Sheep

Well as promised I have managed to update my blog in a more timely manner this time. I first want to talk a little about sheep. Sheep seem to have a bit of a reputation of being stupid and not very interesting, however we have found this reputation to be far from the truth. The sheep all seem to have their own personality and we can just about tell them apart on a good day. Clearly they are all a bit timid and wary (they are sheep and an easy meal for any self respecting predator), however how they behave varies. Some are quite timid while others are much more brave coming forward and getting very close to us. The Ram is quite a lad. He is very tame and driven by food. He hogs any food we take out and it's hard to let the other sheep get a look in. I have to Physically keep shoving him out of the way to let the others eat. Where they really show they are not stupid is in the arena of being caught. From time to time we need to trap the sheep in a small area. For example yesterday one had managed to catch some old rusty barbed wire in it's wool, so I needed to remove it. We have some sheep hurdles (like portable gates that link together) to make an area we can herd the sheep into and trap them. However our sheep are quick learners. The first time we did it it was easy. However the sheep then learnt what the hurdles where for an became wary of them. So we have moved them around different places with different set ups trying to catch them. However if we go back and use a set up we have used already on the sheep they remember how it works, are instantly wary and therefore very difficult to catch. These sheep are far from stupid. Catching them is getting more and more difficult as there is a limit to the number of places we can set up these hurdles to catch them. Ted is completely useless as a sheepdog. However Jack (Zoe's Mum's dog) is brilliant and helped at Christmas herding them into a corner. As soon as he sees a sheep all he wants to do is herd it, it's really helpful.

I'm getting organised with the pigs, trailer is booked, I need to confirm with the abbatoir, have a weekend set aside for ham, sausage making etc. Hope you like all the snowy photos. First snow of the year and our first snow at Leconfield Grange today.