Its been a very long time
So many things have happened since my last post. Winter seemed to totally blindside me this year and I felt a bit lost. Now the sun is shining again I am back to normal.
September, or was it October? Eleven beautiful Icelandic wethers arrived from Islay on the most enormous lorry fit for hundreds of sheep but just my lot holed up with straw, hay and water for their mammoth journey down south.
I only wanted five (here my super power strikes again!) but eleven it was to be.
The summer spent making felted fleece rugs from offerings from Proper Shepherd, I couldn't keep up with demand. SJH Carpets selling them as quickly as I could make them. I went to art college as a teenager and both my grandmothers were brilliant seamstresses so it's lovely to be able to do something creative although sewing on my miniscule labels is still a challenge!
I decided I needed one less thing to do this year so I didn't get the ewes in lamb. I find it almost heart breaking seeing everyone else's lambs skipping around the fields where I work, being asked by my neighbours 'when are the lambs coming?'. I won't ever do this again. My day job is full on, full time but whizzing home at lunchtime to walk the dogs, finding ewes with their new born lambs, the sounds they make responding to each other, scooping them up, slimy and warm whilst the ewe trundles along behind me while I walk them up the road to the top field and pen them up to bond for a few days, work clothes covered in shit, is something I am really missing this year.
The Icelandic wethers are apparently to be shorn twice a year, March and September and housed in winter. I don't have the facilities to do this nor would I want to house them over winter. They run with the ewes and the flock like each others company. Erik, a fine looking, horned, long white fleeced wether likes to hang with the Shetland ewes. The other 10 Icelandics do as they please, sometimes in the gang, sometimes not, sometimes tangled up in brambles, annoying. Their fleeces, especially last years lambs are looking forlorn. They are my extra cash. My top up. Proper Shepherd is going to shear one of the older wethers today to see how the fleece comes off and if it's ready for me to make into a felted rug. It's all new. I hope it's not too late as the colours and staple on these boys is amazing.
I had no 'stock' of fleece this winter and I struggle when I'm not doing stuff so I have 100 plans in my head to ensure this doesn't happen again! Where the fleeces will live until I get to them, who knows! My workshop is damp and SO cold in winter I can't feel my feet when I've been working in there all day. The warm soapy water used to make the felted fleeces is like manna from heaven!
The grass has been awful for so many months. I've been feeding a bit of coarse mix but then the suffolk x orphans arses look shocking! Next year I'll just feed hay. I've rented another few acres so hopefully what I have now will be enough. Things are greening up now though so it's no longer a problem, but seeing a yellow field is depressing. The four orphans from last year went to Dads for a few months to learn about horses...
Up at Haycombe, helping poo pick!
I read the beginnings of an article about the dreaded 'small holder / hobby farmer' naming their sheep. But with so few, and I am a small holder, lets be clear on this, I have started naming the Icelandic's BUT with Icelandic names. Floki was first, meaning Heroic Viking and also 'tuft of hair', 'flock'. Ana who also makes beautiful rugs from her flock gave me that name.
Then of course Erik, named after Eric who sold me the sheep and now Olafur, a grey and white mighty looking sheep (I've definitely been watching too many episodes of The Last Kingdom!) named after a pilot my step-mum used to work with. There are eight more to go. Thankfully my step-sister is 50% Icelandic so I won't be short of names.
Next challenge is making sure no one dies of flystrike and every single last piece of bramble is banished from the fields. Oh, and some work in the ice-box shed...
