65 acres of relaxation
May started off with a very tiny wee last lamb, quickly and aptly named ‘Toots’.. she was born on Star wars day or May 4th (May the force be with you ) and we were worried that mum being very young herself ( cheeky last years lamb getting in with the ram when she should know better ) didn’t have enough milk.
June is the best month as far as our favourite ginger is concerned as it means all her favourite things .. Cake , friends , presents and chocolate . 
We always celebrate a birthday and it generally lasts more than a day, shame the cake didn’t last as long .
A surprise visit from our besties also went down a treat too.. we love you guys.
June 13th was Nora’s due date , and we had planned for Andy to be home for the early days , we couldn’t have planned it better as he had only been home maybe an hour when Nora
went into labour !
We camped out in lambing shed to be rewarded in the early hours with the birth of
As first timers we were quite nervous , there was so much that could go wrong however Nora was a true textbook pig and did everything according to what we had read .
Thanks Google
Nora has turned out to be a fabulous mum looking after her litter .. we clearly brought her up well .
Apparently it’s the year of the pig ,and February it seems is definitely the month of the pig here at a Grobdale !
We had felt for a while that Nora needed some help on the fertility front,
she wasn’t showing any signs of coming into season so AI (artificial insemination) hasn’t been an option ,
We have found Social media to be a powerful tool and I’ve used it to sell and source all kinds if things including this time ,a loan Tamworth boar .
It took just over a week of messages and phone calls .. on the journey I found her brother and her parents !
So November’s here and the pigs decided , between themselves one day 
that they needed a change of scenery ..
So one afternoon we decided to take them out down to the loch ,their first walk out was hilarious they were just proper giddy pants.
The freedom caused them to work up a fair old appetite , as if they needed any encouragement and when they’re hungry the noise they generate is rather impressive compared to their size I can only compare it to
A hundred violins being played REALLY badly !
Continue reading “The world according to gin or maybe pigs !”
April 2018 is when the man of the house reaches a half century , so this month a lot of the energy is spent organising a shindig to celebrate !
Other than our gorgeous man, it’s been all about babies this month. 
We started the month with lambs popping out all over the place , Toms sheep were first,
but with all this new life there has to be a few casualties, the first was a new mum leaving behind a little lamb that became
She soon learned to suckle milk from a bottle and everyone had a go at feeding our new house guest x
Spring arrives in March thank goodness…. though
The cold doesn’t stop lambing tho and on our daily check round the fields me and Lauren spotted our first Grobdale lamb for 2018 .. so cute . On our way back down , 
we spotted another sheep up on the top , separated from the main flock , a tell tale sign she’s about to lamb so we took the kubota up to check her out . The lamb was coming so we hung on to watch , but it all seemed to be at taking a bit too long and 
she wasn’t going to let me get near and without a dog or a crook (or any sheep wrangling skills for that matter) so we bombed back to the house and rang a man with a dog . Within the hour he had her caught,birthed , and shown us how to tube feed the lamb . Mum and baby claimed the first stall in lambing shed and by bedtime the lamb was suckling as he should..
(this is us heading back out to the main flock next day)
Grobdale of girthon 