The Woolly Patchwork Sheep Sanctuary

December, the start of meteorological Winter and didn’t we know it in the first half of December! Storms, torrential rain and high winds. No one wanted to be outside, myself included. All the olds and delicates had of course come in at nights earlier in November. It was now time to bring the younger ones in as well, so they all came down to the Winter field with the option of coming in to a warm and dry, deep straw bed if they chose to. The second half of December was much nicer. Frosty nights and dry, cold sunny days. The sheep love this kind of weather and really thrive in it. If only the whole Winter could just be cold and dry!

All the sheep had a dose of oral vitamins and minerals in December to set them up in the best possible health for the Winter months ahead. They also have high energy vitamin and mineral blocks placed in the sheds and fields to compensate for lack of goodness in the winter grazing.

Once all the animals are in at night, my day is spent cleaning pens, muck spreading, filling water buckets and hay racks. I spend all morning working in the sheds. It’s satisfying seeing all the pens clean and tidy, ready for the sheep later in the day.

January arrived and so did the snow. As we are approximately 1000 feet above sea level, we had several inches of snow which effectively cuts us off from the outside world for a while as living very rurally, we don’t have the luxury of a council that grit our roads or even provide grit bins so when the roads turn icy they become pretty much impassable. It doesn’t really affect the Sanctuary as i always make sure we are well stocked up with food supplies for animals and humans. Whilst the snow is pretty and makes everything look very photogenic it does make looking after the animals hard work if outside pipes freeze and we have to cart water from the house. Walking about in the snow is tiring. Once it all melts it leaves a muddy, sloppy mess which doesn’t dry up until the Spring.

Pickle has really become part of the family now and she absolutely loved playing in the snow. She loves to lie on the hearth in front of the woodburner to warm up once she comes back in.

Old girl Bouncy wore a coat last Winter and is doing the same again this Winter. She is 15 years old now and doesn’t hold much weight due to lack of teeth and her fleece is quite open and fine and she really feels the cold if she gets wet. So she has a lovely waterproof rug on during the time she’s outside.

I’d like our eldest girl Nutmeg to have a coat as well, but she absolutely hates wearing a coat so i won’t stress her by insisting. She has a much thicker fleece than Bouncy although she doesn’t carry much weight these days due to her age. Dear Scallywag is also showing her age this Winter. Her arthritis has troubled her, particularly in her near hind hock joint, but she plods on gamely, greedily accepting her Vet prescribed anti-inflammatory/pain relief medicine.

Dear little Cali managed to knock one of her horns off somehow. I found her in the morning with one horn hanging down by her cheek. It was only hanging by a little thread of horn so i cut it off and treated what remained with healing spray to seal it and dry it up. Thankfully it soon dried up with no further problems. Over the years i’ve had several old girls with horns that have snapped off. The horns often get weak at the base as the sheep ages.

Poppett had another small fit at the end of January. Very minor compared to what she had last November but bless her, she managed to flop down in the muddiest place on the farm!! My Vet thinks the fits are due to her advancing years, she’s now 13 years old and the fact that she was born with brain damage. He says so long as they are minor and not too frequent, to just monitor her health. In every other way, Poppett is absolutely fine and she just gets up and goes about her business afterwards as if nothing had happened. She’s a cheeky little minx and loves nothing more than stealing Bonnet’s hay whenever she can, but always looks so innocent, that butter wouldn’t melt look!!

February i have to say has been an absolutely dismal month. Pretty much constant rain which has left many areas of the ground completely waterlogged and we have mud everywhere that anyone dares to place their feet, particularly the high traffic areas! The middle of February saw another weak snow event, but fortunately it didn’t settle on the extremely wet ground. On a brighter note, the days are lengthening and the Spring flowers are making an appearance along with buds on some of the trees and shrubs.

The sheep all had a liver fluke dose in February. On vet’s advice we usually fluke the sheep twice a year, around October and February. Fluke is a nasty little snail that lives in wet areas of grassland and lays eggs that infect the liver and bile ducts of the sheep. Fluke is always a worry here with wet Winters and several wet areas on the farm. Each year i sit down with my Vet and discuss flock health and formulate an annual flock health plan. Wherever possible, prevention is always better than cure.

This year i’ve collected the haylage in batches of 20 bales at a time rather than get a bulk load in October. It’s actually worked well, not having to use so much storage space. My supplier has continued to give me a good discount on the bales. It’s been really super stuff this year and we are fortunate to have a plentiful supply as i know a lot of people have struggled to source hay and haylage this Winter after such a dry summer when yields were down and prices have rocketed to crazy levels as stocks have become scarce.

We’ve just had our latest payment from easyfundraising – £41.68 this quarter. A big thank you to all who’ve signed up and raise money for us in this way. If you haven’t already signed up and you shop online, there are 6000+ retailers who are in the easyfundraising scheme. It costs you nothing and takes 2 minutes to sign up. Please support us if you are able.

We were blessed with gifts from our Amazon Wishlist over the Christmas period. Thank you to all who are so generous with Amazon wishlist gifts and donations not just at Christmas but throughout the year. This is such a massive help in caring for this wonderful flock, the majority who are now in their senior years and needing more help to meet their daily needs. Your kindness and generosity in sending gifts enables me to give the girls and boys the very best quality of life that i can and for that i am incredibly grateful to you all for your ongoing support.

Let’s hope the worst of the Winter is now behind us and we can all look forward to some brighter Spring days, when the flock can get out onto some fresh, green grass.

Thank you as always to each and every one of you for your loyal support.

With much love

Caroline & The Baa’s