[Bionic]

Every time the weather is bad at night, like last night when it was blowing a gale and peeing down, I lie awake wondering if my girls are ok.


I get out there in the morning and they are always fine and seem to be none the worse for the downpour 


Am I the only one who can't sleep for thinking about them?

[ZaktheLad]

Nope - I am exactly the same!!   Shows you care about a lot about your girls 

[Backinwellies]

Try an old farm house!  Can't even hear the weather from our bedroom .... could wake up in morning to total devestation outside and I'd have not known a thing!   .... and I'm awake at the drop of a pin normally!

Sally as long as they have some shelter they are fine .... much better than being inside a pooly ventilated building. .........  it always amuses me seeing the where they have obviously slept on a frosy night .... little areas of green amoungst the frost.

I watch my cows happily munching through the heaviest of rain and wind and have to remind myself they were bred for much worse climates.

[Calvadnack]

I worried all the time and mine are Shetlands in Cornwall !!  OH finally built shelters in each of the fields just to get a decent night's sleep instead of listening to me worry.  We are just hopeless softies..

[in the hills]

We have a shelter in both fields and thick hedges so don't worry too much.


Do worry when we are lambing though and the weather is bad ..... them lambing outside. And if I hear bleating at night because our sheep generally seem very quiet .... have to get up and check else I can't settle  .

[devonlad]

Whilst I do seem to spend much of my life worrying about the sheep in one way or another, windy nights are less of a concern. Thick hedges and field shelters mean the sheep should be fine. Windy nights are sleepless for an entirely different reason- Chops, our 12 year old terrier. Although we've had him since before he was a year old he has never conquered his terror of strong ( or even mild) wind. He was found as a puppy wandering the streets of Reading and we can only assume that during this time he had a bad wind experience.Over the years we've tried countless ways ( different sedatives, different beds, building him an enclosed space to hide in etc. etc. etc.) which all seem to work for a while but then don't.   The only way to get anything like a night's sleep is for one of us to head for the sofa with a blanket and spend the night there with him laid on the floor besides. Last night was the OH's turn so I woke refreshed having had the whole bed to myself whilst she was less than sweet tempered. Oddly our otherwise totally placid spaniel Bear, spent the past fortnight on tenterhooks at the most distance sound of fireworks whilst you could set off a super duper rocket next to Chops and he wouldn't even blink-but show him a slight breeze ................. Dogs eh ?!!!

[firther]

I wouldn't worry sheep are tough old things and wind and rain doesn't faze them. heavy snows a different matter but even then most will survive if there found in good time.

[Pedwardine]

I worry too when it's belting down with wind and blowing a gale. We just love them Sally and always wants them to be safe.

[kelly58]

Yup ! Know just what you mean, my OH has the patience of a saint 

[Big Light]

Whilst your caring for your sheep is admirable, sheep have been about for thousands of years without the interference of human beings and are designed for the world they live in, which is why they come with their own sleeping bags - Obviously if theres an area of shelter a dyke, tree, hollow etc then they will find it if not they will congregate.

So i wouldn't and don't worry because that's what they are designed for as long (as you are providing the right levels of nutrition and medication) - unless of course they are infirm or newly born and require a little extra care  /shelter

[darkbrowneggs]

When I had stock I was the same.  If I woke in the night with rough weather I was instantly wide awake and doing a mental check of who was in which field and what shelter they had.  Though by the last few years I had it orgainized so everyone had something they could get in under to be out of the wind and rain


One of the local farmers said to me one day 'They won't shrink you know'