主播大秀

A lull in lambing has allowed me to post on me blog...so here are some pictures I've taken over the past couple weeks but haven't had any time to post.


I just love it here!


HELLO YELLOW!! I have never seen so many daffodils in my life until I came here to Orkney!


A close-up of some modern hat pins. They seem to be sold all over the place - and here I thought they had gone totally out of style!

We all celebrate this time of year in various ways and however you celebrate this beautiful return to the light and warmth, I hope that you all have a VERY blessed Easter - and a lovely beautiful spring!!




(Here is my Easter bonnet for Mass on Sunday!)

There has been a wee lull in lambing...I think the wooly ladies are up to something sinister!!

Because of this lull I have snuck on to the computer and posted like a madwoman! Enjoy.

Oh yes: I've also added some pics to the "Of hypothermic lambs and crazy yows..." post.

Cheers! Time to bottle feed a caddy and put the tatties on to boil!

Rebbecca came and visited the farm so she could toole around and take some photos. Here is one of my favorites because it is a great shot of the lambs! (The only way to get close to the lambs is to get mum-yow to get close to me! A bucket of grain always does the trick.) This is Elsie-yow of course.



You should see these little monsters now! They are HUGE and built like tanks! I have never seen such stout sheep. We may just go pure Texel if we can afford to buy some in!

I was just outside teaching the little caddie lamb to follow me so that he can be taken out every day for exercise. He's already got it in his head that I'm his mummy - now I have to convince him to follow one pair of legs rather then four legs and an udder!

Happy Easter! Happy Spring!!

Here is Sheep #6 with her first twin which she delivered very easily! (Note the "Come any closer and I will pounce!" look on her face...

I was juuuust sitting down to my morning prayers (Office of Readings for Holy Saturday) when Erlend came into the hoose and announced that Sheep #6, whom we have been watching for the past twa days, is lambing!

I'm still dreadfully new at this Shepherdess business so it was with much worry that I watched Erlend scurry away to the cattle byre with a quick, "I've got to get back to tagging the calves!" tossed over his shoulder. Now it was just me and the sheep!

I went into the sheep byre and found #6 straining away in the main pen. I could just make out the hint of a tiny hoof peeping from her woowoo. I crept as close to her as I could (without her bolting) and was satisfied to see that the hoof was coming out with the toes pointing up - meaning the lamb was coming head first!

Having #6 lamb in the main pen can be a pain in the neck. The other sheep trample all over new lambs - and some of them attack new lambs with their hard heads! Furthermore #6 could go racing all over that pen if I needed to hop in and help her!! I looked towards the byre door and considered my choices:

A) Run to Erlend and ask him to help shift the sheep.
B) Then, wait for Erlend to come help only God knows when.
C) Gird my loins and have a go at it myself!

As I watched #6 giving a hearty push (and a few sheepy-sounding groans) I realized that at some point here I'm going to have to try and fly the nest! I can't always rely on Erlend to come and save me when I'm faced with dealing with the Wooly Ladies! It's not that he expects me to become a farmer - it's just that...the sheep are small and deffinately the types of animals that I can learn to become more independent with so as to free Erlend up a bit for the cattle and field work.

So...I could perpetually hide behind Erlend's skirts orrrrrrrr I could learn to fly!

I opened up the door to the outside pen (we shut it when it is raining out) and shooed the Wooly Ladies outside. Lucky for me #6 was a bit distracted and she missed the boat: I had the flock shut outside before she realized what was going on. However, moving #6 turned into a bit of a circus. You see, I have YET to outsmart a sheep! Stupid animals? Not on your life!! Sheep, cows, hens, pigs...all of the "dumb" looking farm animals are in fact disgustingly clever. Sheep #6 figured out right away that I am weak on my left side due to my ankle. And so every time I tried to herd her towards the open gate (we have two gates: one leads outside, the other leads to the byre passage) she would dance left, right, left - and then dive to the left leaving me choking in her dust!

I never knew that a lady giving birth could move so fast...

(My ankle is getting better by the way! I can take a walk across the big field on calm evenings with Elsie-yow and oggle the birds living on the "Rough Bit" Erlend has set aside for the winged critters!)

Ok, so, my last two careers (Navy and fire service) taught me a lot about problem solving and dealing with situations NOW. Was I about to be outwitted by a hugely pregnant lumbering sheep in labor and have to run crying to Erlend? NO WAY!! I snatched up a sheep hurdle (a small gate of sorts) and used it to persude Her Ladyship to move her butt the heck OUT of the pen, thank you kindly. Faced with a gate she merrily moved along out of the pen, down the passage and right into the waiting lambing pen.

I hid off in the shadows and observed her for several minutes as I'm still learning about these things. I was having a good look at her so that I could hopefully recognize a laboring yow from the TV screen in the bedroom at some ungodly hour. The signs of labor turned out to be blatantly obvious: even a blind man could figure it out! I watched as over and over again one wee hoof emerged and then disapeared back into the depths of Madam Sheep. Hmmm. One hoof. Was this good?? I dinae ken. Was it bad? I dinae ken. What should I do? (Run to Erlend! Get Erlend! AAAAAAH!)

No. I refused to run crying to Erlend! I decided I'd put on a glove and have a feel and see if everything was normal and ok! And I did just that: I caught Madam Sheep and poked a few (lubricated, I'm not cruel!) fingers into the Holy of Holies and behold! there was another hoof just alongside, and a bit behind, the first hoof. And behold! (OUCH!!) there was the head and the little beast bit me!

It felt to me as if both hooves were front hooves and they belonged to the little lamb. So now I'm going to leave Madam Sheep alone for half an hour and then go see if she's made any progress. She's a gimmer (first time mom) so Erlend said she needs an extra hour to deliver as everything is a bit tight "down there" and she's probably tense and scared - which makes everything tighter! I've seen several heefers give birth and many of them are quite terrified as if they have no idea what on EARTH is taking place!

I'll post pictures after she lambs.

Update: Poor Sheep #6 had a wretched delivery. Her second lamb was coming out head-first with the legs back. This meant we had to elevate #6's hind end and I had to push the lamb back inside of her and then fish out the legs because a lamb has to be born legs and THEN head. Finally we managed to get everything sorted out and voila!:

Sheep #6 with both of her bonnie lambs!
Of course, I was in a complete tizzy as this was the FIRST lamb I ever had to really work with. I couldn't find its head in order to place the snare around it so I had to have Erlend do that. And then, I kept tying the lambing ropes onto one leg instead of tying it to EACH leg! I was frantic and Erlend kept saying very calmly, "Don't panic noo. Just slow doon..." He later told me that basically everyone freaks out when they are first working with lambings and calving so then I didn't feel so bad.

Later on after tea Erlend demonstrated to me (with a chair) how to hold a yow in a pen when I'm on my own. I've tried this but the yows always have the upper hand - even with my superior weight! It's my ankle: I can't use my left leg much power-wise. Yet. It's getting better though!

Here's a nice quote that I really enjoy:
"What does the Lord ask of you? To act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God."

Just thought I'd share! hehehehe HAPPY EASTER!


Jesus has risen from the dead! (At least, that's what we Catholics believe. Please don't be offended if you have differing beliefs!)

I woke up to a pair of smiling blue eyes: Erlend! (Not Jesus!) He's alway such a cheerful creature upon waking up.

Sadly, my Easter ham never came in and now I have nothing to cook for Easter dinner except some mince...or maybe some steaks? Hmmm! Now THERE is an idea! "Easter Steaks."

We are so worn out from lambing and calving that I never even thought to plan anything for dinner! Not even a nice desert! So now I'm scramblinb to pull together some kind of Easter feast at 11:45am. (My brain is just now waking up hahahahaha!!)


We light the Pascal Candle at the Easter Vigil Mass and renew our baptismal vows.

I have...rump steak, prawns and twa lamb chops and also some frozen raspberries. If I delay dinner until 2pm...I just might be able to pull off some kind of a cake or pie! I'll have to give hubby a ring and see if he can wait until 2pm.

Update: I did just that AND I baked a chocolate raspberry cake to boot! Erlend had himself a lovely feast when he came in for dinner at 2pm!

And now when I say the office of Night Prayer I shall sing:
Regina c忙li l忙tare, Alleluia:
Quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluia:
Resurrexit sicut dixit, Allelluia:
Ora pro nobis Deum, Alleluia

(Queen of Heaven, rejoice! Alleluia!
For the Son thou wast privileged to bear, Alleluia!
Is risen as He said. Alleluia!
Pray for us to God. Alleluia!)

Update:
Erlend and I were able to go to Easter Mass because the cows and sheep held off on giving birth. (Thank you! Thank you kind masters!) Erlend looked so fine in his suit. I had chosen a nice skirt to wear but the weather was so coarse that I ended up wearing a pair of jeans under it! Once at Mass I thought I was safe because the skirt was very long. However, the old elastic waistband had given out and I had pinned it - but the pin let loose and all during Mass I had to struggle to keep my skirt on!!!!! I was nearly having a fit of laughter by the end because my skirt was just hanging off of me. I had to clutch at it while going up for Holy Communion and I kept praying that it wouldn't fall off and cause me to trip and fall on my face. I *did* manage to wear my Easter hat though - but I had to carry it (clutched tightly to my chest) into Saint Magnus Cathedral due to the nasty wind.
I keep missing the Easter Vigil on Saturday night because I forget that it is not the same Mass as the one on Easter Sunday morning. Last year I swore I wouldn't forget. But I did. So...maybe next year I'll get it right! (I've been Catholic for 9 years now. You'd think I'd have caught on hahaha!)

I've been bottle feeding a rejected triplet - the same one that was laid on and almost died from suffocation and hypothermia. He's doing very well and has ended up with a name by default: "Little Sheep."

Here are some photos of the little guy. He's getting big, fat and pushy!! When I go out to his little pen he sticks his head through the bars and nails me in the legs over and over again looking for MILK NOW SLAVE!!! Ah, but he sure is cute!


I just love how a lamb's muzzle wrinkles while it nurses hehehe!


Here is Little Sheep engaging in his favorite (only) pasttime: EATING!


It should be illegal for any creature to be THAT CUTE!! It's just not fair! He's getting on very well and now he sees me as "Mummy Yow" and will have no other but me. Thank GOD he sleeps in the byre hahaha! He'd keep me up all night begging for milk.

I see now that holiness, Sainthood even, will not come to me by way of grand deeds worthy of the Nobel Peace prize. I'll never be anyone special or famous for holiness and great acts of charity. I am: Madam Housewife! One amongst billions of other housewives.

No, instead of great things Sainthood is offered to me as I'm kneeling in the byre desparately trying to push the swollen head of a lamb back down into its mother's womb while Erlend holds her hind end aloft, his strong hands gripping her ankles and my temper flaring as he fails to do exactly what I want him to do.

Holiness will dangle before me as, yet again, I scrub the toilet.

Sanctity will be placed in my path as the phone rings for the third time in an hour and I'm up to my elbows in dishwater and trying to get the house clean before our guests arrive...

These are the "grand" moments when I will be tried and tested and my true self will be revealed - because what is really on the inside comes bursting out when we are stressed and inconvenienced. This is when I will be offered the chance to respond with charity and patience rather then snapping and being nasty. I must pull myself off of the stage and keep vigil over myself in the hidden things of my daily life.

I shall be challenged by a thousand tiny things each day - tiny things that go unseen by anyone else. How much easier it is to perform in front of witnesses! How Saintly I am when people are watching me! But when I am alone in the field trying to corner a calf or I am woken from a much-needed nap by a visitor then I shall be put to the test.

If I'm able to remember all of this, then when I die I will stand before God with a cooking pot in one hand and slimey lambing ropes in the other. I'll be dressed in my stained apron with my hair flying is all directions. I'll have bags under my eyes and coffee breath. My shoes will be caked with mud and there will be a trail of dung and straw that I tracked in through the Pearly Gates.

I will be nothing fancy or spectacular but I will say to Him, "Lord, I have loved You even as my in-laws stopped by just as I was about to sit down and rest. I loved you as my husband inturrupted my busy morning to ask me to help shift kye. That's all I could do, God. All I could give was Love and more Love. I had nothing else - no grand deeds or theological works. I stand before you with empty hands - but my heart is filled with Love!"

We watched a yow basically all evening and all night and...nothing. Not one push, not one strain. Yet she was showing all the signs of beginning to lamb!

So this morning Erlend put a hand in her and OH DEAR! He found one lamb with his back against the opening. After a lot of work Erlend turned the lamb around and delivered him...but sadly it died. (It must have died only a few hours before.) So I began to prepare Little Sheep to be adopted by this yow: I tied three of his legs together and started to rub him on the dead lamb.

However to our surprise (and delight!) we found that this yow was having triplets instead of twins - and the other two lambs came out very much alive! And now Madam Mystery Yow is happily licking and nickering away in her pen.

Right before dinner we found Sheep #4 sniffing around "The Corner" (the sheep in labor have a thing about this particular corner of the pen) and when I looked at her her back end was wet and she was deffinately in labor! We had a quick dinner at the in-laws and came back to find the bag of waters had burst. She didn't seem right though. Something was "off"...

Sheep #4 had a hard lambing: she didn't seem to be getting on so when I put a hand in her I wasn't surprised to find that the lamb was coming head first. I searched and couldn't find any hooves so I had Erlend double check. He confirmed that the legs were back and the head was coming first - but luckily the head had not passed through the pelvis yet!

So...once again we propped a yow's hind end up on a strae (straw) bale and made her kneel (so her backside was elevated) and I had a go at trying to find the legs and get the lambing rope around them.

It was a very hard job. #4 was extremely tight and Erlend said this was because she had not stretched anything oot yet because the head hadn't come through the pelvis.

I'm taking notes for my own births in the future...

Erlend had already fished out one leg and then we swapped places so I could get some practice. I managed to get the lambing rope on that leg - which sounds easy but is DIFFICULT when you have to do so inside of a very tight slippery space with one slippery hand clutching at an extremely slippery leg! To top it off you can hardly feel the rope because it gets slippery too!! But I did it and I felt elated.

After some time, and quite a bit of yoga-style positions, I was able to locate the second leg and get the lambing rope on it. THIS TIME I didn't put the ropes on the same leg!! That in and of itself was a triumph haha!

I found the head and accidentally stuck my finger in the lamb's mooth. He immediately began to sook! I tried my best to get the snare around his little head but...I just could not tell the head, body and the other various slimy parts one from the other! I gave it a good try but since the sheep is not exactly having herself a picnic I thought it best for Erlend to take over.

He got the snare on in two shakes of a lambs tail. He's good! (Even though he always acts like he's some lumbering dumb ox or something...) (Acctually, wait, I should view his behavior through the lense of Orkney culture and see it for what it is: Orcadians are loathe to put themselves forward and always wave aside praise and play down their skills and talents.)

It was a tight and tough lambing and it took some work and a lot of cries from poor #4 before that big bonnie lamb passed through the pelvis. She was licking him and nickering at him the second we placed him under her nose!

I stink of iodine and sheep - the scent of sheep just SINKS into your skin and hair...it's still there even after you wash with hot water and soap! Sheep scent is ok but when it is mixed with iodine all I can picture is the hot slimy world of birthing lambs... (I've lost my appatite more then once in the past few weeks!)

#4 had another very wee lamb inside of her and when we pulled him out his eyes were blinking and he was gasping. But sadly he died because his heart stopped. I swung him like a cat and Erlend pumped his wee chest but all to no avail. He died anyway.

The good news is that I bound three of "Little Sheep's" flailing hooves and we covered him with the birth fluids and #4 accepted him as if he were her own lamb. However...we don't know if Little Sheep will accept the yow! He may be too bonded to me. But when Erlend stuck him on one of #4's teats he sooked like mad so there's hope...

Ooooh ugh my hands stink!!! And nothing takes the stench away! Yack.

Now "Ten" is sniffing around The Corner and her udder is about the size of my head! Are we to have three lambings today? I sure hope that Ten drops her lambs without any problems!

I am going to attempt to take a wee kip...(nap) Wish me luck!

"Free your minds, then, of encumbrances; control them, and put your trust in nothing but the grace that will be given you..." 1Peter

Te Deum

God, we praise you; Lord, we proclaim you!
You, the Father, the eternal 鈥�
all the earth venerates you.
All the angels, all the heavens, every power 鈥�
The cherubim, the seraphim 鈥�
unceasingly, they cry:
鈥淗oly, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts:
heaven and earth are full of the majesty of your glory!鈥�

Sleep was so darn close she could nearly taste it. She lay on the bed and sank down...down...down into the soft douvet and felt her lead eyelids closing.

But first! She switched on the TV and had a squint at the sheep. The brightness made it difficult to discern the animals...but she could clearly see Sheep "Ten" in "The Corner" pawing away at the strae. Pacing. Pawing. Laying down. Standing right back up again. Pawing some more.

Classic "I AM IN LABOR!" language.

Our buxom Shepherdess let out a wretched groan and dragged herself up from the bed. All of the lambing pens were full and now she had to play Sheep Chess and figure out where on earth to jockey the twa ill yows ... and then clean out their pen with that "Kills all known Germs!" stuff and then...put them in the nissen and shift #6 into the clean pen and somehow herd all of the other sheep out of the main pen while somehow keeping Ten contained and then, somehow, some way, getting Ten to go all by her little lonesome out of the pen and doon the passage (she's a BIG Texel lass!) into the lonely ("Where's my flock?!?!") lambing pen without getting totally beat up by the sheep...

(Our Shepherdess counts nearly a dozen purple-yellow bruises around her legs and feet where she has been trampled, kicked and danced upon by yows in various states of irritation...)

Would #6 follow her lambs? Or would she stick to the lambing pen and wail piteously as our Shepherdess hauled her lambs away doon the passge while wheedling, "Sheep, sheep, sheep - come sheep!"

What about #14 and #16 the ill sheep - would THEY follow their lambs? And can our Shepherdess possible carry four strapping lambs at the same time??

In the name of all that is sacred!!! She needs at least six arms.

Sleep...sleep was nothing more then a distant dream...it didn't really exist. Oh no, it was a myth. A myth!!

Now our Shepherdess must gird her loins and go be holy.

Or something like that.

Ten in one of the lambing pens eating her breakfast

We had three sheep lambing right in a row yesterday and boy are we beat because all three yows had to have our help! It's not easy trying to put lambing ropes on legs and snares around heads inside of the yow with one hand squashed in a tight (and straining!) space. And it's not fun causing pain either so that adds to the difficulty! I hate it when we have to stretch things and the poor yow cries out in pain!

Our other pure Texel named "Ten" (she had a 4 and a 6 painted on her back) went into labor and wasn't getting on with things, much to our frustration. It's not nice to pin a sheep down and force our hands in her and such! Poor animals. We are gentle but STILL!

I'm going to be a bit graphic here so this may not be good for young eyes.


One of Ten's lambs having a post-sook nap.
Ten's problem was that she was super tight in both her pelvis and her woowoo. Usually the pelvis slackens a bit and this allows the lamb to pass through - with a bit of work, but nothing drastic. There are certain parts that need to be stretched out - and normally this happens naturally as the animal strains and pushes. But Ten's lamb never left the womb because of the tight pelvis and so she never had a chance to push and work at things.

Normally when I put a hand in to a yow I can pass with only a minor amount of stress to the animal. But Ten was so tight I couldn't get even two fingers in without sending her to her feet. Both Erlend and I realized this was not going to be an easy lambing.

I sat on the ground and slowly worked my hand into Ten in an attempt at stretchign her a bit. It worked because these parts seem to know they are supposed to loosen up and after some urging they usually do. But still, it's painful and makes the sheep very miserable as she attempts to run away. It's not like we can explain to her what we are doing!!

After there was a bit more room I managed to fish out both of the lamb's legs and put the ropes on them. But when I pulled the legs the head wouldn't come through - it was too tight. Somehow I managed to ease my hand in with the snare but I was nervous: thus far I had always failed with the snare! But I didn't want to have to have Erlend put his huge hand into Ten!!


One of Ten's lambs having his breakfast!
So I worked at it - and amazingly I found a bit of room around the lamb's head! After several nearly unholy moments of frustration I finally managed to locate the lamb's ears. The snare is a pain though because you can only use one hand and you cannot have your hand scrunched up - it has to be straight so that it is flat and eases inside!

And the snare...it likes to bend and slip away. Also, it gets just as warm as everything else so then you can't really feel it! I managed to catch the snare under what little fingernail I had on my first finger and that is how I was able to get it into the yow and then around the lamb's head and behind his ears. I couldn't get the "lock" part to slip into the lamb's mouth because the snare was so bent and crooked. But Erlend said it should be fine.

Getting that lamb out was living hell for poor Ten. She was so tight that one of us had to pull her woowoo out in a big circle while the other worked at pulling the lamb's head through. At one point it was so tight that the lamb was going nowhere and Ten was howling and I was near tears. I kept waiting for something to rip!! But like I said, these parts seem to know that they are meant to loosen up - and Ten's did, but only a fraction of a bit! That lamb still came through a very tight space and Ten was howling and...the little critter was finally born!! We thought she was dead though - and she very nearly was! Erlend had to massage her heart and I was poking straw in her nose and we swung her like a cat until finally she started to cough and breathe and shake her head.

Erlend delivered the second lamb, a smaller ram lamb, which had nearly as hard of a time coming out but he was far more lively and strong. The yow lamb took a long time to finally get on her feet and we had to feed her with the stomach tube in the end because she wasn't getting up enough to sook.

They both look fine today though and Ten doesn't even seem to remember the misery of last night! Thankfully nothing tore so she's not in any real pain.

All I can hope is that the remaining yows deliver their lambs more easily and with less human intervention! Erlend said that if a flock of sheep get freaked out about something then they will almost always have hard deliveries. Well, there was that day not long ago when I called the vet because the sheep were totally wacky and crazed about something! Maybe this is the reason why we are having such a hard time at lambing? I dinnae ken.


Ten and one of her lambs - they look happy!

Please don't expect excellence! I took photos with an all-purpose camera in the early morning in dusky byres - and my subjects wouldn't hold still!

I'm so glad the three yows decided to lamb during the daytime! I still checked on them via the camera all night but we didn't have to get up and lamb anyone!


Hmm. His head looks a bit big...


How did you get so dirty little lamb??


"Me first! It's my turn to sook!"


Zeb hides out in the cattle byre


Some of the older lambs in the big pen in the nissen


Dinner time!
Update: Sheep #9 has delivered two fine lambs - one yow and one tup. We had to lamb her though. Both of us believe that these hard lambings are due to the strange incident that took place not long ago and freaked out all of the sheep.

Jesus said to her, 鈥淢ary!鈥� She turned and said to him in Hebrew, 鈥淩abbouni,鈥�

So much for the idea that God despises women and thinks that they are below men in status! When Jesus rose from the dead the first person He visited with was a wee woman:

Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, 鈥淲oman, why are you weeping?鈥�
She said to them, 鈥淭hey have taken my Lord,
and I don鈥檛 know where they laid him.鈥�
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, 鈥淲oman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?鈥�
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
鈥淪ir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.鈥�
Jesus said to her, 鈥淢ary!鈥�
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, 鈥淩abbouni,鈥�
which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her, 鈥淪top holding on to me,
for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
鈥業 am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.鈥欌��
Mary went and announced to the disciples,
鈥淚 have seen the Lord,鈥�
and then reported what he had told her.

So...(obviously this blurb is according to my Catholic beliefs. Your beliefs might differ and that's fine!) God was born of a woman and then a herd of weeping women followed him all the way to the cross. While He was hanging on the cross a pack of women stayed at the foot of His cross while the men fled (except young John) away and hid. Before Jesus died He entrusted Saint John to His mother Mary, a woman. Then when God rose from the dead He first appeared to...a woman!

And all through history many of the greatest Saints have been women. Wasn't it a mere wisp of a woman (Saint Catherine of Siena) that scolded the Pope back to Rome from where he had been hiding out in France??

I'd say that we women have, and always have had, a very powerful and beautiful place in the Church! Men have their place and we women have our place - together we all make up the Church in our own beautiful roles! I must say that it seems very well balanced: what men lack, women make up for and what women lack, men make up for. Jesus established Womens' Equality long before we humans even thought about it. And none of those biblical women had to burn a bra in the meantime!

(Is it unholy to print "bra"? Sorry, couldn't resist the corny quip hehehehe)

I say that in all good humor though. I'm just at the end of my endurance and we have seven sheep to lamb yet!! Last night my pet sheep "Matilda" dropped her lambs without a hitch at 1am. What a treat!

I think I'm so tired because I had to spend all winter sitting on my bum. I'm a tad out of shape - I found myself struggling at the Post Office to hold a small box. I wanted to say, "Give me a BREAK! This box is nothing!" but I figured folks would think me mad.

Lambing is hard work because you have to go at it in all sorts of sideways and half on your knees positions while at the same time trying to pin down a struggling (and very powerful!) yow. I have a feeling that if I am on the go this summer and get plenty of exercise I'll have a much easier time next lambing season! This ankle is still hurting but I am seeing some great improvements. I can really walk around for quite a while now before it complains! The only thing I really struggle with is standing. If I stand still the whole ankle and foot screams! But I can squat and kneel a bit so this means I should be able to do some flower planting YIPEEE!!!

I bought some great ab workout (pilates) and belly dance DVDs to help get my core strong again. Belly dance will whup your butt!!

This day I haven't had time to do much prayer. And I'm seriously in need of a nap - we had a late night, then a middle of the night lambing and THEN a blasted coo kept roaring and roaring for HOURS. Erlend slept like a rock but I lay there with bloodshot eyes twitching and drooling. Every fifteen seconds "ROAR!!"

We have another caddy lamb - Sheep #7 has rejected another of her triplets. Erlend says, "She's one of those sheep that can only count to one!" I juuuuust pawned Little Sheep off on Sheep #4 and was feeling pretty good! And now I have another screaming caddy. We have twa more sheep having triplets....and any of our other sheep can have surprise triplets! I very well might have a handfull of caddies to feed. I'll consider it practice for when I have a kid of my own!

Uh...let's see. Can I come up with anything holy for Weds. in the Octave of Easter? Hmmmm. "God is good. Amen."

God bless everyone! May you be having a LOVELY spring day today! Be happy!

I'm too tired to say anything more. Cheers!

What a warm day it was today! I think our camera is dying on us because it no longer takes clear pictures - the white parts on the sheep glow and all of my close-ups came out so bright you can't see them. But here are some of the best ones from the batch.











We have 7 yows left to lamb and about 17 cows left to calve. We are at that stage of exhaustion where we can't make conversation to save our lives. We met the photographer Rebbecca in toon yesterday - she had come to the farm and taken some photos for her art project - and I felt like such a twit because I could hardly string twa words together!!!!

I can't wait to sleep again. Meanwhile I'll enjoy some of that sunshine!!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

That darn coo won't stop boggling at night! And she boggles EVERY TIME I lay down for a kip. I can handle sleep loss due to lambing - but to lose endless hours of sleep because of a blasted COW??? arrrrrg

I'm going to sell her to gypsies!!!

(Hey Dag, want a cow?)

Saturday in the Octave of Easter - I need more coffee. Then, fortified and buzzing, I'll start my prayers.

I am truly incapable of posting anything intelligent. God bless and may God allow me to sleep tonight!

"How many perish in the world through vain learning, who little care for the service of God! And because they chose rather to be great then to be humble, therefore they are lost in their own imaginations."
"The Imitation of Christ" Thomas A' Kempis,
pg. 10, Baronius Press 2005



What a cool little book this is! And I found a lovely portable size edition. I never cared for "The Imitation of Christ" before because I was too busy being cool and self-centered. But after such an interesting and eye-opening Lent I've decided to give it another try. However, I wouldn't recommend reading this wee book if you are tired or distracted - it's a bit heavy and not an "easy read."

And I found another treasure! "The Rule of Saint Benedict" in the more original English rather then a watery "modern" translation that rather kills the meaning of his words and turns them into warm-fuzzy feel good stuff. Since I'm aspiring to become a Benedictine Oblate with Pluscarden Abbey I figured it would be a good investment. *grin*

Here are some pictures for you!


The Ball of Brodgar. (My little puss!)


A pen of sleeping calves. (I couldn't get close or they'd bolt!)


I *did* manage to sneak up on this calf before she ran away!


Tame "Matilda" nursing her brood.

Well, I hope you are having good weather like we are! It must be darn near above freezing out there - heat wave!! All this sunshine is a treat - I hope it sticks around.

Well, cheerio! Ya'll have a great day! Behave! (hahaha snort snort)

Holy cow - (sheep?) I thought the Pope would be waaaaay too high up the Catholic ladder to lower himself and reply to my letter. Ok, well, his Papal letter-replier did the acctual replying but still, I got a response from the Vatican. Dude!


Does this mean the Pope acctually looked at my letter?? Wow.

What originally inspired me to write the Pope was the desire for two blessed crucifixes for me and Erlend. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a crucifix blessed by the Pope??" And so I wrote to Rome and asked for exactly that - and threw in a few prayer requests for my three sisters while I was at it. (Becky is my cousin but we grew up like sisters!)

Well, there ya have it! I even got a photo. A package deal! Blessed items, prayers - and a photo to boot!


Viva il Papa!

I received a second photo but I sent it to my friend Lisa who is a Poor Clare nun back in the States. She was my confirmation sponsor in 1999 and we encouraged one-another as we both discerned the call to be nuns. I was 100% convinced I was to become a nun and though I'm happy as a married woman I'm still scratching my head. Totally focused on becoming a Nun...and ended up married with 300 cows. Hmmm!

We were driving by one of the barley fields and Erlend said, "Ach! The barley is a-breer!" Of course I said, "Huh?" Breer = sprouting! It's SO COOL seeing the turn of the seasons here on the farm. I saw the crops half-grown and then harvested but this is my first spring here and I've now seen the fields prepared (some ploughed and harrowed) and sown with seed. And thrill of thirlls - my first ever breer sighting!! GO BARELY! Er...BARLEY!

(Erlend has undersown oats and clover with his grass and barley.)


Our new lass: a Shetland x Cheviot yow. We got her from a farmer friend and she's here to adopt wacky "Little Sheep" who has managed to terrorize every yow we've put him on. He's so insanely greedy that he drives every yow up the wall! We hobbled him and that's slowed him down a bit - but the little bugger is going to kill himself eating! This yow is 4 years old and much calmer. We still have to keep her in the lamb adopter though because she knows it's not HER lamb. (She lost her lambs.) We have to take Little Sheep off of the yow because HE WONT STOP EATING! Something must be wrong in his brain...

We found YET another sheep with a head sticking oot from under her tail. So Erlend draped her over the strae bale and I put the lambing snare around the wee lamb's head. Then I squatted over the yow's shoulders so she couldn't stand her front end up. (This keeps the hind end elevated on the strae bale so Erlend can push the head back in with more ease.) I weight at least 260 pounds so there was NO way that yow was going anywhere!

Being a true Woman of Grace I promptly kicked over the pail full of antiseptic hot water and it flooded down the byre passage with all of the bull pee. The lambing ropes merrily flowed by as Erlend stared at me in silence with one arm stuck inside of the sheep. He finished pushing the head back in while muttering under his breath while I tried not to look guilty.

He then had to go and refill the bucket and since I am a buxom woman and we figured Madam Sheep was going nowhere I stayed put. I was crouched over her shoulders facing her tail with the sheep kneeling down on her knees with her rear end up in the air on the bale of strae. As Erlend disapeared through the dairy door I stuck my hand in the sheep in order to keep her from pushing the head of the lamb out again.

All of a sudden the yow bounced off of the strae bale and sprang to her feet! I had just enough time to reach around behind me and grab her under the chin so that her nose pointed upwards. This only slowed her down and did NOT stop her - she still managed to race around and around the pen with me on her back clutching her chin with one hand and pushing her lamb back with the other.

Round and round we went as I tried desparately to dig my heels and toes into the ground. I figured, "Any moment now she's going to collapse - I'm not a lightweight!!" But things did not work out that way - she just kept going!!

So I started to howl at the top of my lungs, "HELP!! HEEEELLLLP!!" until Erlend came racing into the byre and saw me wizzing around the pen, backwards, on the yow in a very interesting position.

Lucky for me Erlend is a strong man and he soon had the yow back down on her knees. I half-crouched half-sat a bit more on the yow's neck and this seemed to do the trick long enough for Erlend to finish with the bucket of water and iodine soapy stuff.

I'm happy to report that the lamb was born strong and healthy - and so was her wee sister!

Baaaaah

I apologize if I have offended anyone here at Island Blogging.

Here are some photos from a Shepherd in Norway named Dag. It's really cool seeing things from Dag's neck of the woods!! (Dag gave his permission to put these photos up on the blog!)


Here is a picture of Dag and his Norwegian sheep called "Rygjasau" from the County Ryfylke. (I totally had to cut-and-paste those words!!)


Look - they have bells!!


Dag and Svartfjes "Black Face" (In my Crow way I would say, "Half Face Sheep" We have a Half Face Coo! She's evil though...)


Dirdal and Hogsfjord (Um...but the "o" in Hogsfjord is that O with a slash thingy in it...like Theta, ya ken?)


FOUR lambs! Can you believe it?? How did the yow manage to walk??


"July with her lamb" (This has to be one of my favorite pictures ever!!)

Hey Dag - here's a picture of me with my two pet lambs "Sigurd" and "Swain" (Erlend gave them to me as a wedding gift!) in August. I started off with only two sheep and now we have 25!!:

I scrounged another batch of photos off of Dag so that we can all take a peek at sheep farming in Norway! He and his wife are teachers *and* shepherds on a bonnie 100 acres of hill farm complete with woods (covet...covet). They have 50 native Norwegian sheep (twice the amount we have at the moment) and will have 80 - 90 lambs by the time lambing season has ended. (Are you desparate for sleep yet, Dag??)

Enjoy the photos! (thanks Dag!)


A photo of Dirdal. Isn't it lovely? I can't get over the dramatic hills!! They remind me of the hills I saw in the Highlands while Erlend and I were on our honeymoon.


A colorful Norwegian sheep! Dag has it labled as, "Norwegian Pels Sheep" so I'm guessing "Pels" is the breed? I love how bonnie and colorful she is! My sheep are great but...they are ALL white. (This sheep even has a fringe! And uh...glowing blue robot eyes??)


Dirdal Beach


Dirdal river (how I miss rivers! I don't think they are common on islands...)


Hogsfjord. (I can't do the theta "o") WOW what a site! So much like the Highlands!


Dag's lovely hoose and lovely wife standing in their lovely garden. (Oooo! Tulips! We have red tulips blooming in our yard too!)


Pelssauer are grazing. (What does this mean, Dag? Is Pelssauer the breed of sheep?) Hey look at that - a red barn! Just like back home in Massachusetts! I miss red barns - Orcadian byres are sturdy windproof concrete and if I painted our byres the wind would blast the paint right off hahaha!!


Steinskog Gard (Stoneywood Farm) They have stone dykes like here in Orkney!


Dag and his domain. (Are you looking around for escaped lambs, Dag?) You LUCKY goose Dag! You live right on a river! My dad's house is right on a river and I always loved hearing the river music. We have a loch nearby here at our farm - and it is often covered in swans!


A flock of camera hams! Sheep are just so darn cute. It's unfair really! I can hear mine yelling from their field, "Bring us grain! Bring us grain!"

We hope you've enjoyed your tour of sheeping in Norway!

This is an award given by bloggers to bloggers - and when you win the award you have to award it to five blogs of your choice!

On my other blog I listed my five choices and I just wanted to let you know that "" was one of these blogs - a gifted story teller that promotes the local dialect! **Applause**

I hope the word gets out and your blog is visited by people from around the world so that folk everywhere can enjoy your stories!!

I've learned a new word this week: "retrograde" hehehe! I couldn't resist the 1950's gingham-check! (spelling?)

Mint! Glorious mint! You have to watch this stuff though: it will try and take over the world if released into the wild!!

The Wooly Ladies and their lambs outside in the Long Field.

Erlend called all this grey stuff a "haar." Only he said it with about seven extra r's at the end: haarrrrrrr. I'll never undersand this Orcadian accent...ScottishBrogueMixedWithNorwegianVowelsThatAmericansCan'tPronounce...(Unless they are from Minnesota...)

In America we call this stuff, "Thick as Pea Soup"

I love rain! I love the haar! And I love the color grey! You can imagine my delight as I ran round this evening enjoying the haar that rolled in:


Look at that bonnie haar!

So lovely and grey!

Oh bonnie haar, oh bonnie haar, how lovely you are rolling in...
It's nice of you to come out this way!
I wish you visited every day!
Oh bonnie haar, oh bonnie haar,
Don't be a stranger!

Ok, this isn't a haar but I couldn't resist sharing: the pink flooers are oot! (note the mini sheep family...they were on our wedding cake!) Wow I never realised I had such an interesting collection on our windowsill. Let's see...a dying tomato plant, sheep family, a brass camel from Saudi Arabia, a buffalo from America, The Virgin Mary and a few spiders...