Apr 2007

Hello Hello,
Yes, babies everywhere...... Human, bovine, sheep, you name it! My host family had their little babe a week ago tomorrow. David Alexander, good Scottish name. It's been fun, always people dropping by, family coming to stay etc.
Calving is winding down slowly and we are mid-lambing. Not to brag or anything but I am really starting to get good at lambing a sheep! Today I lambed one where there was twins and their heads were like right on top of each other in the birth canal, so I had to push one back and then find the correct front legs to pull them out.
My supervisor for agriventure came to meet me today. He is the guy I call if there are any problems or anything with my placement. Simon is his name, he is really nice. He went on Agriventure to Austrailia and Montana, 20 years ago. He's getting me set up in some Young Farmer's thing where young people just get together and do some fun activities, I guess kind of like 4-H maybe???
My friends Mel and Steve who live in one of the farm cottages (I figured out the other day that 17 people including me live on this farm) took me out to a castle in Dornoch for supper and drinks on Friday night and then on Sunday afternoon I had some time off so we went to Mel's hometown which is 30 miles away and went hiking. It was so nice, great to see a little more countryside. So handy that they live 50 meters from the house!
I need everybody's help.....I was having a conversation with someone here and we got to talking about rats, and I said there are no rats in Alberta, and they asked why and for the life of me I could not explain why. They think it is something my parents told me when I was young so I wouldn't be scared. But it's true isn't it? So if someone can do some research and give me some scientific facts about why there are no rats in Alberta it would really help me out!
Hugh and Willie (Dad of host family, and Grandpa of host family) figure we are about half done lambing which is great news for me because it means I can take some holidays, and maybe sleep past 7 am one day. 6 ewe's have died so far, and I think there may be another dead when I go out tomorrow. They have never had so many problems apparently - maybe I am bad luck. 3 of the ewe's have died from this mysterious illness, Hugh thinks might be called Pregnancy Toxemia, where they are giving so much, nutrient-wise, to their lambs that they don't have enough for themselves. We have been treating them with this stuff call Liquid Life-Aid. (note: Has not been working).
So yeah, to sum up - just working away and still having a great time in this weird and wonderful world!
I hope everyone is doing great and thanks for all the emails and comments, keep em comin'!!
Ta ta

Hi everyone!
Things are going quite swimmingly here in the highlands as I approach the one week mark of being up here (ha ha - swimmingly, good word).
My biggest fear coming up here was that there would be a language barrier - everytime I told someone at home I was going to the highlands they all said the same thing - that I wouldn't be able to understand a thing. Quite the opposite however, much to my relief. Their accent is strong but I have had no problems understanding. The two younger kids think my accent is pretty funny. When we're all sitting at the table they say, " Gill, say water..............say football..........say window........." and on and on it goes!
My second biggest fear was that I was going to be soaked and freezing the entire time. So far, there has only been one afternoon of moisture - can't even call it rain - more like mist. And it has been quite sunny and warm. A little windy but very tolerable!
The sheep started lambing the day after I got here, as it stands now we have something like 11 sets of twins. Yesterday there were 3 sets of triplets, but none of the mothers can handle 3 lambs so I am bottle feeding 2 of them, the other we have put on another ewe.
As most of you know, I have had virtually nothing to do with sheep my entire life, and now as I am thrust into a sheeping world, I realize how lovely cattle are........Sheep are so dumb - trying to chase one into a pen by itself is just a waste of time - it's not going to happen. While the sheep are lambing, Hugh has an old retired shephard that he hires who comes and stays in the sheep shed all night, every night with the sheep for 3 weeks. I don't think you could pay me enough for that job!
I have made friends with a young couple who live in one of the cottages on this farm (have I mentioned it's pretty massive?), they work in Golspie and the girl (Melanie) and I have made plans to go riding together this week. No western saddles over here, so I'll be trying my hand at the english style.
I wish you all could see this place, it is so beautiful. Think mountains, and woodlands, and ocean, and you may be able to conjure up some ideas. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I will and will try to figure out how to post them. Don't hold your breath though because it's a pretty elderly looking computer here......we'll see what happens.
Take care now, bye bye then.
Or as they say in Scotland.......Cheerio!

Hello!
I made it!!! I just arrived a couple of hours ago at my host family's house in Scotland, it's pretty gorg.
I left home on Sunday night and flew into London at 3:30 am Calgary time- 10:30 here, and was picked up by the UK agriventure representative Katie, her husband Malcolm and 4 Austrailian trainees, who had just flown in a few hours earlier. We went for a picnic along the Thames in the afternoon then back to Heathrow to pick up the last member of our group - another trainee from Langley BC. So there are 6 of us here for the next 6 months. We got along really great and have plans to meet up a couple times over the course of our exchange. There were quite a few funny moments of communication breakdown between me and Katie (the other Canadian) and the Austrailians!!
For the next day and a half we were together every waking moment, Malcolm and Katie organized some great activities for us, we stayed in a sweet B and B in Cambrigshire or something. Then today was our dispersal day. We got up early and drove 2 traineesto the train station, then drove 1 trainee to her new farm, then dropped one off at Birmingham airport, then dropped me off at East Midlands Airport, it was pretty hectic and we were sad that we had to say goodbye to each other already but excited to get going to our placements.
So I took a plane up to Inverness, Scotland and got picked up by Hugh and Gillian (same name as meeee!) and here I am now at Kirkton Farm in the county of Sutherland. It is very beautiful here, it is a huge farm, all the buildings made out of stone. The house has 10 bedrooms and was built in 1812. ( that's older than Canada!). I have met 3 of the 5 kids so far (note: one is not born yet -April 19th) and they seem great.
It is very different here - you should see the some of the signs- like the emergency exit is represented by a man running and an arrow and a door, pretty funny! I haven't gotten much sleep over the past couple days, but Hugh and Gillian have said to take tomorrow easy so hopefully I can get caught up.
So that's it for now - know that I am safe and sound, exhausted and surrounded by foreigners, but happy!
I will post again soon, hope y'all are doing well and hope to talk to you soon