Hiking with 60 sheep
“It must be boring to live so far away from the city! How do you kill time at the ranch?”
An occasional visitor will ask silly questions like that. The answer is, we can always find something to do. Like take the sheep for a hike…
In all honesty, we would not let the sheep out without adult supervision, so when we needed to move the flock from the front vineyard to the back of the ranch, we invited a professional sheep team, Robert Irvin and Jaime Greydanus with their Border Collie, Mick.
We opened the gate, and the sheep took off right away, excited to enter the world they had been looking at through the vineyard fence all winter. Down the road they went, so fast that Kaj wished he had a zoom lens for more close-up photos. One little fellow couldn’t keep up, so he got to ride with Jaime in the truck.
After half a mile, an adventurous ewe decided to check out a hill along the road and, as you know, when one sheep runs…Luckily, Mick was swift to round up the flock and bring them to the corral by the barn for a quick check-up. For the rest of the trip, everybody got to ride comfortably in the sheep trailer, lambs at the top deck and adult sheep at the lower level.
At the end of the journey, the baby lambs were happy to be reunited with their mothers.
Just a couple of hours after the get-go, the flock had settled down in the Diamond Mine Vineyard, ready to get back on the job they are doing best – mowing & fertilizing.
Else
A very interesting read. I love sheep, cows and all barnyard animals and grew up on a ranch myself. I miss the closeness and spending time with these wonderful creatures. I loved your pictures and story of herding the sheep which are difficult to herd. As a child, I helped my dad drive our cows from one pasture to another several times a year. Cattle are easier to herd. So much fun. God bless you Else.
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