What will make us remember 2020? Not a lot, I would imagine. No wonderful experiences, but days at home doing odd things to fill the days and yet the days have seemed to fly by.
My lambing was spread over too many months. At scanning time just about half were empty! So very unusually I put the tups back in and so had the first lambs in January as usual and the last at the end of April. That last ewe was most odd as I obviously knew when tups came out and she overshot that date and for several more days I wondered if she was ill as she seemed to get fatter and fatter and drank a lot of water. Anyway, one morning she lambed easily and it’s a super ram lamb and I shall keep him for a future stud ram. During my elongated lambing of course the pandemic arrived and so I didn’t start leading the lambs, nor getting my lovely trimming guy to come to do that either. He sheared the shearlings though, and I wondered in the later months whether to get the lambs sheared too. I didn’t but wonder if I should have done as I had rather too many incidents of fly strike. I do not understand why they get a patch on the top of their shoulders/back of neck where their wool is totally clean. I think that we probably coped with the early shows being cancelled as we thought it would all go away before the later ones would be held. And so when it got nearer to the autumn our moods were not so good. As I write this there are three shows already cancelled for 2021.
Many firms that have no doubt made lots of money are the telephone companies. It has been a wonderful opportunity to catch up with pals and associates from the past - the long distant past in my case. Although the TV programmes have been fairly dire, there have been channels when one could watch old programmes/films when the actors/actresses were real stars - glamorous, beautifully dressed and adorable. I won’t comment on the so called stars of today.
I have also learnt a lot about the wars - being the daughter of a farmer whose relations were in fact all farmers, none of my relatives were in the forces and so the details of many parts of the war were never talked about. The nearest to being in the forces my father and uncles came I would imagine was to go to the local aerodromes at night to the officers mess for a few swift nips of scotch.
Like many folk this last few months I spent a lot of time in the garden but have not had much success. My tomato plants have produced masses of fruit, but I have to say that I don’t like the yellow variety very much - pretty tasteless. But I haven’t had one decent lettuce, nor a decent beetroot and very few cucumbers and even less courgettes. The only apple tree I have was in full beautiful bloom when we had a blast of cold weather and winds and that killed all the blossom, so very few apples, but apples have been plentiful in many of my friends’ gardens so I have had plenty to use. However, the friends who have had lots of beans, lettuce, courgettes and beetroot all live too far away for me to have baskets of their goodies.
Without really setting out to do so, I have reduced my flock by quite a lot. Luckily I have had contacts for stock and haven’t needed to advertise nor take any to sales. I did however buy two shearlings that were three quarters my blood lines. As the Spratton flock has been sold, I had the one opportunity to buy back some of my bloodlines or wouldn’t have another chance. I am pleased I did. Also, I have been sorting out the breeding of the sheep of my pals that need a ram shortly and so have been delving back into their pedigrees to see which are suitable. Very interesting and time consuming!
Lesley with her first flock of sheep.
As I have already said the most dreadful thing of all is that there have been no shows to go to. To start with we all felt the whole thing would not take long to be sorted but as the months went by and it was obvious this wouldn’t be the case it got more depressing. I know that one or two digital shows have been held but there is no way at all that any animal can genuinely be judged from a photo. And going to a show is more than just hoping to win a class, albeit very important, but seeing the other stock is important to compare them with your own. And of course to see all the other competitors, of all breeds and types of animals, to share an evening meal, a drink and then to have a night in our wonderful lorries, trailers, and tents. All of this has been greatly missed.
Still, to end on a more cheerful note, I have made some sloe, some damson and some blackberry gin this last week. I find the very best way to drink this is at supper time with a small tot of the gin topped up with tonic water. Very refreshing, and leaves one still sober to go to check sheep at night time and to shut the poultry in.
