Nantygroes  News June 2013   Ian and Linda Tame      www.nantygroes.co.uk

May was a manic month with several visits from friends and relations, all of whom have left their mark on the place…. Reducing weeds, fencing chickens, catching sheep, and everyone’s favourite, ….. feeding the orphan lambs.  Thank you to all.

We had our up’s and down’s with the animals.  Firstly we were given 3 orphan lambs by a neighbour…. Bottle fed initially, they have grown at a rampant rate and are now our grazing the grass and buttercups. Sometime in late summer they will relocate to a freezer or two but that is for the future.

Kass is now attending puppy classes one evening a week and generally proving that she has far too much energy. She has tried training herself to round up the sheep … neither sheep nor me are very impressed!   She loves water and takes any opportunity to race about in it (think she is in the right place!)

We had a rather sad time with one of our  Llanwenog ewes. We found her lambing down in the field one day (none were supposed to be in lamb).  Unfortunately the lamb was presented very badly and the ewe had been in labour for rather a long time and we lost the lamb.  Even more sadly after a 2 weeks struggle with antibiotics and TLC the ewe succumbed to an infection and also died.

Last week our flock reduced further as I waved goodbye to our 2 inherited ewes who have been taken on by our neighbouring farmer. Not sad to see them go and a good exchange for the 3 lovely friendly orphans.

The glorious weather for the last 10 days has at last started our vegetable garden on the road to growing something… lots of things poking through now, I just hope we get to harvest something later in the year.

The weather has also had a fabulous effect on our beautiful shrubbery garden with everything blossoming just in time to be on display for the Talley Open Gardens day last Saturday.   The first car arrived bang on 10am and we only had 20 minutes to ourselves all day. We met lots of new people and hopefully a few new useful contacts.

Another opportunity for new contacts happened last week when a collection of smallholders (any suggestions for a collective noun?) met up for the first time. We spent 2 hours introducing ourselves and hopefully started what will be an ongoing support network and friendships. 

The result of meeting one couple there, was a trip to the coast at Aberporth, where they live.  We took the dogs to the beach in the morning. Kass loved it especially being able to dig frantically in the sand (without the usual ‘stop that’ being issued) .. I took photos as her head disappeared below the surface.  We spent the afternoon with Anne and David, with whom we got on very well. They took us to see their small Dexter herd and by the end of the afternoon we had agreed to buy twin heifers. They are 7 months old , halter trained and adorable!  Roll on the end of the week when they are being delivered!!!

Looking forward over the next couple of weeks we are helping out at the Cwmdu and Talley fete next Saturday  and shearing the following week …. Oh and spending lots of time making those 2 new girls feel at home!

Best wishes  Linda and Ian .