Haggis the adventurer

Sunday morning was interrupted by the sound of a beeping horn coming up the road. Beeping horns on the farm usually mean there is an animal on the loose. Today the forester was following last year’s tup lamb, Haggis, back home to barracks. Haggis had taken himself off for a quick visit to the neighbouring village of Keills. Having skipped over the fence earlier in the morning. Unfortunately for Haggis his little adventure had been intercepted when luckily the passing forester had met him on the main road. The tups on the farm have all been getting restless. One has been pacing up and down by the gate. A sheep on the opposite side was positively leaning herself into the gate, seemingly trying to push the gate over, such was her eagerness to get to the Tup on the other side.

The Happy Farmer placed Haggis safely in the fank, behind the high stone walls. This did not however stop our amorous young tup. A soon as the Happy Farmer’s back was turned Haggis Houdini scaled the wall and was once again out prancing on the road. Haggis belongs to eldest daughter and the Happy Farmer has strict instructions that Haggis is not to be involved in any breeding programmes this year apart from with a small chosen contingent of Hebridean ladies. Today those instructions were broken. The happy Farmer relented. Haggis is now happily enjoying himself with some blackface sheep. Tensions have eased on the farm. The rest of the male contingent have also been let loose and can now be seen gallivanting and cavorting around the fields with the ladies. Several weeks of feeding those boys up with ‘cake’ and they are ready to go. It will be an exhausting breeding programme for them. It is hard work. In a few weeks they will be gathered back in, where once again they will need more TLC as the Happy Farmer will need to feed them up to help them regain their strength.

We welcomed our winter guests back to the farm this week also. The Barnacle Geese have arrived home for the winter. Each morning as the sunrises they can be seen circling the barley field as they come in to land. This year we have whooper swans grazing in the fields too. They in turn seem to attract binocular clad visitors and local goose counters following in their wake and so the cycle of the seasons continues.

Until next time…