- Location
- Isle of Skye
Things came to a head here yesterday. My infrastructure issues finally broke the camels back. I have, for the time being gone back to set stocking.
We have a significant number of stone walls which have to be included in paddock making. Breaking my hand in Feb put me too far behind in rebuilding them. Therefore I have run out of paddocks - this doesn't sound rational if you aren't familiar with the terrain.
Another issue was moving ewes and young lambs from one paddock to another. The plan was the long walls would serve as lanes, with 2.5 foot pieces of rebar drilled in and screw on connectors with polywire. Within the lanes I would make front and back fences to form the paddocks and take power from the lane walls. Not having gate gates has also proven to be a mistake. The flock didn't know where was "safe" to cross from one paddock to another. This results in the ewes running through the gap leaving confused lambs bawling behind. I tried leaving a paddock open behind them for a day so they could remob. The problem with this is it left me desperately short of temporary step in posts, I ordered another two hundred in early may and due to courier cock ups they never arrived. Yet another issue is the sheer number of step in posts required to deal with the up, down, boulder, up, wall, down, up type terrain to be able stop sheep from going under or over a fence.
So, the result is a mess. Ewes & lambs overgrazing paddocks due to me not being able to keep paddocks built ahead of them. This neither benefits the land, the animals, or myself.
Though I do believe the delay may cost me the rest of this year, it has been a worthwhile experience. I still firmly believe in HPG, and I'm as eager as ever to get going. The reality of my infrastructure deficit runs contrary to one of the most important parts of my holistic context, to generate more free time to spend with my family or pursuing education. 8 hours a day rebuilding walls like a convict will do that ?
I am delayed, not defeated ?
Glad you're not defeated, I sympathise with your problems as many fields here don't exactly lend themselves to paddocks and electric fences, you have to just make the most of what youve got. It is a nightmare trying to move young lambs, I actually don't mind the electric fence chaos as it's 100 times easier than road moves, when the ewes have legged it 200m into the next gateway and 50 deafeningly noisy lambs decide their mum's still in the field we just came out of, and they can make a run for it- that's when I normally think back with fond memories of set stocking.
Don't give up on the year, it's still early, and your lambs will be more sensible in a few weeks. I think I'd still be trying to rotate something, would only need a couple good runs of fence even if just fortnightly moves it's better then nothing?