20/07/2026
Turns out running a smallholding and remembering to post on Facebook don’t always go hand in hand… 🤣
Life just gets in the way sometimes, doesn’t it?
We’ve been very much alive… just too busy (and too tired) to tell you about it!
The last week or so has looked something like this…
🐑 Daily sheep checks… which were fairly uneventful until Bella decided to throw a spanner in the works.
Bella is normally one of the first at the trough, usually waiting to see if there are any extra treats on offer.
So when we noticed her standing away from the flock, not interested in food and keeping herself to herself, we knew something wasn’t right.
A vet visit later confirmed what we’d feared…
Barber’s Pole Worm (Haemonchus contortus), causing severe anaemia.
Thankfully we’d spotted the subtle changes early.
It’s one of those parasites that can be difficult to detect through faecal egg counts alone, which is exactly why nothing replaces simply knowing your animals.
Poll Dorsets should have a lovely healthy pink nose and pink inside their ears… Bella’s had turned white.
Her gums were white too.
Seeing that really brought home just how anaemic she was.
People often say, “They’re only sheep.”
But they’re not.
They’re family.
You notice when one isn’t quite herself.
You notice when she’s missing from the trough, standing on her own or just looking at you differently. Those tiny changes are often the difference between catching something early and catching it too late.
Then came the fun part…
Trying to halter a 100kg+ ewe that had absolutely no intention of walking anywhere.
My plan was simple… quietly walk her through the gate, pop her into the barn to keep a close eye on her and stop the rest of the flock following.
Bella’s plan was to become a concrete block while the rest of the sheep stood watching, quite clearly plotting their escape. 🤦🏻♀️
A lighter wallet after the vet, followed by the challenge of injecting a sheep that really wasn’t interested in receiving life-saving medication.
Turns out giving injections to a 100kg+ ewe on your own is… character building! 💪🏻🤣
I also somehow managed to build a temporary pen for the upcoming worming in temperatures that felt illegal… with Nibbles deciding this was the perfect time to be thoroughly unhelpful by demanding cuddles and head scratches every five minutes instead of letting me actually build the thing 🥹🤣
Once Alex got home from work, we spent the evening worming the entire flock.
Miraculously, it actually went really well!
Nobody escaped, nobody got flattened, and even Cookie, our resident hurdle hopper, behaved herself for once!
I nearly checked she was feeling alright. 🤣
The rest of life hasn’t exactly slowed down either…
🌱 Late-night gardening sessions once it’s cool enough to be outside.
🌾 Constantly looking at the fields and praying for rain because they’re starting to resemble the Sahara Desert.
🏫 School seems determined to squeeze every assembly, sports day, event and activity possible into the last few weeks of term.
🥩 Alex has been making the most of his smoker, so weekends have been spent together as a family eating far too well!
And of course, there have been the additional late-night Bella checks on top of everything else.
Four days on, she’s slowly improving.
The pink is finally starting to return to her nose, she’s brighter than she was, and she’s even starting to tell me what she thinks again… which I’ll happily take!
She’s still got a long way to go, but right now we’ll celebrate every tiny step in the right direction.
Behind the scenes, the plans for Oakleaf are still moving full steam ahead too.
We’ve got plenty of exciting ideas in the pipeline, and we can’t wait to share them with you when the time is right.
For now, we’ll keep doing what we always do… taking each day as it comes, hoping for rain, healthy sheep and maybe the occasional full night’s sleep! 🤣
Thanks for sticking with us while we’ve been a bit quiet. 💚🐑
