Tuesday 7th March 2017

Heather and myself have been up at stunning Home Farm in Dulas on the edge of the Black Mountains several mornings over the last couple of weeks. We’ve been there to take groups of Lord Scudamore year 2 children to watch the lambing. Heather has also been at the farm with boys from the Brookfield school. Four out of the seven groups managed to see a birth before their very eyes (slightly down on last years record six out of seven, but you just can’t predict these things!). And we were very pleased to see very few little eyes strategically diverting from the action. It’s always amazing to witness the start of new life, and we get the added pleasure of getting to observe children experiencing it for their first time. A very special life experience that we hope will stay with them forever. 

What wonderful sessions they have been. Children learnt about the basics of shepherding, birth and caring for lambs and ewes and under the expert guidance of Will and Maddy, the enviable shepherds and owners of Home Farm, they observed a birth if they were lucky. They tended the pregnant ewes learning to identify those that could be in ewe and fed them their daily hay. Each child was also assigned a pen with a new mother and her lamb, or lambs, and got to feed the ewe oats and hay and give her water. With our help they decided the sex of ‘their’ lambs, watched them feed from their Mums, had a cuddle and stroke and even got to give them names. One little boy sat and recited a story to his!. Magical. 

Sadly that’s it for our farming workshops this year, though the season hasn’t quite finished for sleep deprived Will and Maddy. Wishing them the very best of luck for the next few days,

Louisa