P1: Frost on my garden ornament at 9 am. Could be a chilly circuit!
The morning started with a gorgeous sunrise, and a -2C (28F) frost--our first proper frost of winter. Although it's only forecast to be 10C (42F) with sunshine and light winds I'm hoping for a lovely morning circuit. However, more rough weather is on the way, interfering with my shepherding schedule, so I've decided to move the flock to the northeastern end of the Basin Grazing Area today. Then tomorrow I can put them into the Lucerne Reserve to graze on their own, and Saturday or Sunday I'll move them into the Racecourse Grazing Area. Today, I'm hoping to take them via the denser grass stands in the Basin GA, then all the way down into Old Cabin, closing gates behind me as I go, so they can't ride the westerlies back to the now thoroughly grazed SW end of the Grazing Area. Oh, and I'll have a look to see if the waterfall is flowing yet ;-) END OF THE DAY NOTES: The circuit went pretty much to plan, though I ran short of time and took the straight path instead of the scenic route across the Basin. They had a lovely long graze in the dense, coarse grass (V2, V3 and V4) which is why I ran out of time. It's interesting how hard it can be to just chill out when the sheep are grazing well, especially if you have a plan in mind. I'm learning, oh so slowly, to hold the plan idea as extremely tentative and subject to radical change when the sheep would clearly prefer to do something different. This evening I opened the gates from Old Cabin into the Lucerne Reserve, and from the top of the Lucerne Reserve into the Basin. They are also free to graze into the Racecourse Grazing Area via the lucerne if they wish over the next 3 days while the weather is rough. I'll be quite interested to see where they choose to go. They were still in Old Cabin at about 4:30 this afternoon. While it never got warm today, the morning was sunny enough and the winds light enough, to make it a pleasure to walk the hills with my sheep.
P2: Ice on the little spring
Video V1 above.
Video V2 above.
P3: This is how long and dense the grass is they're grazing.
Video V3 above.
Video V4 above. If you listen closely, you can hear the sheep munching!
P4: Heading into the NE corner of Old Cabin, noses into the SE breeze. Time for us to head home.
The other day in Old Cabin, I took this sequence of shots with my real camera: a bit like the 3 monkeys--you know, See No Evil, Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil. Or maybe just kids in the playground. I love it that they are relaxed and well-fed enough to just enjoy playing.
