Come shepherding
This journal was started to give readers a more personal experience of shepherding, White Gum Wool style.
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Rain, Glorious Rain!
...or alternatively, Be Careful What You Wish For! Five inches in three days of steady, and at times heavy, rain has transformed the property, and raised a whole new set of challenges. Not least of these is that there is now a small river between me and my sheep.
Into the Burn Area on the Flat
The sheep are now in the Racecourse Grazing area, and the next few days are forecast to bring heavy rain--as much as 60 mm (2 and ½ inches) if we're lucky. But as you know, I wimp out of shepherding when it's really awful weather, so I'd like to give the flock something a bit special today.
Into the Racecourse Grazing Area
I love a white frost. It transforms everyday small beauties into things magical. A fence line becomes the frame for a tapestry of abandoned cobwebs. Old Man Willow no longer looks sad, but rather regal in his hoarfrost coat. To add to the frosty beauty of the morning, my pair of swans (well, I like to think they are the ones who've nested on Swan Lake before) were visiting Old Man Willow's water hole.
Back Gully Reserve
A long, cold day. The sun only came out briefly about 2 pm, and there was a chilly southwesterly wind all day. As usual, it was ok when I was moving, but really, really cold when I stopped. I had my bivouac bag with me, but the sheep didn't choose to have a mid-day rest. At one point, I thought they were settling, and I starting looking for a sheltered, level spot to put my bivvy bag.
Lucerne Reserve
I haven't seen the flock move into the Lucerne Reserve on their own, so I'm assuming I'll find them somewhere in the middle of the Basin. The forecast wind is westerly, so depending on how miserable it is I may or may not have trouble moving them down the hill into Old Cabin. If that all goes well, I'll take them on our usual circuit around the perimeter of the paddock, and from there into the Lucerne Reserve.
Northeast Basin Grazing Area
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.
Lucerne Reserve, full day circuit
I love my full-day circuits. I think it's because the length of time, with only the animals and the landscape around me, lets me enter a different part of myself. It's restful and timeless, in the sense of no deadlines other than organic ones, like hunger or fatigue. I hear and see so much: birdsong, wind in the she-oaks, the sound of an eagle's wings as he lands in a tree near me, the chatter of a fairy wren family, the sound of sheep eating.
Old Cabin, not Back Gully Reserve
I cheated and looked to see where the sheep were yesterday evening when I ran the dogs, so I'm assuming I know where they'll be this morning. There's lots more forage in the Back Gully Reserve, so we'll take another trip there today, unless the flock completely fools me and ends up on the northeastern end of the Grazing Area, in which case we'll go for the Lucerne Reserve.
No shepherding today-storms instead
Even I am not foolhardy enough to brave today's forecast: 12C (44F), 10mm (½ inch) of rain, and the real kicker, 50 kph (30 mph) winds. Happily, I got the dogs run just before it started bucketing down rain.
Back Gully Reserve
I'm expecting to find the flock about where they were on Monday, and then with the northwest wind to graze them into the Back Gully Reserve, one of the biodiverse areas. There's quite a lot of gorse in the gully itself, and so far the sheep haven't shown their usual winter interest in gorse as a forage.
Lucerne Reserve, full day
In case you didn't read that far in Saturday's post, I've decided not to transmit on my full shepherding days. This is to give me back my solitary shepherding experience, that I so love.
Waterfall Gully Reserve
Whenever I tell someone I have a waterfall on my place, they look at me quizzically or pityingly, as though I've completely lost the plot during this extended dry time, and am seeing mirages. But I really, really do have a waterfall, with about a 15 foot drop, in my steepest gully of all. Ok, not all the time.
May 11-13: Wild Weather Continues (Into the Basin Grazing Area)
It's as though winter has decided to make up in a week the lost time in March and April, when it was so warm and mild. We had yet another ½ inch of rain overnight, following an inch on Monday night, both with blustery westerly gales. Last night as I drove back from choir practice about 10:30, it was sleeting horizontally, and the temperature outside my kitchen window was hovering at freezing.
No shepherding today-raining instead
I'm wimping out from shepherding today-forecast is for significant rain. Here's a photo from Saturday's shepherding-one I took with my real camera and its real telephoto lens. My only unhappiness with Instagram is that I have no way to zoom in on the images I want to send you! This was coming up through that rough gully. Notice the nice bite full of long grass in the lead sheep's mouth. By the way, I often see this older ewe up front, so maybe Horatio has some competition for Prime Minister.
Reprise-Highway Reserve
There's lots of good forage still in the Highway Reserve, so my plan for today is to head back there and try to work some of the less-grazed corners. I have no idea where the sheep will be, so have done an "eeny-meeny" guess. We'll see! Light northerly winds may help us to do a full length transit. I've appended two of my favourite photos of Elf and friends Clara and Vicki.
Back to the Highway Reserve
Assuming the NW winds are keeping the sheep towards the western end of the property, I'm planning to take them on a repeat of yesterday, into the Highway Reserve from the southwest end. This time I'll see if I can get them to graze down the hill to the west, before heading north into the tricky gully at the bottom.
A gentle walk through White Gum Wood
After our wild weather (and nearly an inch of rain, calloo, callay!) I thought today I might just take the flock through the middle section of White Gum Grazing Area, the paddock I call White Gum Wood. We'll concentrate on the downhill side of the paddock, and time permitting, may poke our noses into the southwestern end of the Highway Reserve.
Jetting for flystrike, instead
My somewhat radical plan for today is to go back to the Lucerne Reserve for the morning, then take the flock into Old Cabin, which is actually part of the Basin Grazing Area for the afternoon, then out via Waterfall Gully Reserve and back to the White Gum Grazing Area. The plan is radical in that I don't normally graze into a different Grazing Area.
Come Shepherding
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Experience the feeling of being out on the hill, get to know the individual characters in the flock and see the wildlife and landscape.