The girls are home. At long last the field was dry enough to take the pregnant Zwartbles ewes back to their summer grazing. Such lovely temperaments – they loaded themselves onto the sheep trailer without a fuss, and we made the short journey back to the home village.
As we opened the back of the trailer, they stopped and looked at their field, you could almost feel them thinking “Now it all makes sense”. Very quickly they made themselves at home in the field shelter, rearranging the bedding that we had lovingly prepared for them. We noticed that the waddling was exaggerated for the first few days and then it occurred to us that they had been on such a steep hillside over winter, that it probably felt a bit odd walking on level ground.

Lambs on the way
We are strip-grazing the field and holding grass back for late pregnancy and when the lambs have been born, so passing villagers might not even realise that they are back yet. It is so much easier now to fit the diet around the number of lambs expected, and to keep a close watch on the ewes. We are mindful that twin lamb disease could hit us because we are expecting so many triplets. This time two years’ ago we were all clapping our hands for the NHS on Thursday evenings, and it reminded me of the birth of Hope and Hullabaloo, born to the sound of the village clapping.

Familiar face
We are thrilled to have Glastonbury back for his extended holidays. His owner lives in the New Forest and is planning to ride her horse from John O’Groats to Lands’ End in the summer to raise money for a riding charity. He was born three years ago in the field, in front of the field shelter. His poor mum delivered him early and caught us unawares – we had gone to the field to feed and check on the flock and found him submerged in the mud.
He was a sickly thing, and we really did not rate his chances of survival highly.
Cold and muddy, he had his feed supplemented for a few days and seemed to want to survive, and so he grew.
I had not seen him since we sold him in his first summer. Wow, now Glastonbury has morphed into a beautiful, strong, friendly ram who is a prolific breeder and has many children.

Naming the flock
When we sell the lambs to other breeders, I rarely get to see them as adults and it is wonderful to have him back in the flock, if only for his holidays. The breed will be named with the letter “K” this year, and we will shortly put the name bucket by the field gate for the villagers to put their name choices in. Last year they came up with some brilliant suggestions. Kaiser, King and Kent are favourites for the rams, but as we are expecting multiples, we will need
about 14 more.