sheep shearing

William, still a bit poorly after his flystrike

Sheepshearing time again. We were too tired on Tuesday night to try and get the sheep in the barn - Susie had just given her dance and yoga classes and I'd spent 2 days pick axing a 40m trench to the barn to lay the missing electrical cables. As Chystelle wasn't coming until the afternoon we left it until the morning. 

As per usual our sheep sensed something was afoot and we ended up chasing them for 2 and a half hours before we finally got them in the barn (yesterday they went in no problem at all). Chrystelle did her usual excellent job. the wet spring means most of the brown ouessants are horribly felted so their wool is unuseable. The white fleeces and couple of brown are OK. After FCO last summer its not been a good 12 months for farming. On the up side William seems to be recovering from his fly-strike.

It takes a few days for the sheep to sniff and recognise each other again after shearing.

Today I've been mucking out the barn. the next few days are busy with architecture work for me, leading a 3 day dance workshop for Susie, then excavations behind the barn on Monday!

The last few weeks we have had an occasional visit from a large eagle, finally got a photo to identify him...its a short toed eagle.

 

A busy week

A trip to the UK as my mum's partner John sadly passed away. A busy 5 days trying to sort out the administration for mum and selling some the items mum cannot use....his car and lots of computer equipment.  

In the meantime back at Quélébu 7 chicks to our two sitting hens, teething problems with the solar installation, our apple trees devastated by a red deer and the delivery of the insulated floor for the barn.

First task on return was moving the flooring into the barn, next building a pen so the hens with chicks could get out onto the grass. 

After continuing problems with the solar system, apparently originating from a software update, the controller decided to switch off all power, even the mains! An engineer quickly turned up and unable to find the cause of the fault and in the course of analysis turned the entire system off then on again....hey presto everything works again.  I hadn't realised the system would include remote access by the manufacturer's IT engineers....may try to opt out of that as it's more trouble than it's worth. "If it ain't broke don't fix it".

Flooring laying took a day and half, not good for the torn meniscus and arthritis I ve just had diagnosed by MRI!

With sheep shearing scheduled for Wednesday we thought we'd move the sheep. Uncharacteristically, William bolted and the others followed. When I finally caught up with them I realised that he had fly strike in his horn. Since having FCO (blue tongue) William's horns have been growing without their usual had gnarly coating. Evidently a fissure or other damage had bleed and the flies had got in to lay eggs. It's a horrible affliction. A mad dash to the vet before closing and I managed to get an injection to administer. I hope he ll be ok.

Solar panels

Solar panels, battery etc installed over the last couple of days. All didn't go quite according to plan as the installer advised me that I only needed three cables between the house and the barn, when in fact I need 6. More digging in the next few weeks to connect power to the barn (at the installer's expense), but at least the house is supplied and so far, despite mediocre weather, we have fully charged our batteries, met all our needs and made our first cash putting surplus power into the grid.

Busy bee