I just love it when I win!!
On Wednesday, on the way home from work, Dad and I stopped in at Neil Hughes place (he works the backhoe for filling in the graves) to organise work for the following week. While we were there his wife Lyn asked if we would like to see the new lambs, so I grabbed Riley (we picked him up from school on our way home) and away we went!
They were like, so flippin' cute!!!
Lyn had 18 ewes and all of them had had their babies - 5 had even had twins! And Riley and I got to stroke lots and lots of them, some of them only a week old!! And they came in the most stunning array of colours!
The unusual thing about these sheep (and I stress this as I am NOT a sheep lover - they are an insult to the intelligence of all farmers) have tails!! (Yes I realise that all sheep have tails, but other sheep must have their tails removed for disease control) Whereas these sheep do not! They are also known as Fat-Tailed sheep (Damara) and the fat of their body is stored in their tails (this results in a less greasy meat) AND they do not need to be sheared! What a user friendly type of sheep!
Damaras originated in East Asia & Egypt circa 3000BC and were introduced to Australia from South Africa in 1996.
On the way home from there, even Dad commented on how great they were (and he has a passion for hating sheep!) and how it wouldnt be hard for us to have them at all (by us he meant Michael, Molly and I).
So when I got home, I told Michael all about them, and he was adamant that we WOULD NOT HAVE SHEEP!! He was not interested!!
By the following night he said, ok,we can have them...I just LOVE my powers of persuasion!!
So, soon we will be self sufficient with regards to lamb, as well :)
I just looked up the blogs after a busy week and was excited to see not just one, and not just two, but three blog entries from you!! (Of course, I realize that I'm doing very poorly in this department myself... but I'm glad that you have posted! :)
ReplyDeleteYou are a mine of information Bec! The Damaras haven't been in Australia for long, have they? That was surprising to me.
Why wasn't Michael interested?!?
Do you worry about finding them too cute to harvest for meat?..
xo
Honestly, he just doesnt want to have to build yet another fence! Slack bugger! But he's since changed his mind to such an extreem, that he wants to have a whole herd of them and sell them to the meat works...I said NO! We are only having a couple for our own uses! :)
ReplyDeleteAh-haha! Wow - he's thinking big there now, isn't he :) I'm glad he's got you to keep him in line while he learns how to be a country-living person, Bec :) He REALLY needs you!
ReplyDeleteDid you ever see a really old TV show called 'Green Acres'? It was one of my favourite shows growing up, about a couple who wanted to leave city living behind and have a country life instead - but they often made mistakes at first... I don't remember much, except that it always looked like a lot of fun.
xo
Nah, my favourite was Bonanza!! (I just loved Little Joe's horse - he was soooooo pretty!!) And what's with Michael wanting a whole heard anyway, when just a short time ago he was totally against getting two?! :)
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