Wow, what weather again!  Gale force winds and continual rain for weeks on end have left the paddocks looking more like paddy fields.  The water table is so high that even their “barn” is flooded out and the gateway to the paddock is almost impossible for them to get through without needing snorkels and flippers!  The week before Christmas we decided it was time for a shuffle round, so put Mackintosh back with his male chums and the ewes back with the other girls.  They soon settled back in after Mackintosh re-established the pecking order with a few head butting sessions which rendered Matthew bowled completely off his feet!  Now Mac tends to lord it over his gang by standing on the roller over them – far less painful I imagine.

When bonfire night arrived, we introduced Mackintosh to his new harem.  What an absolute gentleman he was!  I mixed up some raddle paste and plastered his chest with blue goop, and in he went.  He instinctively knew what to do, and within 2 days Mrs B had been served.  Over the next few weeks (and several applications of paste later), all of the girls had blue bottoms so we know (theoretically) the order of who will have their lambs and roughly when.

Wow, what a start to October!  Fantastic weather of 25 degrees!!  

At last we could get machinery on the land, and making the most of the opportunity, had our hedges and ditches cut and topped all of the paddocks on a high setting.  No more brambles Oona!

However, the ground was not as dry as we thought, and unfortunately we discovered a rather large mysterious lake appearing in the big field.  Having investigated it further it would appear that a drainage pipe had fractured and blocked, so when the digger went in, a 20ft high geezer exploded in the air as it had backed up so much!  Thankfully, it is all fixed now, and the new pipe has a torrent of water pumping out into the ditch.

We woke at the crack of dawn, hitched up the trailer and set off for Wiltshire to collect our new boy from Jean Curtis (Willlowcroft flock). When we arrived, we were introduced to some beautiful shearling ewes and then went off to see her lovely crop of ewe lambs in the barn. It was there we fell in love with two moorit girls, numbers 46 and 48 and just had to bring them home. I then glanced over to another pen and spotted another moorit number 43, who was a little poppet so she just had to come too!

Jean kindly provided a beautiful lunch on the veranda – a huge spread of home made goodies including quiche, smoked salmon, egg mayonnaise and lots more besides, followed by the best strawberries we have ever tasted with handmade shortbread and cream – scrummy!

We took in the most wonderful view over the paddock where Macintosh was grazing whilst tucking into our lunch and admired Jeans landscaped gardens in the sunshine – an absolutely perfect setting (and has spurred me on to tackle our somewhat sad patch of grass pretending to be a garden but looking more like a football pitch!)

We loaded them all up and came home to introduce them to our flock and Mac settled in immediately with his three friends. What impeccable manners he has and is a joy.

The new girls were met by a very enthusiastic audience, and for the first few days ours were, frankly, behaving like a bunch of hooligans, chasing them round constantly. Thankfully it all settled down quickly, and although still on the periphery, they have been accepted into the “gang”.

Number 43 (now called Oona), is a little character and bounds over for her daily fuss. Number 46 (Squerelle) is itching to be friendly but as she will keep tangling herself in brambles she equates fuss to having them pulled out so is not so keen! Number 48 (still to be named, but we know it will start with a P as Jean follows the dam’s name) is still a little nervous and work in progress, bless, she will get the hang of it soon enough.