Haha progresses

[JoceAndChris]

The aim is to reveal and rescue the Georgian haha as has often been discussed, which has been obscured by hedgerow and weeds for at least 100 years.

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/joceneedham/Chickensandfencedfield019.jpg

Lots of good progress lately, and my gardening help is very excited by the whole thing and rather good at picking away at all the bits:

Bye-bye hedge, enjoy your last week of dominion. Down it comes on Sunday!

 

[Penners]

Wow - that's real progress, Joce. Well done!

The haha looks as though the bricks have been laid without mortar - is that the case? If so, they've remained remarkably undisturbed by that rampant hedge.

 

[worms]

Bye-bye hedge, enjoy your last week of dominion. Down it comes on Sunday!

Would it be worth, in the first instance, reducing the hedge to about 2-3 feet high and living with it at that for a few months, so that you can get used to the effect, before taking the final step of completely removing it? Otherwise, it is a very bold step, that would take a long time to reverse!

 

[Flyfisher]

Great work Joce (and helper!).

I wonder if the haha has become filled in over its lifetime though? It looks a little shallow to be properly functional in terms of keeping livestock out of the garden. Do you know how far the bricks go down below the current ground level?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks for all the positive and helpful replies.

Worms - that's a sweet idea. I know it's drastic but it's been mulled over for three years. I want to be able to jump down the haha and feed my new babies ( who I think will be Lincoln Longwools) We'd also like a hedgerow on the inside of our new fence, at the bottom of our bit of the land, to replace the one we destroy ( and actually be much bigger).

Mr P - no mortar, which makes repair very easy for me. 8)

FF - I agree - the sheep lady whose sheep I was going to borrow and learn with poured scorn and said it wouldn't work. We need to dig out a ditch. The bricks go three courses lower. Not sure how much excavation to do right up against.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Bye-bye hedge, enjoy your last week of dominion. Down it comes on Sunday!

Would it be worth, in the first instance, reducing the hedge to about 2-3 feet high and living with it at that for a few months, so that you can get used to the effect, before taking the final step of completely removing it? Otherwise, it is a very bold step, that would take a long time to reverse!

Seconded

 

[JoceAndChris]

Well my lovely boys, I don't really agree with you.

A neat, low, Regency box hedge can be achieved in 3 or 4 years if the nakedness is too much. A rampant, thick, 50 year old holly hedge is a b*gger to maintain and takes Chris away from more useful things.

 

[worms]

I don't really agree with you.

Your hedge, your decision!

holly hedge is a b*gger to maintain.

Oh dear! I've been planting the stuff! Perhaps we will both live to regret our decisions!

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I don't really agree with you.

Your hedge, your decision!

Why not cut half of it down and see how it looks - you know it's best to hedge your bets! (groan)

I want to be able to jump down the haha and feed my new babies ( who I think will be Lincoln Longwools)

Joce, can I please warn against any kind of longwool sheep? They may look lovely, but they are very difficult to have anyone shear them (especially if you only have a few) - they are a nightmare due to the length/thickness of the wool and contractors just aren't interested. Shearing them yourselves is equally problematic (after 4 years I've got it down to about 20 mins per sheep) and back breaking (I may end up like Penners at this rate).

Longwool sheep need a lot more maintenance than your average suicidal ovine. Dagging a longwool sheep is a repetitive and deeply deeply deeply unpleasant task - which makes delousing the poultry an absolute joy in comparison. No one else will do this for you. It is a rank task.

The meat tastes no different from a shorter traditional breed. The wool has no value, and you won't be selling it to local spinners or making your own carpets. It is horrible, greasy, smelly and full of thorns/twigs/poo. It is worth less than the shearing costs. We burn ours. It doesn't even burn very well.

I know all this because I was silly enough to get sucked into thinking Grey-faced Dartmoors would be ideally suited and very pretty on my Welsh hillside. I rue the day 6 years ago I ever though of this.

I am getting out of sheep - too much hard work for no gain. I may consider some short-haired well behaved variety but not a longwool; they're not for hobby-farmers.

Sorry to be pessimistc, but I really don't want to see you make the same mistakes I did. Sheep are hard enough work for little enough reward as it is, without adding longwool into the bargain.

 

[worms]

Joce, can I please warn against any kind of longwool sheep?

Yes, I see Joce more as a Dorset Down sort of gal, they would match a Bo Peep outfit so much better!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Joce, can I please warn against any kind of longwool sheep? They may look lovely, but they are very difficult...

Robin, I've taken your warning very seriously and am duly off-put. Longwools sound like a total nightmare. I know sheep, any sheep, are hard and may be something I come to regret but I have to try them. The view is incomplete without them. Mine will be pets and receive the absolute maximum care and most effective preventive treatments. They won't be slaughtered - that's been a long and hard decsion to arrive at as I feel a total non-farming wuss but I'm afraid this is one of the side-effects of infertility. Chris feels the same, and can't understand why you would want to eat something you've loved and cared for, when it's only around a fiver for really nice lamb chops at Waitrose.

The Dorset Downs look lovely. We're going to inspect breeds at the Rare Breeds fair on Saturday. Don't think we'll be ready to buy until next Spring though.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I don't really agree with you.

Your hedge, your decision!

holly hedge is a b*gger to maintain.

Oh dear! I've been planting the stuff! Perhaps we will both live to regret our decisions!

I could write a whole essay on holly hedges but suffice to say that just like the old house versus the new house conundrum hedges are easy when new. It's inheriting a vast, old, hedge that's turned into a wood in places that's problematic.

I'm a big fan of holly, the birds love it, it's year-round colour, very traditional, and it takes a great shape with thrice yearly power trimming. In three years we've got some of ours (over 200 holly trees here) into pleasing topiaried shapes.

The eastern-facing holly hedge will be kept. It's currently here (and Chris has spent days and days getting the right side into that shape)

but this is the shape we're aiming for:

The one at the front doesn't look too bad in the pic I posted from the field side but it looks dreadful from the house side, as so much of it was trees that have now been felled. In time you could patch and train it into better shape but it will always obscure the view. At the moment I can see the Chicken Fluffs from the breakfast room:

but with that hedge gone I'd be able to see all the fluffies at once!!!

 

[Flyfisher]

Robin, I've taken your warning very seriously and am duly off-put. Longwools sound like a total nightmare. I know sheep, any sheep, are hard and may be something I come to regret but I have to try them.

I keep thinking about getting sheep but freely confess that the sorts of things FW has mentioned does put me off. I did once read up on 'self-shearing' sheep - I think Norfolk Horn was one such breed - but never progressed any further than reading about them.

My main motivation is to help with the lawn mowing and to help keep some of our rougher areas tidy, so it's only a growing season requirement. On that basis, my currently idea is to just buy some lambs in the spring, when the grass starts growing, and, er, put them in the freezer towards the end of the year, when the grass has stopped growing. That would cut out the worst aspect of sheep husbandry (I think), but it's all guesswork at present as I've yet to take the plunge.

 

[JoceAndChris]

We need the sheep keepers to say more, but I'd say go for it! The little National Trust "Sheep-Keeping" book is good, and says as long as they can lie dry and have good stock fencing they will do well. You buy them vaccinated against all sorts of nasties, and can get insecticide to put on their feed to prevent maggot bum. The creation of the holding and catching area sounds a bit tricky to me, but for someone as capable as you probably easy-peasy.


Edit - The Wiltshire Horn, the Easy Care, and the Soay, do not need shearing. The Soay can jump fences though unless they're good high ones. But apparently it tastes gamey and is good with wine. I've been told that any sheep would die within half an hour of being in my garden as they eat yew and have no ability to survive that. Do you have yew where you intend to keep them?

 

[AMc]

Maintenance free, all weather sheep...

http://hornimports.com/index.php/Life-Size-Model-Sheep.htm

 

[skier-hughes]

Mike, Farmer Joe and I tried that. He bought 47 ewes, brought them home and asked if I'd help out.
In that time, we had frantic mating as there were 46 ewes and one ram, so some of the sheep couldn't go to slaughter as they were in lamb.
Some had flystrike so shearing and dowsing a sheep riddled in maggots was fine for me, having sold them for years in my shops, but it was a soiltary job as nobody else would help me.
Shearing a sheep is very back breaking.
Cutting toe nails,
Lambing, particularly twins with still borns is very unpleasant.

Only good side, the meat was very very tasty.

I'd do it again with maybe 4.

 

[Flyfisher]

I was already convinced that ewes were not for me. Far too much like hard work, but surely some just-weaned lambs would be far easier and no need to overwinter them.

I should admit that the background to my interest was my increasing frustration with my old ride-on mower. It was taking 5-6 hours to cut all the grass and didn't do a great job anyway. The petrol was costing £20 a time, often twice a month, and I was forever having to fix it, sometimes actually needing a friend to make replacement parts that were no longer available. Against all this, some sort of animal-assisted lawn mowing seemed very attractive.

But last month, yet another mower breakdown coincided with a local ad for a 'finishing mower' that would attach to my old tractor, so I'm now the proud owner of a 6-foot mower that can do all the mowing in just two hours and only a few litres of red diesel at about 80p/litre.

The lambs are still in the back of my mind but the urgency has receded. I'll see what happens next lambing season.

 

[skier-hughes]

Ours were just weaned, lambs, not supposed to over winter, but that changed with the fact that as they were due to go to slaughter over half were in lamb themselves!!!

 

[Schoolmarm]

I still have ten ewes but they can't manage all the grass here. The shearer comes for peanuts. The wool price has gone up this year but I always donate mine to the shearer.

Regular worming if they are on restricted acreage means no dirty bums/dagging.

Vetrazine sprayed on stops maggots/fly strike for 8-10 weeks. After shearing, ewes will stop flystrike by themselves.

Improving the fencing next to your garden will stop them from getting to the Yew.

Cutting toenails is a hard job. Both to handle the sheep and actually cut. If you select carefully at purchase though you can leave some feet alone.

I think the easiest way to have sheep is to offer grazing out to proper sheep people.

 

[worms]

I think the easiest way to have sheep is to offer grazing out to proper sheep people.

I'm not sure if it would work for the specific cases of Joce, Skier Hughes or FF, but you could turn the situation on its head - rent the land for over-wintering of sheep and have a wildflower/hay meadow for the summer. That way someone else has the sheep headaches (you may offer to do the daily checks/feeding for them as part of the deal) and you get to look out on a traditional hay meadow for the summer.