Winter Provisions

Awhile ago when A. was moving the rams' electric fence to a new spot, he let them out to graze freely. They ended up right next to my garden. Thankfully, these sheep are much less aggressive than those wretched Cotswolds that would bulldoze their way through any obstacle to get to cultivated plants.

I found the combined sight of much of our winter food preparations--albeit still on the hoof and in the ground--to be amusing enough that I took a photo of it.

Obviously, those boys in the pea patch will not be eaten this winter. They're doing some pre-prep for themselves by bulking up on foraged vegetables before I can get to them.

The sheep have already passed the cute stage and are steadily working toward the stage when it's a relief to butcher them. Actually, I would be happy to do it now. They have a habit of yelling as soon as they see a person--no doubt in the hopes of the dried corn their shepherd occasionally feeds them--and they continue this yelling in the pasture adjacent to the garden as long as I'm working in there.

That's okay, though. I work away at staking the tomato plants with the background noise of blatting sheep, and I vindictively plan all the lamb stewed with tomatoes I'm going to eat this winter.

Keep it up, boys. The loudest one goes first.