Today is Daisy's eleventh birthday. I can hardly believe how that time has passed. Daisy arrived with her mother, Rosemary, in our first year here at Apifera in 2004. I had little knowledge of raising sheep and was so lucky to have stumbled on those two, along with Joe Pye Weed who helped us build our initial flock. We lost Rosie, tragically, in the Spring of Death in '09 but her calm demeanor and leader abilities were passed onto Daisy.
I retired Daisy a few years ago. She is toothless now and her arthritis is showing more and more. She is slowing down in the fields and the other day I watched her try to keep up with the flock as they ran to the gate for dinner. It is best she stay with the flock though, rather than separate her out into the barnyard. If I ad to do that for her safety, I would, and would bring in Lilly too, her eldest daughter who is also retired.
Today I put the lambs and mothers back with the main flock. The lambs are a month and it is always exciting to have everyone back together-they greet old friends, butt some heads if necessary, sniff out the youngsters and let them know the pecking order. But in minutes, everything is calm and quiet again, with lovely white and brown shapes floating around the fields, eating grass. The two ram lambs shown here, are very nice too, really growing nicely.
The photo seen here of Daisy is included in the book, "Misfits of Love".
