The Woolly Patchwork Sheep Sanctuary

March roared in like a lion and continued to roar for most of the first half of the month. The dreary, dull damp weather of February continued into March. Dry bright days were few and far between and it still felt really cold. Winter refused to loosen it’s grip. Finally on the 16th, the sun appeared for a week.

On the 17th the young flock were turned out 24/7. The forecast was good for the week which would give the sheep time to acclimatize. We had some really good fresh grass that had been rested all winter and the sheep were overjoyed to be out grazing full time. The olds and delicates still came in at night time although if it was dry over night i gave them the option to choose to be in or out. The dry spell was short lived though and after a week we returned to cold winds and rain.

I took advantage of the dry spell to give all the sheep their annual clostridial vaccine.

Pickle our little Fox Terrier that i rescued last September went in to the vets to be spayed on 30th March. She was very quiet for 24 hours following her op but soon regained her zest for life. She absolutely hated her cone so once she was settled and the dressing came off the wound, i popped her into a surgical recovery suit and took the cone off. She was much happier then. She had to stay fairly quiet for four weeks whilst everything healed which was difficult with such a full on, exuberant little character who loves to be outside racing around at full speed. I covered the wound site with green clay each day and she also had homeopathic arnica tablets. When she returned to the vets on 13th April to have her stitches out, the vet was delighted with how well she had healed.

Once some of the sheep are out for the Summer, i can start the annual shed muck out and clean up.

It’s then time to set up the race for Spring and Summer sheep work. Early May is time for me to dag the sheep to remove any claggy bits from their rear ends. This deters flies around the sheep and hopefully prevents fly strike and maggot attacks before shearing time at the beginning of June. One minute it’s January which seems to go on forever and before you know it, it’s May and you’re ringing your shearer!

At the beginning of April, Storm Dave blew it’s way through leaving us with a small amount of damage. Mostly a few small branches down but it also damaged the strip across the top of the door on the big sheep shed, which stops the water dripping down inside the door. As soon as we were able it was taken down, repaired and replaced.

Early May saw Monty arrive with his huge fencing machine. We were desperately in need of three new gate posts. Gate posts are practically impossible to put in properly by hand here as some of the ground is very stony and needs a drill to get the post down deep enough to carry the weight of the gate. The machine was very impressive and made short work of removing the old posts and banging in new ones. It’s lovely to have fully functioning gates all around the farm again.

Poor old girl Bouncy presented with an ear haematoma. A very swollen left ear which was hot and sore for her. They are best left alone in my experience and treated with pain relief and anti inflammatory. You may remember dear old Denis had one and it gave him his “one ear up one ear down” appearance. Bouncy will be the same. I’ve told her not to worry as she won’t be going in the show ring so no one will judge her appearance.

Thankfully Poppett our little brain damaged diva has managed to stay out of trouble for a while and hasn’t had any recurrence of her fits that she suffered in the Winter. She suffers with bad skin due to over production of lanolin on her back and it sets her fleece into a hard crusty mess. As soon as the weather warms up i like to get her sheared so she’s more comfortable. Just before the late May bank holiday the temperatures increased and so out came my clippers again. Poppett had a shear followed by a good shampoo as she was incredibly sticky on the top of her back, you can see how orange she was in the photo. She loves having a shampoo. She was rinsed and dried and off she went back out to the field feeling a whole lot fresher i’m sure.

I always shear the old arthritic ones myself so i can work with them at their individual pace and tolerance. Next up for a haircut was Tiny Tina. Nutmeg, Scallywag and Paxo will be sheared in a week or two as they have very tight fleece with no rise in it at the moment. It will loosen to allow me to shear it in a while though.

The high temperatures continued for a week with 28*c reached several days running. The sheep spent their days in the shelter of the hedges and trees, coming out to graze in the cool of the evenings.

I found the garlic blocks that i put out in the fields last Summer to be very popular with the sheep so have purchased some more for them this year. They do seem to help deter flies which are such an irritation to the sheep in the warmer months. Thank you to the generous supporters who sent donations to enable me to buy 3 blocks to start us off. The garlic blocks are usually available from Amazon but they are out of stock there at the moment so i purchased blocks from my feed merchant with the kind donations.

The main flock of sheep were all sheared on 30th May. Always such a relief to get them sheared and out to fresh grass to enjoy their Summer. The sheep are happy to have their thick itchy wool off. Ned has sheared the flock for many years. He is a gold grade shearer and very kind and careful, i couldn’t ask for anyone better.

If you’ve ordered a fleece, i’ll be in touch in the not too distant future once i’ve had a chance to sort through all the fleeces and skirt and grade them. Everything else that is saleable will be posted for sale on our Facebook fleece sales page. Please do message if you are interested in purchasing a fleece.

We’ve just received out latest quarterly payout from easyfundraising, a fabulous £71.63. Thank you so much to everyone who raises much needed funds for the Sanctuary through easyfundraising. It’s so easy to use and absolutely free. Please do check it out and join up if you are able. The sheep will be very grateful to you.

We’ve also been blessed with gifts from our Amazon wishlist and donations, which is such a help to the Sanctuary so again a big thankyou to all who have supported the sheep in this way.

Spring at the Sanctuary has been colourful, the cuckoo has been singing daily, the swallows have returned and are nesting and we’ve had a couple of other visitors as well.

We look forward now to a nice long hot Summer and i hope that some of you will be able to pay a visit to see us.

Thank you to each and every one of you for your ongoing love and support for the Sanctuary.

Much love

Caroline & The Baa’s