Baby rams and sneaky piglets

'They're cunning, those pigs', and indeed they are.  Having worked our how to lift the bottom of the fence with the determined supplication of snout leverage the piglets were happily rootling around in three different fields.  However- and this is the really cunning part- as soon as we approached they all ran back into their field and stood innocently with 'what? us?' expressions.  We weren't fooled.  The solution was to drive more two more fence posts into the bent parts of the fence.  Fortunately this wasn't too hard using a post rammer (which we have used before).  Try and break out of that, little piggies! (and they will).


The pigs in three different fields



Totally unrepentant escapee

While we were herding pigs, another one of the pregnant sheep had decided to give birth.  We legged it across to her field just in time to see a new ram lamb stagger to his feet and start butting for milk.  The mother sheep (number 168) stood proudly licking her new (and slightly orange) baby, watched jealously by numbers (99 and 170) who are yet to give birth.  How about next Saturday ladies?

After carrying the new arrival into a crèche pen, which is full of straw and has high sides to keep out the biting fenland wind, we moved last weeks twins into the next-door field so that their mother could do some proper grazing.

A new ram lamb pops out!

The twin ewe lambs at 1 week old (born 21st March)



The final project of the day (the project as a whole will be ongoing for many weeks yet) was to dig over the vegetable beds in preparation for the rotovator.  The aim is to turn over the topsoil before the beds are covered with black plastic for a few weeks to kill off the grass and weeds.  The rotovator then turns the heavy sods into a fine(r) soil for planting.

Digging over the vegetable beds - these are for brassicas

Finished!  (well, four are finished anyway)

Unfortunately all of our efforts were put to shame by a local farmer's son (14!) who arrived on his tractor to plough the entire potato field in the time that it took us to do one bed each.  That's cheating surely?  Although I am delighted not to have to do it by hand!