Lambs away; Holiday to Skye
Posted: Monday 10 October, 2016
Monday 26th September
Well, that’s our four cull ewes and six tup lambs safely delivered to the abattoir. They all loaded without incident and we unloaded them an hour later into a straw bedded pen with an automatic drinker. It was all very calm. All abattoirs should be like this.
Got the paperwork up to date and that’s us down to sixteen sheep for the next 12 months.
It was lovely this morning – cool but sunny. By mid afternoon, grey and rainy. Still shouldn’t complain. There’s so much grass at our rented grazing. We’ll take the ewe lambs, Niamh and Teddy up on Wednesday, I think.
Tuesday 27th September
Got the weights back for the lambs and ewes today. Lambs much lighter than last year, but hopefully less fatty.
The six averaged 16.7kg, with the heaviest just over 20kg. Last year, eight averaged 26kg – three weeks further on in the year, so maybe I need to get them away end of September rater than mid October.
The ewes averaged 45.4kg, with one over 50kg. Makes you think about worming doses!!!!
Wednesday 28th September
We held our Festival debrief meeting today – lots of notes to write up and “things to do”.
Took the ewe lambs, Niamh and Teddy up to the rented grazing – very happy sheep indeed. The steers are looking well, as you’d expect at this time of year.
Thursday 29th September
Spent most of today tidying up my desk and the house and getting ready for our holidays.
Friday 30th September
Quick trip down to the abattoir today to pick up the lamb skins to take to the tannery on Skye. The lambs and ewes were in the chill so I got to have a look – the lambs looked really good; the ewes, as expected, were pretty fat. Well, two were – the other two didn’t look too bad, to my unpracticed eye.
Sunday 9th October
Had a lovely week on Skye – beautiful cottage, fabulous scenery, great food and wonderful weather.
Rosemary & Bryn in the Cuillin.
Bryn at Mary's Thatched Cottages.
Dropped the lamb skins at Skyeskyns on Monday – no smell or leakages, which was good. Today, it’s been dry and, latterly, sunny so all the washing is up to date. Yay!
Spent an hour tidying up the flower beds round the house. I hoped to get the front grass cut as well, but it took so long to dry, it was dark. And I’m not cutting grass in the dark.
Caught up with paperwork after dinner and wrote my list for tomorrow.
We need to get the ewe lambs wormed and fluked this week and I’ll start feeding the steers tomorrow to, hopefully, make Hamish a bit easier to load. Hey ho, feels like we haven’t been away ☺
