One Woman and Someone Else's Dog

Things I learned today:

1. You've got to keep sheep moving.

2. They are stupider than I thought.

Things I already knew:

1. I love Isa. 

I've had a pretty busy day. It was another one of those instances where I said, "yes" without giving it nearly enough thought. Anyone else detecting a theme?  

It's been a bit of a tough week. I've been really fed up with lockdown now that it's starting to relax more for the general population. The freaks like me  people shielding are still only allowed to meet people outside and have other (very kind) people do their shopping, which is a pain in the bahookie. 

So, when Ivie suggested I go and help him and Drew (his nephew) this morning, I jumped at the chance, especially as Isa the collie was also invited. 

The three humans set off for the top of the farm on the quad bike with Isa snapping at the wheels. This is a collie pastime, apparently, and worries me greatly but Ivie assures me that she gets out the way if you just keep driving. So far so true.... 

Isa is a working-dog-in-training. She's great at keeping a big group of sheep together at the edge of a field, running from one side to the other bringing in any stragglers. What she's not quite mastered yet is figuring out which direction the humans are trying to drive them. Eventually the sheep were in an enclosure and Ivie and Drew set up various fences and gates to form a wide entrance that narrowed to a single lane. At this point, Isa and I watched on, neither of us very sure what was happening or what we'd be doing next. 

It turns out that Isa, Drew and I had to separate off smaller groups of about 15 lambs and ewes and Drew operated a 'guillotine gate' (which is just as it sounds) to direct them down the corridor (or 'race') to a weigh scale. Ivie weighed the lambs, separating the ones heavy enough to go to market this week and let the ewes straight through. We probably did this half a dozen times then went for lunch. 

At one point one of the ewes decided to stick its head between the gate post and the wall and get it stuck. It didn't wriggle or bleat or look alarmed. It just stood there staring straight ahead as if to say, "Looks like I'm stuck. Think I'll face this way for a while". Freeing it involved Drew holding its head and Ivie lifting its body so that it could get its head out the gap it had stuck it in. Stupid animal. 

After lunch, Drew went off to mow his grandparents' grass so we collected Isa and headed back to the enclosure where we'd left the sheep. I was thinking we'd be taking them back to their field and then heading back home for a nice cup of tea and a sit down. 

But they still needed dipped. I had visions of them being dunked in a sunken tank and hauled out the other side. Thankfully, it just involved repeating what had been done this morning with the separating and the groups and the guillotine for Ivie to spray them with blue stuff down their backs. The only difference was that Drew wasn't there to open the gate, separate the sheep, close the gate, operate the guillotine gate and keep hold of Isa. Or take them back to their field and bring the next 150 over three fields to do it all over again. 

Isa and I had pretty much got the hang of it by the time we'd moved our 300th sheep. 

We were awarded a B+ for our efforts, which I think isn't bad. I have been rewarded with Spittal beef for tea followed by chocolate torte from Saucy Desserts and I'm just waiting for my Crafty gin to be poured. It's so important to shop local, don't you think....