This morning there seemed to be a sigh of relief from all the animals (and Keith too!) as the sun shone through after a week of ice cold rain and wind. The sheep looked happier, the lambs were venturing out, and the birds were singing. Keith’s been in full swing lambing and calving for the past few weeks, and it is a very tiring time for him – 16 plus hour days and trying to make sure all the newborns have had a drink and are up on their feet. ( I am speaking mostly about the orbost farm cheviot and blackface sheep, as our own soays are pretty good at just getting on with it!).
The other day however, Keith was down doing the rounds and he found a soay lamb stumbling around the field with no mother in sight. It kept falling over and was perishingly cold. To Jess’s delight, he brought it home for some tlc and to try and figure out what was wrong with it. It fed from a bottle straight away, and warmed up next to the heater. When the lamb started moving around, she was stumbling and banging into things….it took a while to figure out, but it turns out she is blind/or partially blind. So we had a dilemma….. a blind sheep is really not much use in the fields or on the hills here, however I could not justify putting her down just because she is blind (I felt this sent a negative message to the kids). So Galaxy (named by Jess for her colour) is now the newest member of our household and living at present in the kitchen with Misty.
When Galaxy gets bigger and more independent we will move her out into the field behind the house. Sadly most pet lambs meet a disastrous end…..they haven’t been taught by their mothers not to eat that stone, or jump in that bog, or not to stick your head through that little hole, and as a result they do very stupid things to end their lives……Galaxy is going to have the added challenge of not being able to see well, but we will try our hardest to teach her well and make her life happy.
Something less well known about Keith is that he is an extremely creative person. I imagine that one of the reasons he produces such beautiful meat products is that he gets great satisfaction from crafting and creating from start to finish. When Keith left school he was tossing up either being a farmer or an artist. He doesn’t do much painting or sketching anymore as most of his time is taken up with the farm and meat business, BUT twice a year around Birthday times, Keith gets to be creative and decorate the kids birthday cakes – each year he comes up with something more fantastic than the last, and it is all taken VERY seriously!!! Last week it was Tristan’s 10th Birthday and he wanted a racing track and grand stand cake……. (and yes, they are hand crafted icing cars!!*!)
Creativity seems to run in the family, we got an email from our 9 year old niece in Australia, Madeline, the other day……she has been keeping up with the blog, and was very taken with Bud the budgie, so she decided to paint Bud during her holiday break. Well done Madeline – it’s a cracking picture and we love it!
Keith and Rachael Jackson's Blog 