It wasn't a proper shepherding day today, though I did do the first part on foot. It's time to move from the Racecourse Grazing Area up the hill to the White Gum Grazing Area, so we did a sort of "farewell" graze in the Racecourse on the way. The sheep were happy enough to follow me out of the first paddock, but refused the water jump twice before Albert, bless him, led them across to me. A short stint in the lucerne, and then a good graze in the main yards. While they were grazing there, the dogs and I took the Polaris around the entire Racecourse area to "sweep" up any sheep that might have got left behind. Happily, there weren't any. Meanwhile, the flock grazed out of the main yards to the north and wandered into the northern Road Paddock. We left them there to go and check water troughs in the White Gum GA. By then I was out of battery in the Polaris and it was past lunch time, so we just left the sheep happily mooching about in the Road Paddock. They didn't leave it until about 4pm. It's lovely to see them stream out the gate and across the hill face. The White Gum GA hasn't been grazed for about 6 weeks, and of course we had all that rain not long ago, so I expect it was most appealing forage for them. I have to admit I just stood and watched for about 10 minutes as they made their way across the hill, spreading out and foraging as they went. I only took a couple of photos today, and 1 and ½ videos. Sadly the ½ video disappeared from my iPad altogether, before I had a chance to send it, and the 1 video of Albert leading the flock across the water jump is failing to post. I'll keep trying. Meanwhile, here are the two photos that I did manage to take and find again! This new version of Instagram seems a bit buggy to me--anyone else?
P1: Pickup. That's about the only bit of blue sky I saw the rest of the day, until the sun came out for about 5 minutes just before sunset.
P2: One of the 2 refusals at the water hazard. The general attitude seems to be one of boredom.