The Woolly Patchwork Sheep Sanctuary

Bleatings from the Woolly Patchwork Sheep Sanctuary

Gosh! It will soon be the end of May!! The Sanctuary family continues to grow, so a big welcome to all the new members.

This year has flown by in a bit of a blur for me so far. Those of you who’ve followed the Sanctuary for a long time, will know that I offered a home to Crystal, Coral and Lucinda in September 2019. They were the last remaining sheep from the flock of a close friend, a lifelong sheep farmer who was forced to retire due to ill health. I’ve been caring for this gentleman for the last 3 years, seeing him through endless consultations, scans, chemotherapy, operations and kidney dialysis. It hasn’t always been easy alongside Sanctuary work and as you know, I suffered a personal loss and heartache through this time as well to cope with. After a long spell in hospital earlier this year, I finally managed to get him back to his home, where I could care for him. After a month at home, he sadly passed away peacefully with myself and his bestie of 60 years by his side. A wonderful friend, who had helped, encouraged and taught me so much over the past 25 years. I always took all his orphaned lambs. Aside from Crystal, Coral and Lucinda, I also have Curly, Erin, Eirlys, Elaine, Fairy and Alys here, plus many more who’ve come and gone over the last 25 years. Gone but never forgotten, Emyr’s legacy will live on in my Sanctuary.

I realised I felt emotionally drained after all this to be honest, so took a couple of quiet weeks to relax and contemplate and get back to some sort of normality.
Sheep work has of course continued throughout, it had to – the sheds, the major Spring job, have all been mucked out after the winter and the muck spread on the fields.

We had a very dry April, warm and sunny in the day time but persistently frosty overnight. The grass just didn’t grow at all. The sheep were being moved from field to field every few days to avoid anywhere becoming overgrazed. Whilst it was dry, I took the opportunity to dag all the sheeps tails, so they are nice and clean for when the shearer comes. Dagging also removes any dried on mucky or uriney bits that have accumulated over winter and would attract flys once it warms up. Flies love to lay their eggs on dirty bottoms and these eggs soon develop into maggots, which can kill a sheep in 3 days. Flystrike is horrendous for a poor sheep. I’m fortunate that my sheep are not the pooey bummed type!! The grass here on the farm is not artificially fertilised, we run on an organic basis. I have always found it much kinder to the sheep’s digestive system than artificially forced grass.

Shearing will be the next big job here. The shed is set up ready for the off as soon as the weather and shearer are set to go. I think it will be about 2 weeks later than normal this year, as due to the cold weather the sheep don’t have a lot of ‘rise’ in their wool yet. So unless anything drastically changes, we’re probably looking at mid June to shear, but if it suddenly drys and hots up all that might change. Every year it’s always a bit of a last minute decision based on weather and the availability of our shearer.

As usual, all our fleeces will be sorted and graded and then offered for sale on our facebook page “Natural Raw Sheep Fleece”. Anyone who has pre ordered will be contacted with full details of their fleece as soon as it’s ready.

May has brought stormy, wet weather. We needed rain to bring on the grass growth, which it has thankfully, but we could really do with some warmth now. my elderly bones are feeling the chill these days!!!!

Lockdown has finally started to ease and we have been able to welcome visitors back to the Sanctuary. I look forward to seeing many more of you throughout the Summer months. If you’d like to visit, just message me and I’ll get you booked in!!!

Once the grass starts growing, I do the annual faecal egg count check on the sheep, to see if any of them need a worm dose. I’m fortunate that I have my own equipment to do this, having purchased it back in 2006. Since then, my egg counting has grown into quite a little business, providing the service to my vet’s practice and private individuals for their sheep, cattle, horses and goats. Locals drop their animal samples in to me and others from afar arrive by post. It’s a good job the postie doesn’t know what’s in those jiffy bags although I don’t suppose he’d be too bothered, he’s a farm lad so used to things like that!!! All the work I have from this helps to make the Sanctuary more sustainable along with our fleece sale.

The Summer months bring on field maintainance work, topping of the rushes in the damp areas, fence repairs, shed repairs etc. There’s always plenty to keep me occupied. Only the other day I heard repeated baaaing and found Ellie with her head through the wire fence. She’d been pulling back to try and free herself and had somehow managed to pull the fence over. I quietly walked over to her, trying to hold the wire up as I approached, only to have her deftly remove her head from the wire as I got to her and saunter off as though nothing had happened! Four new fence posts later, all was back to normal!!!!

Thanks to you all for your continued support of the Sanctuary through adoptions, donations, gifts from our Amazon wishlist and also those who shop and use easyfundraising to donate. I’ve also been donated quite a lot of things to be sold via the Woolly Supporters Club on Facebook to raise funds, so keep your eyes peeled for those, they will appear bit by bit as I have time to list them.

Here’s to warmer, dryer days and a good long Summer.

Much love,
Caroline & The Baa’s xxx