Our last day here.
First thing we carried on in the orchard where we were working yesterday and did some more nettle clearing then Jane called us to come and watch Rob finish off shearing one of the sheep. They have four ewes and four lambs here, two of the ewes and two lambs are going to a friend’s orchard for some grazing so they were shearing the ewes today before they went. Jane gave a running commentary while Rob sheared, they do it by hand and it takes them about 40 minutes per sheep, once sheared they also clip their feet. Once done we took off any grubby or poo encrused bits and then rolled the fleece up. It was really interesting and Jane was able to tell us loads of stuff she had learnt at various smallholders association courses on shearing.
Over coffee we got chatting about goats and sheep and pros and cons of both and I learnt that milking sheep is a pretty viable option and had a quick look at a really interesting book about dairy sheep. Rather frustratingly I realise as we finish our week here how very useful prolonged time spent with this host would be as they have so very much experience in things we are interested in 🙁 An invitation to return again has been forthcoming though so we may end up taking them up on that and returning to learn more at some point.
We carried on with the orchard until lunchtime (more lentil soup, I so won’t miss that!!) and then after lunch we spent some time clearing the nettles out of the chicken run and helped move across a small chicken house for a hen who has gone broody and they are hoping might hatch some eggs for them.
Then we got a go at shearing! Ady and I were both pretty hopeless actually, Ady because he was so paranoid about catching the sheep’s skin, me because I was so paranoid about clipping my own fingers! Would love to spend more time and have another go though 🙂
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After that we helped put in some fence posts for a future project of screening off the polytunnel from the house when they get the panels to actually do it with. The posts were already here though and the kids had painted them yesterday so they were ready to go and we were willing to do the necessary hole making and post banging so we did. Which pretty much brought us to finishing time.
Dinner was delayed by all the sheep action so we came back to the van for a while and then went in for dinner. It being our last night Anne and Roy, Jane’s parents were joining us so we were 10 for dinner – Jane had done the veg and pudding, Anne had cooked some pheasants, all of which was delicious. It felt a bit like Christmas 🙂 We all had cider or wine too which felt rather festive and sat and chatted.
By about 930ish it was starting to get dark so we came back to the van and I read the rest of the story to the kids. Unfortunately that took us to nearly 11pm and it being a Morpurgo Scarlett was touched by the story to the point of tears at which point she started to think of other sad things and ended up pretty upset about missing our chickens. This is something she does every couple of weeks; always at bedtime, always when she is very tired or sad about something else. I try to handle it with a combination of love and patience and not pandering to what is obviously not really a big deal for her as it would have her sad all day every day rather than just when she has time to dwell. I don’t want her to remember this year as the one she missed the chickens but in rational daylight moments she is utterly fine and even when upset insists she doesn’t want to stop WWOOFing, she’d just like to be able to visit the chickens.
Ady is super worried about Willow and fretting she won’t make the journey to Shrewsbury tomorrow so fingers crossed he is wrong and my airy ‘it’ll all be fine’ attitude is the correct one!
Are they still at your house with the tenants? Would your parents popping over and taking some photos to email to her maybe reassure her they were doing fine and being well looked after? Bless her little (noncottonsocked) heart, she did so well with giving up her ducks and chickens it would be awful if she did look back on the fab year y’all are having as the year she missed the chickens.
Love the pic of the sheep shearing, he looks peacefully asleep at the barbers! I don’t like seeing them being done on tv as it always looks a bit rough, but he looks very cozy there!
Comment by Liza — 23 May 2011 @ 12:29 am
I think if lentils are the one thing you really can’t bear (I love them!), then I would claim a lentil allergy and get it our of the way on day one. Any reason why willow won’t make it, or is it just general worry. I always think the sheep must feel really light and free when that comes off.
Comment by Joyce — 23 May 2011 @ 10:43 am