A Cold Start to April!

My goodness it was cold on Dundry Hill! The wind was from the north east for the whole time that I was there and swept up the hill from Bristol in an icy blast that almost took your breath away. It was what we 'country folk' call a 'lazy wind' – it goes straight through, rather than round, you!

I arrived at lunch time on Maundy Thursday and my hosts were off to the Scilly Isles very early on Saturday morning, so I had a complete day as a hand over to get to grips with who got fed when and where, and what other things I should be doing – just as well with two dogs, six cats, three tortoises, three geese, one rabbit, nine ducks, a lot of chickens, a flock of seventeen Jacobs ewes, and twelve chicks in a brooder, to look after. I must admit that for the first few days I went around double-checking everything had been fed as I could envisage a nightmare scenario along these lines:

People arrive back from holiday after a week – 'Was everything OK?'
You: 'Oh yes, everything was fine'
Them: ' And did the donkey in the stable behave itself?'
You (with horrible sinking feeling in pit of stomach) 'What donkey?'
Oooops!

Luckily, I did remember to feed and water everything and there were no disasters while they were away. However, one slight bombshell that they dropped when I first arrived was that five of the ewes were pregnant and could start lambing any time from Easter Monday onwards! I hadn't been expecting that and, of course, once I knew that they could lamb, I was waking up in the early hours of every morning from Monday until they arrived home again the following Saturday. Once I had been outside in the frigid air, I was completely wide awake and couldn't get back to sleep for ages afterwards - I was so tired that I took to cat-napping in the afternoons, which were my quietest part of the day. I would put my trousers and a warm jumper on over my night shirt and creep out the back way to avoid disturbing the dogs, who would only want to accompany me on my early morning ramble, and walk quietly up to the paddock where the five ewes were – as soon as I approached and shone the torch in their direction they would get up, stretch and move off quickly to the far end of the field.

I have no idea how I would have managed if they had decided to lamb in the middle of the night – the ewes were very wary of me because they didn't know me; they were in a smallish paddock, but I would still have had huge problems penning any of them up; and then I would have had somehow to get them down the drive and into a stable as I didn't dare leave new-born lambs out in the field, as every night I could hear foxes barking very close by, and in fact they had had a fox attack in the early hours of the morning that I arrived – it got into one of the hen pens and killed several Light Sussex hens and a cockerel- there were feathers everywhere; it looked as if someone had split open a feather pillow and shaken it about.

It was with a heartfelt sigh of relief that I handed back the responsibility of the ewes to my hosts on their arrival home, only to wake the next morning to find that one of the ewes had produced twins in the early hours of the morning – she had obviously been waiting for her human to return and look after her!

In the mornings the round of feeding, watering and letting out of the poultry and the feeding of the other assorted animals took about two hours. The main problem was that, apart from the last two mornings that I was there, the hosepipes and drinkers were frozen and had to be defrosted using hot water carried up from the house, before I could top them up and let out the hens. Each of the breeding pens (apart from the remaining Light Sussex) had several hens and a cockerel. Now, most of the cockerels were quite well-behaved, but there were five that I had been warned to watch out for as they were a bit feisty. All went well for the first few mornings as I carried a large stick and ran back to the gate as soon as I had opened up the door (or 'pop-hole'). However, one morning I discovered that Mr Red Sussex could fly faster than I could run, as he caught up with me before I could escape through the gate and had a go with beak and claws at my leg! The next morning I decided that I would have to try a different approach, so I armed myself with a big stick in one hand and a well-branched piece of blackthorn in the other, and walked backwards to the gate jabbing one or other weapon in his face the whole time – I felt like one of those swashbuckling swordsmen who have a rapier and a short dagger!

When I had been here before in June there had only been one goose, as her female companion had been found dead one morning (Mr Fox was not responsible for this demise!), but I had just discovered the joys of a website called 'Preloved', which carries adverts for mainly second-hand items. It is a bit like eBay without the bidding, but with one significant difference – you can sell livestock on it, so we quickly got online and looked up 'Brecon Buff Geese' and lo and behold, there were several ads but one in particular looked promising – a young pair of geese near Carmarthen, so the day after I left, Sally drove to Carmarthen and bought them. They settled into their new home really well and were soon going round as a threesome, so I was really pleased to see this success story for myself – the 'lonely' goose seemed a lot happier now that she had some friends, especially as the gander courteously broke the ice on their water each morning by jumping into it! What a gentleman!

On Easter Sunday it was a sunny day, but still really cold, so I took my camera and went off for a circular walk, taking in Dundry village. The tower of Dundry church is incredibly tall and I believe that it could be seen by sailors returning to Bristol up the Bristol Channel, so that they knew they were nearly home. The view from Dundry village was quite amazing - I could see Clifton Suspension Bridge and both of the Severn Crossings as well as a layer of snow on the Welsh Mountains, and all of Bristol laid out below me like a model of a city.

Whilst in the Bristol area and therefore on 'home turf' I managed to catch up with my friends, Karen and Ade, who came to visit one morning and had a guided tour of my charges and enjoyed the panoramic views over Bristol, even though it was a bit hazy on the day that they came. I also managed to see one other friend, Grainne, as I had to make a flying visit to Draycott to see my ex about the field lease agreement. She has completely transformed her house into a beautiful, minimalist, light and airy space with incredible views in all directions and had only just moved back into it when I got to have 'the tour'. I was supposed to be seeing Dave and Jeni for a special lunch to celebrate Dave's birthday, but he was very unwell with a 'flu virus, so I just went over to their house for the day and we snuggled up on the sofa and watched a Sherlock Holmes film – it was just lovely to spend some time with them, as it happens so rarely now that I am almost permanently on the move. (I am due back to Dundry in mid-May and hope to have a bit more time to get out to see more people, so please bear with me and I'll be in touch!)

I am now back in Cornwall until the end of the month, so will write another blog then about my exploits west of the Tamar.