily accessible, plus a bike with tracks on to enable travel through the snow. Hopefully all will be well without Sheps assistance.

 

Shep trotted off to look at a neighbours sheep, all balled up with snow and legless with it! I needed cheering up and there is something about these little favourites of mine which somehow manage to do the job, these little feisty blighters with their bright eyes really are a pleasure to view even in the snow. Cheviots of course - what else??

 

Tarset has a very white look about it, again with a fore boding sky, heavy showers all day. Yes! that's correct, more of that bloody snow.........

 

There is no doubt about it,it can indeed look very beautiful. I do keep trying to remind myself of this fact. In actual fact it is quite magical stuff, it falls so silently and leaves everything looking all white and crisp and even. Huh!! Am actually just getting a tad pissed off with the stuff to be honest with you. Pretty or not, it's time it stopped. It seems like only a month or two since last winter and here we are again! Huh!

Snowy Sunday (28/11/10)

The road over the tops, again a passenger in a four wheel drive. We pulled over to left the blizzard blow out and found ourselves having a very sociable 20 minutes with a neighbouring farmer who was out along the road to check his fences. Vehicles slide off roads and through fences and walls but they don't always consider letting the farmer know that they have damaged his property. Holes in fences and walls can be a great problem with stock managing to get out onto those roads. In this weather stock are happy to hold together and not fight through deep snow but farmers still like to know how their boundary fences are doing, they may also be the first upon an accident especially in weather such as we are experiencing at the moment. Anyhow a good crack was had before we resumed our journey.

Further snowfall has resulted in the inevitable, quad bikes will no longer travel, the depth of snow is too great.

A fair bit of time was spent fitting tracks to the quad, time well spent as now it will travel anywhere although it is difficult to steer but that is a small price to pay. http://blog.tarset.co.uk/2010/01/tracks-and-tracking.html

Finally the 600 or so sheep which had been gathered the day previous were rounded up and found themselves heading towards the sheep pens.

Once in the pens they were shed. Ewe hoggs went in one direction and ewes in another direction. Not quite your traditional type shedding race, these sheep find when they round the corner of the wall they will be drafted of into one of two directions, the system works well and the sheep always run around the corner of the wall very well.

The snow showers weren't as heavy as the previous day but still managed to stick to the hair on these swaledale ewes faces and wool.

It isn't just the sheep which find themselves with snow clinging to them. Glen the sheepdog found himself wearing a mask of snow too!

Once again the day draws to a close. Back tomorrow to try and get the boys out to the girls. Time to let the tups out!

A snowier Saturday (27/11/10)

 

Yet more of the same, just getting more difficult that's all. Further snowfall overnight meant I failed to travel to this farm over in the next valley. I did try but negotiating the first steep incline saw me getting to the top by the skin of my teeth, I had higher and less travelled roads to negotiate and knew it would be an impossible fete. A four wheel drive pick up was sent out to fetch me and believe you me there was absolutely no way my car would have made the journey, t'was dodgy enough in the pick up.

 

Sheep were merrily trotting away in front of me, following quad bike tracks which had been laid out specially to direct the sheep. Sheep will not willing wander through deep snow, it is far too difficult for them and results in them becoming exhausted. A track is a necessity.

The sky in the above photo is looking ominous, and sure enough it did not disappoint.

 

Conditions worsened but the sheep were pushed on

 

The day was getting on, daylight was becoming a premium and no time was to be lost

 

Finally all the sheep were gathered, into fields closer to home ready to be dealt with in the morning

 

The day had come to an end. Temperatures dip rapidly once we get into the afternoon and a frost was kicking in. The snow level however has been rising rapidly, further East than Tarset this farm has been catching the snow before us and is getting close to reaching the two foot level, the forecast isn't too promising, there almost seems to be a hype about snow with more forecast to fall, I've tried looking on different channels but they all say the same! Tomorrow is another day dawning, we'll wait and see what dawns.