It’s been a week and a half since school started and I really could do with some holidays. It’s not the kids, it’s being new at with a new class. Having to do all the administration while significantly lacking in knowing how to is a drag. Each school has their perfect system and, well. It’s also funny what is pretty normal at one school but an absolute no go at another. Because I need a holiday, you get some holiday pictures.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Sheep are vital in maintaining the dikes. Their hooves put just enough pressure on the ground to make it hard enough, their grazing is just right to encourage the grass to grow deep and strong. Cows are too heavy, goats are too greedy. Sheep are also cute. While most will run away when humans approach, there’s always one or two that enjoy cuddles. Yes, I cuddled a sheep. It was very fluffy.
So enjoy your fluffy holiday break.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Oh, I miss the sheep who used to live next door. The new neighbours are also nice, but can be a bit loud: Moooooo!
I can’t remember the last time I’ve been within melee (I don’t know why, but that was the first term I could think of when thinking of an appropriate word, and I’ve since thought of more accurate/appropriate ones, but I’m going to leave that, just because it amuses me…) range of a sheep, but aren’t they exceptionally greasy?
Everytime I see/hear “lanolin”, I can’t help but think “sheep grease”
questionably related note, had a tabletop rpg session where one of the player characters got turned into a sheep, and the question came up “how do sheep fight? do they bite, do they kick?” and I replied that there are countless videos on youtube of sheep headbutting and knocking the hell out of dumbasses bullying/taunting them. And that character turned sheep proceeded to make some really good rolls and headbutted the hell out of several opponents in that encounter. :)
That is a noice sheep!
Grazing animals are essential to many environments. In CZ, there are national parks/protected areas that are dependent on sheep grazing. The rare flowers that thrive there would otherwise get completely crowded out by grasses and shrubbery.
There were sheep grazing on a meadow within hearing distance of my house a few times within the last ten years. They are cute but also loud as hell.
Those sheep look very fluffy, clean, and healthy, especially for white sheep. I would definitely snuggle them if they had approached me.
They are exactly as pictured in nursery rhymes about Little Bo Peep and her sheep.
lochaber
I wouldn’t call them “greasy”, but you sure do have soft hands after petting them.
Yepp. The agricultural revolution created landscapes that require some traditional animal husbandry. Near us is a biotope that has attracted some storks and the people there were extremely happy. They cared for them, built roosting places, but they also noticed that the grasslands were turning into shrubberies, so a local initiative searched far and wide for the right big herbivores and finally got some water buffaloes.
Hah, I learned something new!
I live in the Netherlands, which has lots of dikes, and lots of sheep on those dikes, but I never knew they were there “on purpose”!
In Finland, they have tried using sheep to keep the grass from shading solar panels in a solar power plant. I believe this is fairly common also elsewhere. The experience has been encouraging with 40 sheep grazing under and between the solar panels and the sheep farmer (who was looking for summer pasture for her sheep and asked the solar park operator if she could bring her sheep to graze there) is planning on bringing a bigger flock (100 sheep) next summer.
The sheep use the solar panels as a way to get away from the sunshine and rain, but otherwise leave them be. Clover has been sown on the field where the panels are and the sheep have a salt lick, mineral supplements and water available.
Ice Swimmer
There’s an idea that is tested in different ways, with hotter and hotter summers: solar panels protecting lifestock and crops.
Yes sheep and solar panels are a good mix, as long as the panels ar firmly fixed, sheep do like to rub on upright posts etc.
lochaber
A shepherd I know has lost a couple of dogs over the years to head butts from sheep, if they catch a dog side on they hit hard enough to cause internal bleeding so significant the dog can bleed out before you can get it to a vet.