Middleton Croft

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I left Skye at about 6:30am on Sunday, to get home with time to get up to speed on all the sheep issues before my other ...
07/05/2026

I left Skye at about 6:30am on Sunday, to get home with time to get up to speed on all the sheep issues before my other job started at 10:30am. Do you remember (did I mention?) that I was missing 3 ewes when I gathered? I'd looked far and wide (as had others), and sent the word out that I was looking for these particular ewes ("large brown with blue tag", "small grey black face with purple tag", "small grey faced with blue tag"). On Sunday, a neighbour messaged me that he'd seen two of my ewes at the end of Loch Urigill. The far end. He sent a photo. Of course. Marie Neige (do you remember her? Of the pyjama incident in the neighbour's field?) and Brunhilde. Both well known for wandering.

So... only slightly (understatement) exhausted from a weekend away and many early mornings, I then set out on Monday morning at about 6:30am, to run/walk the 5km to the far end of Loch Urigill, so I had time for a very slow 5km walk home with two VERY pregnant ladies, in time to start work at 10:30 (again).

The two ladies were fairly obliging... except when I changed direction to avoid picking up 20 other sheep (and almost picked up 20 cows instead), and then went past the normal feeding point (when Marie Neige just decided she wasn't going that direction anymore and I had to drag her by the scruff of her neck for a short distance) and then when we got just before home, when they both thought maybe they'd be better to stay up on the ridge than go home.

We got there eventually though. Both girls safely into the field. Marie Neige lambed on Tuesday (exactly 147 days after the pyjama incident... no question about who the father of her lambs are!) and we're still waiting for Brunhilde.

Dealan worked behind the sheep the entire way back... a couple of hours... and REALLY hard for him to keep calm, slow and keep distance for that entire time. I did have to help him a lot, but it was still a great effort for him and he did an amazing job when the ladies tried to run to the cows for safety, staying really calm and focussed. He can be so good... it's just a shame he gets so over-excited most of the time.

I'm going to try to put more videos of our walk back in the comments. I think they're worth watching...

Right... so where was I? 2 weeks ago (can't believe it was that long!!), I was super chilled about lambing. The next day...
07/05/2026

Right... so where was I? 2 weeks ago (can't believe it was that long!!), I was super chilled about lambing. The next day we had these two... all good right? Except that I was going away for a day (and two nights... to talk about local food hubs, down in Skye.). Of course things ALWAYS go wrong when I go away. 2 foot of snow? Sure. Newborn lamb through a fence? Of course. None of that this time. This time it was "ewe too milky... blocked teats", so the lambs couldn't feed, got hypothermic after a cold night and ewe started getting mastitis. Luckily my sub-in shepherd (and her husband) did an amazing job, with all-night supervision, persistent feeding attempts, and some extreme milking (VERY thick milk, very difficult to get out) and everybody, now, is fine. The lambs were in the house for a few days to keep them warm, with regular visits to mum to keep the bond going, and then we were bottle feeding for a while because the ewe had very little milk for a while, but she seems to be back to full production now, and we're slowly reducing the top-up feeds. Incredibly happy to have everyone still alive after this incident, and even happier to have lambs back with the ewe and not needing our help anymore.
To be honest, I did know something was wrong before I left... my parting instructions were "they're not as bouncy as I'd like - keep an eye on them", but I was the wrong side of that fine line between over-interfering and under-reacting!! Huge cred to newly certified shepherdess, Janelle, and to experienced neighbour, Hilda, who is always available to jump in and save the day. And I'm delighted to be able to introduce you to James and Peach (and mother, Matilda).

04/05/2026

I am still alive... just been really busy. And now fb is wasting even more of my time failing to put posts up. Trying to share some nice videos of a couple of my new mums, but now instead of a "ooo, isn't that lovely" post, you're getting a frustrated rant. Story of my life just now - lots of things are wonderful and lovely... with another lot of small, annoying, frustrating, exhausting issues!

If anyone lambed today, I did not notice. So, here are some pictures of plants that I've been meaning to share for ages....
23/04/2026

If anyone lambed today, I did not notice.
So, here are some pictures of plants that I've been meaning to share for ages. More info in the captions.

No more lambs yet, but we've got a spell of lovely weather, and everyone is just looking pretty chilled, so so am I.I di...
22/04/2026

No more lambs yet, but we've got a spell of lovely weather, and everyone is just looking pretty chilled, so so am I.
I did manage to get some better pictures of HST's lovely lamb (a girl!) this morning when HST decided that it was finally safe to come for the morning feed (and then buried her head in the feed trough and ignored her lamb for 5 minutes!). Also a slightly better photo of Jasmine's boy, but he was still a bit shy.

We started lambing today... Healthy singles to Jasmine (first time lamber) and HST (her lamb was dead when I found them ...
20/04/2026

We started lambing today... Healthy singles to Jasmine (first time lamber) and HST (her lamb was dead when I found them last year... maybe stillborn? so nice to see her doing well with her lamb this year). Sadly, Frog had twins that were not properly developed.
It has been pointed out to me that I've been very quiet on here recently... just a side effect of having a lot going on in life,... but also a side effect (for me) of social media - there's a lot of weird expectations and pressures that come with it, and often I just avoid it. I need to remember that a lot of you really enjoy seeing the animals, and plants, and landscape, and what we're up to here. So I will try to do that, and share things more regularly. Starting after this week. Way too many things to get done before now and Sunday!!

I decided to empty my "tree crate" (life goals!) by planting everything out in the field. I'd almost succeeded, and then...
08/03/2026

I decided to empty my "tree crate" (life goals!) by planting everything out in the field. I'd almost succeeded, and then I found the pot of random seedlings that a neighbour had given me. After repotting all of them individually, I have more than filled my crate again! I might plant some of these out this season, but am also happy enough to let them grow on in pots for another season.

While I was away in January the rabbits got into the vegetable garden and ate all of my kale and sprouting broccoli. I w...
01/03/2026

While I was away in January the rabbits got into the vegetable garden and ate all of my kale and sprouting broccoli. I was sad and disappointed to lose it all, but actually it's been a nice opportunity to tidy the vegetable garden up. The kale was mostly growing in the paths (not the beds) after self seeding last spring, so it was quite inconvenient. The veg garden is now looking pretty good, with all of the kale removed, most of the beds manured, rogue berry bushes dug out and transplanted, soft fruit pruned and even got some garlic, onions and shallots planted already.

01/03/2026

I saw the first oystercatcher of the season today! Very exciting! No pictures.

Instead, here is a video of two giant eagles circling over my small sheep. Hoping I don't need to be concerned...
Sheep were not worried at all. Just a bit confused about why we'd stopped and I hadn't given them any food yet.

Most people at this time of year are gathering for scanning (ultrasounds for sheep to see how many lambs they are having...
26/02/2026

Most people at this time of year are gathering for scanning (ultrasounds for sheep to see how many lambs they are having). We don't scan, because it wouldn't change our management practice anyway. It would be nice to know, especially during lambing, but the main reason is so that you can give more feed to the ewes having twins. I have no way to do this - they're all out on the hill, and that is all just one big area.... no fences dividing it into separate fields. So even if I did know who was having what, I couldn't feed the twins more. It would be good to know who was NOT having lambs, so I didn't keep them in for lambing, but this is usually only one (if any), so it's not worth the hassle and cost of scanning just for that.

We were gathering to get sheep for the abattoir. And Tigh Na Alt wanted a couple of wethers to raise for meat for themselves this year. And there are a couple of other people interested in wethers for either meat or fleece, so I wanted to get everything in to have a look at them all and see what I had.

The abattoir selection was a sad one. A lot of these are really nice sheep that I really like and would've been very happy to keep. But... I needed to take the fattest ones (they can be very thin at this time of year), needed a balance of sizes, and there was a lot of consideration about fleece too. Unfortunately we didn't find a few of the sheep that I would have sent. Then some of the sheep have really nice fleeces for spinning so I wanted to keep them until July so I could get another fleece off them. I wanted to keep a bunch for November, because their fleeces would make really nice rugs, but I then couldn't find other "big enough" sheep to take. It's usually considered too late for tanning skins (for rugs) at this time of year, but my tanner wants to give it a go, so quite a few of the "good rug" sheep ended up going this time. Most of my sentimentality had to be put on hold this time, as more practical decisions held sway. I would happily have kept Ragamuffin, Spike, Maria's girl, Benji's girl and Crazy's girl's girl for years. It brought me joy every time I saw them. Even Skate's girl was turning into a nice sheep, and Amaya's boy was a nice, solid character. (Maisie's girl was fine, but hadn't endeared herself to me)

This was later than I was hoping to take sheep to the abattoir (they lose weight through the winter, so ideally I was planning for end of Jan / start of Feb), but I had to organise a vet visit to renew my Vet Attestation (annual check, required to take sheep direct to abattoir)... with a new vet this time since IVC closed my normal practice. AND I had to get a towball fitted to the Skoda... I got rid of the pickup in December, and this was the wee Skoda's first go at towing the trailer. It did a fabulous job... just as fast up the hills, and much cheaper on fuel! It's not the first time it's transported sheep, but previously it was just one at a time, in the boot, as emergency trips to the vet for lambing problems!

Another big thanks to these guys for helping out with a gather a week and a half ago... and for all of the fab photos (e...
26/02/2026

Another big thanks to these guys for helping out with a gather a week and a half ago... and for all of the fab photos (even if not many during the gather due to the heavy cold rain for most of it!). Added benefits of having friends come help - the work is easier, it's more fun, AND someone actually takes photos of things and shares them online in a timely manner!
We also had apprentice shepherd Janelle, a friend from Coigach and 2 prospective future sheep keepers from near Torridon come to help, learn and meet the sheep. Plus 2 border collies, but they are not working dogs so just came for the walk. My boys were... not great... at this gather. Oh well. We've had some nice work since then.
(more on the reason for the gather in a following post)

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