What an incredible couple of days. They are going to make leaving so dificult.

I have loads to tell so will start with today & work backwards if I am not too tired to complete this later.

I have been riding the farm bike off-road for the last couple of days, it's a ratty-looking Yamaha 175cc


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but it goes ok as Mike used to be a motor mechanic so it's mechanically sound.

Mike offerd me a go on the bike at the beginning of the week. I rode it across the paddocks in a big circle & returned to him.

'Aren't you going to have a longer go ?' he asked.

'Yes - hop on' I replied.

The look on his face was priceless. Think gurls are supposed to ride pillion in NZ. To be fair, he made a very calm passenger. Not a squeak of fear, even up & down the one in threes.

I have progressed from being a bit wobbly to now riding 3 up, me on the front, Mike on the back & yesterday, a very excited Don in the middle. He thought it was great & kept trying to rest his front paws on my shoulders for a better view.

Must have looked a scream, what I wouldnt give for a camcorder.

This afternoon Mike had to leave early so left me 'in charge' of the lambing ewes. I decided to take the bike all around the farm & check all the paddocks for any mis-mothered lambs. There are some 20 odd paddocks covering the 440 acres so it takes a while.

As I arrived next to one of the x-country jumps I noticed a lamb, tucked up quietly at the foot of one of the jumps. His mother hadn't waited for him when they were shifted this morning & he had done what new-borns do & sat quietly so as not to be noticed by birds of prey.

I told Don to guard him, Don thinks I am God now I ride the motorbike :-) whilst I got a sack off the bike. I then put the lamb in the sack, tied it to the handlebars & took it back to the farm. Ideally, I wanted to put it back with Mum but I had to ring Mike to ask which group of ewes his Mum was in as there are about 7 or 8 separate lots.

He told me on the phone where the ewes were, so after marking the lamb's head with blue raddle (dye) so that I could pick him out later if Mum didn't claim him - it was in the sack & another bike ride back to the mob of ewes.

Mike had told me you have to dump the lamb pretty quickly & roughly by dropping them from the moving bike & then speed away. This is so that they don't just tag onto the 1st moving, noisy thing they see ie.the bike.

I am already feeding 2 orphans so I was keen to re-unite this one with Mum so purposely haven't christened him.

I dumped him, as instructed & shot off to view from a safe distance to see if a ewe would claim him. He still managed to get up & run after me & I felt a heel accelerating away from him.

For the next 5 minutes, Don & I watched to see if he was claimed. It was pitiful, he stood bleating, alone, in the middle of the paddock whilst all the ewes just stared stupidly at him.

After what seemed an eternity a ewe started calling & returning his cries. They got together & she sniffed him but didn't seem entirely convinced he was hers. I had handled him minimally, even managing not to cuddle him when I found him but some ewes can be very picky.

When Mike gets here to do the dusk-run we will check then to see if she has accepted him.

I have to say, I was ridiculously proud of myself for finding him & taking him back to the mob. Mike was very chuffed & says I can call myself a proper shepherd now ! No matter how little one lamb costs in the grand scheme of things I know that I found a lamb which would have been dead tomorrow morning if I hadn't. That's job satisfaction.

On which note - yesterday I made a lamb !

Mike has been looking out for a ewe having difficulty so that I could have the experience of helping out. Yesterday he came to tell me thee was a ewe who had produced a head but hadn't the strength to do the rest.

We took off to find her.

Once he had caught her he told me to put my hand inside (quite pleasant if you're wondering) to see if I could feel any feet. Ideally, both feet need to be alongside the head for the easiest delivery.

I told him I could feel one little foot but not the other. He instructed me to pull the foot gently until the lamb was showing it's shoulder. At this point I had to push the other leg back alongside the lamb's body as the lamb was too big to come out with the other leg as well.

After a prolonged, gentle, downwards pull my 1st lamb plopped onto the grass.

Welcome Stan !

We tied Mum's front legs together so that she wouldn't walk away from him, cleaned the mucus from his nose & mouth, tore the umbilical cord & rubbed his face all over hers so that she could recognise his scent.

We then drove off & left them to it. The idea is that you return after 20 mins or so, untie Mum & by this time she has grown used to the idea of the lamb.

This being Stan, was it going to be that easy ?

No.

We untied Mum, she took one look at the yellow, slimy creature gazing expectantly at her & walked off.

Nature can be very harsh.

This meant catching the pair of them & penning them together overnight in the sheep yards for her to get accustomed to him.

This morning, we liberated the pair of them after checking she had fed him overnight.

It was a very touching moment (photo please Q)

Well, must dash now, still loads to tell but have to do another run now & see if my re-uniting earlier was succesful.

Bye for now,

Evel Knievel x