And Stay Out!

The pasture the sheep were rotated out of is starting to put on some new growth but the lack of rain is really holding it back.  They are still being turned into the farthest pasture at the bottom of the knoll and in this heat they troop up and down the hill a few times a day for a drink, walking past the short new growth that's just across the fence.  The pasture they are in isn't as poor as it looks right here but some of them have been giving the old fence a workout by pushing their noses as far as they can to reach a few tender blades of new growth. Some sections are now loose and floppy and bellied out. 

Fuzz is apparently one of the chief offenders because last evening we found she had "accidentally" fallen through under the fence (that's what she claimed - once the nose goes, the rest of the body follows, she says) and was stuck on the green side while everyone else watched with envy.  They must not have seen her actually go under of there would have been a mob scene and chaos.  As it was, we got her haltered and back where she belonged but nobody had fun doing it.

So today Andy Fuzz-proofed the fenceline.  It's not in sad enough shape to require a major overhaul but something needed to be done.

Behold our fast fence fixer!  Looks like some kind of wicked vampire killing device. It's a good sturdy foot long ash stake. Note the nail on the upper end pointing down.  Andy made two dozen of these and we worked our way down the line, catching the lowest wire under the nail and pounding them in tight anywhere the fence was floppy.

We used them all.  Some places needed two since the ground dipped and made the gap just too inviting.

Even out in the open the flock decided the pounding was something Not Good and they took themselves to the very farthest end of the lower pasture.

When they work their way back and come up the hill for a drink I'm sure they'll test the fence (at least Fuzz will - sheep learn really fast when food is concerned) and then we'll see if we found all the weak spots or not.  Fuzz will tattle if we missed some.