The Second Busy Day

Friday was the first perfect day to bale that we've had all year.  Clear, low humidity and hot.  Andy had the second half of a big field down and ready to rake.  We did the regular morning chores and after breakfast we let the main flock out to graze.

The bottle lambs always come out last and have a habit every day of bucking and kicking as they go off the crest of the slope behind the barn.

We thought they would rush down the hill to the new pasture but they stood yelling for guidance.  Andy said  "Tough luck, Charlie, you gotta find that lower pasture,"  and they would have found their way there eventually but I decided to remind them where to go.  I started down the hill and they followed readily.

 
Half way down they collectively "remembered" the gate was open and took off on a run past me.

Except for sweet little Flopsy who was thrilled - thrilled! - that Mom was coming to the pasture too.  She got as far as the end of the gate and had a crisis of indecision - go with the flock or stay with Mom?

Everybody else scattered to the far edges and corners.

I should be flattered that she would still rather be with me than the rest of the group, but now I had to get her maneuvered near enough other sheep that I could sneak away while her view was blocked by others.

It's pretty hard to resist that little face.

Being out in the lower pasture did give me a view of the back side of the barns which I don't see very often.  The grove of locusts has gotten so big!  And the faint moon over the middle silo is kind of neat. 

I did manage to get Flopsy interested in grazing with some friends and worked my way out of her line of vision and got back to the barn without her trying to follow. 

The boys we had moved the day before were having a busy time exploring the pasture and finding the fencelines.

Andy raked the field of hay into windrows while I ran to town to do some errands.  After lunch we had three and a half loads of hay to get in the upper barn so that we would have all five wagons empty for the day's work.  By the time we were done with that the hay had finished drying sufficiently that it could be baled.  He got started and I brought the rest of the wagons one at a time and also brought back loaded ones as they were filled.

Coming back from that part of the farm is another favorite view of ours.

The hay is overly mature but there is alfalfa in it and it didn't get rained on at all so it's actually got good color and reasonable nutritional value.  This half of the field made over 660 bales so we're up to around 4200 now.

Rain is predicted now for a few days so we'll turn our attention to other things.