Diary: February 24

Continued 2/3.

18th

Some downtime yesterday as I re-imaged a hosting server this website is hosted on. This website is fully online today, and will remain so for the future in sake of our past. Today, we have two pens in the polytunnel, each containing one ewe and one lamb.

The grass on the paddock is very short, so I'm suplimenting the diet of the few sheep grazing here with haylage; other than one Herdwick, we don't believe these ewes to be in lamb.

Snowdrops are blooming everywhere in our garden.

Weather is like spring, yet were still in Winter; we only had snow for four days this/last year. As Charlie returned from work another ewe gave birth, she had alot of problems sitting down, wandered often, also digging the floor (another sign their about to lamb).

So far we've seen mother ewes giving birth to lambs sitting down, last year they stood up.

Charlie sprayed the lambs severed cord with iodine, then place mother ewe and lamb inside a large pen, in two minds wether she would lamb again; she only had one.

Slightly cloud days are a pleasant walk in the woodland, a chance to take spherical photographs of the beautiful Craik Forest.

One of the ewes has a bad bag, Charlie has to ring the vet tomorrow.

17th

Late in the early hours, we began lambing. The first lucky mother to be was a ewe lamb (just one-year-old).

16th

It's almost 1am, the chimney is sure smokey tonight; I can't sleep, toothache is keeping me awake. This afternoon, I've been working on a new website; this website will not be updated for a few days.

15th

Sopping wet with rain today, were installing a new IPcam for the front of the farmhouse; this time networked and powered by PoE rather than Wifi as we've had latency and microSD card issues. Its a rush job to get the camera's online because were expecting to begin lambing this week. I have a month or so left at the flat in Hawick before I move, wanting to leave asap as their is a weirdo hanging about in the stairwell; faced me and Charlie off twice now, he's the guy grouting the kerbside I mentioned and filmed just a few days ago.

14th

Raging oral infection is dire this morning, tired and unresponsive, awake all night. There is so much rain today, although I feel relieved to be away from the rain, especially when traveling inside a car; I do not mind such weather, as the ending result is cleansing and refreshing; plus a downpour of rain turns up the contrast of natures colours, it's no that bad.

13th

In the morning I presented our ewe lambs with a licky bucket, was warmed to see them enjoying it. Charlie dropped me in Roberton kirk, for a walk and to take some pictures of the Borthwick Valley.

Took a spherical photograph of Roberton's old red telephone box.

The phone no longer accepts cash payment, I was astonded that the phone was still working.

12th

Soon I'll be moving out of Hawick, relocation only a few weeks away, maybe just days. I've been living here fourteen months and made no friends within this town; I am optimistic that where I am moving will be different; otherwise I'll be holding this inhumanity of social isolation to account.

This afternoon I walked to Galalaw viewpoint, halfway along my ascent I met a friendly horse, who became spooked by my spherical camera . Further along, Charlie rang, and I arranged to meet him on the hilltop; the weather was sunny, with dreamy fluffy white and grey clouds. I enjoyed the walk, fresh air helped alleviate anxiety from cPTSD.

Leaving Galalaw we drove towards Selkirk, turning left at Ashkirk onto the road to Roberton; this road is an ascetically pleasing drive, and sometimes preferable to the quicker hassle traffic route of Hawick town centre. I've grown fond of the Scottish Borders, they'll be a day, when an exit will be made available, and I'll no look back, unto a world that turned it's back.

We played carpet bowls tonight, I enjoy the collabritive social aspect rather than the individual competition of this indoor game. However I am getting annoyed with my bowls being kicked off the carpet; when rolled to a stop, clearly over the marked line. This has happened on two occassions, that are connected; sensing unfairness, I petitioned a vocalised protest.

I am pleased that Charlie is enjoying the game; I'm optimistic the inclusion will prevent him returning to social isolation of a hermit.

11th

Charlie is helping our neighbour with sawing his firewood today, the kind neighbour that leaves bags of logs by our doorstep. He uses a hand powered bow saw, but Charlie has an electric chainsaw that will make lighter work of the tiring job. I'm coding this blog, installing a better 360 viewer [other than aframe] named Photo Sphere Viewer; initially I had trouble with "embed" bootstrap function, until I switched to "ratio".

In the afternoon, we drove to the farm to collect a bail of haylage. One of the coo's had a prolapse during birth, and so a vet had been called. The newborn calf was placed into a wheelbarrow and was used to lure the prolapsed coo into the crush, the vet arrived five minutes later and quickly fixed the prolapse. I watched over the calf for several minutes until the mother coo returned; could not help but feel sorry for this wee fella, all alone, new to this world.

This blog is not to be used as a word became flesh brochure, peppering sadistic yearnings of genocidal maniacs whose ethos is to subject us to unparrelled misery, demanding to flesh us from our souls.

10th

There were many calves at the farm today.

Charlie asked if I wanted to see carving, calfing I replied, no thanks.

9th

The farmhouse from across the glen.

Attempted to take a few woodland pictures of Scottish Blackface sheep, but my bridge camera was stuck on manual focus. they are told to be one of the hardiest sheep breeds in the country; the Borthwick water is pictured in the background.

I'm committing myself to walking everyday.

Took a spherical photo with my Gear 360 camera.

Fed the ewe lambs some haylage, can't feed them extra chaff, this would be too much of a good thing, could potentially kill them.

Took another spherical photo with my Gear 360 camera.

I am wondering why the SD cards always fail in our IPcams, perhaps we should purchase proper CCTV, recording 24/7.

8th

Today I was at the farmhouse, I baited Jackdaws with Barley and then took a couple of pictures.

I need to change the focus on my camera for finer detail of these birds.

They are very agile birds, even a movement from behind a curtain motivates them to flee.

7th

This afternoon I took a walk through Wilton Lodge Park, took photographs with my iPhone, Gear 360 and Bridge Camera.

I met a elderly photographer by a bridge at the end of the park where the Teviot bends, he was taking a slow picture of the burn.

Charlie picked me up, we drove to Woodburn, a Teeswater and Dorest ewe lamb were eagarly waiting to be fed chaff.

The frost lingers throughout the daytime, as the farmhouse is shaded, seated on the northern side of Borthwick valley.

6th

Today, a 2016 Xperia Z5 phone arrived, that I'd previously purchased from eBay a few days ago for just £20. The phone camera is 23 megapixels, but I acquired this device to run Samsung Gear 360 manager app.

After performing a factory reset, I found an android APK app file; after some altering of permission, I connected the phone to the 360 Gear camera. I also have in mind using this phone as an off network GPS device for Outdoor Active app, via downloading OS maps and waypoints onto the device, I'll find my way without tracking.

Today I watched a man cleaning the guttering on the roadside, he appears to be a neighbour, although I am still unsure. He turned heads and obviously caught my observation enough to capture the bizarre event on film. I am wondering if he has just been released from prison or something similar; hope he is not a paedophile, there are children living in this flat block. Charlie purchased and presented two bouquets of flowers, one white, the other red; in the evening he enjoyed Cullen Skink I'd cooked for him. I believe the fish soup is now up to restaurant standard, after several or so attempts I'm just about there with it.