Hello Everyone,
I have 6 lovely acres in Weardale in the North Pennines AONB. 3 are permanent pasture and 3 are a very posh flowery hay-meadow. I'm at 1100 feet but the house and part of the pasture are surprisingly well sheltered by trees. There have been various neighbours' sheep on & off on the land, but for the last 3 or 4 years it's been occupied by my permanently lame ex-racehorse, Morris, aged 12 or so, and his chum, Sandy, a palomino Arab cross aged 22. It's a real love-match between these two.
I've just got my heart's desire in the shape of 4 Herdwick wethers born this year. They only came last Tuesday and I'm loving training them to the bucket to which they are responding very quickly - I only started yesterday. My golden retriever, Blackberry, and my little terrier, Molly, both love sheep nuts and are already sharing with the sheep, who've almost given up stamping their feet at these bits of canine cotton wool. I must remember to keep the camera in my pocket at all times. They will be lawn-mowers and will now live out their full life span.
One of the new boys does appear to have orf, which is not the best start, but he's eating well and now we're getting chummier, I hope to be able to catch him to deal with it properly. He has already been sprayed by his previous owner. The owner of Sandy, Sue and her husband, Rob, have some experience of sheep handling, so we should be able to cope.
I've been very impressed with the very helpful bits of advice on the forum, and I promise not to be so long-winded in future.
Regards, jenniferruth
Topic: Introduction (Read 3331 times)
