Saturday 5 January 2013

Thoughts On Sheep

I wrote this a few years ago and just found it kind of fitting for a January night I think:
 
I never, ever, thought I’d say this.
But for the last few years around this time I always seem a little restless in the evenings, kicking my heels and not knowing what is wrong with me. Last year I worked it out and it turns out that I miss the one job that I used to moan most about!
We had, at one point, about 300 sheep on the farm. For as long as I can remember I’ve always helped with the sheep but lambing was the bit that took the most time and caused the most stress. Everyday was the start of a massive list of chores that had to be completed only to be redone the next day. When I was at school we used to feed twice a day and I used to help both times, sometimes getting changed out of my overalls in the school car park. Luckily in a rural community smelling of sheep isn’t the worst thing you can smell of!
When I started working we switched to feeding at night only, just chucking the sheep some hay in the morning to give them something to chew. I used to get home on a cold winter night after spending far too long on a cold (and probably wet) building site, warm myself up for half and hour then go and feed the sheep with Dad. This would take upwards of an hour but sometimes a lot more if we had a ewe on lambing, a lamb that wouldn’t suck or a ewe that wouldn’t “take”.
When I was doing this I didn’t realise how much Dad was doing it for me as much as the farm, because when I left home and moved 50 miles away he gradually got rid of all the sheep over a couple of years.
Now two years later I still think this is a little sad, with no sheep of our own left but he seems so much happier for it and mum no longer has to suffer the January and February depression that used to accompany lambing.
He’s much happier sticking to growing crops and selling machinery, now his business is expanding fast with two full time employees and my brother part time, he’s much happier talking to people than sheep. And less likely to find one of them has drowned in a water bucket over night (hope I’m not tempting fate here!).
Me on the other hand, I forever long to live in the past, where keeping sheep would earn you a decent living and to start your own farm you didn’t have to be a retired judge with ambitions of having a pony!
I really do love the upbringing I had, bottle feeding pet lambs, watching lambs race round the pen, the quiet that falls in the barn after the sheep have been fed. I hope that when I have children I can give them some of the same type of memories that I have and hopefully they can learn the work and effort that’s needed to raise animals for meat and learn to enjoy the process.

Well two more years have passed since I wrote that, and now I'm much closer to giving my child that upbringing with our own little homestead. Hard work and good luck have seen to that, but I'm sure there's plenty more of both to come!

10 comments:

  1. We have only two ewes, Bleat and Ewe2. They invariably give us 3 lambs between them, but now the French are really tightening up on regulations on keeping sheep, I don't know how long we will have them. I am very upset about this as the two sheep were both born on our land - we only have an acre, but they keep the grass down and have been good pets as well. We haven't been able to find a ram this year due to the regs, so I guess they are both now in retirement.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The regulations are annoying! I'm registered to keep sheep, although I have none yet, and I received a form the other day asking me if I kept sheep when I was going to dip and clip them! Not many farmers can predict that in december! As for finding a ram couldn't they just "escape" for a few day if you get what I mean!
      Thanks for your comment

      Delete
  2. We have a small flock of sheep, and love this time of the year. I would miss the sheep like you do, Ken, as they are such calm creatures, and it feels like the miracle of life as the lambs start being born. We have had six lambs so far this year, but it is mild enough here in SW France for them to be outside during the day and just brought into a small barn at night, but even then they prefer to sleep outside in the nearby paddock. Hope you keep on building your smallholding. It is hard work, but so very worthwhile.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We always lambed inside and as a kid I used to spend hours and hours with the lambs. I was always trying to make the sick ones better (who'd normally end up dying anyway) but there was always a calm in the shed during the day - unless you russled a bag or touched a bucket, then it went mental!

      Delete
  3. That was absolutely lovely to read.

    It's amazing how hard our parents work for us, sometimes without us even appreciating it at the time. That you do now and that you want to do the same for your daughter is lovely.

    I think Lovely Hubby has his heart set on a couple of young sheep a year when we move, to keep the grass down and to fill the freezer and be bartered, we'll see :-)

    Sue xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sue!
      My parents worked so hard bringing up my brother, sister and me and I think even as kids we knew how lucky we were to be brought up on a farm, even though it was hardwork sometimes. So many of my childhood memories are of the farm and I wouldn't change that for anything.
      When I wrote this I was a little dispondant as I thought I'd never be able to afford a smallholding as they all seem out of reach and my children (when I had them) wouldn't see things the way I did. Luckily we found this place - all is good!
      What breed of sheep will you go for - I'm still undecided as of yet.

      Delete
    2. Not sure what kind of sheep we would go for, something small and stocky I guess as we won't have much land for them.

      Sue xx

      Delete
  4. I'm sorry, I have to disagree. Sheep are the one animal I do not miss on the farm. 30 head means lambing in the rain and foot rot and shearing and rescuing them from silly tragic events. Once the river flooded unexpectedly and we found the sheep at the lowest part of the pasture on the wrong side of the overflowing ditch. The cows were on high ground and were happy to go home, but not those silly sheep.
    The only quarter I will give you is on lambs. Baby lambs are amazing and wonderful, and then they become sheep...

    ReplyDelete
  5. While sheep are really high maintenance, I do love having them. Farmer and I talked about DEcreasing our herd to 50 ewes in a couple years, but I'm reluctant. Because I can handle them so easily vs. handling cattle by myself, I feel like it's a venture I can take over and maybe expand some when the kids are a bit older and more independent (then they can actually be of help too!). Year by year, Farmer is teaching me more (from worming to shearing) and so I feel like I may be ready by then.

    I just love watching them... love all the lambs bleating and playing together... love all the Biblical references to sheep and their Shepherd. I wrote a couple posts about Sheeple and it surprises people about how cute and dumb sheep are... makes since why we, humans, are referred to as sheep! haha.

    Great post by the way!

    ReplyDelete
  6. If you ever want to come and relive the old days i know a farm which is pretty busy in feb and could always use an extra hand!...when john and i told his dad we'd be having a little one in jan, his first response was 'oh good, you won't be pregnant during lambing then!'. Avril

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...