It’s always a difficult issue this one – should we revert to Greenwich Mean Time, as we have just done this last night and so by “gained” an hour, or should we continue year round in British Summer Time, one hour in advance of GMT?

It set me thinking about just what effect this has on us here on the farm.  Guided by the clock, we get up about 6.30am but have had to wait recently  until later each morning before we can feed the animals.  Before about 7.45am they are still fast asleep.  However, this year, we have no children to get up for school and no frantic scramble to get animals fed before bundling boys into the car.  Not quite such a mad rush therefore and we have waited a little longer without anxiety. While this means a slightly more leisurely start in the mornings it does make for a shorter day since I was then not finishing feeding until 9am-ish. Normally, with children on a tight morning schedule, this would have been impossible without my husband doing the school run.

At the end of the day it has been easy to go out in the afternoon and get back in good time to feed the animals. From today, if I spend the afternoon weaving at Coldharbour Mill, I shall have to make a mad dash back to feed the goats during the day light. If I get back “when it’s dimpsy” – to use a Devon word ( “getting dark”), the goats are settling down for the night. I will not feed in the dark by putting on artificial light. Once the goats are in kid, as they soon will be I hope, I follow a fairly strict policy of natural daylight only except during an emergency. This continues of course when the sheep come in for shearing at Christmas. So far the policy has served me well with the vast majority of goat kids and lambs born during daylight hours.

I suppose this just reinforces the fact that, whatever we as humans ordain in society, the animals work to a different rhythm and for those that work with them the odd hour here or there is an inconvenience we must live with.

The goats and sheep get up with the sun and go to bed with the sun. Seeing them come into the barn in the evening, have a mouthful of good hay and then settle down sleepily with their family of last year’s kids is always an enormous pleasure. Likewise I love to see who is late getting up in the mornings. There are several animals which consistently make my heart skip a beat when I go down to them first thing. They are laid out flat, not moving, while others are eating, stretching and moving about. Fearing the worst I inevitably get caught out when I approach and they leap up, startled out of deep sleep!

I often wonder how things were here for farmers in earlier times. Daylight Saving was introduced in 1916, the middle of the First World War, largely to help conserve precious coal stocks. I imagine it made not a scrap of difference to the farmer here. Even his children, walking the 2 miles along the valley bottom to Oakford Village School, would have gone off by themselves and returned the same way. He and his workers would have gone on at the same time and pace as before. So not much has changed really – has it?

Today was crunch time for my Bowmont ewe. For the last two weeks she has been programmed with a whole series of injections then inseminated. Today was the day we collected the embryos – assuming of course things had gone well. This has been expensive, time consuming and, more important than anything else, not very comfortable for the sheep so I have been most anxious to ensure we got something out of the whole thing.

[ I'm including a series of photos in this post which some might find upsetting - so go no further if you feel this applies to you!!]

We arrived at 8am this morning at Horsepond Vet Centre in South Molton and the sheep spent a little while in a quiet pen getting settled. Fortunately she is a calm, laid back animal and had already been in this pen once when she visited for insemination, so she quietened very quickly. She was anaesthetised then placed in the “cradle” which holds sheep gently yet securely, head tilted down a bit to help  breathing and circulation, then her belly was shaved and cleaned.

As this was Bowmont, all the belly wool was carefully put in a bag for me to bring home! Waste not want not!!

Cath, one of the vets, was keeping a very careful eye on sheepy’s breathing during this time and in fact all the time she was under anaesthetic, checking her heart rate etc regularly. She was very well cared for at all times.

Mike the other vet then set too and quickly had a small incision made and the uterus gently pulled up to the surface. The little embryos at this stage, (day 6) would be securely in the body of the uterus, if they were there at all.

The next stage was to flush the uterus with sterile saline solution so that the embryos would float out gently into the waiting petrie dish. Helen was there to catch the precious liquid. One cough at the wrong time or a jolted elbow and the whole lot would have ended up on the floor. It was a nervewracking few minutes.

After this, the ewe’s job was done. Helen took the dish and the embryos to the microscope to check the quality and number while Mike and Cath concentrated on stitching the incision and bringing the ewe round from the anaesthetic. I was there all the time of course and  while she was coming round in her  pen. She was very wobbly and coughing quite a bit but soon managed to clear her chest.

Helen was only a few feet away, looking carefully through the microscope. We all held our breath. After what seemed an age she declared: “Nine good embryos to freeze!”  I was so relieved!! All the effort and the discomfort for the ewe was worth it. She had done a brilliant job.

The next task was to freeze the minute globs. These are my Bowmont insurance policy. Hope for the future in case of some devastating disease outbreak. They are for use only in extremis – at least, for the time being. The freezing might mean some of the 9 don’t make it but it’s the best way to preserve these unique sheep.

I left the vets to it as it was a slow and painstaking process. My task now was to concentrate on my sheep and get her home safely back to her stable. Mike the vet gave her a powerful painkiller to make sure she stayed comfortable and Cath gave her a final check over. Within an hour of the procedure she was ready to go home.

We said our goodbyes and set off , relieved things had gone so well. Unhappily, for some ewes, this is not the case and all the drugs and stress result in no viable embryo harvest. So far this year this has not happened at Horsepond AI centre but it is always a possibility. All that effort for nothing.  We were lucky.

As I write tonight, the sheep is comfortable, back with her companion in a warm stable and has eaten some food. She has earned her place on this farm and will have an honourable retirement from now on!!

My grateful thanks to Mike, Cath, Ronnie and Fiona from Horsepond and also to Helen, the AI Senior Technician from Innovis who came down to help with the freezing.  Their care for the sheep was exemplary and their care for me just as good. The coffee and croissants all round were particularly appreciated once the job was done!  I shall be back for more!

I’m still experimenting with cashmere hot water bottle covers. This is the front of the latest version. The back will have a bottom flap which folds round the bottle and buttons up.  It’s a made up pattern using a stitch from Barbara Walker’s Treasury again – my bible for knitting stitches (see link on RHS). It’s my own yarn of course – that’s how I can afford to experiment with cashmere! I must be the only person in the UK who can make a cashmere warp or knit a test piece and throw it away if I don’t like it!!

For those wondering what happened to my Bowmont ewe and her trip to the vets for AI – well, we are half way through and I’m planning a more detailed report next Wednesday when she goes back for flushing. I’m pleased to say she and the ram both performed beautifully and she was at exactly right stage for the process according to the vet so all the injections were worth it. I’ve been offered the chance to go in and see the flushing process next week and photograph it so watch this space!

Meanwhile the sheep is absolutely fine. She has some pain killer injection in the morning since she has two little scars where she was operated on but to be absolutely honest, knowing her as I do, I really don’t think she needs it. However, I will continue as told although we have cut the dose down  a good deal. in collaberation with the vet.  I was very pleased to hear him say how quiet she was once caught in the pen and how she enjoyed a tickle. My sheep have no reason to fear people.

I have had a very encouraging email from Dianne Summers, the Cornish farmer whose TB outbreak in her beloved  herd turned her into a crusader for the recognition of TB as a serious issue by the wider Camelid community.

For over a year Dianne has battled with downright hostility, abuse and vested interests from the increasingly desperate Alpaca world, determined to keep their heads buried in the sand and carry on spreading this devastating disease amongst themselves and the wider farming community. DEFRA and Animal Health  stood by and let this happen, since, despite repeated warnings and objections by the rest of the livestock industry in the UK, Camelids have never been included by DEFRA in the Animal Movement Licensing system. They have complete freedom to move anywhere at anytime, despite being suspected of having TB or any other disease!

Contrast this with  my situation this week while moving a healthy ewe and ram 10 miles up the road to the vet centre for AI, bringing them back 2 days later and then having to take the ewe back by herself next Wednesday. To do this I have needed special paperwork from Trading Standards on top of the normal movement forms, plus a specially licensed area on my farm, inspected by DEFRA, in order to keep the sheep in isolation, before their first visit and between visits!!! Contrast this with the Llama trekking place a mile and a half away which can wander round our lanes at will!!! It is a nonsense and farmers are not slow to see the stupidity of this system and the sheer disregard for anyone but themselves of some in the Camelid community.

However, people like Dianne Summers and Richard Vickery are exactly the opposite. Dianne’s latest email below explains what she has finally managed to achieve:

The TB support group that I formed now has 15 fellow Tb affected members – some currently under restriction – others have been through the process and are now clear.  The sharing of the data has been invaluable to learn so much more about this disease.

I was pleased that the last 2 issues of the BAS Mag have featured TB including the FAQs but this was mainly aimed at how you make your farm badger proof which is very very important but it failed to point out the risks of alpaca to alpaca transmission and the risks attached of sending females away for matings -  attending shows etc.

These updates that I write-  only go to 100 people and to Mike Birch of BAS and I know many of you have already stopped showing – sending your females away for mating and not accepting stud services, but the other 900 members have no idea – but that is now all going to change…

These past few months I have been in DAILY contact with BAS Chair Mike Birch and to say we have had a few heated debates he will admit himself is an understatement but he has now invited me to be part of the newly formed BAS TB Action Group and he has asked myself and Richard Vickery to arrange meetings for every Regional Group on the subject of TB. These meetings will include guest speakers and will be rolled out shortly. Needless to say I have accepted. He has also named me as first contact for anyone who finds themselves in this horrendous situation.

All this will be detailed in a BAS branded email which will be sent out shortly to all members and posted to those not on the email list.

If you want to read it before it drops into your inbox you can view this email now by going on the BAS website www.bas-uk.com and click on NEWS then click on TB Action Group. I am also pleased they have updated the FAQs as per my suggestions. All this is available to non members – so you don’t even have to log in.

I have to thank Chair Mike Birch for this because thanks to him  and him alone BAS and I are now no longer at loggerheads but we are working together – which is what I wanted all along. I also need to thank Gina Bromage who has put up with me for over a year now asking her millions of questions and sending her countless emails because Gina admits herself even she and her fellow vets have little knowledge on the subject of TB in camelids and she is grateful for any data and information that I have given her – so thanks so very much to Gina and to those of you who have supported me along the way – it is appreciated. “

As Dianne acknowledges, this is only a start and the Camelid community has a very long way to go if it wishes to gain the trust and respect of the rest of the livestock world but her heroic efforts have meant there is now open acceptance of a problem. On ce the genie is out of the bottle they will not get it back – TB is only one disease. Camelids get nearly all the others that sheep and goats get plus a few of their own! They must now, in time, recognise the need to be under the same rules as all other farmed livestock.

For some this will certainly mean the end of their business. Many Alpaca owners are pet people and they and prospective owners will be scared off by the paperwork and bureaucracy associated with farmed livestock. That’s tough but a small price to pay for a healthier livestock community which would be INnclusive rather than EXclusive. Working together we are stronger than each fighting our own little corners. Goodness knows we have problems enough with dealing with a government which doesn’t want farmers and DEFRA which doesn’t ever get mud on its wellies!!

Good luck Dianne – keep up the fight!!!

I had a wonderful series of photographs sent to me recently by a German friend who lives in Portugal. Michaela is a spinner and natural dyer with a passion for historical research into textiles.

I was stunned by these photos. All taken by herself. She says: “I love arranging finished things like this and taking photos, but it takes so much time.”  It’s time well spent Michaela! These are beautiful!! With her very kind permission I reproduce some here.

There is a real lack of good information out there for people who wish to photograph their textiles. Leaving aside the technicalities of your camera, it is composition I am talking about. The best camera in the world will not capture images of this quality without thought, skill and a a natural ability to bring out the best in objects. At least, that’s how I see it. If there is good help out there for those of us without much idea then please point me in the right direction! In the meantime, I shall drool over Michaela’s photos!

What on earth is the connection here you might wonder?

Well, yesterday I had visit from a professional Wildlife Consultant working under contract from the Environment Agency looking for signs of otter activity. They are carrying out a survey every 7 yrs to establish how well otters are recovering from their devastating population crash in the 60s and 70s.

I was able to take the woman direct to the site of fresh otter spraints on the banks of the Iron Mill Stream here. She was thrilled. I asked if that was all and she said yes. Nothing else except the spraints was required since it was incontravertible proof of otters being present.

It got me thinking. She would undoubtedly be getting at least £10/hr for this plus travelling, probably more. Since it was only spraints, not habitat assesment, any suitably informed amateur could and would do the same for free!!  Devon Wildlife Trust members or members of the Mammal Society would do the work happily. The same would apply elsewhere in the country. These consultants had all had extra training to enable them to spot otter spraints (I thought they were supposed to be ready trained?) so why could not the amateurs be given this instead or even as well?The point is that the survey costs would have been dramatically reduced. DEFRA (which encompasses the Environment Agency) throws money away like water.

In the meantime my son, who has just joined the Officer Training Corps at his university, reports that he and the Territorial Army he trains with, have had all their pay stopped for 6 months and all paid training stopped too because the MOD has run out of money!! This means that young men who are first reserves for Afghanistan or other trouble spots at home or abroad, are expected to pay for their own training in readiness for war!! For my son, the income was only an added top up for his student grant but because he is still required to turn up and train (and pay for the privilege now) he cannot get a part time job as many students do to make up for it. Some of the young men and women in the regular Territorial Army (ie not the Officer trainees like my son) are very badly hit. Many are in  poorly paid work so the TA money is a necessity- not a bonus as it is for my son. I was very proud of his real concern for them. “I can manage Mum, but some of them really can’t!”

You all know my passion for wildlife. The otters here are my pride and joy. But when you see the profligate and nonsensical lack of “joined-up” thinking of DEFRA over this survey you have to question who is running this asylum?  With a little thought we could have the otter survey and save thousands which could be better used paying the Territorial Army.  After all, if there was a major national disaster at home it’s the TA’s we would call on to help us out. The otters would do their best, but….!!!

My AI programme for the sheep this year is progressing well. The ewe that is donating her eggs/embryos is  tolerating the twice daily injections quite well. She is being bribed with a handful of sheep nuts but has got wise to the fact that food in the mouth equals a jab in the backside!! Since I am on my own with her most of the time when the injections need doing it’s been quite an ordeal getting her anywhere near the catching pen!! I’m also trying not to stress her too much for obvious reasons.

However, between us we’ve worked it out eventually, with quite a bit of time and patience, and so far so good. I find myself watching the clock anxiously for some time before the next shot is due. I pulled out the progesterone sponges today. Not a pleasant experience, but it’s one more step on the way.

Tomorrow she and the ram go off to the AI centre. I hope Warrior does his stuff. He’s certainly been active with the other females but it’s quality that counts on this occasion. He should be producing top notch goods! They both return on Friday and then the ewe goes back next week to have all the little embryos harvested. We shall know at that point if the whole thing has been worth it.

I was pleased that my vet said she was in good condition on Sunday when he came to give her one vet-only jab. “Fit but not fat.” he said, which is what we want. In fact she is probably on the lean side but she is on a “rising plane of nutrition” as they say which is what you are theoretically supposed to be doing with ewes when they go to the ram.

The ewe seems very happy. She has another sheep for company and is actually getting quite tame despite the fact that I stick needles in her at regular intervals. She seems to enjoy a bit of contact and will allow me to touch her if I’m quiet. Makes me feel a little better about the whole thing! It’s a necessary evil. If these sheep get wiped out by FMD or something else equally devastating there are no more. ADAS have no breeding potential left in their flock because of out crossing and the fact that they have only my ram. No one else has pure bred animals. What I have here is the sum total of pure, traceable, quality tested Bowmonts.

Here are links to more of my blog entries about these special sheep.

The Bowmont Sheep

Preserving the Bowmont

I’ve been conscious for some time that artists, artisans and craftsmen of all abilities buy my fibres and other goods and yet I rarely buy art myself, mainly for financial reasons. I simply can’t justify the luxury of a self indulgent purchase. It’s high time to “join the circle” and put something back in to keep the creative world turning. so with that thought, I recently  commissioned  David Lister of Duchy Square Centre for Creativity  in Princetown to make a Linocut of Hamish, one of my original cashmere sires.

David is a Print Maker who works in a wide variety of media. I have always enjoyed linocuts which have an extraordinary ability to convey movement despite their relatively “broad brush”, bold strokes. The subtlety of fleece and fibre somehow manages to get through despite the lack of fine detail.

David has promised me some photos of him working on this for you to see but in the meantime, here is Hamish both in his real glory and in David’s interpretation of him!!

I spent all day at our Journal Committee meeting near Bristol yesterday. It is always an interesting event with much lively discussion about both Journal matters and, during breaks, more general things relating to our crafts of weaving spinning and dyeing. I couldn’t help noticing, yet again, that of the twelve of us there only three were certainly in their 40’s or 50’s. Others were older.

This is the same old problem which no initiative seems to do much about. In the “official” world of our crafts, ( ie that encompassed by The Association of Guilds of Weavers Spinners and Dyers ) the majority of people are well past retiring age.  I have banged on about this before  and I raise the topic again to see what fresh ideas people out there might have as to why this is so and what can be done about it.

I find it encouraging that knitting (and to a lesser extent crochet) has managed to reinvent itself to become an “uber-cool” thing to do. My 23-yr old daughter, now working in London as a trainee Chartered Accountant, would not be ashamed to be seen knitting at work or on the tube. She has gone to meetings of the Shoreditch Sisters Womens Institute – a great new take on the WI, which despite its best efforts, remains saddled with the old image and stereotypes in the same way we do in our crafts. Within the safe haven of this new, young WI group, my daughter will quite happily explore crafts, cookery  and other traditional topics but she would NEVER venture to one of our local  Guild meetings or a more typical branch of the WI.

The reason Shoreditch Sisters is attractive is firstly the age profile – the average is 25, and secondly the different “take” on the subjects. The cookery session my daughter attended was on Sushi. A recent craft evening was on recycling clothes with a quirky look back to the “Make Do and Mend” traditions of the 2nd World War. This group also has a strong campaigning streak, getting involved in ethical issues at grass roots levels. As I write this I can see many staunch traditional WI members saying, “So do we!!! We’ve had Sushi sessions, we campaign, we’ve done all that with knobs on!!”  I know, I know!!! But you are not 25, in London and cool!!

I wonder if we have an inevitable and necessary apartheid here? The social  needs of young women and men are very different from those of older people and  Guild (and WI) meetings have as much to do with socialising as with crafts.  I well remember going to my first weaving class several years ago to find, with dismay , that I was surrounded by pensioners. I knew they were all friendly and helpful but I instinctively also knew that conversations would be limited and different from those I would have had with younger people. As I have aged this has become a problem no longer, but I was just young enough when I started to have the feeling that I was somehow out of my comfort zone.

I was told yesterday that Hampshire Guild have a very succesful Children’s Section although a quick look at their website doesn’t mention it. http://www.hantsguildwsd.hampshire.org.uk/index.html I wonder what happens when those children get to older teenage years. Will they make the transition straight to the adult Guild? I bet not! The same problem will apply. Who will those youngsters talk to and what about? I have no doubt that it’s essential to get children interested in learning our crafts and I applaud Hampshire Guild’s attempts (and others engaged in similar intitiatives) but it doesn’t necessarily solve the problem of the increasingly aged profile of the main adult Guilds.

I suspect things might be better in big cities. London Guild maybe (and I’d love to hear from someone who has experience of this and Guilds in other cities) but the County Guilds in particular, are a poor, dispiriting sight on the whole.

I don’t know what the answer is except to suggest that new, dynamic groups specifically for the young – on the same lines as the Stitich and Bitch Groups and the Shoreditch Sisters would be worth a try.  Any other thoughts?

Yes that’s right, it’s the start of the new farming year, and despite the fact that it’s tipping it down with rain, cold and blowing dead leaves off the trees in sheets, I’m very happy about it!!

This strange dislocation of the calendar is due to the fact that it’s now, in the autumn when we put rams with ewes for mating. I’ve spent ages working out who should go with whom to get the best fibre with the least inbreeding and today we put all that into physical form by moving sheep into smaller groups and adding the appropriate ram.

It’s no easy task  since sheep hate to be parted from the rest of the flock. Preparation is everything and we had a huge array of hurdles, gates and barriers plus three people and the dog to help. I am really missing my 6 ft 4′ son who can grab a sheep and hold on to it with one hand while I hold on with two and am dragged around the floor!

Warrior has the largest group this year with 16 ladies to attend to. True to form, he got straight on with the job so there is at least one ewe which should lamb pretty close to March 7th!! (Typical gestation for a sheep is 145 days).

It’s a happy time. Yes we have the trials of winter to come but, as of today, we can already look forward to Spring.