Life as a sheep farmer

The other day I decided to call up my friend Lynne & see if I could go over to see her lambs. I had met Lynne at our Spinning Guild & when we had got talking about fleece-bearing animals, she invited me to come have a look. Her stock is mostly raised for meat, but she did have a few crosses that were fleece worthy.

It was May 19th when I made an appt. to go see Lynne's farm & her livestock. I packed our wellies & surprised the kids by picking them up early from school. Once there, we were taken out to the barn to have a look. There were many different types, but the small bottle fed Romney lamb caught my attention. Before I knew it, I had fallen in love & was making plans to purchase my 1st couple of lambs.

Once finalized, the kids & I headed home, picking up take-out on the way. We only had 2 hours to eat, & get the place ready for when Casey & Lynne were due to drop off our purchase. We worked like crazy to get the small barn-like shed & dog run ready. Almost as soon as we had finished, our friends had arrived with Luna & Blizzy; the children had already picked out names on the way home. Luna was the dear Romney X & Blizzy was a companion Dorset/Charollais. Both were born very close to each other & Casey thought would get along well.

C & L were kind enough to bring some hay, grain & milk replacer to get us started. Luna of course was still being bottle-fed & Blizzy was likely going to have to be weaned as they weren't sure whether she had been or not.

My friends stuck around to have coffee & meet Mark who was very good & didn't chase them off the property with a shot gun (private joke that involves threat if anything breathing was brought home again, lol). After they left & we were truly on our own, I took a deep breath & claimed that whether for better or worse I was now a farmer. It was a great feeling to finally be on the road to achieving a life-long dream.


I must say that I probably unindated poor Lynne over the 1st week with questions & concerns, but she was very patient & understanding; and we're still friends, unless she's just being kind. LOL.

It's been almost 3 weeks now. I have learned so much & am enjoying every second, including all the crappy jobs (pun intended). I can finally tell you what a "flake" is (stop laughing Lynne), I can prepare milk replacer formula, clean eyes, noses & ears, trim hooves, help put up a fence, shop for straw & hay & know what the going prices are for everything involving their care.

Blizzy is completely weaned & Luna will soon follow. They seem to be thriving, have learned to eat grass & drink water from a dish. You might think this would be obvious, but like babies, they have to learn these things. They get along with all the other Castle Critters, are leash trained & come running to greet you when you go outside. They are happy, friendly & healthy. Can you tell that I'm really loving them?

Peace out, Boop
PS- more pics here