Well, if its this easy....

Preparations for lambing took on a sense of urgency this morning, when I say preparations I mean worrying about where we are going to house everything as Iggle and Piggle plus the three little pigs are taking up valuable space on account of their still breathing, as Ebony was trailing what looked like an umbilical cord from her tuppence (technical term for a lady sheeps foo) She was eating and acting like any other berserk Ryeland when faced with a feed bucket but the foot long bit of internal plumbing dragging behind was a cause for concern for me if not her. She objected to being turned over (missing breakfast) no sign of having given birth but a search of the local geography failed to locate any offspring or further gory bits. Unsure what was happening I phoned my dad who has helped into this world more sheeps in a days lambing than I ever will in a lifetime of smallholding, his advice was wait and see what happens. So I did and she hasn't exploded, keeled over or expired so the wait continues.

Return from work the plan was to go and look to see what if anything else was going on with the sheep but there was a man test waiting in the yard. A one ton bale of straw. Now not having a tractor with a spike lifty bit at the front I am somewhat disadvantaged in moving these monster bales. There is an epic tale of how I moved one by rolling it halfway up the mountain, but this one was for bedding down all beast, including new beds for new mum sheeps. The jolly farmer who dropped it off some where closely approximating where I actually wanted it (ie. planet earth) and so the test of the evening was to get this unwrapped, deposited in 7 different locations at all ends of the smallholding and store the rest, but, and this was important, it had to be done without waiting any and before it got wet. The rain clouds were approaching across the valley.

So the test began, the pigs in the stable got new beds, the pigs at the far end including Thor the boar who by the looks of him has discovered what his purpose in life is, all got new beds, as did Kayliegh, Hetty and the boys. I was still faced with half of the bale in the yard, thankfully my beautiful and o so patient wife, Tracey, reminded me that I might have stored carefully some big white feed sacks in Trixie. Sure enough, right as ever, so the remainder was bagged up and put in the med bay. Success, man test passed, barely a stem of straw wasted, a lot less wasted than from the small bales that we normally buy. As I stood there, sweating like only a fat bloke can who has lugged a ton of straw every which way, contemplating how great I was the patient one pipes up "Well if its this easy we should always do it this way"

Day 7 30 30 lvl 14 outdoor training 13km (Best of Aerosmith)