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June and July have been focused on balancing the enjoyment of a sunny English summer and all its pleasures with the effort of working hard to ensure everything continues to grow and thrive during the hot days and nights. 'Lets have a long cool drink of water' During hot weather, the sheep consume about 4 litres of water each per day, requiring numerous trips up and down the hill to refill the bowser. Fortunately, there are plenty of shady spots around the field edges, which h

Wonderful May With the warm sunshine of the last day of May on our backs, we visited the sheep yesterday. We leisurely made our way down the hill, carrying a bucket of feed and a song in our hearts. The sheep were staying cool in the shade of the tree by the gate and came up to greet us warmly, asking for little scratches under the chin or rubs along their backs. They all seemed well, not too hot, and there was no limping in sight. I wanted to capture this moment. It felt a b

It has been a busy few weeks at Whitehouse Farm Oast and we have definitely ramped up the sheep farming challenge level! We decided to administer the flock's booster Heptavac-P Plus, an essential annual medication for maintaining flock health. Although it wasn't due until July, we needed to move the date forward since the sheep will be in lamb next year, and this allows us to vaccinate before lambing season next year. To do this we needed to set up the sheep race to guide eac

More news from Whitehouse Farm Oast It's been quite some time since my previous post. Therefore, writing this blog is a delightful chance to reflect on January to March, observing the growth and development of our farm, and remembering the fun we've had and the lovely guests who came to visit and lend a hand. The sheep are thriving, even though our 20 acres of pasture suffered during the wet winter months. We are very thankful to have discovered some nearby pasture to rent fo

Winter grass means extra hay and big scoops of sheep nuts There are no two ways about it, but a wet January is a pretty dismal time of year. We keep a blog to share what we are doing and also to help us record the many steps and stages we will go through to set up our dairy flock, but it is a bit difficult to muster the enthusiasm to write when you just want to moan about mud! Our sheep are the real super troupers, toughing it out in the rain and wind, and despite it all, bec

Don't ask me Our sheep are generally quiet, spending most of their day peacefully munching, relaxing or ruminating. When I come out with the pink bucket, they usually silently trot over to where they expect the feeding troughs to be placed. However, there are certain times when they become quite vocal, for instance, in the morning, if they see me heading out to the car they sometimes run over to the hedge and let out what sounds like slightly irritated 'baaaaa, baaaaa'. In th

Our new year began with an early morning trip to relocate the sheep to new pastures. The grass in the lower field appeared quite sparse, and the area near the gates was muddy. I've started reading about grazing management, and we're practicing rotational grazing with the aim of moving the sheep when the grass gets down to 3-4 cm and there are approximately 2.5 leaves. It was definitely time to treat them to some fresh grass and a new view for the new year. Fortunately, they w

Ivy, my new best friend. After a few days off visiting our wonderful friends in Munich, checking out the many Christmas Markets and exploring the city, it was lovely to return back to Whitehouse Farm Oast and find that the sheep had not completely forgotten me. Tristram and Freya held the fort, and thankfully the sheep did not cause too much mayhem while I was away. My new best friend is Ivy , named to celebrate Christmas and symbolise her qualities of dependence, endurance

This week was quite the rollercoaster ride in our shepherding adventures. You know, they say you can learn anything from YouTube, but let me tell you, nothing beats the real-life experience of herding sheep, and we have done ALOT of that this week. On Monday it started with an early start to get the sheep from Hope Garden Meadow over the lane to Lower Close Field. Getting the sheep across the lane was the hard part, but then we had to get them into the right field. Thank good

It was fun introducing our sheep to our lovely visitors last weekend. Freddie met the sheep in daylight while doing loads of things to help out, and Tasha bravely came out after dark, negotiating the rain and mud with only my feeble torch to check on them. Freddie visiting from London for the weekend I joined the Farmers Protest in central London and saw some interesting people doing their bit to raise awareness about the disastrous impact the family farm tax is going to have

Visiting the sheep morning and evening, and waving the pink bucket is paying off. There are definitely two groups: the friendly sheep that come running up as soon as we enter the field and like following in formation, and those that are more reserved who hang round the back of the field. But with twice daily trips, we can now get them all gathered around the feeding troughs. All small steps to practice for the next phase: rounding them up into the collecting pen when our farm

My eye-catching pink bucket of sheep nuts has done wonders to help our sheep get over their initial reluctance to come close. Today I could stand about 1 metre away and we had a good stare at each other. Storm Claudia is making its way towards us but for most of the week we have been lucky with mild weather, sunshine and lovely sunsets. We had a visit from Donal our vet from Fairfield Vets in Uckfield. After a intense couple of hours walking the fields and listening to advic

At 2pm this Friday, 7 November 2025, we welcomed our Lacaune and Romney mix ewe lambs to Whitehouse Farm Oast. These lovely sheep, bred by Joanna and Rob of Kaiapoi Farm in Hertfordshire are the founding mothers of our new milk and cheese making venture, and we anticipate an exciting future together! Our local farmer, William Clark, delivered them and had them doing the hop, skip, jump out to their new home in no time. Who are you? Let's go Lots of new fencing, heavy duty mac