The Woolly Patchwork Sheep Sanctuary

What a wonderful summer we’ve had here at the Sanctuary. The hot weather started in May and apart from a couple of showery weeks in the first half of June, it’s been predominantly dry and hot. Shearing day took place on 31st May. The day started rather overcast but came out fine and warm. All the sheep were glad to be rid of their big fleeces. I take great pride in producing good fleeces and our fleece sales are a big part of our income at the Sanctuary. To date, nearly all the fleeces from the 2019 clip have been sold and we are taking orders for 2020!!!

Sadly the end of June saw the departure of our lovely Jacob, Marigold. A post mortem showed she died as a result of a heart attack. She is much missed here at the Sanctuary, having been with us for the last 11 years, but will never be forgotten.

The summer months are always busy with fieldwork. After the winter, all the fields are maintained by chain harrowing and rolling to re-instate any poached ground and once the wet areas have dried out enough, the rushes that grow there will be topped to stunt their growth. This allows the grass to come through and the ground to dry out a bit.

Normally, we’d top the whole field to encourage fresh grass growth, but the last two summers have been so hot and dry we’ve held off doing this all over the farm as we’ve been afraid of the grass burning off in the hot weather.

We always have a waiting list of sheep wanting to come into the Sanctuary. Whilst it may appear that we have acres of grass and space, this has to be managed and rotated and we can’t just fill every available blade of grass with sheep. We currently have 61 residents at the Sanctuary and I also have to be mindful of the fact that I do 99% of the day to day manual work here myself!
We have lost a few of our residents over the past year, so I have been able to offer a place at the Sanctuary to 3 girls who’s owner has been diagnosed with cancer. This is a gentleman who i’ve homed many orphan lambs for over the past 20 years. Although he has a small commercial flock of sheep, he’s decided to sell them all now, but he has 3 black girls that he doesn’t want to go to market and has asked me if I would take them. I have agreed as they are relatives of some of our Sanctuary residents and I feel they belong here with their family. They will hopefully be moving to the Sanctuary before the winter.

We’ve had fun welcoming more visitors to the Sanctuary this summer. It’s always a pleasure. for me and the sheep!!

Denis developed a haematoma in his ear at the beginning of August. They are usually caused by a broken blood vessel, probably due to him shaking his head and flapping his big ears to rid himself of pesky flies. This causes a swelling in the ear, which I treated with an anti inflammatory injection. It didn’t bother him for quite a while and then suddenly the ear seemed to swell a bit more and I removed his tag as it was getting very tight and pinching him. The swelling has now gone down a bit, but he’s likely to always have a bit of a cauliflower ear as a result of the haematoma. I think it just adds to his character!!

The 2 old girls, Pebble and Emily have enjoyed a good summer but at 15 years of age, the coming winter will be hard for them. They will be housed along with the 14 year old girls in the big sheep shed where they can have plenty of space to mooch around on wet, cold days without having to brave the elements.

We’ve been stocking up with feed and bedding for the winter months. The straw has arrived and been stacked, feed blocks have been purchased and we are hoping to take delivery of your hay in September. It’s a big financial outlay all at once, but I like to be prepared for winter with everything here ready for whatever the winter weather may throw at us. When you live at 1000ft above sea level and above the snow line, we can easily get cut off here for 3 weeks at a time.

The mornings are looking autumnal and the evenings are drawing in earlier each day. The hawthorns, rowans and holly trees are heavy with berries and the beech tree branches bent down with nuts. I hope the good weather will continue into the autumn months and shorten the winter for us.

Thank you to each and every one of you for your continued generosity and support of the Sanctuary. Myself and woolly family really do appreciate it.

Lots of love Caroline & the Baa’s xx