April was a busy month for us, with the bulk of the ewes due to lamb. We had to juggle lambing outside, away from home, work, a toddler and attempt to keep some semblance of normality around the house. We were very lucky in that the weather, while very cold sometimes, was generally fine, and we didn’t often have to spend hours huddled in the rain assisting ewes. During the month 46 ewes lambed, giving us a total of 83 lambs. Sadly not all of these lambs survived, some being still-born, some too weak to get going and notably, 3 being carried off by foxes, but unfortunately it’s all part of the job. You can’t win them all, even though we tried our hardest. Towards the end of the month we also found ourselves with a couple of orphan lambs, living in our back garden! It’s not every little boy who has his own pet lambs just outside the back door, but Toby loves them almost as much as our dogs.

A pair of newborn lambs.

Our first orphan, Eric.