Well it’s wintery over here. Winter only officially starts on December 21, but November is usually a bleak and gloomy month. The biggest frost so far has been about -4°C, which for Czech standards is quite low, but the last few years the coldest at our place was only around -10°C.
I remember a few years back when we were in the mountains the temperature got down to minus -29.9°C, when I was out walking the dogs at midnight it was quite fresh.
So what is new over here?
I think my shearing season is all but over, there maybe one or two places where the sheep are inside that I will still do.
So now a break until the beginning of March when I have some big mobs that shear before lambing.
But I want to tell you a wee story about one farmer. He has the same surname as me actually, he is from the United Kingdom and lives here with his Czech wife.
They have a nice villa and an island where the sheep graze. Last year, I worked there for the first time and eight sheep took us about two hours to shear but most of that time was catching them. It was a bit of a Mickey Mouse set up, some electric netting they should run through and then into a makeshift pen. Well, we got them in but after a while they escaped and it took a big effort to get them back, and then there was one ram that had really bad feet so that took a while to fix.
This time around I was curious how it would go.
On arrival I was informed that six steel gates had been ordered, but hadn’t arrived and would likely come just as we finish shearing. The makeshift pen was made stronger and more secure and the sheep ran into it OK for shearing, a drench and vaccination.
It is quite common that when I go to shear, the farmers try to do as much as they can while they are in a pen.
Christmas is almost upon us so I would like to wish you all a safe and festive season.