Back in early March we noticed 12 Herdwicks had escaped from the far fields (which used to be Low Nest land) into the Hogget field (ours). I did briefly attempt to herd them back into the field, but without a dog and a large expanse of area it’s just too hard. So had to leave them. I later heard that these escapees totally disappeared, no sight or sound has been spotted of them!
Sadly; they’d escaped through a gap in a bit of fence we have responsibility for. The whole stretch is knackered and needs replacing. I’m happy to do internal fencing, but we prefer to get any boundary fencing done by a professional, just because their fencing is generally stronger.
The local lads for the job are the Birkett brothers, but we hadn’t met them yet. A couple of days ago Johnny popped over to give a quote for the new fence.
We took his pickup down to the job and chatted as we went about the work he’d done on the land previously and about his families farm on the other side of the rigg in St Johns in the Vale. They’ve also got the contract to rebuild all the walls from the United Utility pipelne work.
On our way back up, and after I got in the van having just shut a gate Johnny was laughing and holding a very obviously agricultural syringe he said:
“Ha ha ha, just realised how odd it must look with all these syringes around.”
“Nah, that’s not bad. The dead lamb in your boot’s a bit odd mind!” I replied.
We laughed, but that is life at this time of year.