A Move With the Flock

We are receiving a fair share of swings in the weather. From brittle dry to rain received. from sizzling hot to breaking a weather record for cold in August. Overnight temperatures dipped below one degree but not quite to zero. A week later hot weather brought a thunderstorm that dropped two inches of rain in one stint.

The flock has been moved to the far south east pasture. The same pasture they were in when I wrote the second post of this Wool Stone & Prairie blog. I’m enamoured by the notion that sheep like particular places more than others. It leads into my thought that places have a purpose; that land creates intangible connections to animals and to humans.

It was a long move to get the flock to the new pasture spot. The Kelpies, who have not been worked nearly as often this year as in previous years, were keen to take on the work load. Their retained ability for the work is amazing and makes me feel deep gratitude that they are here. How would I get on without them?

Beginning of the move. Clearing out first back corner.

Black Jack prevents lambs from going back the way they came.

Moving the flock is pretty commonplace for me now. It used to be a task I approached with great anticipation. Now familiarity has brought on a slight sense of annoyance about the job. Blessedly, this always disappears when I get out there and it’s just me, the dogs, and the sheep, in this landscape of prairie with all its itchy grasses, birds and bugs. I do enjoy pasture moves with this flock, the ewes knowing the land better than I and sometimes challenging the notion that they should go where being sent to – until they get there – then they’re all eager for it.

Heading toward second gate, two Kelpies working the flock.

Some moves are more challenging than others due to difficulties in terrain or fence lines. And on occasion the livestock guardian dogs provide a challenge as well. At a halfway point during this move Coyote Mic and BJ were moving the flock toward a second gate. I moved up ahead to control flow through the gate. The front of the flock was just approaching the gate when our young guardian dog ran in front of the sheep, alerting to something suspicious up ahead (it was Allen coming to see if I needed a hand). All movement at the front end of the flock stopped as the sheep slowed up to check in with the white dog.

Young guardian dog alerts and flow stops.

The stock dogs were still bringing sheep along, however, their job just got a whole lot harder as sheep began to stall. The young guardian realized the perceived threat was non-existent. Once he settled I was able to coax him through the gate and the flow of sheep resumed.

The flow resumes.

As a general rule, guardian dogs don’t show eye, or stalking presence. They don’t herd livestock like stock dogs do, they live with sheep. And by some intangible token of trust the guardian dogs are able to stop and resume the movement of a thousand animals. In this case stopping the flow was a minor hiccup but at other times stopping the flow of a large number of animals can cause great frustration for the shepherd.

But whether the moment is one of ease or of great frustration, of a win or a loss; whether in a moment of trust or a moment of wariness and danger, witnessing such linchpins of nature is a very fortunate experience indeed. Each time it taps into my own senses of intuition and natural intelligence. I feel very strongly that to witness this on such a frequent basis is to live a very rich life.

The remainder of the move was across a weedy patch with new growth alfalfa and I was glad Allen showed up to help. We seeded this area with alfalfa and the lack of moisture in the spring resulted in a flourish of opportunistic weeds but little else. The sheep love grazing this patch of weeds but when rain came mid June the seeded alfalfa began to grow. The ewes were eager to dine on the young legumes and it was an effort and a half to keep them moving across this piece to a safer one. Allen kept the ewes in the lead from dispersing in all directions and I put two fresh Kelpies onto the ground which provided the moment forward to the next gate and the final destination.

Ewes dispersing in final destination (Also one of my favorite places).

The ewes have ample space in this pasture. It’s open grassland with tame forage, slough bottoms and marshy flats with juicy weeds, mixed prairie scrubland, plus several areas of bush and an abandoned yard sight to camp out in. The ewes are not bored, something I think happens when they stay in same spaces for too long. One of the hidden blessings of even moderate rotational grazing is the natural stimulus of going to different places, for us and for them. It’s a rich life indeed.

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A Little Big Month

It has been a big month; I have missed being here, writing. It doesn’t help that we’ve had all sorts of internet service trouble while our service provider claims to be improving our internet service.

We received rain through late June and July and I am writing to the sound of raindrops on our tin roof. With the arrival of rain came an unfolding of sorts. An unfolding of tightly held concern, an unfolding of hope, an unfolding of the grass as the earth opened up and took a drink. On a morning walk with the Kelpies the place was utterly still and while I sat in the grass trying to match the stillness I thought for sure I could hear the land sipping water. The grazing land bounced back beautifully (forgiveness received, bless you Mother N) and having grass available for grazing means there is less urgency about selling animals and a little more wiggle room about where and when they go. For the hay land, the rain is too late. We might get a small crop of late hay although not nearly enough to feed our flock for the winter.

Another reason for the big month is that my dive into doing artwork and sharing it has become another type of unfolding. In July I attended a studio trail event and right after that a national sheep show hosted in our province. I’m just coming off of the buzz from the latter event. I was hopeful this show would be a good crowd and it was.

Setting up one’s artwork in a public display space and then standing there, cleanly dressed, answering the questions of a very curious public feels a world apart from day-to-day, solitary life on the ranch, fiddling with floats on water troughs, mending gates, and wearing guardian dog drool on your jeans. I feel foreign and out of sorts at every public trade show. But then the questions and comments begin and perhaps because my art is so closely tied to my daily scene, and to what I know, I become settled enough to get through the day. Never comfortable, but settled enough to let it unfold as it will. The reception and feedback to the artwork was very strong and once again I am amazed at the folks who popped by to say they love the photos and the art and are following it online.

Back at home I settle into the peace and quiet of sheep, dogs and prairie land, and merge into the familiarity of ordinary work for my hands once again. The buzz subsides but the creative juices are turning. The more I dive into artwork and into writing the more tightly interwoven the facets of me and this land and livestock life become. There is no piece separate from the other now. Land, animal, nature, artist, human, humanity – every piece within the self and the self within every piece.

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A Few Words About Wool

Yep still here.
Holding down the fort on my own as Allen has been away for most of this month so far with still a week to go. I’m just keeping up with all things sheep and dog related – and a wee bit of wool work too. And cows and horses as well. Just keeping water to the ewes is a regular chore in this dry year.

I moved the ewes to the South pasture which is considerably larger than the lambing pastures they have been in. They are very content there for now. They ewes have pastures they like better than others and the South pasture is one of them. Plenty of variety in tame forage and native, open grazing plus good bush stands that are expansive enough for sheep to settle in on hot days.

This happened as well and it just makes me smile.

This batch of wool was processed at a new mill in the province (we haven’t had a fibre mill in our province for years). I am thrilled to be the first customer to use the services. I am also pleased that this wool batting will now head to a store in Saskatoon, our nearest city. It may seem like small potatoes as it really isn’t that much wool (yet) but it is so satisfying to keep this product within province and to reduce the footsteps of wool traveling around the world as so much of it does when that need not be the case.

I recently attended a fibre fair as a vendor and while a day of talking about did me in, it was a solid day and I made some great connections. I was, however, surprised to discover how much wool is bought from overseas and sold here, completely skipping the connection to the sheep and to the farmer. Fibre is much like food in this regard and we are a nation a people who want what we want, when we want it. It’s my wish to turn the tide on this a little bit. We have good wool in this province, including coarse wools, mediums wools and yep, the long wools and the fine wools too. We have Corriedale, Targhee, Romney, Leicester, and Rambouillet is just next door in Manitoba. What we don’t have is the producer connected to the fibre enthusiast who seeks it.

The other surprise discovery was the number of people who popped by my booth and said how much they enjoy the photography on Instagram or Facebook. Wool Stone Prairie isn’t even a blip in the social media scale of popularity but no matter, there are plenty of you out there who are tagging along and that makes my heart swell. I’ll keep taking and sharing photos of this sheepish life.

… and p.s. if you aren’t getting enough photos in these sporadic posts, do check out Instagram or Facebook as I seem to be able to manage posting photos there on a more regular basis.

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