Tag Archives: Shetland sheep

Coming Home

2 Replies

My evening chores (photos and film taken by Daisy)……

It is around 3 p.m. and the light is going fast.  Firstly, the ducks come and find me.

I call out for the first three to go to bed. They are my original duck family from this year (mum, son and daughter).  There is food in their shed waiting.  It makes a good incentive.

Then I feed any ducks who are still outside.  Some have already gone to their shed early to join the chickens.

Then I tell the remainder to go to bed and I take extra food for the others who didn’t come down earlier.

Next, if the sheep are not waiting at the gate of their field to come in, I shout for them to come home.

(They are only running fast because the ponies have heard and are following them, which Lambie finds very scary.)

“I am running Muzzah, I am running so fast!”

The reward for returning home is some Animal Crackers that I happen to have about my person – a Christmas treat for everyone sheepy.  They love them.

d

First Contact

3 Replies

Floss, aka our Queen of Sheep, and I went for a lovely walk and obviously the dogs came too. We walked to the furthest end of the field where the sheep were sitting.

‘Bert saw Flossie and immediately went to talk to her. He is such a dude.

Note the “happy tail”. Sheep, like dogs, wag their tails when they’re happy – it’s the sweetest thing.  It always makes me smile when they do it.

However, Lambie was not in tail-wagging mood.

While Flossie was talking to ‘Bert, Gussie was trying to decide whether to come up and join in too.  He will talk to me, but he doesn’t know Flossie really.  He suffers from “Stranger Danger”.  His mum, Dahlia, taught him well.

Barrel rolled up too and I could see Gussie thinking that talking to Flossie might be a grand idea.

And he slowly came up to her.

So brave.

Nearly!

It won’t take long before Gussie is talking like the others to our Queen of Sheep.  Mostly he ignores what his mother said to him anyway.

Home for Christmas

7 Replies

Daisy came home yesterday but she didn’t see the sheep as they had already gone out into their field for the day and then straight to bed when it got dark.

So, this morning Daisy came outside to help with the morning chores – it took half the time.  All the sheep came up to meet her.

Especially Lambie.  He came running, all smiles and got a fuss from Daisy.

And then he deliberately turned and gave me this look!  Like I was now redundant as his Muzzah.

Flossie came home later this morning and now my house is beginning to feel Christmassy.  It is lovely to have them both home and something I really do appreciate.

The tree is up and the house is decorated.  I am happy.

Where Do They Go?

4 Replies

Most mornings (except when the weather is beastly), I lead the sheep out to their field of choice.

Currently, they all want to go into the same field as the Shetland ponies, which is absolutely fine.  Less grass for fat little ponies then.

But I do wonder where the sheep all go for the day.  It is a large field (26.26 acres or 10.63 hectare to be precise) and, once they are out of eyesight, they could be anywhere, even out of the gate at the back which has a nasty habit of breaking it’s manky rope during a good gale……

As I was on dog-walk duty today, I decided to find out where the sheep went during the day.  I found them right at the back of the field, somewhat near that gate I mentioned (luckily still shut).

This part of the field is fenced in apportionment (ie, hill) so it is rough grazing which is perfect for everyone.  No rich lush grass for fat little ponies or sheep.

Everyone was nearby.

All except for Gussie and Maggie, who seem to be a couple at the moment.

‘Tis the season when the boys are going around asking “do you have a boyfriend?”  ‘Bert was trying his luck with Dahlia who ignored him completely.

So I had to content myself with taking photos of the ones who were close by.

‘Ster

And ‘Ster not looking quite normal.

Dear ‘Bert

He has a very honest face.

Barrel trying his best.

And Dahlia who originally came rushing over and then decided as I had no food, I was not worth talking to.

Still, it was nice to know where they spend their day.

I also went over to talk to Gussie and Maggie but they were too busy looking for the hill ram to drool over.

The weather was beginning to turn, so I called the dogs and we walked home.  The sheep all followed when it got dark and went to bed.

 

Not Fivla’s Day

2 Replies

Today was not Fivla’s day.

It started badly when I brought her her breakfast bucket and went downhill from then on.

Fivla likes to eat on her own if she can because she likes peace and quiet and is always the first to be picked on.  She’s an easy target. One of life’s victims.

The others were eating by the fence so a little bit away.

And then Gussie sauntered up.  Ever the pig (in sheep’s clothing), he thought he would have Fivla’s breakfast. He had already eaten his own.

And, I was shocked to see, that Fivla let him!  I could see she was very unimpressed with giving up her breakfast to a sheep but as usual she didn’t put up a fight and acquiesced miserably.

So I distracted Gussie and told him to leave Fivla alone, it was not his breakfast.  He took his telling off well and let me distract him from thoughts of food by tickling the top of his head.  Hugging was out, though.

Meanwhile, the others continued to eat and I realised that I needed to get between Kolka and everyone else as she is also a huge thief and bully with other horses’ food.  My only imperative at breakfast-time is that Iacs should have his anti-cancer pills no matter what.

So while I was standing now protecting Iacs (and possibly Haakon) from the vulture-like circlings of Kolka, I looked over to see Fivla was still in trouble.  This time it was a two-prong attack.

But this time, Fivla held fast.  She had a new strategy – to not raise her head out of the bucket until every last bit of food had gone.  I don’t honestly think Gussie got any and, if he did, they were only the dregs anyway.

I need to have words with young Gus-Gus.  His manners leave a lot to be desired.