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| Meli-Arnaki of Spalford |
Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Or a gift ram, for that matter.
A smallholder friend gave us the heads up that there was a pedigree Shetland ram on a Facebook site for free. The ram had belonged to her before the current owner.
We've never actually owned a proper pedigree animal as we only keep them for utility. However, our current ram needs to move on, as ideally do four of our older ewes. So this new opportunity came at just the right time.
A couple of messages later and we had arranged to travel to the north of the county to pick up our new boy. We had also confirmed that he was indeed being offered for free and that he was quite a friendly and gentle chap.
And so I present to you Meli-Arnaki of Spalford. His previous owners called him Arnie but we're still deciding what to call him. For your information, as far as I can work out, Meli-Arnaki is Greek for honey-lamb! Maybe his new name should be Honey.
Meli-Arnaki spent a week on his own getting used to his new home but it was always our intention to give him a companion. And so today we gathered up the other sheep, penned them so we could worm them and check their feet, then moved our wether (castrated male) up towards the farmhouse to share a paddock with our newcomer.
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| The easiest way to treat the sheep is to pen them tightly. I go in with them and Sue administers medicines from the outside. |
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| New companions |
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| Some welcome cold weather has arrived early in 2022. The air is wonderfully crisp on days like this. |
