Joys of Homeschool.... pt. 1

Tuesday was a great day


Better than a birthday


Better even than Christmas


On Tuesday............... the scanners came to town.


Yup, on Tuesday morning, all our hopeful mothers-to-be got herded to the fank at the moor end of the village.

No, not the women: we may be old fashioned, but it's the ewes I was talking about.

The joys of homeschooling means Uncle can call on us when ever he needs us!

Tangent.... Isn't it great how the sheep get priority on our roads here. All the cars stop. 

Incidentally, did you know that the right to herd geese through the middle of London is enshrined on the statute books. It would be interesting to try one day.....

You can just see the fank to the right of Catherine, beyond the fences. It's just a glint really.

OK, I'm back. Once at the fank, they are asked (read threatened, forced and shouted at) to climb into this odd looking trailer. There is a guy inside that wee hut thing with an ultrasound scanner and a wee screen, and he tells the guy on the outside whether the sheep is expecting singles, twins, or, horrors of horrors, she might be expecting triplets. Occasionally the dreaded shout will come "dry" and that sheep will be ignobly put out to pasture that year..... if it's her first year dry.....

They process about 7000 ewes in the five days they are on the island

The guy sprays them to signify what they're expecting: one dot on the neck for twins, on the tail for dry, two dots for triplets and a cross if they are well on in their pregnancy.

Do they look like happy mothers to be to you? Hard to tell really.

As for our own sheep... well, we had a reasonably good year. Roll on March!!