February, the coldest month of the year, and the ‘Beast from the East’ hit us. We actually had snow at the beginning and the end of the month, which is very unusual as we rarely get even a sprinkling of snow around here. Luckily for us it didn’t last long, and the ewes were still able to graze. Many others didn’t have it so lucky. Add in the frosts and icy winds and we felt really glad we weren’t lambing yet! The sheep all survived, although with those woolly coats I don’t think it affected them too badly.

As we head into March and see the back of the storms, we start preparing in earnest for lambing. By the end of March we should have our first lambs, so we need to finish of the fencing, round up and sort the ewes, dose them all and then send them off to their respective fields (or maternity wards!) to settle in before they lamb!

January has been a fairly quiet month for us. The ewes are looking well, we had some dung tested for worms and fluke and we were advised to treat them all for fluke. We brought them all in to the pens and dosed them all, looking them over at the same time and checking condition. We’re happy with them, and doing our bit to keep them healthy, so we just wait…

In the meantime we’ve been doing some fencing, trying to get it finished before we start lambing. We’re getting there, slowly but surely!