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On Friday, as we were preparing to go to this weekend's event, we had the sheep out in the newly fenced lower pasture. They had eaten through the overgrown paddock very quickly and we had to upgrade the pasture fence from cattle-tight to sheep-tight before they could be let out into it. At the same time, we are also breaking in a new farm hand who has never dealt with sheep before. We ended up in an hour-plus merry chase up and down the roadway, over hill and dale, through brush and bramble. Everything came out right in the end, partly thanks to help from two neighbors.
 Just a bit before it was time to roll out, I went with the new farmhand down into the pasture with our sheep dog to get the sheep back into the paddock. The dog had warmed up to the new guy a bit, but I did not yet trust the two of them to work together well. The dog quickly found the sheep at the bottom of the pasture (They bypassed a hundred-plus feet of overgrown pasture to graze at the bottom fence. Typical.) And between the dog and the two humans, we drove the sheep around the perimeter fence and up toward the open paddock gate.
Round One
Which is when we discovered that the new hand had left to road gate open at the top. The open gate funneled all six sheep, chased by the dog, right onto the farm road toward route 97. It wasn't completely the new guy's fault; either Cathi or I should have verified the gates by eye before we tried to move the sheep. But it was nearly disastrous. We immediately called for help from Cathi and gave chase. The new hand quickly and me much more slowly. By the time I got out to the road, they were heading for the intersection of the farm road and 97, uncomfortably near to Interstate 44. I stopped to grab the stock whip and another crooked staff as Cathi got into the car (the truck was completely packed for the event) and drove down the road to overtake the sheep and head them off, which she did, and they were slowly driven back toward us down the road.
At that point, I stopped to conduct traffic. A northbound neighbor in an SUV rolled down his window as I explained what was going on. He immediately backed up past the paddock gate we were driving toward, parked his truck across the road, and got out to help keep them from overshooting. After a minute, the sheep were on our lawn heading toward the paddock. The road being clear, I waved the built up traffic on. Then we moved the sheep toward the paddock... and they spooked, heading for the back of the property. Our property is well fenced, but almost all of it is still cattle fencing and barb wire: slows human shepherds down greatly but the sheep barely notice it. Before long, they were all through the fence into our north pasture.
We drove them back around, back out of the pasture, through the barn, and back toward the paddock once more... and they spooked, and back down the farm road we gave chase. This time, when the car overtook them and turned them, they went perpendicular to the road and into our neighbor's cattle pasture, cutting through and heading up 97. I, as usual dragging way behind, stopped and knocked at a neighbor's door to get some help rounding them up. Andy, my neighbor's nephew, answered and came along. He was a serious help through the whole affair and ended up bagging two of the sheep himself.
Round Two
We spent about an hour from this point chasing sheep into and out of the woods, through fields, first west on 97, then east. The main problem was two of the sheep, Gina and Little Deb, which are very skittish, panic and react randomly at almost anything. When they panic, the rest of the flock, like as not will also panic and head off in random directions, more than once going straight through the herders. You want sheep to be somewhat cautious and aware of danger for their own protection but you do not want blind terror at the sight of a cricket. One by one we managed to separate out the less skittish sheep. Maythorn, the part-Shetland, part-Hog, loud, complaining, but very friendly one, was first. We stuffed her in the back of the sedan (!) and went after more. Jerry, the ram, was next because he wanted to see what Maythorn was bleating about in the car. Those two were sent back to put in the paddock and we continued after the other four I was monitoring in the woods.
And Around Again...
Another merry chase out of the woods and into a patch of brambles. Two more sheep caught as they could not figure out how to get through the dense thicket. Two sheep, the skittish ones, now going east down 97 and into yet another neighbor's pasture. One turned and trapped, one continues on. The field hand sprains his ankle in a hole and is out of the action for a bit. The last sheep is long gone down the road and the car, with three sheep in the back, goes after her: Gina. Finally we ran her to ground just outside the cell tower's fence, trapping her in some brush simply because she is exhausted and can't run any further. Stuffed into the car. Two humans and four sheep now in a sedan which seats five. The sheep were not wearing seat belts.
I have said in the past that, although I have done my own butchering before, I would have a good deal of trouble killing a sheep. Even so, we nearly had mutton that evening.
Lessons Learned
We had some lessons learned from the encounter, including the fact that we need more radios to communicate in the field. We did OK when we got disconnected in the brush: someone would yell "Marco!" and everyone else would respond "Polo!" but having some more CBs to go around would be a lot better than playing blind-man's bluff. We also need sections of mesh or wire at strategic locations so that it can be unreeled and wired down to selectively close off certain areas of the farm when trying to recover sheep. Upgrading the rest of the pasture fences to sheep-grade, even when they do not have sheep in them would also make containing break-outs much easier. Lastly, we learned that it is everyone's responsibility to know the gates are closed and double-check everything. We are grateful that we got them all back safe, but we do not want it to happen again.
Copyright 2008 The Misty Manor, Mercers
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