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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