Struan Farm

Springing into Spring

It's happened, finally. Spring has arrived at Struan Farm, not just the random bud or omen of things to come!

There's a New Girl in Town

We're having a bit of a contest on Struan Farm's Facebook Page to choose the name of our newest pet lamb. Choices are: Coco, Daisy or Pepper. Help us decide!

 

Consumed by Lambs

My days at Struan Farm have been taken over by new pet lambs the past week. I've found myself wet, dirty, and covered with milk powder pretty much all the time. Not that I'm complaining, really! The kitchen bench could be called "Lamb Central," with bags of milk and colostrum powder, scale, measuring cups, whisks, teats & bottles.

It's a short, relatively concentrated window of time when they're needing feeds six then four times a day. Rosie, the "grand dame," will be down to two shortly. Right now we have Rosie, Ruby, Pip and a little boy as yet unnamed since he's not entirely out of the woods.

 

Pip is modelling the latest season's King Country lamb attire, a little wool coverlet. (I got it basically to knock off some knitted and/or felted versions next year, you know me!)

The little boy is up and down. I'd thought he was fine, but he seems wobbly and isn't drinking as much as he should be.

While I was writing this blog post the neighbour rang, they had another abandoned ewe lamb for us if we wanted. So I ran off with bottle in hand and picked her up. She's already had a good drink, and she's huge. I'm off to sort her out right now, since I'm not sure she has to stay overnight in the garage. 

Think Mike may be helping me enlarge the Pet Pen tomorrow if it's not raining.........

And Then There Were Three: Pip

Short for "Pip Squeak," since this little girl was the third of triplets and abandoned by her mum near the boundary fence with our neighbour at Struan Farm. I was out on the lambing beat and found her on the ground, had to hop the fence for the rescue.

Yes, it was touch and go for that first bit (I'm realising this must be the case for all abandoned lambs). But when she woke me up baa-ing in the garage at almost 11 p.m. for a feed, and again at 6 a.m., I decided that she should be okay.  HOPEFULLY, since she's still somewhat fussy about drinking...

 

So it's off to the Pet Pen with Rosie and Ruby. Hope she's ready for all that, Rosie can be slightly nosy!

The Grease Gun

This past weekend "Farm Girl" learned about "the grease gun." Apparently our beloved if ancient David Brown tractor here at Struan Farm needs to have its creaky joints greased from time to time. There's an equally ancient "gun" that does this job.

The grease has run low, so I'm being sent on a mission into town to buy some grease from a local mechanic, somewhere. The main issue is that apparently modern grease guns operate with cannisters. So I've got to find someone who has a supply willing to share.

I'm beginning to think that people will start to roll my eyes when they see me coming?!