The Woolly Patchwork Sheep Sanctuary

Bleatings from the Woolly Patchwork Sheep Sanctuary

A warm welcome to all new members of our Sanctuary family.

Here we are in August already! Where has this year gone? I hope you are all well and safe in what has certainly been a very difficult and challenging year and continues to be so.

Since our last newsletter in May, when we’d had a prolonged hot and dry spell through April/May with all the south facing areas of fields having very burnt grass, we had a wet and unsettled June/July which brought forth an abundance of wonderful fresh green grass, which has continued to grow throughout the summer. The sheep have all thrived on this and got rather fat if I’m honest!!!

In mid May all the sheep had their “end of winter” fluke dose and were then sheared on the bank holiday weekend towards the end of May.

We had some lovely fleeces for sale (and some not so lovely!), many of which were pre-ordered, so the fleeces were all sorted and graded and posted out to their new homes to be turned into beautiful garments or home wares.

Spring fieldwork starts in mid May once the ground has dried up and we start topping the rushes which grow in the damp areas. These are a haven for the fluke snail which thrives in damp/wet ground, so by topping out the rushes we open up the ground to the air to dry it up and lessen the fluke risk and allow the grass to grow through. The sheep also enjoy to eat the tips of the fresh rush as it re grows, which provides some variety in their diet.

In previous years the fieldwork has always been done by Merv, on the tractor, but after his untimely passing last November, I found great difficulty attaching the heavy implements to the back of the tractor on my own and to be honest wasn’t terribly confident driving a biggish tractor on some of the slopes and wet ground that we have here on the farm, so I had to have a complete re think as to how I might manage things here without Merv’s input. It’s always been difficult to work in Cae Mawr as some of the ground there is very wet for the majority of the year and you only have a 3 or 4 day window each year where you can get on the majority of the ground with heavy machinery.

After consultation with various companies, I decided to sell the tractor and implements and use the money raised to purchase a big power scythe to keep the fields tidy and the rushes in check. This machine has been a revelation!!! It really doesn’t take much longer to achieve the desired result than if I was working on a tractor, the only difference is that I walk behind it rather than sit on and drive it. It also leaves a much tidier field and I can work on the damper ground at any time of the year and get into nooks and crannies that a tractor and topper can’t get in to. So I’m really happy with the decision I made and now feel I can keep the field maintenance under control much easier by myself.

In the height of the fly season, poor Donald cut his head by head butting a tree (silly boy!) and I think gave himself a bit of a headache for a day or two as he was quite subdued. I cleaned the wound and treated it with a topical spray and fly repellant as the head flies were keen to lay eggs on it straight away, which of course would lead to maggots hatching and these can eat a sheep alive in a matter of days. Not nice!

The end of July saw our first visitors of 2020 welcomed to the Sanctuary. A lovely afternoon was spent chatting over tea and sheep cuddling.

On 1st August, two new faces arrived to take up residence at the Sanctuary. Twin ewe lambs who are actually Donald’s daughters. Donald of course is an entire ram but as I don’t breed lambs anymore he has to have a few visiting females from a friends pet flock to “occupy” him each autumn. I didn’t actually have any of Donald’s daughters in the flock so it was wonderful to be able to have these two sweet lambs to join the family. They are called Smout and Ellie. Smout has been adopted as a lasting tribute to a beautiful lady who sadly passed away last May. Ellie has been named after our wonderful voluntary sanctuary admin, who does so much for us behind the scenes that I could never cope with as I’m not very computer savvy. I am eternally grateful to her for all her help and support and it seems very appropriate that she should have her own sheep at the sanctuary!

Ellie is on the left and Smout on the right

On arrival the two girls were given a worm dose, vitamins and clostridial vaccination. I turned them out onto the paddock in front of the house with the old girls, so they could get used to me coming and going and I though the old girls would train them in how things work around here. Fern and Wonky absolutely adore them and promptly took them under their wing and soon had them fully versed in how to queue at the shed door when Mum comes with the food bucket, look pretty and then barge her over when she opens the door!!!

They are both a little on the shy side, but getting more confident by the day.

I’ve started stocking up for the winter. Feed blocks have been purchased and next on the shopping list is hay and straw. It’s our biggest expenditure of the year. Hay and straw is apparently in short supply this year. The hay harvest has been difficult due to the weather and the arable harvest has had poor yields after the awful wet winter so likely everything will be at a premium price.

Winter weather can sometimes kick in very suddenly here and with some elderly members of the flock, I like to be well prepared should I need to house them overnight, but I hope the summer weather will continue for a while yet and we have a lovely long dry autumn.
Thank you everyone for your continued support of the Sanctuary. It is appreciated more than you could ever know. I couldn’t do what I do for these animals without the backup and support of such loyal followers and supporters.
Keep yourselves safe and well and enjoy the sunshine. The wind and rain will be back again before we know it!!!

Much love,
Caroline & The Baa’s xxx