Chasing lambs

Wednesday 2nd December: Happy birthday Carmel (40 today!!!) and Tess. Cold and drizzly, high of 10 degrees. We had the fire alight AND put both the heat pumps on!
In the morning we schooled but we also had several phone calls and a visit, all of which meant we didn't get through everything we wanted to.
Mid-morning I looked down the garden to see both lambs at the farm gate, having escaped from their pen! Peter and I managed to get them back in, but the next hour was spent putting Shirley back in repeatedly as she found new and exciting ways to escape! Both lambs also became entangled in the net surrounding them several times.
At 2.30pm we headed into town and went to the recycling depot, the library and took the boys to Lister Home, the nursing home and hospital in Waimate. The Keas were there to sing some songs and do a little play for the residents, and in return they had a drink of lemonade and got to tell everyone what they wanted for Christmas. The Keas had also made some truffles and Edward had spent ages making 30 pretty little folded boxes to put them in. It all went well and the children were beautifully behaved. I was introduced to the residents because Steve goes there to do a clinic every other Wednesday, and the compere asked me to tell the residents what our Christmas Day food is like in England. While I was describing the typical menu, one lady (obviously English) was heckling from the back, shouting out food items I hadn't yet mentioned - mince pies, sherry etc!
We brought Brandon and Thomas home to play while their mum was busy, and they were very helpful catching Shirley who was playing in the big paddock again!
After tea we decided we would move the animals around. We decided to separate the ram lamb into a paddock of his own as he is pestering the goat, then put the little lambs in with Giddy Goat and Rosemary the ewe. However, they clearly had other ideas! A brief summary of the next hour is that Giddy and Rosemary were the only ones who didn't escape, and that's because they are too fat to get between the wires. Rammy lamby was separated into his own paddock a couple of times but this created a lot of noise from him, Giddy and Rosemary and, as soon as our back was turned, Rammy got out and dashed around and found his way back to where he had started. We got the little lambs into their new paddock, but Rosemary was very unpleasant to them, butting and chasing them, and Giddy went into their shelter and ate all their bedding. Then the lambs escaped between the wires and rushed around a lot, very excitedly. So after a lot of running round and escaping, the lambs ended up back where they started!! We used a different material to surround the little lambs, and hope they will stay in now! Within just a few minutes both little lambs went into their shelter and snuggled up for a sleep, exhausted from the evening's entertainment (see photo).