Pinky is trying to stand but mostly sitting. She still tries to buff Cassius but I put the lamb onto her teat and held Pinky’s back leg down so that she couldn’t kick the lamb. He sucked away

T

And when these trays of sweet peppers and chilli peppers are bigger and the nights are warmer they will go into the unheated greenhouse and the polytunnel

Cieste will only ever bond with and feed ONE lamb. If she has twins or triplets (some might remember Iggle and Piggle – two rejected lambs) then she bashes the ones she won’t look after. She has tough horns snd we have learnt to remove the surplus lambs before Cieste does them real damage. This time she has had twins, keeping the girl and rejecting the boy

In past years with cold nights I have brought the lamb into the house. Today we put Cassius into the barn with Pinky. Here’s the story on Pinky. On Thursday morning Pinky was lying down in distress trying to give birth to a lamb that was stuck. It has happened before. It was a singleton and huge and we had to pull it out even though we realised it was lifeless. We removed the lamb and hoped that Pinky would recover. She remained sitting for some hours. I telephoned the vet who advised that we get her into the barn onto soft bedding. Somehow we did it but she remained sitting unable to stand. The vet came to see her yesterday afternoon and gave her a cortisone injection but no antibiotics as she hadn’t got a temperature. When Cassius was born today we decided to see if Pinky would bond with him. Pinky is still unable to stand for more than a few seconds but she is eating and drinking. So far she is not showing any affection for Cassius and tries to push him away if he gets close to her. We will wait snd see. I’m not convinced that Pinky will stand again and for the time being little Cassius (a good eater) has a reluctant companion.

I was outside when I heard loud distressed sounds from the sheep field. Susie was lying on her side with two feet sticking out of her rear end. I called the midwife and Susie stood up whilst I held her horns at the front and Jeremy pulled and eased the lamb out at the back. A boy!

Now we need one to go “broody” and sit on a clutch of eggs. Here’s hoping