Big Brother is watching ewe

Sun 4th January 4, 2009
I haven’t managed to get around to writing my diary for nearly a month and yet so much has happened! Christmas has come and gone amidst a flurry of family visits, social engagements, overeating and late nights and now I am craving nights in, soup and my nice warm bed.
Barbara our pregnant ewe has recently been moved into the hangar next to the house where we can keep a closer eye on her. Today that eye got even closer because James rigged up a camera in her pen which displays to a little TV screen in the house. We are concerned that as this is likely to be a multiple birth, (she’s bulging out both sides which apparently indicates at least two lambs) we ought to be on hand to help out if needed. There is a microphone on the camera and it’s quite amusing to here loud baa-ing noises when I’m sitting in the lounge. It sounds like there’s a sheep in the kitchen!

We had a bit of an ‘incident’ with the goats and sheep yesterday. I was sitting in the kitchen when I suddenly saw a streak of brown animal leap past the window. This turned out to be Princess, the young female goat who had somehow escaped from the field where she and her mum had been left to graze with the sheep. James hastily caught her and tied her up in the hangar before going to check on the other animals in the field. Two minutes later he came racing back to the house, shouting for the boys to come to the field immediately to help him. It seemed that when Princess had jumped the fence she had damaged it in such a way that part of it was bent down to the ground. She had then come home, but the other goat and sheep had decided that the grass looked greener in the next field (our neighbour’s) and had trotted off for lunch. It took James and the boys some time to herd them back into our field. They were aided and abetted by Tony our puppy, which is half collie and seemed to know instinctively how to round them up and drive them forward! I wonder what he could do with some proper training. Our neighbours, obviously roused by the hullaballoo came to see what was going on, but just stood at the edge of the field and laughed! Fat lot of good that was…

Actually, there’s a bit of a ‘lurve thing’ going on with ‘Mama’ the goat and ‘Gilbert’ the ram. They won’t leave each other alone and she follows him around licking and nuzzling him. I wonder if it’s possible for goats and sheep to mate. Would they produce a ‘shoat’ or a ‘geep’?

I guess the holidays are over and we'll have to start thinking about 'working' again. What a shame, we were having such fun!