Our most important piece of news is that, after nearly a year, we have been granted planning permission to install a 20Kw vertical axis wind turbine at West Ilkerton. This is very exciting and also rather daunting because there's now a lot of work to do in preparation. Hopefully by August we will be generating most of the power we use on the farm (as long as the wind blows). It's our ambition to lie in bed during bouts of bad weather and think of all the money we're saving!
In case anyone is worried that West Ilkerton will be blighted by a noisy, monstrous great turbine, the whole structure will be just over 12m high, and it will be almost silent. See http://www.alvestaenergy.com/ to get an idea of what it will look like.
On the subject of electricity, some regular visitors may remember that a few years ago the Sycamore trees at the front of the house were pollarded because their branches were a danger to the power lines and the house. Well, they grew back so fast that they were a danger again, so Sarah's boyfriend, Luke, (who's a tree surgeon) trimmed them down again for us. More like a coppice than a pollard this time. It's just as well he did, because two of them were completely rotten inside and full of foul-smelling liquid which sprayed everywhere - and we'd just cleaned all the windows!

Lambing didn't go as expected. For a start, Sarah was supposed to be No 1 Shepherd this year (sadly Bernie, the original No 1 Shepherd, had to retire) but within a few days she was very ill with a chest infection. The chest infection didn't respond to antibiotics because it was caused by a virus, which has now given her swollen glands and a high temperature. She's in bed, and under doctor's orders to stay there for at least a week. You just can't get reliable staff nowadays....

In the lambing shed

So, yet again, Chris did the bulk of the work (3am to 7 pm) and I did from 8 pm until 1 or 2 am. We were helped by our faithful band of guests: Sophie Perks and friends and Alex & Charlie Howlett. Also, a vet student called Jake came for a week to gain some practical experience with sheep. I think he's decided to specialise in dogs & cats!

The poor sheep had lost a lot of condition in the snow during February, and the first lambs to be born were underweight. An additional problem was several ewes had little or no milk. The result has been more tame lambs than usual. Once all our willing bottle-feeders (Sophie, Alex and Charlie) had left, Chris and I had a breakfast 'Board Meeting' to discuss the urgent issue of who was going to feed 11 lambs six times a day with a bottle. By lunchtime we had bought and installed a Shepherdess lamb feeder www.scanutec.com . This is an ingeneous fake Mummy, which is essentially a bucket full of hot water with another bucket full of milk inside and two teats on one side. The whole thing is heated by a device which switches itself on and off, giving hot flushes for added authenticity. The lambs love it, as they can help themselves whenever they want. They are growing rapidly, and don't seem to get the pot bellies of bottle-fed lambs.

The weather for the past month has been pretty good. In fact (dare I say it?) we need rain. It's such a help to get warm, dry weather at this time of year because there are so many baby animals outside. Yesterday was beautifully warm and sunny, so I took some photos:

Calves enjoying the sunshine

Our new bull, Wellshead Duke

Exmoor Horn ewe and lamb

Our first foal (Ivy's foal) As you can see, he's a colt.

Ivy, Claret and Christmas Pudding have foaled so far. They all have colt foals. Still, an alive colt foal is better than no foal at all.

A few days after birth, Claret's foal was very poorly and couldn't get up. We weren't sure what was wrong, but thought he could have a navel infection. Chris gave him an injection of 'Pen and Strep', and within 12 hours he was running behind his mum again. In fact, he was so lively we couldn't catch him to complete the three-day course of injections!

Claret with her colt foal the day after he was injected (still looking ill, but standing, suckling and impossible to catch). He now appears to have made a complete recovery.

Some RSPB volunteers are doing a bird survey of the farm, which should prove very interesting. Mike Howlett, who stayed in the cottage for a week during lambing, took these photos of a buzzard and a dipper at West Ilkerton:

Chris went out counting deer and took these photos of West Ilkerton from the unusual vantage point of Butter Hill:

Make a line up * from the asterisk, and West Ilkerton is the grey blob just below the cloud shadow on the far hill.

See?!

http://www.westilkerton.co.uk/