Mixed weather between sun & rain. Fed & walked sheep out to pasture

I rescued a frog who’d been stuck in horses water tank. He was lucky as a horse had pooed in tank so needed to be cleaned out.

Zwartbles Ireland is a small company run from a farm in County Kilkenny in Ireland. We are a regenerative farm which means restoring soils health and regenerating its natural carbon and nutrient cycle with biodiversity of pasture sward with grasses, legumes, forbs and herbs. This also means we farm with nature. Healthy soils are important for healthy environment. So we encourage all life from the microbial to dung beetles, ants, pollinators to flora biodiversity, birds, hare, hedgehogs, rabbits, fox, badger as well as our livestock. This mean we farm in a style of mob grazing and giving fields long rest times between grazings. We have seen a huge increase and return of wildlife including woodcock and snipe in winter months foraging for dung beetle larvae, red squirrel, wood peckers and pine martens. We also have the rare natter bat and previously thought extinct Tawny Mining bees.
We sell, Zwartbles sheep, Zwartbles blankets and yarn made from the sheep, and calendars featuring Inca the World’s Smallest Sheepdog and her coworkers. We also sell alpaca yarn spun for our own alpaca. Our yarns are 100 percent natural, grown by our sheep which grazing our small green Irish fields. This wool is naturally sequestered carbon which you can then knit into warm environmental friendly clothing.

So today all these y the baale is spread out there’s still some in the ring feeders you can see those y are there but I spread it out for them to eat and they’re going to have a lovely time as it’s going to be easier to

Eat now to go let out the other flock and the horse Horses The Shed flock and the horses these guys are all going to be happy till tomorrow and tomorrow they’ll get a new bail of hay okay Orchard flock has been minded you guys have had your

Breakfast now it’s time to go up the hill into your field come on girls come on brindle leave it come on girls come on a little bit hey hey leave it come on come on come on ebony come on come on girls you got to go through the nasty

Bit to get to the good bit come on come on abony I’m following them going under this electric wire it’s easier to walk along here than it is through the muck mind you the alpaca walking through the muck it’s always good to just have one area that’s Mucky and keep it

Limited to how much gets Mucky hey leave it brindle oh there’s a Sunday Cycle people calling out down along the road chatting to each other as they cycle can see the yellow jerseys the Sunday cyclers sometimes we have 50 or 60 cyclists pedaling past come on a little bit out of

Girls there’s still quite a bit of grass in here so they’re going to have a lovely time heads down grazing and I’ve got to close my very primitive gate very primitive gate the gate over there is not quite as primitive right there at least it’s got some Timber this

Is literally just a dead steak and the Sheep wire is that right Inca well it serves its purpose and keeps the Sheep where I want them I’m cleaning out this water tank here water’s kind of Mucky at the bottom like this it’s sort of clean but anyway

Still and cleaning up the yard here but in the water tank I found this little fella very cold very cold very much still alive so I’m going to go and drop him or her down into our aquafer pond down in the lower field it’ll warm him or her up they’re

Very cold whoops oh my hand is warming them up okay I’m going to leave you there for the time being and then I’m going to bring you down to the pond because I don’t want to warm you up too much too quickly here’s my frog that I saved from the horse’s water

Tank and I’m bringing it to this is the aquafer so it’s a very natural water not water that comes from the mains and often there’s frog spawn right here this year there isn’t at at the moment so I’m going to let this frog go here there we

Go there we go that’s much cleaner better water for a frog and it’s gone and hiding under that ivy leaf I’m very pleased with having rescued him or her I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl anyway this is in a much better place than in the hes water

Tank look at all that duckweed there there’s going to be lots of food for it and it’ll be warmer than the horse’s water tank come on dogs let’s go back to work come on come on Java come on good dogs come On I’ve got to attack all those brambles and chop them back because they’ll catch sheep and could drown them that happened to me one year a sheep went to drink got caught fell into the water tank and got more and more caught and it ended up drowning

Overnight so I’ve got to trim all those black Breeze back a good bit very wet aquafer and the Sun is out yay hello son you’re very Welcome Hey no leave them be now I had planned to bring this bail up tomorrow as I have a crew of students visiting who are doing sustainability projects to show them about the hay but it’s going to be pissing rain tomorrow by the looks of it excuse me I’ve got to let that bail

Down so I may as well do the hay today in the dry for my sake and the Sheep’s sake and I think they will appreciate it they’ve done a good bit of damage on the hay that’s here there’s still some in there but um I’m going to do this

Now and that way I don’t have to do it in the rain tomorrow all right yeah okay oh look and the sun is shining which is so lovely we’ve had lots of rain today spots of sun but mostly rain and now it’s sunny and it’s so sad for

The students that it looks like it’s going to be miserably wet tomorrow so sad anyway I suppose that’s Farm life you have to take it as the weather gives it to you for yeah m n for Well that job Done they’re all crowding around that bit of hay now some of them are coming at this bail there we go she was a very late lamb and very runty never really well so she’s never really grown into herself all the other Lambs are about the right

Size that they should be at this age and Stage a little raggedy ass raggedy and lamb well they’re all happy happy sheep happy farmer isn’t that right ear feather and she pushes somebody out okay I’ve got to go get um as the sun’s going down and tomorrow is going to be a wicked

Day I’ve got to go get the horses in and then the other flock cuz these guys are fine oh I do feel sorry for the students tomorrow such a beautiful evening even though it’s so Mucky it’s so beautiful the trees reflected in the swampy wet of the field so that’s the

Swampy wet of the field you can see the trees it’s beautiful those are the trees not reflected but yeah we had a lot of rain today a lot of rain very wet so um and there’s more rain tomorrow so I’m going to bring the horses in and the Sheep

Slowly picking her way through the mud that a girl you good girl leave it Java Java good boy leave it they’ve heard me they’ve heard I’m coming the watcho gay voice she’s coming to open the gate before the next storm comes Sun set setting on the beach trees is lovely okay Ladies I’m Coming hey ladies I’m coming wait a sec there you go go the race home to be the first to get to the food oh dear okay she’s gone lame Java Inca leave it can see the sun setting over there java little bit taking her time beautiful sunny evening after today’s miseries

Oh God it’s so Wet trying to get the gate closed ramble okay go on go on go on come on girls come on hey you come on girls come on oh look a carrot is falling out of the food food come on girls come on bedtime out of girls okay now where’s the a that needs

Treating where where did she go it’s not you nope it’s not you where is she I’m going to have to get the stuff and treat her huh it wasn’t you was it no wasn’t you you beautiful thing oh there you are there she is right there that

One I’ll go get the stuff and come back and treat her hopefully she’ll be sound tomorrow