New Forestry Team Member

This is a shout out to our newest member of Team Forestry, he’s just coming up for a week since he joined us and all is going well. It was a bit touch and go at first, his brother (or sister) unfortunately didn’t make the grade but after some careful nurturing and looking after by Graham and Olga, he passed with flying colours!

The first I knew about them was last Tuesday when we stopped by Simon’s sheep first thing in the morning with a couple of bottles. Expecting them to have moved on during the night, we collected two very cold little lambs! Wrapped in their plastic macs we bundled them to the vehicle, doing our best to keep them as warm as possible.

As we fed them in the warm, Simon pointed out the mother, which I failed to spot at first. All sheep look the same to me! Anyway, she showed absolutely no interest in her newborns and never even looked up when the lambs began bleating at the tops of their little voices (everybody, one… two… three… awwwwwwww!).

We had them with us in the Landover all day that day, feeding them when we stopped work for a break and checking on how they were doing. By lunch, one was perking up a bit while the other was still quite cold and straining its neck back (not a good sign). Unfortunately by the evening it had passed away.

Returning to work a couple of days later, I discovered that only one had made it since Tuesday. First off was feeding time for Larry (the lamb) in his make-shift bale home, which wasn’t that easy as he wasn’t taking it very well at first. He soon got the hang of it though and sat quite comfortably with Paul and Debbie drinking his milk.

Walkies!

After a hard mornings work, we returned to Larry to check on things. Graham arrived not long later and explained that he had been trying to get Larry up and walking, getting strength into his little legs.

It took some coaxing and lots of wobbling and falling over but we got there in the end! I think it was about this time that I was informed that Larry was a boy and not a girl of which I had been referring too all morning!

Still in his plastic coat (left) he seemed to tottering my way all the time, maybe it was the gloves or just the sweet words of encouragement.

Eventually though it was time for his lunchtime feed and the battle lines were drawn. Graham was in on corner with his freshly prepared bottle, which Paul was in the other corner wielding the warmed up bottle from earlier! In the end a compromise was drawn and feeding was shared by all and little Larry drank his fill on the fields of victory.

Feeding time...

At the end of the day both Graham and Olga arrived to collect Larry and bring him home for the next few days. With Simon away at the time it was feared that he not last long in an open barn; prone to the cold, foxes and anything else that may go his way.

Currently Larry is doing well, getting all the milk he can and enjoying his new home! I guess that’s one lamb that’ll do well.

Speaking of lambs, this weekend is the start of the Lambing at Wimpole, so if you’re in the area come along and have fun seeing the cute little lambies bouncing round the… er… pens.

A bit of free advertising for the National Trust there, can’t argue with that. Or maybe you can, who knows? I’m sure they’ll plough lots of memberships out over those few weeks to keep them happy!

As usual thanks to Debs for the photos.