The last couple of yarns were sort of cliffhangers, and even the ones about lambing were never really resolved. Like so much in life, these stories are not really finished, but at least here’s an update.
I’ve decided it’s time to give WGW yarns a bit more of the limelight normally taken up by farm animals. My plan is to alternate Yarns from the Farm posts, with a Yarn Edition followed by a Farm Edition. I’m hoping this will satisfy both the crafters and the animal lovers among you. This will be the inaugural Yarn Edition, featuring our new range of colours in 4 ply (fingering) silk merino blend.
It wouldn’t be WGW without some kind of experiment in progress, and this winter is no exception. Read on for an account of NQS: Not Quite Shepherding.
Well, lots has happened in the last seven months. You may remember I was on the point of starting the first lambing I’d done in several years (Call the Midwife). As it turned out, none of the things I was worried about, and therefore prepared for, eventuated. Unfortunately, I hadn’t even thought about the possibility of an infection that would cause most of my lambs to be stillborn, late in pregnancy. Of the 25 or so lambs conceived, only eight survived. Unusually severe spring weather contributed to the losses.
It doesn’t often come up in farming conversations, but my title is officially Dr. I’m not the useful sort of doctor, though — just an academic. In retrospect, I should have studied medicine, as I originally intended. Instead, my academic qualifications extend to explaining climate change, but are totally useless in the project that is about to take all of my time and energy for the next few weeks: lambing 33 ewes.
This is the first time in six years that I’ve had lambs of my own. I had lots of good rationalisations for why it was a good idea to buy in lambs, but the truth is I chickened out. Lambing, like ageing, is not for the faint of heart.
