My New White Sheep

My white sheep looking for her flock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m still coming down from the show.  It’s definitely a high and after finishing the paper work yesterday Jon and I decided to take today off.  We had plans of taking a walk at Merck Forest, having lunch in Manchester, maybe buying a pair of hiking sandals (with my spoils from the show) that I’ve been eyeing. Then coming home and relaxing.

But then Daryl called, he was coming with more sheep to graze for the summer and he had another one for me, a white Border Leicester this time.

Getting them off the trailer was  pretty easy.  Daryl separated my sheep from the rest and I shook some grain leading them into the back pasture while Jon and Red kept them from bolting.   Daryl told me that she was a great sheep and she put up a fight as his son John pulled and pushed her into the front pasture where my other sheep were.

Great, maybe, but not friendly, she wanted nothing to do with me, I couldn’t get near her. She ran to the gate looking for the sheep she came with and called out to them.  They were too busy eating the fresh grass to respond.  We left her to settle in with her new flock.

When we came back a bit later, checking on the new sheep, Jon looked up and just above him, on the stone wall of the old barn foundation, my white sheep was looking down at him.  She had somehow gotten into the back pasture.  Before we could even think, she jumped off the wall and joined the other sheep.  We checked the fence for holes, found none and decided she must have jumped it.

We got out the grain again, got all the sheep into the barn then put a harness on my white sheep and moved her back into the front pasture.  She ran up to the Pole Barn where Tess and Suzy and Socks were, but our donkey Lulu, kept chasing her out.  So we moved the donkeys into the back pasture and had Red do some herding hoping the four sheep  would bond.  We left  them huddled in the Pole Barn.

Tonight, as Jon was leaving for his Writing Workshop, I tucked in the chickens and checked on my sheep.  It was still hot out and the bugs were swarming, I felt like a donkey,  shaking my head, twitching my legs and using my hat like a tail.  Inside the Pole Barn were my three black sheep.  I scanned the hill side then went into the back pasture.  There was my white sheep, right where she wanted to be with the flock of sheep she came with.

I’m beginning to wonder what Daryl meant when he said she was a great sheep.  But I have to admit, I do admire her.  She’s not  typical , she has spunk and personality and goes after what she wants.

Suzy and Socks with the new sheep

9 thoughts on “My New White Sheep

  1. 🙂 Sheep can be very bonded and definitely resist separation. If she can’t hear or see her old comrades for a few days she should settle for finding her place in the new pecking order of her new flock. XO

    1. She’ll stay with her old flock Susan, until they go back to Vermont. Then she’ll really have no choice but to bond with my sheep, unless she’s really defiant and wants to be alone. Doesn’t sound very sheep-like.

  2. Congrats on another Ewe! In WI, I lived next door to a woman who had a herd of sheep and she had several that were horrors about getting out one way or another. I’d look out the window and have sheep in my garden or the horse pasture. When are you and jon getting a goat or 2?I had one nanny who was so sweet and had an udder the size of a cows.She would let bum lambs nurse on her as well as her kids. If we were a bit younger we would have gotten a place in the country for another “farmette” for me when we moved to TX. Age is a state of mind, but less so after a couple of heart attacks! I think I’d have one milker and the rest angora.

  3. My gosh — there is a great story with this white sheep — she’ll come around — after she has taught everyone a few lessons of her own — barbara

  4. She’s very persistent…and resourceful when it comes to finding a way to get where she wants to be. Probably means that her fleece will be extra-warm and dense!

  5. She is lovely! My goat Willis gets out of the pasture whenever he can. He simply wants to be out, and when he wriggles under the fence and is “free” he starts grazing, right along side the other goats – who remain in the pasture. When he tires of that, he sits in the shade (by the pasture fence) and takes it easy. He loves his flock, he has his own style though.

    1. How great that is Suzy. I’ve seen cows do that, and a part of me wishes they would run off to the woods and live with the wild cows that I imagine are out there. Although I’m sure Willis has it better than those cows.

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