Sheep Walk-about
Monday we brought home a new ram. He is a beautiful black yearling Icelandic.
This winter the snow at our farm is four feet deep. The sheep mostly stay in the barn, but if they wish, they can go out in the corral. They have made trails through the snow to their salt lick and to their favorite trees. Their well-used trails are narrow corridors through the deep snow.
The snow has nearly covered the top of the fences surrounding the corral. But, this has not been a problem because the ewes never venture off the trails they have made. When the ewes were first brought up to the corral in the Fall, they quickly determined the fence was stout and secure. So as the snow had gotten deeper and deeper it had never occurred to the ewes that the fences were becoming less secure as the rising snow made the fences shorter and shorter.
The evidence I uncovered this morning, pointed to the alarming realization that our new yearling ram took the flock on a walk-about in the pre-dawn hours! He stepped right over the fence and the ewes followed! Thankfully they were home again in the barn for breakfast no worse for their adventure. But the hoof prints in the snow and little piles of “sheep berries” gave away their adventurous wanderings.
I am thankful for my husband and oldest son who immediately got right to work remodeling so that the sheep cannot go walk-about again!
This winter the snow at our farm is four feet deep. The sheep mostly stay in the barn, but if they wish, they can go out in the corral. They have made trails through the snow to their salt lick and to their favorite trees. Their well-used trails are narrow corridors through the deep snow.
The snow has nearly covered the top of the fences surrounding the corral. But, this has not been a problem because the ewes never venture off the trails they have made. When the ewes were first brought up to the corral in the Fall, they quickly determined the fence was stout and secure. So as the snow had gotten deeper and deeper it had never occurred to the ewes that the fences were becoming less secure as the rising snow made the fences shorter and shorter.
The evidence I uncovered this morning, pointed to the alarming realization that our new yearling ram took the flock on a walk-about in the pre-dawn hours! He stepped right over the fence and the ewes followed! Thankfully they were home again in the barn for breakfast no worse for their adventure. But the hoof prints in the snow and little piles of “sheep berries” gave away their adventurous wanderings.
I am thankful for my husband and oldest son who immediately got right to work remodeling so that the sheep cannot go walk-about again!
