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Documentary, This Farming Life S01E09 Scotland

The working day begins as the sun rises above the horizon and it ends long after the sun has set. Across Scotland and Northern Ireland, the struggles and triumphs of farmers and their families are documented to give a unique perspective into the lives of those providing the nation with milk, meat and more. Against a backdrop of some of Britain's most remote and beautiful locations, these farmers go about their day with unprecedented dedication as they tend to their animals, harvest their crops, and care for their own families, as they endeavour to keep everything on the farm running smoothly during often testing times.

#Documentary #ThisFarmingLife #Scotland

Category

🐳
Animals
Transcript
00:00Across some of the most beautiful and remote landscapes of the British Isles.
00:07This is not a bad office is it? You know it looks like.
00:11Scotland's farmers carve a living.
00:14Everything has a time and a season. Nature doesn't stop.
00:18Breeding sheep and cattle.
00:20There's a lot of old friends here. They've come to the end of their working life.
00:23Quite a sad day.
00:26Bringing new life into the world.
00:30And battling with the elements.
00:34They're all cute in their own way.
00:36And especially if you end up on your plate as a lamb chop. Yum.
00:40Over a year, five very different families let cameras onto their farms.
00:46A hell of a size of nuts on them.
00:48And into their lives.
00:50To share their struggles.
00:52I don't know why you won't move forward with us.
00:54Do you need to do this?
00:55Yes.
00:56And their triumphs.
00:57Look at my baby. He's alive.
01:01As they try and turn a profit in testing economic times.
01:05That's just depressing, aren't they really?
01:07There's cause for celebration.
01:09Gorgeous.
01:11And a time to reflect.
01:13I feel sad that I haven't provided the next generation to carry on here.
01:18But it's never dull.
01:20Don't let him go.
01:22It's not a job.
01:23It's a way of life.
01:24It's late spring.
01:26Across Scotland, farmers are welcoming a new generation of lands.
01:34On many farms, the season is well underway.
01:35But hill farmers, Bobby and Anne Lennox are just getting started.
01:44It's an exciting time.
01:45We're looking forward and seeing what the outcome of the lands.
01:47We know we've picked the ewes to go with the appropriate rams.
01:50And just to see whether the lambs turn out as well as we hoped they would.
01:51It's also good that at this time of year, the kids come about.
01:53And everybody basically just mucks in and helps whenever they can.
01:54And everybody just mucks in and helps whenever they can.
01:55Bobby and Anne Lennox and Anne Lennox are just getting started.
01:58Bobby and Anne Lennox are just getting started.
01:59It's an exciting time.
02:00We're looking forward and seeing what the outcome of the lands.
02:04We know we've picked the ewes to go with the appropriate rams.
02:07And just to see whether the lambs turn out as well as we hoped they would.
02:10It's also good that at this time of year, the kids come about.
02:14And everybody basically just mucks in and helps whenever they can.
02:24Bobby and Anne are tenants of two neighbouring farms near Loch Lomond in central Scotland.
02:30Their land runs from the shores of the loch up into the surrounding hills,
02:34where they keep a flock of nearly 2,000 black-faced sheep.
02:39With their lambing season about to begin,
02:42the plan today is to bring 400 pregnant ewes down from the hills to the lambing sheds.
02:48We're going to gather the sheep off the hill from the snow away in the distance,
02:53right down this side of the valley, all the way back down to the farm.
02:58So that's where we're going.
03:00So it's quite a big walk.
03:0761-year-old Bobby has more than leg power to get him around.
03:11His trial bike means he can cover three times the ground of someone on foot.
03:17Across the glen, 62-year-old Anne has trusty sheepdog Jim as her assistant.
03:23They don't really understand order sheep.
03:26It's like my dog.
03:29I better go.
03:31And I won't be where I should be.
03:35Welcome to my life.
03:38The ewes are spread over 2,000 acres of hillside.
03:42So Bobby and Anne have brought in extra help,
03:44including their eldest daughter, Jill,
03:46who's taken a day off from her job as a tour guide in Glasgow.
03:50I do what I'm told, pretty much.
03:52I get told, we need your body out on the hill.
03:54Off I go.
03:55That's pretty much what I'm doing here.
04:00Gathering is quite a big job.
04:01Gathering, lambing, shearing, all the big jobs.
04:04Then I need to lend a hand a bit.
04:06So I'm quite happy to do that.
04:08Help, help, help, help!
04:10Woo-hoo!
04:11I tend to try and cross over the middle
04:13because I tend to get sent up or down the hill
04:15wherever someone's out to me.
04:16So I'm going that way.
04:18And we'll all meet at a gate just over there.
04:22And that's the plan.
04:26The gather is expected to take about four hours.
04:29But this is familiar territory for the family.
04:32They've been doing this all their lives.
04:34The Lennox's have tenanted this farm since 1750.
04:39And four generations still live here.
04:42Right, guys, let's go feed the tups.
04:44Are you back?
04:45Holding the fort at the farm is Bobby
04:47and Anne's youngest daughter, Kay.
04:49She lives in the house next door
04:51with her husband and two children.
04:53We do this every morning.
04:55We come down and we feed the tups here.
04:58And we set the sheds off and put the feeders
05:00into the feeders for the sheep.
05:03Come on.
05:05Well, this is what we used to have to do as well, whatever.
05:08Whenever we were at home,
05:09we always had to come out and do the feeding and help out
05:11if we couldn't stay in the house.
05:12Come on.
05:14Come on.
05:16Blair is coming up three in May.
05:19And Ailsa will be two in the end of September.
05:22So she's just kind of 18 months at the moment.
05:24Way, one, two, three, up.
05:26With kids, I thought I'd be like,
05:28don't touch this and don't do that.
05:29But I'd just kind of let them go on with it
05:31and hope it's all right.
05:32But they'll learn, you know.
05:41I allegedly used to eat the sheep feed,
05:43which I don't believe.
05:44Mum tells me I did.
05:45But I know I'm going to find them eating that one day.
05:48So I think they'll have really good immune systems, my kids.
05:51Morning.
05:52Come on.
05:53Bobby's 89-year-old father and his wife also live at the farm.
06:03This is my grandpa, Robbie.
06:05And this is my grand, Mary.
06:07And who's this?
06:08Who are they?
06:09Grandpa and Danny.
06:10Yeah, great-granny, great-grands, isn't it?
06:12That's it.
06:13That's it.
06:14He's having his 90th birthday in May.
06:16Yep.
06:17And I think we're having a party.
06:18Yeah.
06:19I think something at Shandran in May,
06:21I think we'll have a do a marquee or something.
06:23We've done it before for the 80th and things,
06:25so just need to get organising now.
06:27It's not far away.
06:33Robbie's been working at the farm all his life
06:35and passed on the day-to-day running of it to Bobby around 30 years ago,
06:39maintaining a long-standing tradition in the Lennox family.
06:44I left school at 15, actually.
06:46I think my father was quite keen to have him at home.
06:49I don't know whether he had a premonition
06:51that he wasn't going to last very long,
06:53but it never occurred to us that what was going to happen did happen
06:56because it was just a heart attack
06:59and he was all right one day and went to bed and died.
07:05It was a lot of hard work, you know, during wartime.
07:09There was a big push on to increase food production.
07:13So that was quite a...
07:16It was quite a lot of work.
07:20For his services to agriculture during World War II,
07:23Robbie was awarded an OBE.
07:27He's so proud of it.
07:29He's so proud.
07:30He's such a proud man of his family and the history and everything.
07:32So I love just spending time listening to it all
07:35because, to be fair, once, unfortunately,
07:37I know one day they'll not be here and it'll be devastated,
07:39but we might listen now and then you'll have it
07:42and then we can pass it on, you know?
07:44So that's the point.
07:45That's the whole point.
07:46If there's no point for family, what is the point?
07:48In the northeast of Scotland, north of Aberdeen,
08:05an unseasonal blast of wintry weather has arrived
08:09at the worst possible time for the Irvings.
08:16Sheep farmer Mel and fiancé Martin have just started lambing.
08:20We're in spring, so we're in the end of March,
08:25beginning of April, ten days into lambing,
08:28and the weather's decided to go wrong for us, really.
08:33So the weather was really good in February and beginning of March.
08:35It was looking like a good early spring,
08:37but since the sheep have started lambing,
08:39the weather's just decided to go wrong.
08:40So we've had rain, we've had wind, we've got snow today,
08:43and we're just kind of getting bucked up by lambs at the moment.
08:51The lambs are born in the shed
08:53and are usually put out into the fields within a few days.
08:57But the weather's too cold for the lambs to survive,
09:00so Mel must keep them indoors.
09:03With over 800 lambs on the way,
09:05it's a huge workload
09:07and a new experience for pedigree bull breeder Martin.
09:13He knows what he's doing.
09:15The ewes are pregnant from Mel's 14 rams, or tups.
09:20It's quite good watching all the tups run away
09:22chasing other women.
09:23Over the past two years,
09:25Mel's expanded the flock with some judicious breeding.
09:29The girls, when they're ready, they'll stand
09:32and their tails do this little flicking thing.
09:35They'll just literally be two pumps and a squirt, really.
09:44Mel even convinced Martin to take on the contract
09:46to manage the flock owned by the estate they rent their farm from.
09:50Now they're in charge of 520 pregnant ewes,
09:56and there's three weeks of lambing to go.
09:59I'm tired and cold.
10:06It's worse because it's cold.
10:08Yeah, tired.
10:09This last four or five days,
10:10it's been about the minus two, three, four at night.
10:12It's frosty, it's cold, it's wet,
10:14and it just kind of gets into you,
10:16and it's not enjoyable.
10:18You don't get a full night's sleep.
10:20No.
10:21Ever.
10:22Mel's plan is for them to manage this enormous workload
10:26completely on their own.
10:28So they've moved into the lambing shed.
10:31This is the love shack,
10:34as Martin likes to call it.
10:36No.
10:37Because the farm bread's about four,
10:40three or four miles away,
10:42we've got to,
10:43and someone needs to be here all night.
10:45Some folks say when you turn the lights off,
10:47you should just go away and leave sheep to lamb,
10:49and they'll do their own thing.
10:51It's not a complete lie.
10:53We often can get about,
10:56oof,
10:57anything from like 10 to 20 sheep lamb in a night.
11:01So we feel that we've always got to be here.
11:03It's just easier than getting out of your bed
11:05at two o'clock,
11:06and then having to drive four miles up here,
11:08and then back again.
11:10So we just stay in the caravan,
11:12because you're up during the night.
11:13So we try and aim to be up about every two hours.
11:16And a pregnant ewe could need assistance at any time.
11:20Mel has spotted one.
11:24She just needs to catch her.
11:26Good move.
11:28Yep.
11:29We're just going to land this one.
11:30Mel's too light for us, you see?
11:31No, no, no, no.
11:32Oh, don't let him go.
11:34It looks cruel, but it's not.
11:36One leg.
11:37Martin learnt everything he knows about lambing from Mel.
11:42But not every birth goes well.
11:43Don't tell me that's dead.
11:44Oh, God.
11:45Swing.
11:46Swinging the lamb should help to clear any fluid out of its airways.
11:50What?
11:51Mel.
11:52Swing.
11:53Swing.
11:54Come on.
11:55But he's slow to come round.
11:56Wake up.
11:57There he goes.
11:58There he goes.
11:59Just stimulating the lamb.
12:00Just stimulating the lamb.
12:01Stimulating the lamb.
12:02Stimulating the lamb.
12:03But he's slow to come round.
12:04There he goes.
12:05There he goes.
12:06There he goes.
12:07Oh, God.
12:08Swing.
12:09Swinging the lamb should help to clear any fluid out of its airways.
12:15Come on.
12:17But he's slow to come round.
12:22Wake up.
12:23There he goes.
12:25Just stimulating the lamb to breathe.
12:29There he goes.
12:31There he goes.
12:32So just stimulating his bark to make him stimulate his lungs and just get air into him.
12:37There you go.
12:38Happy?
12:39That's one lamb happily settled in a pen with his mother.
12:54Just another 500 to go.
12:56Further south, near Loch Lomond, the weather is much milder.
13:13The Lennox family are two and a half hours into their gather.
13:16The sheep are running well and seem fit enough.
13:20So I'm quite happy with that off at the same year when they're heavy and lamb.
13:24There's a hard winter.
13:25There's a few slow ones dragging away at the tail end.
13:28But there weren't any at all today.
13:31So I'm not quite happy at the moment.
13:35This is what makes it worthwhile to get a day like this.
13:40And if you look out there and you get up.
13:42And then in the spring, everything just starts to green up.
13:45And you sit up in the hill and just look out over that view.
13:47I know why I'm still farming here.
13:54The farm is Bobby's passion.
13:56But it only earns enough to support him and Anne.
14:00So when the children were younger, he encouraged them all to pursue other careers outside of farming.
14:06Ten years ago, the outlook for sheep farming was not very rosy, post, foot and mouth.
14:11And I said to them at that time, go through school, go and get an education.
14:15Go and get another trade.
14:16Find something else to do.
14:18The farm over there if you want it at a later stage.
14:21But go and get something behind you.
14:23And they've all gone and done their own individual careers and been successful.
14:28With Grandfather Robbie's 90th birthday looming and Bobby nearing retirement,
14:36the question of who will take over the farm is on everyone's mind.
14:40Did great-grand make the shortbread? Is it good shortbread?
14:43Kay runs her own cleaning business, but spends as much time as she can helping out on the farm.
14:49Yeah, I would love to be able to be here and stay on the farm and be part of it and have mum and dad there.
14:57And then we're between us.
14:59Because my husband, as much as he works full time, he's a boat builder, so his joinery and fixing skills are brilliant.
15:07He's very clever and mechanically minded as well.
15:09He's got a classic car he's doing up.
15:12And when it comes to maintenance on the farm, I'm pretty handy with stuff as well and with him there too.
15:18And I've got brother and sister as well. I'm sure they'll be involved somewhere along the line.
15:21As I say, we've not really ironed anything out yet.
15:23Kay's twin brother, Alan, who works in the oil industry in Aberdeen, is building a boat in one of the farm sheds in his spare time.
15:33We're not, at the moment, we're not in a position to make a decision on what's going to happen with the farm in the future,
15:40because grandpa and my dad are running it, so that's the way it is.
15:46And Kay's on the farm at the moment, so I don't know what her thoughts are on...
15:51We've not had to broach the subject of taking over the farm yet.
15:57And obviously dad's in his 60s, so I would imagine he'll be looking for retirement.
16:05My reckoning Kay's got her eyes on it anyway.
16:10Whoever takes over the farm, it will be a huge endeavour.
16:13It's 5,000 acres of... You've seen it, you know, it's up high.
16:20She needs quite a lot of bodies, which cost money, because, you know, so...
16:24So it's just about making it work. We don't know what it is yet, but we're going to make it work.
16:32The gather is near the end.
16:35That was a good day. It went quite well, actually, I thought.
16:38Anne and Jill and contract shepherd Derek are waiting for Bobby near the pens.
16:43Much the easiest job. He doesn't have to do anything like that.
16:46He does cover a lot more distance.
16:49No, he covers a distance of about three folk.
16:53Yeah.
16:55No, I wouldn't fancy his job.
16:57He's standing the whole time, so it's still a lot.
16:59Like, he's not just sort of sitting, donding about, like, it's a lot.
17:02It's hard working the shoulders and, you know, in the...
17:07Not bad for a 60-year-old.
17:0961-year-old.
17:10Oh, that's right.
17:13The pregnant ewes will now be taken into sheds,
17:17where Bobby and Anne can monitor their feed and help them during lambing if they need it.
17:22We will go and have our lunch and work our way through there.
17:28The sheep shed there is full of ladies-in-waiting now.
17:30I'm waiting now.
17:46In the north of Scotland near Inverness, large-scale sheep farmer John Scott runs a successful family farm.
17:53He's three weeks into his lambing season, and with over 4,000 ewes to care for, this is lambing on an enormous scale.
18:05With such a mammoth task, the whole family gets stuck in, whatever their age.
18:11Today, John's being assisted by youngest son, seven-year-old Archie.
18:19Right.
18:20Come and practise this, we'll see whether they're better on.
18:24When lambs are first born, they're marked up with the same numbers or letters as their mothers, so John knows who belongs to who.
18:31Is that good?
18:35I'm pretty happy with that.
18:38You happy with that?
18:39Yeah.
18:40It's very important that we encourage the next generation to get involved in agriculture.
18:44So for us, it's great to have the kids here.
18:48Tremendous other kids out working with us.
18:50James, I can leave too, he can get proper tasks to do, whereas Archie just comes and helps a little bit and mucks around a bit too.
18:58Which is right. It's good.
19:00The young lambs are also banded.
19:03A tight rubber band on the tail restricts the blood supply, leading it to wither and fall off.
19:09If you can imagine in the summertime, the grass is rich, and if there's a bit of dirt about the tail, if it's longer, there's more risk of a fly strike.
19:17Dirt on the tail encourages flies to lay their eggs on the lamb, which could lead to an infestation of maggots.
19:25So that's why we rubber band the tail, to make it shorter.
19:31So that'll just, in two, three weeks time, that'll just drop off that bottom part.
19:35It doesn't, you know, the lamb's only 24 hours old, it doesn't affect them at all.
19:42Most of the male lambs also have their testicles rubber banded.
19:47So here's one, here's one I need to castrate, so just put the rubber band over the testicles, check they're both there, and that's that.
19:59This lamb's not suitable for breeding. This is just for meat he's going to be, so he doesn't need to have his testicles.
20:08And we don't, he's a longer keep lamb as well, it's likely this lamb, it's a hogs lamb, it's not going to be ready until probably December time.
20:15If we left him entire, he would cause problems, i.e. he would maybe mate with you lambs, so we don't want that happening.
20:21With extra staff staying during lambing, there are constant mouths to feed, and as easter is looming, it's only going to get busier.
20:31Daughters Izzy and Lexi are helping mum Fiona back at the farmhouse.
20:37125.
20:40We seem to be baking every day at the moment, because everybody's so hungry, so we're, it seems to be a bake-a-day or a cake-a-day, so we're stockpiling just now.
20:51About there.
20:55That's a bit right, yeah, perfect.
20:58We've got three extra staying in the house, and an extra guy that comes in at lunchtime.
21:05And now with the kids being on holidays, it's, yeah, it's a never-ending mission of making food, clearing up and making more food.
21:18John's trusty assistant is a little distracted.
21:29All right, so you want to come and do these numbers again?
21:32You want to come and do these numbers again?
21:34I'm making a real mess of them, I think you should come and do it. Look at the ways it's a little brute.
21:37I could mark and ban maybe 100, 120 ewes with lambs every morning, and it can get a wee bit tedious, so if you've got him for a few hours or just for a few minutes even, just to lighten things a little bit is great.
21:52So, can you do a capital K?
21:59So, a big one?
22:01Yeah, a big one. Like a big K, curly K.
22:04So...
22:06Well, no, yeah, but just like that.
22:08Yeah, and there.
22:12Sorry!
22:13I meant to put it on the seat, not me.
22:23Never mind, it was a good Ken till that part, wasn't it?
22:26Yeah.
22:27Right, I'll put one on the ewe, will I?
22:28See if I can make one as neat as yours.
22:31Oh, no.
22:32A big K.
22:44Well, I think mine is better than Archie's, don't you Arch?
22:47No.
22:49I say better.
22:51I think you're probably right, I'm afraid.
22:52Yeah!
22:57Across the yard, Archie's big brother James is helping with lambing.
23:02He's under the watchful eye of farmer's daughter Emma from New Zealand,
23:06who's studying in the UK, and who John's hired in to help over this busy period.
23:11He's learning and he's really keen to learn, so it's good actually having an extra pair of hands,
23:17an extra set of eyes in the shed.
23:22Is it there?
23:23Yeah, it's there.
23:25I feel a head and some legs, and it's quite geely up here.
23:30He'll make a good farmer.
23:33He's got a good quiet way with stock, so I think that's something that can't really be taught.
23:40You just have it or you don't.
23:42That's it, well done.
23:43I've rammed four sheep this morning.
23:49I'm enjoying doing lambing, it's good fun.
23:52It's good fun.
24:10Further east, there's no let-up of the unseasonal wintry weather.
24:14Mel and Martin are still lambing, and their sheds are bursting with nearly 300 newborn lambs.
24:27They're living on site, sleeping for no more than two hours at a time.
24:32On top of an already heavy workload, Mel must bottle feed the orphan or pet lambs.
24:40These lambs, for various reasons, are not able to feed from their mothers, so they're kept warm by a heat lamp and fed by hand.
24:49This one's mum didn't have enough milk.
24:52This one is the same. As you can see, it's a lot smaller.
24:55So I thought I would take it away and bottle feed it.
24:59So I'm basically giving myself more work, but it's more likely that it'll live with me than it will with mum.
25:05It takes Mel an hour to feed them off, and she must do this four times a day.
25:12I used to love feeding pet lambs when I was about eight.
25:16Is that when I really started loving sheep?
25:18And they used to just go in and sip with them, and they used to do this, climb all over you,
25:23because basically they just wanted fed.
25:27Pet lambs, you know, grew up just a pain.
25:30They're like babies, they need fed at least four times a day.
25:36We have a wee heat lamp there, just going to keep them warm,
25:40because they've got no mum to snuggle up to.
25:43So you'll see them all piled in the corner to keep them warm.
25:48Martin's not convinced it's time well spent.
25:52Here's the pet pen.
25:55Mel spends about four hours a day in this pen, feeding and feeding and feeding and checking in.
26:00About four hours it could be spent somewhere else, but...
26:04Every lamb in shed will have a pet pen, and this is our pet pen.
26:07The worst thing is you could spend probably 30 quid each lamb in milk to feed it,
26:14but at the end of the day it's only going to be worth about 50 quid on a good day.
26:17The pet lamb will always be the runt and the small and take up a lot of time.
26:22This is Mel's pen. It's not my pen.
26:25It's not my pen.
26:29As pet lambs need bottle feeding for six weeks, Mel has come up with a plan to relieve her workload.
26:38This ewe is giving birth to a single lamb.
26:40But Mel is going to trick her into thinking she's having twins by covering the pet lamb in her birth fluids.
26:48She doesn't know whether she's had two or one.
26:50It's all the fluids and everything that comes out with this lamb.
26:54We'll soak this lamb in it and it's just a disguised smell.
26:59She starts licking it and you can see I've been happy with it.
27:03That's it, she'll have a take.
27:06This is a pet.
27:08So we're going to try and trick her with this one.
27:09Put them in bed with this one first.
27:19Ewe's are drawn to mothering their lambs through smell.
27:22OK, you've got her.
27:24But this ewe might not be fooled.
27:25Mel puts the pet lamb in the pen first to give him the best chance.
27:44Followed by the ewe's own lamb.
27:49Fingers crossed.
27:50They both smell the same now.
27:51Should do.
27:53But she's just got to remember that she's got two.
27:55And not maybe favour one more than another.
27:58It looks like the ewe is going to accept the lamb as her own.
28:03So by being able to put a pet onto a single is great for us.
28:09Because it means I don't have to feed it with a bottle.
28:14She can provide the milk and she can do the work like she's meant to.
28:22And it gives me more time to concentrate.
28:24means I don't have to feed it with a bottle.
28:27She can provide the milk and she can do the work
28:29like she's meant to.
28:31And it gives me more time to concentrate on other things
28:34or maybe other pet lambs.
28:35So I would say that this would be successful.
28:40But there are still more hungry mouths to feed.
28:44It's exhausting.
28:45I can't stress enough how tired you get.
28:49I'm feeling okay now.
28:51The point when I'll get most tired
28:53is when I go home, we'll have tea.
28:54You've got a full belly and you go get a shower
28:57and you sit down.
28:58That's when you go and you need to get up and go
29:01because you're just shattered.
29:03And your hands are constantly black.
29:06My nails are cut short and black.
29:09I don't look very feminine at the moment.
29:12And you'll also notice that I don't wear my engagement ring.
29:15I just thought, I couldn't really go in and say to Martin,
29:19just lost my engagement ring in a yow.
29:23I don't know whether insurance would cover that,
29:24to be honest.
29:25I don't think it would.
29:28But with most of the lambs still to be born,
29:30Mel's unlikely to get any rest soon.
29:32Nearly 200 miles northwest, on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides,
29:50ex-barrister turned crofter, Sandy Granville is yet to begin lambing.
30:06Alongside his 12 highland cattle, he keeps over 100 black-faced sheep.
30:12His lambing is scheduled to start in a few weeks, when the weather is warmer.
30:17So today, he's spring cleaning his holiday cottage.
30:20The weather's absolutely rotten.
30:22It's soaking wet outside.
30:24I have got some outside jobs I could be doing, but this isn't the day for draining and ditching.
30:32But it is the time for making sure that this house is all ready for the visitors coming.
30:41I think the first one's coming in about a month.
30:48Sandy makes his living selling mutton and beef, but as a crafter,
30:53needs to supplement his income by diversifying.
30:57This is the house we moved into when we came here first in 2002.
31:03I always do a bit of touching up the paint, and this year it's new tweed curtains all through.
31:10It's traditional tweed, hand-woven by a friend, named after Harris, the southern part of the island.
31:17It's a delightful fabric to be using.
31:22The machine, well, I'd seen my mother using it, so I knew how to wind a bobbin.
31:30It always works beautifully, just needs a drop of oil now and again.
31:35I expect there might be people watching this who think,
31:38that's a really funny way to make a curtain.
31:42It's just the way I do it.
31:46Crafting has always been a life where you have to do a lot of different things.
31:51Weaving is a very, very important part of crafting life.
31:55It was a good work for people to have that they can do when it suits them.
32:02And it all helps to balance the rather complicated books that one has.
32:11Across the road at home, Sandy's wife, Ali, is getting ready for the Easter weekend.
32:16We used to order hot cross buns and have them delivered by the baker when we lived in Kent.
32:22And then we started making them ourselves.
32:24And today I've made something called Swedish buns, which are a bit like a Chelsea bun.
32:29They're sort of bready and spicy and delicious.
32:33And I'm just going to take them out of the oven.
32:36Oh, yes. Oh, they look good. They look lovely. There they are.
32:43Not really hot cross buns, but spicy buns.
32:48We'll have them later with our coffee.
32:50So it's looking like a good Easter.
32:53It's Sunday, and on the mainland at the Lennox family farm, there's an Easter egg hunt.
33:06Bobby and Anne have laid a trail for Blair and Ailsa.
33:09There are eggs in there! I find the eggs!
33:14Whoo!
33:16No!
33:17I see the eggs!
33:21There's no eggs in there.
33:23No!
33:24Look at me!
33:26You've got another two.
33:28Ah!
33:30Cheese!
33:32And at the Scots family farm, they've invited a few friends.
33:36Right, do you know what the rules are, guys?
33:38One from each nest?
33:40You can only take one egg from each nest, and you can have a bunny rabbit eat.
33:45Can we go out either door?
33:46No, you're going to go out this door to Allison.
33:49Do you want to go out in front of them?
33:51Yeah.
33:52We found one there, didn't we?
33:56No, we didn't.
33:59Can you tell us what's happening, please?
34:01Not at the moment.
34:02Oh!
34:03I'm optimistic that there may be one or two Easter eggs left over for me.
34:08But if it's not, I'll steal it from the kids.
34:11I have a bunny.
34:13A little like in a bigger egg.
34:15I'm struggling with my conscience to maybe shout at a young child who maybe needs a chocolate.
34:19Or just eat it.
34:21There you go.
34:22That's my tax.
34:23No?
34:24No?
34:25No, that's not for me, no?
34:26No.
34:27No, I should pay me £20.
34:29You think that bunny's worth £20?
34:31No.
34:32No.
34:33No.
34:34No.
34:53There are no Easter celebrations for Mel and Martin.
35:03Although the snow is starting to ease off, it's still below freezing outside.
35:09And still too cold for the very youngest lambs to be put out.
35:16After just a few hours sleep, Martin's up and checking for any problems.
35:21I've seen the lambs with their empty bellies, they're hunched up, they're not looking well.
35:25And obviously they've not found their mums and I'll have to pair them up again or turn them.
35:30I'll just take a walk through them and see how that looks.
35:41He finds a lamb that needs help.
35:43Number 119 was born in the middle of the night.
35:47But his mother was not producing enough milk to feed him.
35:50Now, he's critically weak.
35:53This is one of the twins.
35:54And you can see this hyperextended, he's throwing his head back.
35:58He's got an empty belly.
35:59It doesn't look good, so what I'll do is go fill his belly of milk, put him under a heat lamp.
36:04It doesn't look like a happy camper.
36:11Number 119 is severely dehydrated.
36:14Martin takes him straight to the pet pen.
36:21Mel's trying to catch up on her sleep, but the new arrival needs her.
36:26It's the worst thing, is getting out of your bed in the morning or getting out of your bed any time of night.
36:36You're lying, you're warm, you're cosy, it's nice and you have to get up into the cold.
36:40So, not a nice feeling, but once you're up, you're okay.
36:44But it's just that point of getting up.
36:45Everybody knows that feeling.
36:47You and Tilly gets it, don't you Tilly?
36:50No.
36:51I'm going to put your soap on there.
36:57Morning.
36:58Morning.
37:08Mom!
37:12Mom!
37:13You aren't functioned with
37:18for the help.
37:22Mm.
37:23Not enough sleep.
37:26Mom!
37:30I'm just mixing up some
37:32milk,
37:33some milk for the petlarms.
37:36Again.
37:37Again.
37:42And having breakfast.
37:46It's cold.
37:48I'm cold already, I can feel it.
37:50This is just a milk replacer, so it's like baby's formula type stuff.
37:57But for lambs.
37:59Mel's priority is number 119.
38:02We'll give it a belly full of milk. We'll give it a chance.
38:05If it won't survive a belly full of milk and a heat up, there's something wrong with it.
38:11If it doesn't survive that, it'll die pretty quickly.
38:16The lamb is too weak to suck from the bottle.
38:20So Mel has to pass a tube down his throat, so she can syringe the milk directly into his stomach.
38:28The way that lamb's looking, now I get about a 20% chance of living the rest of the day.
38:35If it's going to come round, it'll come round in the next couple of hours.
38:38If not, it'll just deteriorate and get worse.
38:47119 is in such a bad way.
38:49Mel wants to keep a closer eye on him.
38:51The little pet lambs are all crowded round the heat lamp.
38:58So to give this one a better chance, I'm just going to keep him in the caravan.
39:04Just nice and warm.
39:07Wrap him in a towel.
39:10I'll keep him warm for a while so he doesn't get piled up on.
39:12While 119 rests, Mel's keen to get outside and check on the older lambs they put out into
39:21the field a few days ago.
39:23I see some lambs.
39:25It's amazing.
39:26For all the size of a lamb, it's amazing how tough they can be.
39:28As long as they've had a belly full of milk.
39:32Kept dry.
39:32Kept dry.
39:33It'll be okay.
39:35So the two sheep on the left hand side.
39:3831 and 15, they're both coloured blue, which means that they're twins.
39:42But each yow's only got one lamb with them.
39:46So just trying to remember that and see if their other lambs are up here.
39:51There's 65.
39:53She's got her baby.
39:54Quite happy.
39:56Let's see, there's another one just popped out the other side of it.
39:58132.
39:59Now these guys aren't sitting in the snow, so that's a good sign.
40:03Yep, getting the sun, getting a warm up.
40:08That's all the ewes and lambs have come over to this.
40:12You can see lambs skipping about.
40:14They're quite happy.
40:16Everyone's up for breakfast, so...
40:19It seems okay so far, which is surprising.
40:29At the caravan, Mel checks on her special case.
40:33I know.
40:35Let's try.
40:36Keep him warm as best we can.
40:39Heater's on full blast.
40:40He's gotten really cold, and Mum's just not looked after him at all.
40:47Shut the caravan door, keep the heat in, and keep him as warm as possible.
40:51And that's all I can really do for him at the moment.
40:54So go out and feed another pet lambs just now.
40:57While the lamb rests, so do Martin and Tilly.
41:05I've let him away with that, because I was later in getting up this morning as well myself, so...
41:10It's quite important, er, when everything's half quiet, just to have a sleep, and whether it's ten minute, five minute, usually makes you feel a hell of a lot better.
41:23An hour later, Mel's back to get them up.
41:26I think she'll just be coming at the door in a minute.
41:36Look at my baby!
41:44What's happened?
41:46He's alive!
41:47We've gone from a flat little lamb to, wait, us thinking that 20% he might not live.
41:54No, 20% he'll live.
41:57And now look at him.
41:59Magic milk, you know.
42:04I stayed and looked after it for you.
42:06No, you did not.
42:07You were sleeping.
42:08Ten minutes.
42:09That wasn't ten minutes.
42:11I knew it was when I had a kid.
42:12Something like that.
42:12If that's not a miracle, I don't know what is.
42:22I'm going to pop him in the pet lamp pen and see how he does.
42:26If he gets a bit more cold, I can always put him back in the caravan.
42:36The little lamb has made it.
42:39Now he can join his twin.
42:41In central Scotland, near Loch Lomond,
43:07lambing has now started for the Lomoxes.
43:13But the family recently suffered a tragedy.
43:17Just four weeks before his 90th birthday,
43:21Bobby's father, Robbie,
43:22was suddenly taken ill and died.
43:25It was going to be sadly missed.
43:28We've worked together, you know, all the life.
43:33I've been farming about 40-odd plus years since I left college.
43:38Now I've seen him virtually every day,
43:42somewhere around the time in the farm.
43:43It's funny, in a certain way, because we're just so busy, we're lambing.
43:51And it just went, vroomf.
43:52You've just got to keep going and there's that much work ahead of you.
43:56You go on.
43:57I haven't had time to dwell on it too much.
44:00Or, to be quite honest, it's sad to say I haven't really missed him from the morning sort of point of view.
44:07I think that'll probably come again once we've got time to think about it.
44:11He was a great man.
44:17He'd done an awful lot in his time.
44:19He'd seen a lot of the world.
44:22And, you know, I think that the tribute at the funeral,
44:25when the church was standing in the room only,
44:28you know, for a 90-year-old's...
44:31quite a tribute.
44:36It's very surreal.
44:38It's very strange.
44:39It's very strange you've not been there.
44:40You just expect him to walk through a door.
44:48No, he's a great miss.
44:52But, anyway...
44:53No, we were lucky.
44:56I was lucky.
44:57He was a lovely man and I was treated so well by him.
45:02He was a real gent.
45:10Life has to go on.
45:15We're on a farm.
45:17Nature doesn't stop.
45:19and everything has got a time and a season that happens irrespective of what happens round about
45:25and we've still just got on and the farm has got to work
45:28and everybody's got to get on and do what they have to do to make the farm keep going
45:33because you can't leave the animals stuck in a place where they can get into distress or into trouble
45:38we've got to look after them so life just does go on.
45:49On the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Sandy and Ali are expecting the first guests of the year to their holiday cottage.
46:17People come here today and we're just a bit behind them with the sorting out.
46:27It's all finished now more or less.
46:29Ali usually cleans the kitchen and mostly to the rest of it.
46:35The last people didn't score very highly.
46:47Five days ago, Sandy and Ali welcomed a different kind of arrival to the croft.
46:57Tramot is the second calf to be born in the last few weeks.
47:01As Highland cattle are so hardy, his mother Morag gave birth to him outdoors on her own.
47:07It was Wednesday, I got a call from a neighbour saying my cow was calving.
47:14He was watching.
47:15So I raced down on the quad and went and had a look at them.
47:18It was a big calf.
47:19Nice calf.
47:20Very good calf.
47:21It's always very worrying because the first couple of days they were really, really a bit vulnerable.
47:30This chap, I think he was getting loads of milk.
47:33Loads and loads of milk from his mother.
47:35But because he was getting so much milk, he just kept falling asleep and looking like he was dead.
47:39And just lying there, I completely abandoned.
47:42But I had to, people had to keep going and poking him, making sure they jump up and rush around if he was absolutely fine.
47:48But after a while we realised that he was actually having to sleep because he was getting such a lot of good food for his mother.
47:53So that was all good.
47:55So they're both good, they're both fine.
47:58Yeah, good calf.
47:59Good calf, nice strong boy.
48:02Next thing I've got a cat holding him and put his ear tags out of it, didn't it?
48:08The earlier the better before it gives me too much of a fight.
48:18The last people who were here, I told them they were in charge of the carving.
48:25They seemed a bit nervous about it.
48:29So it's an interesting thing for people coming up here to meet our funny old-fashioned ways of doing things.
48:37OK.
48:38That's it?
48:39I think it's fine.
48:40Here we go.
48:41Yep.
48:42On the mainland in the North East, the snow has finally cleared.
49:01Nearly all the lambs are out in the fields, so Mel and Martin can take a welcome break.
49:07They're back at the house and at last have time to think about something other than lambing.
49:14They're getting married in two months and today Martin has a kilt fitting.
49:20We've both spoke about it and just said that we wanted everyone in different cunts in the same jacket and waistcoat for the wedding party and socks and that.
49:32So I wasn't really that bothered to be fair.
49:35No.
49:36This is the thing that Martin's got to sort out and it's about the only thing he needs to sort out.
49:42Ta, Mel.
49:45I've done everything else.
49:47I haven't booked the bus yet, no.
49:50Eight weeks tomorrow.
49:52Look at the stress in Mel's face.
49:55She worries, but I know everything's just going to fall into place when it comes.
49:58Is that right, Mel?
49:59How do you know that when you've not done, booked anything?
50:05Yeah, it'll just fall into place.
50:07I can't.
50:08Mel panics.
50:09Mel worries over everything, don't you?
50:11I'm just, yeah.
50:12I think I've got everything done.
50:13It's just going to be that week before that I'm going to forget something or something's going to happen, but we've just got so much to do in between.
50:24This eight weeks are going to be the fastest eight weeks that I've ever had, probably.
50:29Alright, so it's half past ten, half past eleven, half past twelve, half past one.
50:34I'll be back at half one.
50:36Martin is meeting his two brothers and dad, Stevie, in the nearby town of Granton on Spey.
50:47Yeah, it's a nice kind of place.
50:49It's not all hillbilly country up here.
50:51Hello.
50:52Hello.
50:53Who do first?
50:56It's a proper Highland Outfitters, with a complete range of Tartans, including the Irvine clan.
51:03But for Stevie, it's a new experience.
51:07Dad, he needs a full shabazz.
51:09Right, yes, but what kind of kilts colours?
51:12You want something with purple in it, because is purple the theme?
51:16No, it's just any...
51:17Anything you like.
51:18The girls are purple, but going to Ireland, are you wanting to look at it?
51:21I've never had a more of a quilt in my wife.
51:23I've got the Douglas, which is quite like the Irvine.
51:28Can you just show me?
51:29You can pick wherever you fancy.
51:30Have a look at this here.
51:32This is the Eyeless guy.
51:34You want to have a wee look, Martin?
51:36It's quite nice.
51:37You don't know really, do you?
51:38So why don't we just try something on, and then we'll go with colours.
51:41Try it on.
51:42It might look stupid we've killed already.
51:43No, you'll be fine.
51:44Trust me.
51:45Trust me, you'll be fine.
51:46Nice, purely white legs.
51:47No, it's fine.
51:48It's mine.
51:49I've got tan and stuff.
51:50No problem.
51:51Right, so let's go and we'll try.
51:53We'll take memories.
51:5716.
51:58Aye, 16.
51:59You've got a phone in there.
52:01Give it to Sueke, I'll not tell anybody.
52:03Can you see the panic in his face?
52:05This would be the first time Dads have ever been killed.
52:08Never.
52:09Get out.
52:11Sueke in, Dad.
52:15Get out of that!
52:16It's great fun actually.
52:19There's nothing nice to see now if they are dressed up for their headings.
52:23You try to make people feel comfortable that they've never worn a kilt before, my dear.
52:32There's enough room in there for one whisky and two pints.
52:35Would you?
52:36Carl, my niece.
52:37I bought Carl.
52:38Yeah, my niece is Carl.
52:40What do you think?
52:41Very smart.
52:42I don't think he killed her.
52:43What do you think?
52:44Come here, niece.
52:45Take it, please.
52:46You see him both.
52:47It takes eight yards of tartan to make a kilt, and Martin's is yet to be sewn together.
53:05Which is just as well, as all the hard work of lambing has taken its toll.
53:08It's lost an inch and a half.
53:09There you go.
53:10As soon as you have finished your lambing and that foot back, make sure that your kilt's
53:11fine.
53:12At the farm, Mel's got her hands on a new bit of kit that could change her life.
53:29This is our shepherdess bucket.
53:32What it is, it's a bucket within a bucket, with two teats on it.
53:38And it's got a thermostat at the bottom that keeps the water warm around the milk bucket.
53:45So these lambs are our pet lambs that constantly have basically ad-lib milk.
53:52So it's milk on tap or on teat.
53:56So I don't have to feed them.
54:00This one doesn't always put himself onto it.
54:04So I've got to physically hold him there.
54:07He will get the gist of it.
54:09It saves me and Martin, or mostly me, a lot of time.
54:14They're nibbling mine.
54:16Waterproofs.
54:18This bucket would save us about four hours a day.
54:21It's brilliant.
54:23They're content.
54:24They're not squealing like, you know, feed me I'm hungry type of thing.
54:27They just feed themselves, which is great.
54:32This little 119 with a blue head and a pink nose is the little lamby that we took into the caravan.
54:40And we and Martin, oh, it's only got about a 20% chance of living and showed us up and lived, which is great.
54:46And that lamb just hasn't looked back.
54:48Hey, toots, come on.
54:50So it's a little rascal.
54:53It feeds itself.
54:55Quite happily.
54:57Ain't ya?
54:59And he's got put on a lot of weight and is looking good.
55:03So yeah, don't know if you're...
55:05It's a boy, so we won't be keeping it.
55:07We won't be keeping any of these.
55:09They'll get sold soon.
55:11But yeah, it's a miracle little lamby, ain't ya?
55:25They'll be carrying a three-lasting shit.
55:28And...
55:29Shall we can get rid of him.
55:31In central Scotland, near Loch Lomond, the Lennoxes are getting together at the family farm.
55:42Robbie's father Robbie this would have been dad's 90th birthday party today his birthday
55:49birthday would have been yesterday and so the party arranged the invites are due to the weekend
55:55that he unfortunately passed away but tonight was a night that we would plan to have a yeah
56:01party for him and we put the marquee up in the garden behind there and there's 35 40 people would
56:07have been coming to it wasn't to be all right if you want if you want to come through we'll get you
56:14started you can get drinks organized
56:16good health
56:37with Robbie gone Bobby's been thinking about the future of the farm and it seems that Kay is the
56:50natural successor there's no right with dad dying there's nothing that's concentrated all of our
56:57minds to the future kids learning the ropes us now just start to try and learn the paper works
57:02side of things and doing the accounts and bits and pieces and learn as much as she she can but
57:07that's the bit that there's a hard bit it's running the business side of it and all the red tape and
57:14rules and regulations that you've to comply with now is a big task yeah I'd be fine nurses because
57:21I'd have dad to kind of keep me right you know I mean at the end of the day you would just get on
57:24with it and I just really enjoy it it's nice to be part of it it's got really really strong ties to the
57:30farm and obviously the family and they really enjoy the work and obviously I don't do every
57:34single day so that that might change day in day out I know it's a hard slog and you're out in the
57:38rain no matter what happens the job needs done but I don't mind that you know I don't mind getting
57:42my hands dirty always have done always been a bit of a tomboy so things might need to change a little
57:47bit to make it work but all of us will be together with it and we'll work it through
57:51next time John Scott has to call on the vet to do an emergency cesarean a live calf very narrow
58:03pelvis small pepper Martin's cattle finally get to go outside after eight months indoors that feeling
58:13there for them must be a great feeling just getting back onto the grass again in a way and George McPherson
58:18celebrates a big one
58:20well you can join in those festivities monday night at seven here on bbc2 well next night on bbc4
58:39real monkey business as a troop of marmosettes use power lines to turn the streets of rio into their
58:44hidden kingdom and here on bbc2 next could dreams of flying cars be on the horizon as we get in a spin
58:51over the quest for gravity control
58:53you
58:58you
59:00you
59:00you
59:01you
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