Sheepish sheep

[nicknorman]

We had a nice day yesterday, surviving Harecastle and escaping onto the Macc. Not too hot today which was good for the Boseley 12. Arriving, we found the locks in our favour and several boats coming down. But blimey, some of the pounds were very low and required water running down to get us between locks. Phew, finally made it to the top after much bumping and crashing on the bottom, and moored for the night. Dinner and a glass of wine ensued. At about 9:30pm Jeff suddenly said it would be a good idea to walk back down the flight to see how the low pounds were faring left to their own devices. Which is not really like Jeff, especially as he had been for a run earlier.

We duly set off and noted that some pounds were fine, others quite low and a couple extremely low with large swathes of mud flats exposed on the offside. The worst was at lock 6. And then we heard the pitiful bleat. A large lamb/ young sheep was buried half way up its body in the slimy black gloop, a few feet from the bank. It was starting to get dark so we couldn’t leave it. We crossed a couple of fences and a field to get round to the offside and said sheep, which made a few pathetic struggling attempts to move that only submerged it further. I could get within a few feet of it on firm ground and even managed to grab the scruff of its neck but there was no way I was going to budge it without getting at least one leg in.

So shoes off, socks off, jeans off. And then I had to put my leg into the slimy black gloop. It went down 1/2 way between knee and hip. Yuk! But I managed to get more purchase on the sheep and in fact grab it under the forelegs to pull it round facing the bank. It was a heavy brute and laden down with black mud!

You can just imagine the papers, “Nicholas Norman aged 61 was found in a public place mud wrestling with a young sheep, his trousers long since removed. He is charged with gross indecency ...” you get the picture.

Anyway, grabbing its nether regions I managed to hook it mostly out whereupon it got all tangled up in the reeds. Jeff, who up to this point had been hanging on to my other arm to prevent me going right in, helped to clear the reeds and finally with a huge bound of energy it was out. It scampered up the bank and with only a briefly-bleated “thank you”, and without offering me free use of any of its orifices, ran off across the field to its mates, who probably wondered what had happened to their sibling/cousin and where this black sheep had come from.

photo or it didn’t happen. Well not being millennials, our first thought was not to video the whole thing, rather it was to rescue the sheep. But Jeff did take an “after” photo.

 

 

Hmmmm, so now I have to walk up 6 locks to get back to the boat, in my underpants. Fortunately it was by now pretty dark so what could possibly go wrong!? Washed most of the black gloop off my legs and hands at the waterpoint, then into the shower.

Funny that Jeff had an unusual urge to go walkies, he must be on some psychic wavelength with the sheeps!

It does raise the point that very low pounds and canals are dangerous especially to animals. Most animals have a sense of danger near water, but are not clever enough to distinguish between firm ground and soft mud / silt 3’ deep.

 

Anyway, washing machine will be on today!
 

Edited July 14, 2018 by nicknorman

[Boater Sam]

Another member of the Blackfoot tribe.

 

Well done, saved the farmer £30.

[haggis]

Well done you two! 

At least when we rescued a cow on the North Oxford recently we didn't have to go in the water. I went for the farmer while Iain "herded" the cow with the boat. We were surprised that the water at the non towpath side was deep enough for a full grown cow to swim.

 

haggis

[Ray T]

Well done both, good on ya. It is a good job you are not Jeff's height or you'd had disappeared in the mud.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Ray T

[Nightwatch]

A few years ago we 'rescued a similar sized lamb chop on the South Oxford. It got up and ran off to the rest of the flock, that incidentally had moved to the far end of the field as if to say 'nowt to do with us'.

[nicknorman]

Just now, Nightwatch said:

A few years ago we 'rescued a similar sized lamb chop on the South Oxford. It got up and ran off to the rest of the flock, that incidentally had moved to the far end of the field as if to say 'nowt to do with us'.

Yes pretty much the same this time. Clearly no familial responsibilities, just left it to die.

[Nightwatch]

Meant to say well done but I got buried in my own story. Well done. I can't see an animal suffering and leave it. 

Another incident on the Oxford years ago. There was a calf lying on the off side in a field. We stopped. I hopped off and it was not very well. Saw a farm house up a hill and trundled about half a mile or so. The owners knew the farmer, a youngish lad who appeared sometime later on his quad bike. He looked at the beast, shrugged his shoulders and said when you buy a job lot you always get a runt, or words to that effect. He rode off after refusing me a go on his quad!!

[Tanglewood]

I suppose like the rest of us the sheep was seeking some cool - but you did really well to rescue a sheep weighed down by mud - perhaps it had been shorn?  The only rescue like that I have seen was a sheep getting into the water - then tangled in hawthorn and brambles requiring a pair of shears - the darn thing then swam away before entangling itself again.  It was so heavy it took the farmer and a boater to heave it out.  What I seem to remember from schools days is that wool can absorb 30% of its own weight in moisture before it even feels damp - and that lanolin doesn't seem to stop the absorption!  So well done you, and great story-telling.

[Boater Sam]

We have busybody trouble when the cows go for a swim in the canal. Somebody will phone up the fire brigade who turn out and play at rescue exercises. Last week it was 2 fire engines and a rescue van from across the county, 9 firemen and a chief. 2 hours wasted.

They failed to get the cow out, just made it tired, so it had to be lifted out with the farm forend loader in the end.

 

Normally the cow will walk out on its own when it has had enough swimming.

[Nut]

brilliant work people like you both is what makes this country what it is

[nicknorman]

6 minutes ago, Tanglewood said:

I suppose like the rest of us the sheep was seeking some cool - but you did really well to rescue a sheep weighed down by mud - perhaps it had been shorn?  The only rescue like that I have seen was a sheep getting into the water - then tangled in hawthorn and brambles requiring a pair of shears - the darn thing then swam away before entangling itself again.  It was so heavy it took the farmer and a boater to heave it out.  What I seem to remember from schools days is that wool can absorb 30% of its own weight in moisture before it even feels damp - and that lanolin doesn't seem to stop the absorption!  So well done you, and great story-telling.

It was a large lamb, rather than a sheep. I think a full sized adult wouldn’t have been possible without ropes etc

[haggis]

13 minutes ago, Boater Sam said:

We have busybody trouble when the cows go for a swim in the canal. Somebody will phone up the fire brigade who turn out and play at rescue exercises. Last week it was 2 fire engines and a rescue van from across the county, 9 firemen and a chief. 2 hours wasted.

They failed to get the cow out, just made it tired, so it had to be lifted out with the farm forend loader in the end.

 

Normally the cow will walk out on its own when it has had enough swimming.

The one we help rescue wouldn't have been able to climb out due to the depth of the water. According to the farmer, the only place a cow could get out was past the next bridge and it had to be "encouraged" to swim that way which was away from the rest of the herd. 

I remember years ago when moored round the corner from the Folly at Napton watching a foal dying in the field across the canal. The mother was distressed and kept nudging the poor wee thing. We phoned the Folly who phoned the farmer but he didn't do anything about it. The next morning the foal was dead and crows were pecking the eyes out. It was very sad and not nice to watch when we could do nothing.

 

haggis

[Nightwatch]

37 minutes ago, haggis said:

The one we help rescue wouldn't have been able to climb out due to the depth of the water. According to the farmer, the only place a cow could get out was past the next bridge and it had to be "encouraged" to swim that way which was away from the rest of the herd. 

I remember years ago when moored round the corner from the Folly at Napton watching a foal dying in the field across the canal. The mother was distressed and kept nudging the poor wee thing. We phoned the Folly who phoned the farmer but he didn't do anything about it. The next morning the foal was dead and crows were pecking the eyes out. It was very sad and not nice to watch when we could do nothing.

 

haggis

Very sad indeed. Seems farmers are hardened to this sort of thing. The field I think you refer to used to have some weird shaped ponies,horses,foals in it. I thought at one time they may have been experimenting with breeding stock. The farmhouse at the top of the field has been 'done up' and I don't think there's stock in the field anymore, well there wasn't last year when we passed, so may well have changed ownership.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Nightwatch

[PaulJ]

2 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

The field I think you refer to used to have some weird shaped ponies,horses,foals in it. I thought at one time they may have been experimenting with breeding stock. 

? The mind boggles..

[Nightwatch]

Doesn't it just?

[cuthound]

I have been involved with two animal rescues over the years.

 

One was a baby deer, which had fallen into the lower of the two interlock pounds at Calcutt, having been chased out of the woods by a dog and then sunk up to its belly in the soft mud. This was pre-mobile phone, and about three boats, including ourselves were trying to get it out without success. This was because no one wanted to wade intof the deep mud.

 

Then another "action man" type boater arrived. He fashioned a rope into a lasso and caught the loop around the deer's neck on his first attempt, dragged to poor beast into his well deck and motored to the other side, where he set the frightened animal free back into the woods.

 

The second was a sheep having a swim in the cut on the offiside. Eventually myself and another boater "corralled" it with our boats againt the towpath. Even so it took myself and three other adult men to drag it out onto the towpath, where a grateful farmer took charge of it.

 

[Lily Rose]

We have not yet seen anything in the water like this but having seen plenty of cows and sheep standing precariously at the edge for a drink it must surely be a matter of time. Assuming that I'm unable to rescue it, which is highly likely to be the case as Mrs Lily Rose would be physically unable to assist me, and assuming there is no-one else about and no obvious farm house visible, what should I do?

 

Who do I call?

 

If it's office hours then I could try CRT (or EA if it's one of their rivers) customer services number (would they do anything?) but if not, is it appropriate for a call to their emergency number? Surely it's not a 999 call.

 

 

[Boater Sam]

I have an old number for wildlife rescue.  0156575582 if it still works.

[nicknorman]

27 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

We have not yet seen anything in the water like this but having seen plenty of cows and sheep standing precariously at the edge for a drink it must surely be a matter of time. Assuming that I'm unable to rescue it, which is highly likely to be the case as Mrs Lily Rose would be physically unable to assist me, and assuming there is no-one else about and no obvious farm house visible, what should I do?

 

Who do I call?

 

If it's office hours then I could try CRT (or EA if it's one of their rivers) customer services number (would they do anything?) but if not, is it appropriate for a call to their emergency number? Surely it's not a 999 call.

 

 

Possibly the non-emergency number 101. But best to try and find a local farmer. Even if the wrong farmer he’ll probably know the right farmer (assuming it’s a farm animal).

[nb Innisfree]

Fellow boater and I managed to drag a bleating sheep out of the T&M canal. Concrete sides prevented it getting out, we struggled to lift it out and then struggled to get it onto the other boat's rear deck where fellow boater struggled even more to hold it down while I pushed the boat's stern towards the field containing the rest of the flock on canal offside. It must have been really knackered as it laid motionless for over an hour before staggering to its feet. 

 

It was an odd bleating, sounding very much like pleading. 

[Lily Rose]

Slightly off topic but still sheep related. A few days ago we were moored overnight on the Oxford summit with the most noisy sheep I've ever come across.

 

It's probably old hat to you old-timers but it was new to us. There were sheep both sides of the canal and they were loud all night long. We concluded that it was ewes one side, recently separated from their lambs which had been moved, via an accommodation bridge 30 yards away, to the neighbouring field with the canal, and us, between them.

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, Lily Rose said:

We have not yet seen anything in the water like this but having seen plenty of cows and sheep standing precariously at the edge for a drink it must surely be a matter of time. Assuming that I'm unable to rescue it, which is highly likely to be the case as Mrs Lily Rose would be physically unable to assist me, and assuming there is no-one else about and no obvious farm house visible, what should I do?

 

Who do I call?

 

If it's office hours then I could try CRT (or EA if it's one of their rivers) customer services number (would they do anything?) but if not, is it appropriate for a call to their emergency number? Surely it's not a 999 call.

 

 

I called the fire brigade on the Gt Ouse, they new exactly where to come to as it was a regular run for them 

Edit

That was for a cow in the river

Edited July 15, 2018 by ditchcrawler

[Lily Rose]

7 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I called the fire brigade on the Gt Ouse, they new exactly where to come to as it was a regular run for them 

Edit

That was for a cow in the river

Via 999 presumably?

 

What was the call handler's response to this, given that they get plenty of non-emergency calls?

 

Obviously it relates to life in danger, just not human life.

[PaulJ]

I pulled a very sheepish and naked (apart from a very short vest) drunk man out of the Trent at Newark a couple of weeks ago.? The embankment walls near the Barge are about 6ft above the river and he was struggling to get out. His friends helpfully threw his clothes in too after him which promptly sank so having failed to pull him onto the boat ,I towed him with a rope to the nearest ladder. The lady sitting quietly in her narrowboat next to the escape ladder got a bit of a shock as he emerged out the river past her bows..?

I did donate him a towel..

[nb Innisfree]

8 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

Via 999 presumably?

 

What was the call handler's response to this, given that they get plenty of non-emergency calls?

 

Obviously it relates to life in danger, just not human life.

Unless it's a special service call all call outs are classed as an emergency complete with lights and horns, there's no in between. On one occasion I was asked why a man in a van wasn't sent instead of an appliance and crew just for a smell of smoke, he seemed puzzled when I said that sending a man would mean taking the appliance off the run as we didn't have spare manpower.