Despite the weather and ongoing ground work, we have managed to welcome our lovely guests and the wonderful guests in turn have made the most of time at Great Gutton. It always make me smile, when on arrival guests often ask about local things going on, tell me their exhaustive plans of what they are going to do and see and show me their list of activities. Then at some point the next day we spot them just wandering about the farm, checking out the livestock, discovering the good old faithful tyre swing and just chilling out. This is part of the magic of the place, it lets people just stop, take a breath and simply catch up with each other. Of course we do host gatherings for all sorts of occasions, Hen weekends, Wedding celebrations, special Birthdays, re unions and friends or families "get togethers". I love the variety.
To business......lambs have started to arrive and the children were thrilled ( and maybe a tiny bit eugh!) to witness one ewe being given a helping hand in delivering her twin lambs. but mother and sons are doing well now and word has spread that Suzi had her hand up the sheeps bottom!
Today, buoyed on by glorious sunshine, we had a bit of a sort out of ewes to lamb and they are now in the "Bonfire field" which is close to the house and doesn't involve the long walk up the steep "Ski field" when we want to check on them. On the whole the ewes tend to manage to deliver their lambs without any intervention but it's nice to know we can keep an eye on them just in case. Once born they are then brought into the "Orchard Maternity" unit for some TLC and some extra nutrition, just to ensure mum and babies get a good start and again so we can check on them easily. here are our first pair of lambs to arrive at Great Gutton Farm 2014
After about 12-24 hours I'm afraid it's time for the male lambs to step up to the mark and be introduced to the harsher side of life, when they are castrated. We cannot keep any entire males within the flock and so this has to be done to make good the gene pool. We then "buy in" the use of a ram for our girls from a completely separate flock. That's the science bit and below is a picture of one of our more experienced ewes watching over Johns shoulder as he delivers the rubber ring to her lamb! It's the safest and kindest way to carry the process out and I promise you the young fella was up and running about within moments!
HAPPY DAYS!
