Off with their.................

In the 10 so far weve got 4 male lambs. We dont want any more rams and unfettered testosterone  isnt good for anyone (!)
So its time they were castrated . We've got  castration rings .

So we need to do the deed.





Round up your ewes and lambs

Get yourself a (male) lamb and put on the castration  ring . Lamb testes are surprisinglyl high and surprisingly mobile!  I cen see how its easy to miss . 

and then when all are done, put ewes and lambs back together again 

its a bit noisy whilst the ewes and lambs find each other, but they all go off  with the correct lambs(s) in the end

things you run out of

I'm sure that we have all run out of things  over a bank holiday weekend.
The usual important things  that cant be obtained because of the weekend or the shops being closed.

• milk
• sugar
• tea

for example.  Of course it doesn't happen so often nowadays because of long supermarket opening hours. 

But we had a phone call at 930 pm on  a saturday night because a neighbour had run out of something. And with the Bank Holiday on monday  the relevant shops would be closed. 

And its surprising what counts as  essentials when you live in Orkney . 

Castration Rings 

They want to let their new lambs out into the fields and  don't want to do that until the rings are in place. You'd have   to recatch them to do it later.  We don't need them yet - our  ewes are still walking round, munching grass, looking very large. I've had a stern word with  our ewes, but they seem to be ignoring me .

so the neighbours  can use the packet until our lambs appear.