SageHill Ranch Journal

[Mini Horses]

That looks so peaceful. Y'all really greened up & grew grass with that rain. Wasn't that much -- compared to here -- but a huge response from forage.

 

[SageHill]

Out at it again.

The road side clean-up crew!

Obi Wan -- telling Ms Cal Red she is pointing in the wrong direction. She can be a pill more often than not.

Ms California Red -- aka "the pill" == this so fits her...
"Does this grass hat look good on me?"

"How about from this angle?"

"What? You think one of the girls punked me?"

 

[Mini Horses]

Ms Pill is a lovely brown!! The wool is barely tinted on edges -- is it darker further down? No sheep here, so curious.

Good boy Obi. You tell her!

 

[SageHill]

Ms Pill is a lovely brown!! The wool is barely tinted on edges -- is it darker further down? No sheep here, so curious.

Good boy Obi. You tell her!

Hmm -- I'll have to look!

 

[SageHill]

Ms Pill is a lovely brown!! The wool is barely tinted on edges -- is it darker further down? No sheep here, so curious.

Good boy Obi. You tell her!

Ms Pill's wool is creamy all the way through.
Miss Piggy - the all brown one is this.............

So while she's all cinnamon brown on top, I'm guessing cream on the inside?? It'll be fun to see when they are both shorn.

 

[Mini Horses]

Sounds like a Christmas PKG waiting to be unwrapped

 

[Baymule]

Are you going to send the fleece out to be spun into yarn or do it yourself?

 

[SageHill]

Are you going to send the fleece out to be spun into yarn or do it yourself?

I'm not 100% sure. I have friends who spin that are interested in the fleeces. I've been messing around with needle felting. I ~have been thinking about crocheting so there's that. But truly I had no idea that they could be sent out either! Guess I'll need to check into that. Thanks!!!

 

[RR Homestead]

Defensive Grazing...............

So this morning started out all peaceful, happy, cool and normal. I decided to graze on our north slope. The greenery there is nice and lush and not too tall yet. The sheep like it knee high and not so much when it's shoulder high.
They're happy as little kids in a candy store all spread out....
View attachment 124356
View attachment 124357

The boys are all calm and happy watching.
We that slope for ~maybe an hour-ish. Then I decide to move on down to the meadow. I barely take a few steps - the sheep are still on the slope, the boys just starting to move into position to move to the meadow when I hear BARRRUUUK, BARRRUUUK --- It's Murphy. This is not his normal good morning bark. It's all business. What's more is he can't see us, we can't see him either. Strange. Very strange. I climb up to the ranch road and look way down into the meadow and see a black and tan German Shepherd running along our side of the fence, then Murphy charging along his side of the fence. Both dogs disappear. I can hear Murphy so I know about where they are.
Abandon the meadow grazing thought and move on to Plan B. Grazing the west point. Up high to see if the dog comes back. Pistol in hand. The sheep graze, though in a fairly tight group. The boys are not comfy, they know. On and off in the distance I can hear Murphy, but it's not the business bark of earlier. I make decisions on what to do - put sheep in the pasture? Nah - that dog could come back. Which way to the barn? I decide the way we came from would be best, and totally avoid pastures where sheep would likely try to go. We're up high, I can see Murphy's ground. And then -- there's Murp in stealth mode -- maybe 50 ft off the fence line, moving parallel to the fence. Then I see his target -- but it's on our west ranch road. A black German Shepherd a different dog (there must be two). It seems to know that he's safe from Murphy because of the fence. He looks up the slope and sees the sheep, sees me. He stops and watches. I'm ready, pistol in hand. Take aim, pop, then dog takes off. More than likely hit my mark judging by the time between the pop and the dog's take off. It's a pellet pistol - so probably got a sting at best.
With all the herding training I've done, the worst damage to sheep I've seen - and way more times than I care to count has come from German Shepherds. They can be great dogs, but also some of the worst. I could only guess what could have happened, and that more than likely would also have included my dogs as well as the sheep.

Really enjoying this thread! Really enjoy watching your dogs working.

A few years ago a fellow rancher called in a panic. Some loose dogs got in the barn pens and did a lot of damage to their sheep. Several killed and a lot of injured ones when I arrived. Two german shephards. They didn't even take off when they found them in the act. German shephards are all the rage around here with a certain group of folks right now and they let them run loose. Took us every bit of 12 hours stitching up the injured. Some survived. Many others didn't. It's something I'll never forget. I have lost count of how many loose german shephards I've seen around here in the last 5-10 years. It's truly sad. It's the owners fault not the dogs.

 

[Baymule]

We call it SSS. Shoot shovel shut up.

Fortunately our sheriff is sensitive to dog attacks. He has a few sheep and dogs killed some. So he is on the side of shoot the attacking dogs. There is a leash law, county wide, but few out in the country pay attention to it.