May Newsletter

The Fourth Generation Moves The Sheep

Since, we are constantly rotating our cattle, sheep, chickens and pigs onto fresh pasture so that the grazed pasture can fully recover and because some county roads split the family farm into three main sections we often find ourselves needing to cross or walk down the road a bit. Of course crossing a road is much more difficult than simply opening a gate within the farm as you have to stop traffic, and there is always the chance that an animal could walk through the first open gate onto the road but then for some unknown reason fail to go into the next open gate back onto the farm. Fetching an animal that has made this unfortunate choice in navigation is never a fun activity!!!!So whenever we do cross the road, we try to have plenty of help and set things up as well as possible. Often those additional hands come in the form of the fourth generation on the farm, and I might say a very capable one despite their smaller stature. This past week, we had to cross a driveway abutting a blacktop road with the sheep as we moved from one field to another. It should have been a pretty simple affair as road crossings go, and Judah and E faithfully came with me on that Saturday morning ( for some reason the animals need cared for on holidays and weekends too! ) as we headed out to move them. As we walked outside, JoBelle threw her arms around my legs and said "go width dada, go ow side dada" my first impulse was to try to explain that it was a job for the "bigs" (our household term for the older boys coined by the third brother I believe) and that she needed to stay home. But looking down into those sweet eyes and that expectant face I instead helped her put on her boots and swept her up as we headed outside - giving Mariah a quick update that I was taking her as I did so (counting littles is a full time job at our place). She tagged along like a champ babbling and telling me all kinds of things as I called the sheep across the field and her older brothers herded them from behind - no small task as the warm season grasses composing the field we were leaving behind were taller than the boys!When I got to the gateway and the road that needed crossed, I realized that I had forgotten an extra roll of fencing to stretch across the driveway side of the T in the road. I had intended to use the rtv as a fence along with myself on the black top side but now I was in a pickle.  Without something to stop the sheep on the other side they would certainly run down the driveway and visit our neighbors yard and shrubberies. While we get on splendidly with the neighbor in question I do not think they would be over thrilled at this opportunity for "all natural" landscaping (I still shudder at the memory of the goats and the Maple Tree affair)Then JoBelle started telling me something (she is still pretty hard to understand most times) and I had an idea. The sheep are gentle and not ones to approach anything out of the ordinary, so I explained to JoBelle that she was going to sit down in the driveway and guard it while the sheep walked by. She happily complied and I opened the gates. As I called the sheep the fourth generation tag teamed the operation with JoBelle guarding the driveway and the boys bringing up the herd. Once across everyone got a big high five and job well done speech as be bumped our way back towards the house on the rtv. 

Cattle Drive On The Farm

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