Collected the last of the first years batch of sheep from the butchers yesterday and had some for tea tonight, have to say it was pretty darned good! The varied diet they live on certainly seems to help the flavour.

It may well feel like winter out there but the lambs are growing fast now and are having great fun playing in the little bit of spring sunshine we have had. These Shetland lambs were having great fun at the weekend chasing each other around the fieldand jumping on the mole hills!

Phew all go tonight had to rush over to Whittledene, I had report that one of the sheep was out. When I got there the 3 Manx Loaghtans had pushed a rail off the fence an decided they would like to graze the neighbouring field. The grass is always greener and all that! They weren't that keen to go back but fortunately I took Jess with me and although she is only partly trained between us we managed to persuade them back in!
She may only be 6 months old but she can certainly run faster than me......................

Had a very interesting trip down to Yorkshire at the weekend to meet 2 Community Supported Agriculture groups (CSA). They have basically formed to buy shearling lamb (the same thing as we are producing) from the farmers on the North York moors.
The lambs are cut up and divided into 8 packs made up of the different cuts. Interested parties sign up to the group and each member receives 1/8th of a lamb each month until eventually the have had the whole lamb. It seems an excellent way for those who don't have sufficient freezer space or don't want to buy half a lamb at a time, they can pay monthly but must commit to taking all 8 packs. The lamb is usually available between October and May.
I intend to research this further and then maybe hold an information meeting for any interested parties later in the summer.
Having the groups gives the farmers the confidence to keep the lambs on for an extra year until they are shearlings which is when these type of sheep would traditionally been slaughtered. We keep them on for the extra year so that they can graze our conservation sites.

We spent a couple of days last week going through all the sheep checking their feet and trimming the wool of their bellies and tails in preparation for shearing in early June. doing this now helps to keep them clean between now and when they are sheared. On this occassion it was the turn of of the Friends of Tyne Riverside Country Park to lend a hand and practice their wrestling techniques.

The community grazing project at Claravale has got off to a flying start with the arrival of 4 Hebridean sheep arriving to tackle some of the scrub growth on the conservation area. However they soon settled down and got to grips with the job in hand. This is one of a number of small grazing projects happening around Tyneside thanks to a grant from the Community Foundations Local Environment Fund.

Now the weather is warming up and the grass is growing some of the sheep can get dirty around their back end this can lead to fly strike in early summer especially if we get a few warm day. This can be prevented by trimming the wool around their tails, it is much easier to do before they get mucky and are still clean. Today with the help of some volunteers from the Wildlife Trust we rounded up, wormed and trimmed out the first batch.

A volunteer gets to grips with one of the sheep under the watchful eye of Jess and they are all still smiling at the end!