We first met Gemma when she was just four weeks old – very cute even then, as you can see from the pictures below.  There’s was some debate over her name before we met her – Sharon wanted Gemma, but Samantha didn’t like that name (although didn’t really come up with any good alternatives herself).  I toyed with ideas like Jill (since we already have Jack), or even Jewel (a cross between Gem and Jill), but those were both vetoed by Sharon citing the fact that the name did not have to have anything to do with Jack.  After meeting her for the first time, we all agreed that she is definitely a Gemma!

It was an early start this morning, leaving home at 8:30am in order to be in Auckland to pick her up around mid-morning.  Along the way we stopped at a pet store to get more toys/treats, as well as the supermarket to get a few odds and ends.  We eventually collected her just after 10:30am – not bad timing if I do say so myself.  In the car (in her box, or old cat cage as it was) she whimpered a bit at first – but this soon subsided when Samantha opened the cage door and allowed her to lie on the towel we had left with her during our initial visit – this had familiar scents such as her mother and herself.

On the long trip home there was only one stop – she had been asleep and she woke up, so we decided we’d stop at the rest stop at the top of Dome Valley to see if she needed a toilet break.  It turns out that this was possibly her first introduction to grass – well, she was very interested in it anyway.

Not needing to go to the toilet, it was soon back in the car and an uneventful remainder of the journey home.  Once at home she was cautiously introduced to Jack and then the grass.  A short stint outside, followed by her lunch, some water, a “real” toilet break, and then some more play, she was in her enclosed area inside and out to the world.

Jack and Gemma are still getting introduced – Jack is keen to sniff butts and do all the usual doggy stuff, but Gemma is still very unsure of him (probably because Jack is so eager and bouncy).  They are getting better already and they have been a little closer together during Gemma’s second session outside – she is once again fast asleep.

Another update: by the end of the first day Gemma is starting to play with Jack.  Rascal (the older of the cats) has met Gemma as well and started the process of telling her who is boss.

My car was getting a new motor, hopefully no more oil leak. Richard has very kindly offered to put it in for us, and even found us a very good deal on the now one. Thank you Richard.

Our new little piglets were due to arrive late morning, and the shearing wanted to come early afternoon. At least we were getting it all over and done with in one day.

The pigs were a little late, but they had a long way to come. While we were waiting I had a call from the quilter saying that my Dear Jane quilt was ready to pick up, so I shot off to get that while Bevan stayed and waited for the pigs.

The shearer arrived about 10 minutes after I got back home, and as is often the way of things the pigs a few minutes later.

It was a really hot day so the little boys had a big drink, and then crawled into the house for a very big sleep

The shearer was happy that the yards where he would be working had a lot of shade so it made his job so much easier. The little lambs that are still on there mothers were a bit confused, as they seemed not to recognise their mothers with there coats off.

So once again we have a paddock full of naked sheep.

Quite alot of things have happened here lately and although I have been meaning to come here and tell all about it, time has got away form me. I will try to think back and start at the beginning, and hit the highlights.

Firstly we have lambs again this year. It swung off to bad start with the first little lamb arriving early and not being able to stand or suck. Despite our best efforts she was not able to last the distance. She was followed the next day with triplets, who then got caught a heavy frost and so didn’t survive either. Not a good start.

We then had three lots of twins, Arnica is Sammies pet from three years ago, and she had to have a little help to deliver her boy/girl twins, since they were trying to race for the finish line together. She then kept them in the pig house for the nest three days, and so they got over the worse of the weather and are doing well.

The next twins were a week later. Two ewes,  both had still born babies last time, both had twins within hours of each other, both rejected one lamb each. Dolly and Dino ended up being hand raised by us, both having brothers that are thriving on their mums.

They spent the first week in an old dog crate in the corner of the room, before progessing to the deck and then the paddock. Dino was really small,but both lambs have grown well and have accepted us as their parents.

We also had a couple of single lambs, one of them was huge and need help to be delivered, because her shoulders got stuck. All are doing well, so the only losses were those ones at the beginning.

A week after all the lambs, Sneezy gave us her first calf, and our first heifer. She arrived an hour before a huge storm, so was aptly named Stormy.

She is half Murray Grey and is very adventerous. I am often losing her as she does not stay with mum, but will instead climb through the fences and wander away.

Sneezy is proving to be a very nice house cow, giving us plenty of milk to feed the lambs, us and make cheese. She has settled into the routine so easily. I can’t tell how good it is to have real milk again.

After about an hour I decided that intervention was going to be needed, so I went out and found she had become quite cold and floppy. She could stand and she couldn’t suck.

She was warmed as quickly as possible and I got some Lamb rightstart into her, she rallyed and after a few regular feeds she appeared to be turning a corner.

She was still very fragile and alas only managed to live for 30 hours.

This morning we were greeted with a set of triplets. Not what I wanted as often mum can’t feed three for long. For now she is managing all three, but we will see how long that lasts before we have to feed one ourselves.

So now two have lambed and we only have five to go.

One was a broken rib and the other was a sprained hand. Both these injuries restricted what I was able to do outside, so I have been pottering along as best I could with some creative crafts.

One of the things I did was to take a class named “The Amazing Plait Bag”. The bag is a really good size and very sturdy, and the handles are done in a seven way plait that looks …well, quite amazing.

We plaited the handles on an old CD with slots cut out of it, and once I got the rhythm it was a simply but tedious job.

The main bag was pieced straight onto the pellon and then the seams were covered with embroidery stitches. The original pattern had the cell phone pocket in the front quite small, so I enlarged it just a little and instead of using a button and button hole stitched on some velcro dots and just put a button on the top.

Over all I was quite pleased with the finished result and I can see myself using this bag often.

Of course the decision had to be made, so today is his date with the homekill man. He is in very good condition and at nineteen months is more than big enough to fill the freezer and give us our years worth of beef.

It is believed, although not confirmed that his father could very well have been a Red Devon so we are expecting the finished product to be very good.

My first attempt was pretty hopeless, I seemed to be having a bad day and the instructions required thinking about as I made it.

After scraping that bag I had another attempt with some nice Fairy frost fabric that I really liked. Needless to say the end result came out much better

It is a cute little bag that can be just slung over my shoulder when I go to classes.

It then opens up like a basket and will sit open while I am working.

It even has a couple of pockets on the inside so small things don’t get lost.

And a flap on one side that opens to show a place to put needles and pins. Nice and convenient.,

Now Maureen I will make you one when you let me know what colour you would like. Thank you for the pattern.

It’s now been a week since Mr. Ram arrived and I’m happy to say that he appears to have settled in.  He is often seen sitting or eating with the whole group of girls, instead of just one or two.

We are still in drought conditions so no grass, although we hope that will change soon.

While we wait, I have begun and new quilt, that I have found quite captivating. It is called a Dear Jane, and is a reproduction of Jane Stickles 1930s quilt.

So far I have done four columns, with 13 rows to a column. I am joining it as I go so that it will not be such a big job later.

As you can see there are a lot of interesting blocks in this quilt and it is proving to keep me wanting to do more.

This year we decided to take the plunge again, borrowing a ram for a few weeks.  Unlike 2008, we are planning to only keep the ram with the girls for a few weeks.

At first the girls all kept away from Mr. Ram, but within half an hour he had managed to make friends with one of the younger sheep (I think this was the only surviving female of the 2008 lambs).