Today, like any other day, started with plans ahoy…then I got out of bed.

Being on the farm doesn’t mean I am not still attending to all the needs of my other interests… So after getting through as much as I could, I headed out around the farm to empty and clean all the water troughs and check the ewes that started lambing a few days ago. There were little pure white Dorper lambs everywhere as I wondered through the mobs to ensure there were no problems. It was as though the ground was moving….with the babies coming out of the tall grass to investigate what their mothers were stirring from.

I had my offsider ‘Jed’ with me to train him to heel through an open paddock of sheep. Though he did well, he showed severe anxiety whenever I was more then 5 metres away, which is going to be something I’ll have to work on over the coming week. The idea is to use him in the future to round up any single ewes that may have any health problems and treat them in the field so as not to disturb the whole mob and have any threat of mismothering, which is what happens when the whole mob is moved at this critical time.

Unfortunately, crow attacks had left several ewes blinded and a lamb orphaned, so I took him in for a feed only to find all the milk on my place gone and the only thing similar was some Milo… Unable to let the little bugger wait, I drove 30kms to Mum and Dad’s to find they were also out of milk, thanks to a run of orphaned poddy calves.

With Shirley another 20kms away and the little lamb making overtures, I rifled through the pantry and all I could find was Horlicks and Malted Milk.. so mixing them together and adding some warm water I had a little content cutie.

What ensued was one thing after the other, with not much action but a lot of running around… Just means tomorrow starts earlier and a lot less tail chasing will be going on.

But hey, at least one little fella will have a good night’s sleep