All is ready to go and Gus Dermody -of "One Man and His Dog" TV fame - comes with his portable scanning equipment in a trailer behind his Landrover. He wheels it all into position while we pen our sheep in the shed with a tried and trusted system of gates to push them towards the race and ramp. 
The first sheep trot dociley up the ramp to be scanned - the older sheep have done this before so are quite happy to oblige but the young ones sometimes resist fiercely and one or two old hands are just by nature stroppy and make a fuss!
More often than not Nic has to push them and sometimes he even has to climb in behind a particularly stubborn sheep and push her up to Gus!
This is how it should proceed - all nice and orderly and peaceful. Gus marks each sheep with a special mark to show whether they are having twins or a single lamb or- worst case scenario- are barren. He puts the scanning paddle underneath their belllies as they stand above him on the platform and he is so skilled that it is done in a second, he pulls a handle, the gate in front of the sheep opens and out she bounds to join her friends.
Amazing how quickly a sheep can move when liberation is at hand and her friends are waiting in sight. 
This is Gus Dermody in action with a sheep standing on the platform just above and next to him in his rather cramped control box with the scanner screen in front of him. 
We scan in a building but often he will be in a field with improvised gates and the rain coming down, so his little shelter is vital.Scanning the sheep is now an important part of our management as Nic separates the singles and feeds them some minerals with molasses but the twins get extra hay and molasses mix as they need the extra cossetting for healthy lambs. In the past we fed them all the same rations with the result that we got enormous single lambs who often had to be helped at birthing which is not good for the sheep. 
I'm in charge of keeping the vital front pen full of sheep so that they trot happily into the race and up the ramp onto Gus's platform next to the scanner -that's the theory anyway.
The end is in sight with the last few to be scanned and the cup of tea soon to be enjoyed. I hope you like the latest in farm fashion that I am wearing. The anorack was left by our first lodger, Jonathan, almost 20 years ago and it is still my trusty friend when working with the sheep or gardening and I even wash it occassionally! The beanie says South Africa on it and was a reject from our son who voted it "uncool" many years ago but I love it as it fits so snugly - it's drafty in the sheds.
Poor Jess looks decidedly uncomfortable and a little embarrassed to be so overwhelmed by the sheep she is normally in control of!
We have to tie Jess up while we are scanning as she would stop the sheep coming out of the scanning machine and make them nervous so, for all our nerves, she is tied in the adjacent bit of the sheep building where she can see the action but not interfere.
Poor Jess looks decidedly uncomfortable and a little embarrassed to be so overwhelmed by the sheep she is normally in control of!We have to tie Jess up while we are scanning as she would stop the sheep coming out of the scanning machine and make them nervous so, for all our nerves, she is tied in the adjacent bit of the sheep building where she can see the action but not interfere.In this picture we have put all the sheep in with her ready to separate into singles and twins and we did liberate her just after this picture was taken.
All is back to normal and the trusty little Massey Ferguson red tractor of 1963 vintage is back under cover.
When I first visited the farm during haymaking way back in 1972, Nic put me on this little tractor in a field with a steep slope and with a hay turning machine on behind it and set me off rowing up the hay - I was absolutely petrified and convinced it would turn over on the steep bankside. It now has roll bars as a precaution but I leave tractor work to Nic as a car is much more to my liking!
The wallpaper in Cherry Tree's twin bedded room was looking tired so we took the bull by the horns last week when the cottage was empty and pulled off the old wallpaper.It turned out to be much more of a job than we'd expected and we only just got it re-painted and with the new pictures up in time for the Saturday arrivals.
We're pleased with it as it looks clean and pretty. We decided against more wallpaper even though the Tourist Board inspectors love it, as children have a nasty habit of picking at it or worse still , writing on it!
We also repainted the bunk bed room - a dreadful job as we couldn't move the bunk beds out of the room, which is only small, and I ended up crawling through the bottom bunk to get out of the room - as well as squeezing past the footend of the bunks only remembering too late that I'd painted that wall. My painting outfit looks even more scruffy now.
It was lovely in Cherry Tree as I painted with the sun streaming in through the big picture window of the dining room and that beautiful view of the valley through the trees to lift the spirits.
The weather has been glorious this last week - 9th February and this picture was taken with the early morning mist lying over the valley and the sun just beginning to warm us all.
The Old House looks so lovely with the early morning sun on it and the birdsong is wonderful out in the front garden.
Little Nicole came running to find me yesterday saying that there was " something wonderful" in the front garden. When I went with her she led me to the patch of grass in front of the Old House which was a sea of purple crocuses. It's the first year that she has been old enough at 5 to really see and appreciate them. This time last year I was recovering from my hip operation so no-one was out in the garden and they flowered unseen and unappreciated.
The sunsets during this last spell of good weather have been breathtaking and these pictures don't even do them justice.
And so to bed - a little of this blogging goes along way and I need to answer some guests enquiries and sort out our new online booking facility - another huge learning curve for me! 
This blogging is a fine art I'm afraid when the page suddenly shuts down when I am in full flow and haven't a clue how to rectify things!
Will and Karen, as his apprentice, have been repairing "nips" and gaps in the walls around the farm yard. Jobs like drystone walling just have to be done when the weather is better - there is nothing more depressing than walling in the teeth of the winter winds and with rain soaking through to the skin!
This corner of wall was knocked out by a clumsy delivery driver and took William the better part of an afternoon to repair - and he is a very good waller, like his Dad.
Meanwhile I finally got the dreadful old tractor shed tidied and, although poor Nic was devastated to part with his"treasures and spares" to the scrapman, he had to admit that it was a vast improvement. In fact the tractor shed and garage are positively attractive now! Farmers always keep things that will "come in handy" which mostly looks - and is- junk - even bent nails had been kept for straightening. In fairness, times in the past were even harder than now for hill farmers and nails were a precious commodity.
A neat pile of scrap waiting to go to the scrapman- what would we do without him!
Guinea pigs to play gently with.
The enormous but gentle shire horses to get to know.
A baby calf is always a draw. We reluctantly gave up milking when the quota system was introduced by Europe 10 years ago and we received a financially unviable quota, but we do miss the sweet nature of milk cows. They have such individual characters with a distinct pecking order so that the boss cow leads out the herd and the younger, more pliant cows bring up the rear.
The adventure playground is such fun for all the family even though it's a tight squeeze at times! 
A not-so-intrepid Nicole is encouraged to reach the top. 
Back to look at the new born kid.
Even large Dads are welcome to be young again.
Back home Nicole has to feed her pet rabbit who lives in a run out in the farmyard and is a favourite with visiting children being very docile and child friendly.
And Nic feeds his best ram a bit of extra corn so that he will be full of energy and ready to go out to join the selected 35 ewes on the 4th November.
Jess is not allowed to "help" but is happy to wait patiently by the gate.
Mildred, loved by all, died in September at a great age but she was always in attendance when Nic was out in the fields. We still miss her charactered presence and no dog ever got the better of her - she'd just sit there and fix them with her gaze and very seldom even had to hiss or scratch their noses. Now we only have Tommy left and we have discovered that he is 16 years old! Obviously the life at Cote Bank suits cats as well as us.
The Church is decorated for a flower festival and we serve lunches and delicious homemade cakes and a well is decorated by the scouts right at the Church as well as one down at historic Bugsworth Canal Basin
