Little Bo Peep or Marie Antoinette?

So, we have sheep. Six sheep in fact, three Jacobs and three cute little white ones.

Just by that description it is pretty obvious that I am not an experienced shepherd. I know the Jacobs are Jacobs because of their distinct markings and their horns, and because the friends we bought them from told us they were.

I don’t know what the cute little white ones are, because the friends we bought them from couldn’t remember what breeds they were crossed from.

We keep our sheep on our friends Helen and Tim’s land, Nuttin, about 1 mile as the crow flies, and about 2 1/2 miles in the car, and about 1 1/2 hours walk down and up some very steep west Somerset valleys.

Helen, incidently is the other half of In The Wilds, and Nuttin is the other site where ( once we are able to again) we run courses, pop up cafes and fire feasts.

So, the sheep. I’ve always had a bit of a thing about sheep, and really liked the idea of having some. However, sheep aren’t really woodland dwellers so we have had to take them down the hill, to lower pastures ( just like a Somerset version Heidi ).

We have had much fun and games over the past few months with our mini flock, and as I said I am not a natural shepherd, and everything I read, and all the people I spoke to reassured me that sheep are really easy to look after.( Other than their prime reason for existing is to either escape, get ill or die, in any combination at any time). I believed them, and much to my shame, naively didn’t really do much research or spend time educating myself on sheep care.

I have been learning.

Rule number one, as long as you have a bucket of sheep nuts you can get them to do virtually anything, which is just as well, when they are somehow on the wrong side of what seemed an impreganable fence, or the little young ones have to be kept apart from the borrowed Jacob ram, but they want to stay in the same field as the Jacobs despite the fact that the Jacobs are at best aloof towards them and at worst bullies.

I have learnt that when you borrow a fine ram to service your ewes you need to mark him somehow so you know if the deed has actually been done.

I remember finding out what a raddle was a few years ago, and realised it was a useful tool in knowing if you could expect your ewes to be in lamb or not. Failing that then at least a spray tin of marker. We failed to attach a raddle or buy a spray. Now I have to learn what the signs are of a pregnant ewe I guess, and fingers crossed they are pregnant. It’s meant to be the beginning of a Jacobs flock for us.

Despite Ned being a Collie and bought up n a farm, he is not a sheep dog, which is a shamebecuase he would love to be.

Unfortunately, he has his own ideas of what a sheep dog should do, and needless to say we are not entering him into any One Man His Dog competitions

Spring project for Ned and I maybe. Shepherding classes, and to always remember that there is very little romance in live stock keeping, but a lot of mud, frustration and work. And some joy and fun hopefully with some lambs !!