Fun with Farm work

My paddocks are a mess of partial lumpy paths, deep snow with a harsh crust, some ice and some small broken up trampled areas. It will be a long time before any training happens, but it is handy to have a dog to put feed out. I'm afraid my sheep think little of my opinion unless one of my canine friends is around.

The first job is keeping the girls off the feeder so I can put out some grain. Not so easy as there is 32 feet of fenceline feeder, now so full of snow I have to fill it from inside the barnyard. The barnyard is small with no room for the dog to push the sheep well off, thus leaving the flock well positioned to try to skirt the dog on either end to get to the grain. Each of my 3 dogs has worked out a different method and style of moving them back and holding them quietly. The sheep have learned that even if the dog is at the moment pushing the other side of the flock back, and they are only 20 feet from the feeder and 30 feet from the dog, they will not make it to the feeder in time.

Another job is "bale dog". I just lay the dog down beside the main bale while I disperse the hay. Talk about boring! But with no dog at the bale all sheep will converge on it while I'm spreading flakes, then when I walk back they'll all bolt off through the bale, trampling it nicely.

This morning the sheep had eaten their grain and almost all were up at the hay I'd just spread. Several had remained in the barnyard, searching for those last few bits of grain in the snow filled feeders like pigs after truffles. Levi had been a very patient "bale dog" so I decided to let him bring those girls up. A couple were ewes that will cling to the llama to try to avoid the dog. One in particular almost fuses herself to her tall friend. Some of the sheep just trotted up towards me as soon as Levi got back behind them, but these two girls ran and clutched to the llama, who was eating another bale I had waiting to be spread, all this up against the gate by the feeders. Levi came around to lift on the narrow path through the deep, crusty now. He was confronted with a broadside bale, llama tight to the bale, and ewe almost under the llama. He jumped the bale, landing between the very surprised llama's legs and nose to nose with an appalled ewe. She recoiled from Levi's shockingly rude greeting and briskly made her way up to join the rest of the flock. Eventually I stopped laughing.