After days of intense, biting cold and only a thin layer of snow we had 'proper' snow over the wekend thanks to a slight rise in temperature. Whilst the snow is beautiful to look at it and the grand-children were thrilled to able to use their sledges, it caused more problems in what had already been a very difficult week due to the Arctic conditions. In addition to having to thaw out water pipes & cattle troughs which all takes time the drive had to be scraped and spread with gravel in the hope of getting the milk tanker in. If the tanker cannot get here we would have had to dump the milk...a decision that is never taken lightly. We have an excellent drivers and they do their utmost to get to us and we do all we can to assist them despite not being allowed to tow the lorry (another stupid regulation. The lorries are not even fitted with tow-loops any longer). We certainly have not had the quantities of snow that other parts of the country have had to cope with and many dairy farms have had to dump their milk as the tankers have not been able to get throught snowdrifts but all snow & ice causes all farmers difficulties. Now we have the thaw and steadily falling cold rain with the attendant problems caused by the melt waters as well as the rainwater...back to mud everywhere once again.
Lambing is going well with the adoption of two orphan lambs onto ewes with only single lambs.This is usually a successful procedure with perseverence and patience on the part of the Farmer. It is a joyful sound of spring when I hear the lambs bleating in the large polytunnel that we use as a lambing shed and the mellow low tones of the ewes talking back to their offspring.
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