December 3, 2007: A Day to Forget
The last few days have been very busy here. This coming Friday is the day of the official count of sheep on the property so almost all of the sheep have been brought down off the hill and placed into fields closer to home. We have one more day of gathering on Thursday and all of the 20+ hefts will be in.

Yesterday we had one of 'those' days. With Roy and Jet out of action, Angie took Meg out on the hill, while Kelvin took Blade - and, of course, the ever present Bailey was out too. Hugh took Moss and Queen out on the bike, while Richard had Rock and Jake on the other bike. It would have been nice to have had another dog each ourselves but Blade and Meg proved infinitely capable for the task.

We had 4 hefts to bring in yesterday. As soon as the various hefts of sheep saw us coming, they all seemed to run in the opposite direction to where we wanted them to go. This made the job just that much longer. It was also howling a gale on the hill and cold so the wait for sheep to cooperate was longer than it seemed.

Angie was first to get her heft down off the hill and on the road for the drive to the pens. Along the way, she managed to get a couple of wayward sheep out of a field they were not supposed to be in. As the drove was getting close to a bridge about 400 yards from the pens, she positioned Meg on the left side of the flock to make sure the sheep did not sprint uphill to another heft - as they had done on a previous gather. All was going very well until then. As soon as Meg was moved to the left, one ewe, that had been dawdling along and was being gently nursed down the road, decided to run under the bridge and do a very good impersonation of a troll. Now once you've gathered sheep a few times, you get to know the various personalities. This ewe was a well practised troll - she had played the same trick on us on two previous occasions. Without wanting any other ewes to get the same idea, the sheep were moved a safe distance from the river and were left in Meg's hands, while Angie went for a 'swim' in the river to get the ewe out. As soon as the ewe was dragged to shore, she decided the water was a safer place to be and insisted on staying there. So there she stayed. Angie and Meg proceeded along the road and to the pens.

After emptying her wellies of water, wringing out two pairs of completely drenched socks, Angie and Meg walked back to the bridge. The ewe had now managed to get herself out of the river and stood shivering on the opposite side. The best thing to do was wait for the next heft to come down off the hill and hope this ewe would decide to join them. Knowing this ewe as we did, she was hell-bent on not coming in on her own. The wait was long and cold!

The next heft in was Kelvin's. Kelvin, Blade and Bailey had a drive of about a mile along the road. It took over an hour to make this trip! Kelvin had several sheep with very sore feet and at times, these ewes would stop, lie down and refuse to get up. After a short rest, Kelvin would manage to get the ewe back on her feet, go another 100 yards or so, and then repeat the whole process. Within spitting distance of the pens, one ewe lay down and absolutely refused to get up. She made the final few feet on the back of a quad bike.

The next two hefts came in without incident, although it took some bullying from a quad bike to get Angie's recalcitrant ewe to budge from her spot near the river.

Now if we thought all the fun for the day was over, we could not have imagined what the ewes were scheming for their mile long journey back up the road to their home field. One thing we have learnt about hefted flocks is that sheep from different flocks do not like to mingle. On the journey back up the road, one ewe, from a different heft, absolutely refused point blank to budge. She sat down and basically went on strike. Without a quad bike to throw her on, she had to be left for one of the boys who would be coming along behind.

Not long afterwards, another ewe decided she didn't want to play either and off to the left she shot and sat down. Leaving Meg in charge of the main flock, Angie managed to get the ewe on her feet and back to the flock. Almost every 50 yards, this ewe would do a repeat performance. At one point, she even hid in a stell - a rock-walled round pen - that was just off the road. Around the stell Angie went in pursuit. Progress was painstakingly slow, and by now the wind was joined by lashing rain.

Finally Richard came along with his quad bike, threw this ewe on the back and drove her up the road to her home field. As soon as Richard was out of sight, another ewe sprinted off the bunch, down a hill, and onto a difficult ledge by the side of the burn. Meg did her best to move this ewe but after being attacked quite badly by this ewe, Angie decided to call her off and try to bring the flock back to this ewe.

Well, to cut a long story short, the ewe jumped into the burn, Richard jumped in after her and dragged her back, and then he and Rock, and Angie and Meg followed the sheep - at some distance - until they ambled to their rightful field. But this wasn't before some made their escape up the hill and into a field they were not destined for. Cold, wet, and hungry our morning of gathering became a 5 and a half hour marathon! A frustrating marathon!

If we learnt anything from the day it is this. No matter how slow you and your dog are going, sometimes you just have to let sheep go at their own pace. Meg and Blade also learnt how to swim their flanks!

Archives:

November 13, 2007: Back out Gathering

November 6, 2007: Some Down Time at Last.

October 26, 2007: A Day Out at the Tup (Ram) Sale.

October 22, 2007: Pheasant Shooters.

October 15, 2007: Trials, Trials and more Trials.

October 2, 2007: Back to Work.

September 17, 2007: The International Sheepdog Trial, Ireland

September 12, 2007: Foot and Mouth Again

September 4, 2007: Blackies go to the Beauty Salon

August 25, 2007: Sheep Spa and Nationals

August 14, 2007: Roy goes Gathering for the First Time

August 7, 2007 Foot and Mouth Scare

August 3, 2007 Country bumpkins go to London

July 28, 2007 Whales and Wales

July 21, 2007 Blood sampling ewes.

July 16, 2007 A week of gathering sheep