Lambing - Picnic

Although I had just barely started helping on the farm, The Boss gave me a break to go on a picnic and walk with some friends in Eastbourne. It was fun to see friends again and meet a few new people. It was a beautiful day!

(First four photos courtesy of Jenny.)

Someone in the group brought along their dog, Boris. He loves mud and would find the shallowest puddle and lower himself to rub his belly in the slime. Hilarious.

Jenny wondering how to get out of her predicament on the obstacle course.

Me and Jenny, immobilized by laughter.
This seems to happen a lot when I'm around her.

Me and Jenny on the quad with the farm dogs, Snip and Tucker.

After the walk, a few of the girls came back to the farm to see the lambs.

L-R: Robyn, Liz, Snip, Tucker, and Jenny.

L-R: Jenny, Robyn, and Madelein.

Robyn.

Lambing - My Schedule

I had no clue what to expect when I arrived at the farm. I didn't know what tasks I would be handling. I didn't know what hours I'd be keeping. I didn't know how many other people would be helping. I've never even seen a lamb being born. I was completely clueless.

A little beauty enjoying the sunshine.

My usual schedule:
5:40 a.m. - Alarm goes off and I drag myself out of bed, grabbing a piece of bread or bowl of cereal before heading outside.
6:00 a.m. (or a few minutes later if my bed was extra warm) - Arrive at the barn and use the propane stove in the caravan to mix up a batch of formula for the lambs. Feed orphans, usually around six or seven of them but at the peak I fed eleven. Keep an eye out for anything strange, such as bloated bellies or strange sucking techniques.
6:30 - 10:00 a.m. - Top up water and feed for ewes in the birthing pens, muck out pens after a ewe has been moved to the holding pen with her lambs, keep an eye on ewes in labour, and other random tasks as they arise.
10:00 a.m. - Hunger sets in so I'd return to the farm house for a proper breakfast and then back to the barn for more mucking, feeding, monitoring ewes, moving sheep, return the occasional escaped lamb to the correct birthing pen, etc.
1:30 p.m. - Return to the farm house for one of Margaret's fabulous lunches and then back to the barn and fields.
7:00 p.m. - Back to the farm house for a shower and then dinner at 7:30 p.m.
8:30 - 11:45 p.m. - Honestly can't remember how I filled this time each evening. I once tried taking a nap but too difficult to wake up for the midnight feeding so gave up on that option.
12:00 - 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. - Back to the barn to feed the orphans, top up food and water for the ewes, check ewes in labour, and then off to bed.

My view when feeding the orphans.
(Flowered wellies were a much-loved gift from my friend, Sarah!)

I never had trouble sleeping. Although I was tired, I wasn't as exhausted as I expected to be and even if I had wanted to complain, I couldn't possibly have done so in light of Henry's mind-numbingly exhausting schedule. I enjoyed the work and loved being outside all day - it made up for any amount of sore muscles and yawning.

Twins grabbing a drink in a birthing pen.

April Plans

For quite a few years I've been curious about lambing. Nobody can deny that lambs bounding across a field are one of the cutest things you'll ever see, but they seem to arrive all at once and I'm curious to experience life on a farm in the spring - not just the cute lambs, but the hard work as well.

I think the desire was first planted when my family visited friends on a sheep farm on Saltspring Island during the spring when I was in my early teens. We were given a tour of the farm (I even milked a goat, something I was quite proud of) and I loved the simple way they lived. It obviously took hard work, but it was a beautiful life. (While we were visiting, a neighbouring farmer stopped by to complete a trade; I think he exchanged garden produce for a lamb. I'll never forget the sight of this huge man, tall and broad shouldered, gently cradling a tiny lamb in the crook of his arm. He looked at my sister, covered in freckles since she was a little girl, and said, "A girl without freckles is like a night without stars." We all swooned and still quote the line to each other.)

March 1985 - Playing with lambs for a newspaper photographer.

L-R Lisa (7), Adam (3), and me (5).

My request to help Henry on Chalk Farm during lambing was accepted last summer so I've waited a long time for this! Most people back home have responded to the idea with envy and a longing to join me. Some people in England have had the same reaction, but most look at me like I'm insane and say things like, "It's really dirty work," or "The lambs are really gooey," or "Are you crazy?"

Lambing can't be that bad... can it?

My reaction to the negative comments is similar to the way I felt when my dad told me I was crazy to want to tan a piece of deer hide during my first hunting trip. My response was: if people have done it for thousands of years, it must be possible, so why not try it? (The tanned deer hide, about two feet by three feet, is now framed and hanging in my parents' house.)

I'll try to get online at some point to upload a few photos, but you'll probably have to wait until the end of April for stories and photos. Stop gasping - you'll survive. Think of all the time you'll save by not having any new blog posts to read!

April 3-8 - working on the farm
April 9-17 - in Poland
April 17-22 - back at the farm to visit friends in the area

Winchester

Grab a big mug of your favourite hot drink and get cozy. This is a big post.

Believe it or not, I'm sharing less than one-third of the photos I shot today and I'm leaving out quite a few stories (such as the woman I saw in an ethereal-looking outfit doing tai chi standing on a tree branch over the river, or the two Mallard ducks who chased a black duck out of the river right behind me and proceed to quack madly as they waddled along after him, all of them lined up behind me as I walked along the path).

Lately I've been trying to gather ideas for day-trips into the surrounding area; Hampshire is a beautiful county and I don't want to travel everywhere else, missing out on the beauty right on my doorstep. Winchester was my choice for today.

First stop was the tourism office to mark a map with the key sites I wanted to visit and sign up for a ninety minute walking tour which claimed to cover the "city highlights". Nobody else showed up, so I received a private tour of Winchester. The guide waited when I wanted to pause for photos, she skipped stories if I already knew the details, and she adjusted the tour to cover the things that would most interest me. I love travelling during the off-season!

One of our first stops was a statue of King Alfred the Great (first photo on the linked page) but I forgot to go back later to get a decent photo. My favourite story of the day was in connection to the statue, installed sometime in the last century. It's mounted on two huge blocks of stone but they didn't fit together properly. The solution was to put sugar cubes between the blocks and grind them back and forth to wear down the stone slightly and get the blocks to fit together. They had trouble with wasps for a couple of years until all the sugar washed away.

I love the layers in this photo of Winchester College buildings.
(The middle building is flintstone, a stone found in layers amid the chalk found in this area.)

The home where Jane Austen died.

Spring is finally here!

These buildings date from the 1500's. The gate to the right still gets locked at night and residents of the close have a key to the gate. If they forget their key, they pull a string which rings a little bell and the porter comes out to open the gate.

Wooden pegs in a ridiculously old building.

The tour guide noticed me taking this shot so she asked if I like old buildings and architecture. I told her I love the details more than the overall buildings. She took me to a nearby building which is usually closed, but happened to be open as the students are on a break. The building had wooden beams arched on the ceiling with decorative faces carved on the beams where they meet the side walls. The building dates from the 1200's.



During the tour we walked past Winchester Cathedral and I went back on my own to take a proper tour of the interior. My guide gave me some general information about the building of the cathedral. My brain is so packed with dates, people's names, and locations that everything is jumbled. I considered taking notes but I never could have kept up with everything she told me.

These Norman ruins are built into the side of the exterior of the cathedral. The noblemen sat under each of the arches. A king whose name I recognized but can't remember was excommunicated and came and prostrated himself to beg for forgiveness in this hall. The two middle columns are a fine example of recycling - the Normans reused Roman columns.

One of the bishops, I think in the 1700's, was upset that people kept cutting through the cathedral instead of walking around so he installed this notice on an exterior wall to indicate which way to go for worship and which way to go for walking.

The last stop on the tour: King Arthur's round table.

The story is mythical, but this recreation is still old (1275) and has a pretty good story. The table hangs in the Great Hall, the only building remaining from Winchester Castle.

Westgate - one of the remaining gates into the city.
Formerly used as a debtor's prison, now a museum.

Sixteenth century, solid oak chest for storing the city's money.

Graffiti from debtor's prison days at Westgate.

Winchester Cathedral.
This was the view from the bench where I ate my lunch.
I have a rough life.

Graffiti on a pillar in a balcony area.

More graffiti.
I can just imagine somebody doodling this during a boring service.

Wooden carving in the area where the choir sits.

There are six of these mortuary chests high above the altar area.
The chests contain the bones of Saxon kings and bishops, although the bones got mixed up during the civil war in 1642.
King Cynegils (611-643)
King Cenwalh (643-672)
King Egbert (802-839)
King Ethelwulf (839-858)
King Canute (Cnut) and Queen Emma (1016-1035
Bishop Alwyn (1032-1047)
Bishop Stigand (1047-1070)

"In Memory of JANE AUSTEN, youngest daughter of the late Reverend GEORGE AUSTEN,
formerly Rector of Steventon in this County She departed this Life on the 18th of July1817, aged 41, after a long illness supported with the patience and hopes of a Christian. The benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her and the warmest love of her intimate connections. Their grief is in proportion to their affection they know their loss to be irreparable, but in their deepest affliction they are consoled by a firm though humble hope that her charity, devotion, faith and purity have rendered her soul acceptable in the sight of her REDEEMER."

The cathedral has a variety of architectural styles represented, this section being Norman.

Medieval tiles - influence of the Crusades to the Middle East.

There are numerous different patterns in the medieval tiles.

This stained glass originally represented prophets and saints, but it was destroyed by parliamentary troops during the civil war in 1642. It was re-assembled randomly in 1660 when the monarchy was restored, so the present windows are constructed from 14th century glass, but with no particular pattern.

If you want more information, this link has details of the interior of the cathedral with photos.

Text in the Winchester Bible.

The Winchester Bible is a Romanesque illuminated manuscript produced in Winchester between 1160 and 1175.

The light caught some of the gold and made it glisten, but it needs to be seen in person to be appreciated.

The Winchester Bible is the largest surviving twelfth century English Bible.

This photo was shot from the inside of what remains of the city wall.
The sloping portion area dates from Roman times.

Ruins of Wolvesey Castle.

Wolvesey Castle was used as a Bishop's residence beginning in the late tenth century.

The Hospital of St. Cross can be reached by a twenty-five minute walk along a footpath beside the River Itchen. The river is a chalk stream so the water is exceptionally clear. The sun was shining and the temperature warm enough for me to take off my jacket for a while.

When I shot this photo I thought, "Wow - I'm so glad I'm not sitting behind a desk today!"

Hospital of St. Cross - I didn't go inside.

After my walk I went to the Winchester City Mill (no good photo ops) and then returned to the train station for my trip back to Hook. It was a wonderful day - the weather was beautiful, I saw plenty of historic sites, and I absolutely loved walking along the river. Lately I've been wanting to take some time to get out and just enjoy the beauty of God's creation... let my mind wander and use my camera to capture the moments that catch my eye... talk to God about my life and delight in my relationship with Him. It was a good day.