EelineS|WWOOF

I will go WWOOFing this summer! You could follow my journey here.

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I will miss ewe...

My last day here... If it was possible, I would be glad to stay a bit longer. But Portugal is not really a punishment haha! ;-) Today we started earlier because of the great tennis match this afternoon: good luck Murray! We took the sheep out around eight o'clock. I am not very good in last things, so I became almost sentimental by thinking that this was the last time that we took the sheep out with the sheepdog... Having said that, it was real fun! Jamie has such a good sense of humour, so we laughed a lot. There is one point on the road down that the sheep has to turn by their selves to left. Jamie told me that you buy the farm with a few ewes, they know the way down already, so that they could lead the other sheep. Unfortunately, I think the farmer before Jamie and Damaris has sold the wrong sheep to them - they are always in doubt at that point, a few will turn left, but a few won't. Because it was my last time Jamie told me that he told the sheep to go left today especially for me, because it was my last time. And, oh I feel so honoured, the sheep turned all left! Haha! After giving the sheep their medicines and clipping one ewe (she was escaped during clipping Tuesday), I mowed the last part of the lawn. See the photo underneath. Jamie and I will settle in a minute before the television, to watch the Murray match! I am not sure if I told it before, but Murray is born in the next village, that's the main reason why Jamie is into Murray that much. He secretly feels like the neighbour of Murray haha, I told him that distance is relative and that if you compare the Netherlands to England, Jamie could be the neighbour of Murray. Sadly, Murray doesn't live there anymore, haha. Poor Jamie! ;-) I have had a great week. I learned a lot lot lot about farming, about sheep and Scotland. I learned how to handle sheep, how to make sure a dog won't eat dung, and how to stop a cat to meow. I also learned a lot of English ánd Scottish. I have learned how you could make delicious elderflower, and how you could confuse your postman with putting the elderflower into a rum bottle. I learned a lot, and I am so happy I did! It was a week that I will never forget and I am Damaris and Jamie very grateful! I will miss ewe (~you)!

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Mowed the lawn! (:

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Really beautiful sky this evening!

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Liver fluke...

This morning was morning off for me, because of all the rain. I took a wee walk and I read my book (An other hand - Chris Cleave). At lunch, Jamie called the SAC and unfortunately, the sheep have got liver fluke... Poor sheep! For that reason we had to collect all the sheep again to give them another medicin as well. We didn't manage to do all the sheep, so we will do the last field tomorrow morning. After that I mowed another loan, it is fun to mow the lawn with a electric machine. The weather now is really good, a bit windy but we have got some sunny spells! It is odd to imagine that tomorrow will be my last full day here. They say that time flys when you re having fun... I had really good fun than! Tomorrow another day with sheep (I like them so much!), dogs, hens, and Jamie and Damaris. Saturday I will leave around nine am to go to Portugal where I will have another holiday with my family! :-) lucky me!

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Red spots, blue noses and green Wimbledon grass

This afternoon we took the sheep in and separated the hogs from the ewes, lambs and rams. We gave the hogs, ewes and rams a red spot. So you could easily figure out that these sheep belongs in the third field. We sprayed the hogs and rams on their back and gave the none-clean-bottom ones a spray in their mouth against worms. We gave the lambs with bad mouthes a pill and sprayed them with blue spray on their noses (the spray is a medicine as well). To put the medicine in their mouthes was hard, you really had to push them in. And wow, I didn't know that lambs are really strong! After we gave them all the medicine we put them back, two hills up and down ha ha, my condition will be much better after this week... For tea we sat in the television room to watch the nerve racking tennis game: Murray versus Verdasco. Jamie and I are very very happy that Murray won! :-)

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I do like the weather today, we didn't get any (!) rain! Lovely warm sunny day! It was good this afternoon (see photo underneath) and it is still good: around eight.

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Lovely weather today! :-)

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Landrover experiences

This morning Jamie and I went up to Almondbank (near Perth) to drop the wool in a depot. It was incredible to see that amount of wool all together. We dropped 594 kg wool, so that is 2.7 kg wool per sheep: quite a lot. Oh I forgot to tell, but the breed of sheep is Texels and a cross between blueface and blackface sheep. After that we drove to SAC (Scottish Agricultural College) to drop some sheep dung. Jamie and I collected some fresh dung this morning and the SAC will check the dung for worms and other things. Then we stopped at a farm shop to buy food for the dogs and hens and medical for the sheep. Finally we bought a newspaper and drove back home. It was a interesting morning in a old landrover with a trailer at the back of it. While driving Jamie and I talked about farming, music and differences between Scotland and England. This afternoon we will collect the sheep and will check them. We will put something on their scarves from the clipping, we will mark some of them and give them some medicines.

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Clipping!

The red deer were amazing! While we cut the wood they stood less than a meter beside you and they played with the sawdust. It was really nice to see some calves that were two weeks old, they were really tiny and lovely. I will never forget this experience... It was great! Yesterday afternoon we took two fields with sheep down (with the sheepdog) to the farm and separated them: lambs and ewes. Around six o'clock we started clipping, 175 ewes to clip. My task was to get the dirty bits from the fleeces off, roll the fleeces right and put them in bags. It was incredible to see how the clippers clipped the sheep very fast. They really knew what they were doing. We finished clipping together with lots of midges, how lovely ha ha, around half nine. We putted the sheep back up the hill and after that we took te last field out to be sure that we could clip today (we put them in a shed, so the rain couldn't make the fleeces wet). We ate about ten o'clock and after I took a bath, I went to bed. This morning we started at seven o'clock with clipping... We did 128 today: ewes, hogs and rams. I clipped - try to clip - an ewe, it was special to do. I think I will never get a chance to do it again. There were a few rough sheep, luckily I had a nice one to clip. :-) After that Finley (a boy who helped with clipping) and I cleaned the shed: which was very hard because of all the pee and poo that was in the sawdust. It is now almost two o'clock and I am really tired. I don't know what I will have to do this afternoon, I hope not that much ;-)

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Clipping?

Unfortunately, our neighbours weren't able to get the sheep in this morning because of the rain last night. For that reason, they have to wait until the wool is dry enough to clip, so we have to wait till they are finished with clipping their sheep before we could start. They have to clip around two hundred sheep, so it will take a long time. We aren't sure if we could clip today. Because of that, Jamie and I will go to the red deer field and do some woodcutting there. We will see what we could do today...

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Dreich

Yesterday afternoon was the sister of Jamie here. We ate fish pie which was really delicious, Damaris is a really good cook! I went to bed early because of the busy days (monday and tuesday) that will come. Today was a lovely day as well, just a wee dreich. A day with a busy morning: giving the hens food and the sheep water, made a pen for clipping tomorrow, cut down some trees and place the wood away all with wind and a lot of rain... Another thing this morning: there escaped a lamb... Luckily he went back himself. So we had to find the gab in the fence and I repaired it. Thansy (the sheepdog) was really excited that she was allowed to chase the lamb. Unfortunately for her the lamb was back by his mum before we got Thansy down. This afternoon we lunched with friends from Jamie and Damaris in a lovely bar. After that we went to Coldoch gardens in Blair Drummond: it was open because of the Scottish Garden Scene. (http://www.scotlandsgardens.org/gardens/garden/4c8000ee-9ad8-471d-a086-9ca8016608e6) It was quite interesting to see the garden because it has three full time gardeners.. Meet other nice people there, so it was a lovely afternoon. I took a bath when we arrived 'home' and we ate some toast later on. Now, while I am writing this post, I am watching Clatsonbury on the television with Jamie. We will eat eggs this evening from the hens in the garden :-) Damaris and Jamie are really lovely people. I am lucky to be here. It feels like I am here for at least a week, but it is still two (and a bit) days... It is nice to know that I will stay till saturday, perhaps I prefer to be here a little longer if I had the opportunity. I think that that is a good sIgn. Next to that, I think and dream in English now... Haha! So I will improve my English these days! I am very curious for tomorrow: the clippers will come around four o'clock in the afternoon. Can not wait :-)

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Sheep, sheep and sheep

Today is my official first WWOOFing day. I arrived yesterday around tea time, Jamie and I went out for a walk with the dogs, he showed me all their land with sheep and red deer. Later on we watched tennis: hurray for Murray! After that we ate kipper (I don't know if I spell it right...), a sort of haring, with vegetables and potatoes. We watched the ten o'clock news and finally I went to sleep. Damaris told me that we will clipper the sheep this week. So we have today and tomorrow for preparations. I gave the hens and sheep water and food this morning, mow the lawn and cleaned the shed. I am off for this afternoon because Jamie and Damaris have to go to a birthday. I will go for a walk and do some little things for them (more mow work). I am really happy here. It is very nice to be on your own and to be in company at the same time. The work is hard, but very nice as well. Damaris and Jamie are very kind and helpful. Next to that, it is an amazing place! The farm is beautiful and the views too. The weather is fine (a bit cloudy but good temperature) but they expect a lot rain this afternoon and tomorrow and monday as well. And the rain could be a problem for clipping the sheep. But we will see and I am sure we will manage. Next to that I really love the dogs (Labrador and a very happy sheepdog) and the shy cat. I hope I get some photos on tumblr later this week. I can use the iPad from Damaris, but I couldn't put my own photographs on it. So, later this week I will mail some photos to myself to put it here.

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At the gate! Ready to go! :-)

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Packed my bags!

Packed my bags! Tomorrow I will be in the airplane right now... I started to get a bit nervous and at the same time I am so happy to go tomorrow! Just one night to go... I will post as many stories this week. I hope I could find internet somewhere to upload photos and stories. SCOTLAND - HERE I COMEEEE! <3

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You could never get enough Dougie ;-)

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Sooooooo excited!

Less than 3 days left! So just 34,5 hours left! So just 2070 minutes left! So just 124200... 124199... 124198... 124197 seconds left! :D I AM SO EXCITED! Can not wait to go by car to the airport to fly to Edinburgh! I will be around tea time at the farm to meet the people there. I am listening Dougie Maclean and Altan right now to feel Scotland already... I will post another song and I can not wait to share my experiences with you :-)