The Most Bestest Visit - Part 2

Sunday begins the same as all other days - morning chores.  The sheep and chickens come out and get ready to face the day.

It's still dim in the barn and Betsy, up in the rafters, has her headlights on.

Sunday includes church.  I love this place.  Small, friendly and sincere.  Sara plays the piano and has a knack for picking the exactly right hymns for the service.  No small feat with hundreds of choices in the hymnal and learning the week's message when you walk in the door.

After church we took a bit of a field trip to the farm that Rocky and Jared were delivered to last year. It was a great chance to see some of the lambs they produced and to see them, too.  First though, we stopped at yet a different farm to pick up two fleeces Sara needs to work with.  The LGDs (Livestock Guard Dogs) there were very fierce.

Then we were off to AnneMarie's place.  All the farms we went to have a perimeter fence that enclosed the yard and driveway so you never know what creatures might be wandering around besides the dogs.  In this case there were some very chatty young turkeys that came to greet us.

The head Border Collie was poised to herd them but no order was given so she just stood there .....waiting....watching......

"Wait!  Where's that one going??  They're supposed to stay together!"

We walked out into the pasture to see the flock.  You couldn't ask for a nicer place to lounge and just be a sheep.

Some of the youngsters were friendly to the shepherd but of course with us it was 'stranger danger' and they were wary and ready to beat feet.

Lovely sturdy lambs and everyone is clean and sleek.  What a great place.  The flock finally decided they'd had enough and took themselves down the hill farther into the pasture.

The LGDs here clearly sensed that Julie was ready to attack the flock so they cleverly hemmed her in so she couldn't do any damage.

And if you're a great big dog how do you get through the woven wire fence into the next pasture?

The rams were in a different pasture of course and less willing to let us approach.  Actually, I think the colored rams would have been fine but the white ram was having none of it and led them off.  There was no point chasing them so we just watched them move around the field.  They are clearly living the good life.

Returning home we were grateful to see that Betsy had been keeping a keen eye on everyone while we were away.

What a great vacation!  But fish and house guests start to smell after three days so we had one last morning cup of coffee on the porch.....

and headed back to New York.  Thanks, Crazy Sheep Lady - it was totally awesome!