Winter on the Hill

a seasonal round-up of going ons on the farm

The thing about living by candlelight is we live sunrise to sunset. And the thing about living “close to the bone” up here on the hill is we really live the seasons. And there is something deeply restorative in that, the way it should be. 

The shepherding year begins when the rams go in, with a new breeding cycle. The date the rams go in (and come out) determines our lambing dates and the months in between, the dark months, are spent in gestation for the excitement and restlessness of spring.

Spring arrives late on the hill. Our rams went in on the last week of November, just before the freeze, for lambs conceived and gestated on frost softened heather and gorse, to arrive late spring with (hopefully) the first flush of grass and mild enough conditions for being born outdoors. This is our first winter on the hill, and will be my first lambing here, outdoors (I have until now lambed th…