New Pasture

Finally, Hugh and I buckled down and finished off fencing the front yard to create a sheep pasture. We've only done the perimeter and the run coming from the back where the back pastures and sheep shed are located. It took over 1000 feet of page wire fencing, 110 cedar posts of varying sizes and about 25 lbs. of fencing staples on the hottest couple of days since the summer began. Our alarm rang at sun-up and we'd get up shortly after that to try and beat the midday heat and we'd go back out in the evening after supper. We made several mistakes, but have learned from them and in the end, the fence will still work and do its job. We still have to make the interior fences to separate it into 4 paddocks so I can accomplish proper pasture rotation. The perimeter fencing requires a lot of finishing work yet: splicing joins and securing wire ends, making gates, and anchoring corner posts (which should have been done before attaching the page wire), but it is functional for now.

The sheep have been allowed to move in for about an hour last night and they were funny to watch. They took a while at the entrance eating some longer grass that didn't manage to get cut earlier this week. Then they continued walking as a herd along the fence line, even sticking their heads through the fence...the nerve! I guess the grass really is greener on the other side!!! Then they'd take off, back down the run to the shed in the back. They did this in smaller herds repeatedly...almost as if they wanted to make sure they knew the way back or that they could still get back. I'm being careful to ease them into a nice grassy pasture, because if they overdose on the grass, they could bloat and die. I'm feeding them their normal hay and will be allowing them increasing amounts of time in the front pasture to get their stomachs used to it all.

I found the sheep looked so small in that huge large field. I joked to Hugh that I need more sheep to fill in the space. Brianna said that we needed a horse or 2. I'd like a jersey cow!!! I was a bit worried about how to get them all back into the sheep shed at night, but I got Shepherd Aidan to enter the run with the pans of grain and move to the top of the field calling them and shaking the pans. They all ran right back and followed him "home". It was wonderful to watch. I was looking at all the work that's been done recently and in past years and our house and gardens in the glow of the evening sun and I felt very happy and content. Things are looking good. The farm is shaping up. We are setting down some pretty big roots on this farm and I'm feeling hopeful about my dreams and wishes for this place.