The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: SallyintNorth on September 25, 2016, 10:18:52 am
-
The last of my store wethers and the four cull ewes were due to go to Longtown last Tuesday. However, BH slept in, so we let them out again, to take in the following Tuesday. (He's not happy to let me take the big trailer, or I would, of course, have taken them myself. I'm perfectly capable, you understand... ::) )
I wasn't best pleased; it's been a stressful time, deciding who to keep and who to sell, finding homes for the breeders, and so on. I was supposed to wake up on Tuesday morning knowing it was all sorted, that everyone who was leaving had left (bar two going to a lovely forever home with a relatively local feltmaker's but not wanted until the week after Yarndale). Now I'd have another week of agonising over should I really cull Goldie Horn the Castlemilk Moorit - only 4-shear 2-crop, and a good breeder - and should I really take little Rocky the pure Shetland wether with me, just because I like his sass, and Biker just because I couldn't bear to think of the wee tame boy (bereft right now as his two female pen-mates had gone off with 38 other females to form a new flock the weekend before) disoriented, confused and alone, in some commercial feeding lot. :'(. They've both got nice fleeces, but I was, with them, 3 over the number I'd said I'd be taking.
And with sheep matters still absorbing me, it's so much harder to get on with the packing, sorting, and all the other stuff I need to be doing in preparation for the big move down south, now booked for October 11th.
Saturday, I'd had half a mind I might make it up to Lanark for the Smallholder Show, but to cap it all, on Friday one of the dang store wethers was carrying a foot, so I figured I'd better get them in on Saturday and see if he needed a spot of the magic blue spray, so that he'd be sound for the mart on Tuesday.
Turned out it was lucky all that disruption had happened, because a local spinner contacted me yesterday asking if I knew where she might get some ewe lambs with nice fleeces. If only you'd said a few weeks ago! ::) Anyway, to cut a long story short, she came to see my flock, including the wethers and cull ewes due to go on Tuesday, and has ended up with Goldie, Rocky, Biker and three other wethers to go and live with her ponies. :excited: She says she will eat some of them next year, but with a sheep-mad granddaughter in the equation, I think Biker's probably got a long and very happy life ahead of him ;) :hugsheep: And hopefully, Goldie, after a year off, will be the founding ewe of another spinner's flock :love: :sheep: :spin:
-
Nice one! Seems like a lie in is sometimes the right answer for a shepherd. Who would have thought it? We have been walking across Cumbria this last week and I have never seen so many livestock trailers on the move.
-
I love a story with a happy ending :hug:
Its very hard not to become attached to your animals, interacting with them on a daily basis.
Sad as it may sound to some people.......... the moment l open my eyes every day the first thing l do is a head count, make sure everyone is up and moving. I am fortunate that l can see each field from different windows in the house .
I have castlemilks and they are endearing animals, took a while to calm them down when l rescued them but worth the effort.
So pleased for you ! :thumbsup:
-
Good one ! :thumbsup:
-
Good luck for the move south ... SiN soon to be SiSW
-
Good luck for the move! ????????
-
Thank you, everyone!