The room we stayed in was on the back side of the house, with a Velux Roof Window, overlooking a steep hillside that was home to a flock of sheep. We would awake in the morning to their gentle bleating. What a beautiful scene to look out and see the green hillside dotted with those gentle fluffy creatures.
We went to the Wensleydale creamery one day. I really like cheese, and had no idea what Wallace and Gromit was all about. To get from the parking area to the creamery, we crossed a field of sheep. Sheep that were accustomed to hundreds of visitors crossing their meadow every day. Gentle, friendly, fluffy sheep. It made us wonder if we could keep one as a housepet (not really.)
Stephen's parents lived in the area. We stopped by to meet them, and Peggy mother insisted that we take lamb stew back to the house with us for dinner. I had always turned my nose up at lamb, I was very unsure, but didn't want to insult anyone. Oh my, were we in for a treat. It was so good. Savory, mild, full of veggies in a thick rich gravy. We had dinner with Peggy and Ralph a few evenings later and I had her describe to me how to make it. A very simple, low and slow braise.
The photos above, I was out at Mt Vernon a few weeks ago and they were finishing up the spring shearing. They shear by hand, the way it was done in George Washington's day. This particular lady was not real happy with being on her side, making the shearer's job especially difficult. Great care was taken to keep the sheep from getting stressed.
A stressed sheep, is a likely to be a dead sheep. Many have written that a sheep is an animal that spends its life looking for a hideous an unexpected way to die. When my mother was a child, her father worked on a farm that had sheep, decades later she said, "if you look at sheep cross eyed, they keelover and die."
If I win the lottery, I will buy a farm, hire a farmer, and raise a flock of black sheep. The farm will be called "Black Sheep Farm."
SG always wanted to buy a farm and have black swans in the lake.
ReplyDeleteSwans are robust.
DeleteI expect your farmer to run your farm would need to meet certain specifications, or stats if you like.
ReplyDeleteThe interviewing and work wear selection would be extensive.
DeleteAs a Black Sheep myself, I could live on a nice farm ...
ReplyDeleteAnother flock to find refuge.
DeleteSheep are not very common in Canada. I never saw a huge flock of them in a field until I was in England.
ReplyDeleteWool was an essential fiber for clothing, and north America was never self sufficient.
DeleteI don't know much about sheep but I have eaten lamb.
ReplyDeleteTasty if it is cooked well.
DeleteBlack Sheep Farm....I like that!
ReplyDeleteAnd true on multiple levels.
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ReplyDeleteLooks like the corner of the living room
Delete
ReplyDeleteYou will be able to sing to your sheep: "Baa-baa black sheep, have you any wool?"
Every springtime I love to see new lambs out in the fields of Derbyshire. They frolic, they gambol and they bleat.