Cow’s that for storm sheltering?
We brought all the cows into the barn at the weekend, spurred into action by talk of storm force winds.
We bedded up with straw, rehung gates and switched water troughs back on.
Warnings about Ophelia came thick and fast, but the cows have their own inbuilt early warning system. They’d already all come down into the lower lying ground and were pleased to be in the barn out of the weather.
They won’t go into the fields again until spring arrives, and that can be late in the hills.
They had only been inside a few hours when the children reported a casualty, a dead calf JUST DOZY: apparently. I went to investigate, he moved not a muscle – not even when I stroked him. But after more vigorous stroking he woke, dizzily blinking. He’d just been sleeping very deeply in the straw.
The horses came in too, of their own accord. They have access to an outbuilding and had the sense to spend Monday night in there.
Edith, Clemmy and myself decided at teatime we would go and see whether the sheep had moved from the most exposed places. There was not one to be seen.
They are wise enough to move down into the ghylls (valleys) under the wind and sit it out.
By the time we set off for home the waterfalls were going upwards into the air like a geyser. It was time for us too to batten down the hatches and take refuge.