Bleats and Blogs
Canine Crazy – The Intrepid Shepherdess
I came to this country in 1983 and one of the things that struck me most about it, apart from the inevitable weather conversation with everyone from family through to total stranger, and the vast variety of potatoes, was how much the British love their dogs. The good...
read moreFavouring Fleece Over Lamb Chops – The Intrepid Shepherdess
It has taken me 10 years to realise that I am more a wool producer than I am a sheep farmer. For the typical commercial sheep farmer, the animals they raise annually are the core of their business as they send them off to market when they come to condition or sell...
read moreJust Meant To Be – The Intrepid Shepherdess
Every lambing year brings something different. One year, I faced toxoplasmosis which resulted in weak, feeble lambs. Another year I met Schmallenberg and had to deal with deformed and dying lambs. Last year we had a myriad of mal-presentations, so much so that I gave...
read moreLull before the storm – The Intrepid Shepherdess
Storm Gareth be damned, I am preparing for a tempest of my own. We are about a fortnight off lambing. The ewes have been given their boluses (to ensure correct absorption of much-needed minerals and trace elements), inoculated, wormed and scanned. I am bringing them...
read moreWhat is it about Wool? The Story of Joan and Ann
Ann and Joan are customers of mine. They are almost certainly never destined to meet since their lives are so vastly different. Ann lives in Scotland while Joan is in mid-America so their backgrounds are poles apart. Not surprisingly so are their personalities. But in...
read moreBless the Woolly Maggots
Writing for the Spectator in 2013, George Monbiot tore a strip off the UK’s collective ovine population, maintaining that sheep have done more environmental damage than all the building that has ever taken place. A pretty hyperbolic, sweeping statement to be fair and...
read moreCombat Night Sweats
Night sweats are probably the number one cause of disrupted sleep and can bother all sorts of people at different stages of their lives. Some women may never have problems until they go through the menopause during which severe night sweats can result in discomfort...
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