Kristian and I are proud to announce the safe arrival of 5 healthy girls and 1 strapping boy to our family! We are doing very well, and enjoying our newest additions. The delivery was a little complicated with myself getting kicked in the chest and Kristian almost copping a hoof to the face. I'm talking about sheep by the way.
We have 5 Dorpa ewes and 1 Wiltipoll ram, and if you're anything like I was you would have had no clue what dorpa or wiltipoll was, but basically these are both breeds that will shed their wool. This means no shearing for us! I'm sure there is more to their breeds than that, but for now, basic information that means less work, is enough for me.
As with anything we seem to do as a family, it felt something like a circus. I wasn't so sure we should all go with Kristian to choose our sheep, but he assured me it would be "fun" and that we would need the extra hands as well. It was stinking hot and I immediately regretted not bringing a hat to ward off the suns sharp rays. After we herded the sheep (with the help of their owners) into a temporary smaller pen, it was time to get a plan of action. These sheep aren't exactly tame yet, so we were told that getting the six we wanted would be a bit of work. Thats' when I piped up and said that perhaps I would be the one to go into the arena to catch the sheep as Kristian can be a bit skittish around animals. ( Not scared, hey babe, just jumpy!?) So armed with our plan of who would open which gate when and close which one after, I found myself in the pen with Simon (owner) who was giving me a quick lesson on sheep wrangling. Basically, you go for a back leg and get them onto their back as quick as you can and then they calm right down. Sounds easy right...ha! Anyway Simon did most of the catching and I helped him then lift them into our trailer. I did catch one but I couldn't get it on its back- those things are heavy, and wiggly! Somewhere in there is when I copped a hoof to the chest and when Kristian was helping lifting one into the trailer is when he just about got a knock to the head. We were doing pretty well with our system until while we were lifting a sheep in, one sneaky one tried to jump out- think MWA wrestling and you'll have a pretty good picture of how that moment played out. Once we were on the road, with our six sheep in the trailer we were eager to get home and get them into their new surroundings and thankfully that all went off without a hitch.
So, if you're a vegetarian or vegan you might want to skip this next bit.
In keeping with our goal of being self sufficient on our land, we intend to, um, eat some of our sheep. That is actually quite hard for me to even say and it won't be easy but I would much rather eat meat that we have raised with love and care and given the best life possibly up until their time comes. There are a few local butchers who come to your property to do, well, you know, the unmentionable. We will keep you posted on this, because if it's all too hard, you never know, we may just become vegetarians after all!
I meant to also mention that a couple of the sheep are already pregnant which means little lambs will be on their way soon! They shall remain nameless.
Please click on the link to see a short video all about getting our nameless sheep.
https://youtu.be/pahs2eR01xI
Eliza xx
Our family of 6 (mum, dad and 4 girls) embarking on a life long dream of owning our own land and creating a self sufficient lifestyle. We're starting small and have a tonne of work to do (most of which we have no idea how to do) so why don't you follow along and see where this journey takes us as we 'bush' the limits in every area of our life!
