We drove to a remarkable farm this afternoon.  It sits on a hill just by the site where the battle of Naseby took place in 1645.  The farm house, buildings and grounds have been lovingly restored and rebuilt and stocked with short horn cattle, Manx locktom sheep as well as pure bred and cross bred Jacob sheep.  We had come to take a look at the non pedigree Jacob lambs….one year old ewes from which we hope to breed next year.   The farmer brought the four by four round to the front of the house, dusted down the seats and moved the various reins and rusted farm parts so that we could sit and drove us to his field at nearby Cold Ashby where we were treated to a white knuckle ride up and down the grass ridges until we were facing his mixed flock of one year old sheep.  I fell in love straight away and, apart from hoping that he would not select any who were limping, I asked the farmer to choose six Jacobs and deliver them to us in a months time.

We we will teach the sheep to come to hand to be fed so that when we need to “get them in” for treatment or lambing they will be tame enough to do our bidding.

The next four weeks will be spent sheep proofing the field and having a family conference about “names”. Rosa has already nominated Janis and Dolly but, as with babies, it is sometimes wiser to see the creature before selecting a name! All ideas considered.